Jachut

It may be just me, but I consider 20lb in 3 months, good healthy sensible weight loss.

You do a pretty good impression then Derick.

Its not as bad here, but there's no way mine will be going to a public school for secondary schooling. We've been more than happy with the local primary up until 12 years old, but next year Fraser's off to a private school - complete with blazer, hat, tie, class size of about 18, etc etc, and strict school rules. I would have gotten detention for hanging around the train station or shops in my school uniform and I want the same type of discipline for my kids. Nice if you can afford it though. Many people have no choice. The schools in this area are quite rough and dont have good academic standards. I'm also disenchanted with the public system here as a student teacher, but I"m passionate that its the public schools that need the good teachers, not the private ones, they have enough. So I plan to work in the public system.

I think fast food has its place in a healthy diet, occasionally. We have occasion to eat at McDonalds when we're on the road for example. I just dont want a burger there anymore, but I can eat the nuggets, and usually a six pack of nuggets and a coffee will do me, in fact I'd be pretty full. pizza and fish and chips, ugh, I really dislike those foods now, too difficult to eat and gradually your tastes change. For no cook family meals, I'll usually choose a cooked chicken and either do some steamed veg and baked potato and make some gravy, or we have some healthy options here in Australia like Nandos and Red Rooster that do some good skin free basic chicken things. I'd rather chew my own arm off than eat KFC, that is just SO disgusting, I cant even bear the smell of it. I also keep Soup and baked Beans and other things on hand for quick meals. Although weight loss is nothing more than calories in/calories out, you do have to worry about your general health, and if you live on processed and fast foods, you're really asking for health problems later in life. That's always been enough to motivate me, I got fat on pretty good food really.

Drooling at the thought of pancakes, with the butter all melting into the maple syrum, siiigh. Instant pain. Really cant do those, its not worth it. I loathe pork chops, so never eat those. I love cooking - I'm really having fun with vegetarian recipes as I bought a lovely cookbook and really like cooking modern, fusion style cuisine. I spend a lot of time and effort cooking and I really enjoy eating it, in moderate quanity and I usually cook healthy meals, not stodgy crap.

Waited till I was almost at goal weight to resize mine. I didnt wear them for a few months.

I dont drink carbonated beverages apart from once in a blue moon because I've never had a habit of drinking them. Softdrinks such as coke and fanta, god they're simply AWFUL for you and I just dont drink them, never have, wont let my kids have them either apart from very occasionally. And I'm phobic about artificial sweetener. Everything else on that list I have quite regularly, well not really gum, I dont really think chewing all day is a good look, its disgusting when people talk to you with gum in their mouths. I avoid it unless I have a bad taste in my mouth. Bread, rice, Pasta yes I eat those. I dont believe in really low carb diets but I have reduced my dependence on those foods, they're occasional foods for me. Bread is just hard, although I can eat it, and I dont really want it anymore. Pasta we'd eat about once a fortnight as a family and brown rice I might have 2 or 3 times a week.

It depends what I'm eating - solid Protein and vegetables, its usually under a cup. I can eat about a cup of something like Pasta, Soup, about 1/4 of a cup of crap Cereal like cornflakes but probably 2/3 of a cup of oatmeal (which is weird hey?) etc. I can eat an apple and that fills me up so that I simply cant fit anything else in, cheese on its own I can eat a lot of but put it on a cracker and two is my limit, but I can easily get through two cups of a tossed garden salad, which is not really a problem, as it crunches down to not really be that volume anyway. I eat simply what I would call small meals. I dont measure them and if there's too much on my plate I just leave it. But I've really gotten the hang of serving myself the right portion these days

Thanks - if you could see me IRL, youd be able to see that I have NOT lost a boatload of muscle. My muscle tone and mass has increased, my body fat levels have decreased. I have legs of steel these days. Everybody loses some muscle as they lose weight, you want to minimise it naturally but you dont have to follow some incredibly complicated plan to do that. I just exercise, works for me - and I eat well in the balance that's recommended here to us in Australia. Not that following a stricter diet its going to hurt you of course, and not that its wrong if that's the way you like to do it - but its not strictly necessary if its doing your head in.

I had a BMI of 35 too and just by chance had had a liver ultrasound a few weeks prior to first meeting my surgeon, courtesy of a very zealous gp who gave me my referral but also sent me for a barrage of tests, which turned out to be good as my surgery was able to be done very quickly as I didnt have to redo many of them for the surgeon. So I knew for a fact my liver was not fatty and enlarged. Like I said to you in the PM, Optifast is well formulated for presurgical fast weight loss and is probably the most nutritionally safe way to eat that few calories, but then again, its only a few weeks. If it were me and the doc hadnt insisted on it, seriously, successful as I've been with weight loss with the band, I didnt have and I still DONT have the kind of willpower to stick to an Optifast diet unless someone's holding a gun to my head. I thought I'd try it, made it 3 days and started passing out - it happened about 4 times over the next 2 days. I called my doc and he said I was an idiot for doing that to myself when it wasnt in the least bit necessary and to "eat something for pete's sake", lol. In hindsight, if I had the chance over again, I'd still try it but I think 2 meals a day, some fresh fruit, a green salad and a small sensible Protein and vegetable dinner would be the way to go with it. And dont worry about having coffee, or the odd meal that wasnt scheduled kind of thing. I think anythign is better than the last supper syndrome, I dont think people who do it are "weak" or morally inferior, its just that I felt strongly I'd made the choice to start a new life and I wasnt going to begin that new life by saying Oh surgery's in 2 weeks, I'm going to have whatever I want till then. That's the kind of behaviour that got me fat in the first place -you know, I'll start the diet on Monday so I'll have McDonalds today. It feels WAY better to show up for surgery with that clean break already made - so its still worth doing to some degree but I"d say that when the surgeon's not fussed by whether you do it or not, then if you prefer low calorie food rather than liquids, there wont be a drama. Not all docs prescribe preop diets and as long as you know the risk that if you DO have a large liver and dont shrink it you may end up with open surgery or no surgery, then it's up to you what you want to do. I was able to forget about a really strict preop because I KNEW I didnt have a large liver.

Only another fat person would understand, roflmao! I just noticed, mine is gone too!

I just dont think its that complicated. Eat of a variety of health foods and you will have good nutrition. Eat less and move MORE and you will lose weight. You can get all scientific about it but you can know jack shit and it will still work. Eat less. Move more. Simple. All this counting this, counting that, so many grams of x exactly 40 minutes after exercise, so many grams of that precisely 15 minutes prior, this supplement, that supplement, this method of lifting weights versus that, measuring your heart rate every second of your workout. Eat less. Eat a variety of foods. Do some good hard cardio five times a week. Do some basic strength training. You will lose weight and not break your brain in the process.

About 25 minutes - I find that after that, if I keep eating, I can just keep on going and going, becuase my pouch is obviously starting to empty.

Boy you look fantastic. I probably need a lower body lift - my tummy is flat (a little doughy but really pretty good) but where I have suffered is the butt and thighs - and mine were always my trouble spot too. If I were going to do that I might as well tighten my stomach up as well, but I wouldnt go for a TT alone if you know what I mean, for me it would be overkill as a stand alone procedure. But oh, my saggy ass! Lets not even talk about those empty sacks of skin that pose as boobs. Interesting what you say about the lipo, I suspected as much. I could benefit from some thigh lipo but worry that at 40, all I will achieve is less fat but even looser skin.

Really, this sounds blunt but its simple. Dont eat them. When you have a family to feed or kids around, it is really important to learn the skill of being able to feed kids without eating their food yourself. Kids do want ice cream and chips and the like, and sometimes, its OK for them to have them. Its OK sometimes for you too, but when you dont want to slow your progress by giving in, its a simple answer. Dont. It really does come with practice. Start now. I bake weekly for my kids becuase I dont like the additives in commercial snack foods. I used to make a cake for school that week and eat the mixture, eat several bits of the cake etc, now I just dont touch it. Its just a NO thing to me, one taste and I'll be back for more, but I just vow not to touch it at all and it comes easier each time.

I wouldnt get a fill I didnt need, why would you? If you're losing well and its not killing you to dredge up the willpower to do so, then leave well enough alone I reckon. You'll know when its really time. And I agree with the nurse, the more of this you can do on your own, the more you can feel that you've worked to change bad habits, not just had them controlled by the band. Which makes maintenance a more likely prospect. Keep in mind that most of us need a band because we DO need the extra help it gives us and most of us DO need to be filled eventually. But always always always keep working on your own behaviour and thought processes. As long as you wont find you need a fill in six weeks from now and have to wait months to get to your doctor, I wouldnt fix what aint broke. But I can always get into my doc a few hours after ringing him, so that's easy for me to say.

Just enjoy those really good restriction times, because in many people, myself included, they dont last very long. I can lose 4kg in 2 weeks after a fill and then it levels out and I can eat more easily again - so much so that even at 3ml in a 4ml band I can eat a sandwich if I take my time about it. But its still worked! Ultra tight restriction is just not necessary for everyone, particularly active people. As long as your calories are reduced enough to continue losing, the actual level of restriction is irrelevant really. Tight "feels" as though it will work better but there's many bandsters around who can tell you that it doesnt always. Looser "feels" as if you're eating too much but there's many of us around to tell you that that doesnt always matter, that its still possible to lose weight. Restriction is really a totally individual thing, its the one thing I think you cant really gain much from others experiences, you just have to find your own personal level that suits you best.

Littlelove, lol, surgery in Mexico aint cheap from Australia!

Lol, I'd love to see a white christmas! Here its usually 40 degrees celcius, muggy and humid and everyone rolls around in a stupor on the back lawn after too many bubbles and too much food. We cook in the Weber and eat Christmas dinner outside under the pergola.

Amen to that. Protein schmotein. Your hair will fall if its going to fall. And if you eat protein to the exclusion of other things like Iron (easy to do if you're a shake fanatic) then your hair will STILL fall out. Balanced diet is all you can do. There's no proof that one nutrient over another prevents or fixes hairloss. Hair falls for hormonal reasons too - like after pregnancy when you lose all that hair that didnt fall out while you were pregnant.

Yeah, if only being skinny meant I had a renovated Californian Bungalow in leafy Glen Iris! Sigh. Still stuck in bloody Narre Warren in a 1993 3 bedroom brick veneer. Shucks. Its hard, I dont think there's anyone that doesnt imagine at times that being skinny will change their entire life. Hugs to you.

I've been lucky to truly develop a love for running, so it doesnt take me a lot of willpower to keep doing it. But what I remind myself of when I feel lazy is this: I never get to stop working at the eating part of the equation. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, I have to keep trying. With exercise, 40 minutes and you're done till the next time. Its a LOT easier to make yourself do something for 40 minutes than it is for 24 hours, 7 days, etc etc. Its over and done with then and you can forget about it till tomorrow. Just do it.

And I'm truly sorry about Kylie, lol. I dont know how she got out.

You're just discovering them now? Peter Garrett is an old and crusty politician now, roflmao! They were SERIOUSLY great. Especially before they really hit the big time and were a pub band. Do me a favour and seek out Cold Chisel too. Might be harder, less successful in the US but a truly iconic Aussie band. I could never ever ever ever get sick of Chisels. Khe Sanh should be our national anthem.

Interesting topic! I havent read all the replies so forgive me if I'm repeating but I think a lot of bandsters SOUND anorexic with the way they talk. They obviously secretly enjoy eating virtually nothing and it really worries me. Its so unhealthy and dysfunctional, the band is not meant to be enforced bulimia or anorexia, its a tool for managing a healthy intake of food and regulating out of control appetites. It is not evil to enjoy food, to love cooking, eating and sharing food with your family, nor is it detrimental to a healthy diet. It is not necessary to log every bite you eat or live your life on a diet counting calories either - granted many people do like a strict disciplined routine and each to their own - but its not the only way to lose weight. Many people seem to view their banded lives as punishment for having been bad before. I viewed mine as a way to take care of myself and treat myself with respect. I feed my body healthy, fresh and organic food and I love it! I enjoy everything I eat, I take a lot of care with what I eat for the most part (am prone to eating utter crap at times of stress and getting by on sweet carbs). Its a pleasure to be eating the way I do. I do get a thrill out of being full so quickly, anyone would after a lifetime of being a piggy, but I have always concentrated on healthy eating, not dieting. What you want is to manage a balanced healthy enjoyable lifestyle, not simply swap one eating disorder for another. Living your life on a super strict diet, well you may have gotten your body healthier but have you really made the mental adjustment? Dieting is for losing weight and many people have to do it to lose, so its not unhealthy or wrong, but its not forever, you do need to be able to move onto more of a lifestyle. To be afraid of food and to have to "control" it in that way is not any improvement on being obese and out of control with your eating if you ask me. Sorry if that offends but I think people totally miss the point of trying to achieve a life where food doesnt control you.<!-- google_ad_section_end --><!-- / message --><!-- sig --> __________________ <!-- google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) -->