Jachut

I think so too, the only reason I'm dubious for myself is that I suspect that I'm actually as happy with my body now as I could possibly be but that I'm really really really fearful of aging, I know its going to start to happen faster as I get older and I think that when I think of PS I'm really thinking of a way not to get old. Does that make sense? Like I dont need it now to make me feel better about what I am, but that I dont want to get ANY older and that it may buy me a few extra years - I dont think that's so healthy a reason for having it. Because the only thing worse than looking really old would be trying to NOT look old and just looking like some idiot geriatric Barbie doll with plastic lips, plastic tits, no facial expressions, lol. If I were 28, I would DEFINITELY be lining up at the surgeon's office for a bit of fine tuning. I think I'm grounded enough to be doing it for the right reasons, I just dont know that its particularly important at my age when I'm pretty happy and comfortable with myself anyway and that everything really IS going to head south anyway. I cant look great naked for ever, nobody can, and I think for me, PS woudlnt change the way I look clothed much at all.

I didnt get bad skin but I went through a six month period of terrible PMT, irregular periods, irritable bowel episodes associated with my periods, bloating, sore breasts etc. It was very obvious hormonal upheaval, with no obbvious cause apart from weight loss. It passed over time and I'm back to normal. I think your body lets go of a lot of toxic stores from your fat and also your fat and estrogen levels are interrelated. Hopefully this will be shortlived for you.

I'd look at what you're eating and how much exercise you're dong first and foremost and if that doesnt move things again, then I'd look at getting another fill.

I've never been able to survive on that little, and i've never been told I had to. The way I see it, the right amount for YOU is the amount that satisfies you. If you lose weight on that amount, then that's perfect. If you dont, then you can a) look at WHAT you're eating and lower calorie content if there's room to do that - by cutting fat, refined flour, etc, do more exercise and c) get more fill till you ARE satisifed on an amount of food that makes you lose weight. I sound like I'm always arguing about that 1/4 or 1/2 cup amount but really, its right for SOME people, but its not necessary for ALL people. At 3ml in a 4ml band I put away about a 3/4 of a cup at a time, I would not feel satisfied on 1/4 and I would be starving half an hour later. Its right for me.

There isnt one, its a totally individual thing what you can and cant eat. On a "can I tolerate this" note, common foods that cause bandsters trouble are anything bread like - bread, cake, muffins, etc, although many people can do bread toasted. Steak, chicken, can be difficult, stringy vegetables or fruit and vegetable skins. I find fish difficult and I have to peel apples to eat them now. On a "should I eat this" note, you'll find differences everywhere. Many people, particularly in the States, believe passionately in lowering carb intake, and avoiding bread and pasta and rice, altogether. Many believe in just not eating anything made with processed white flour. Protein first is huge for you guys, here, its not pushed. It works all ways, some people really do seem to need to cut carbs to lose and others (like me) dont.

Definitely Nanarenan - I think I must have eaten certain foods for the sugar rush or whatever because when you really TASTE them, they're just not that good.

Thanks gorgeous. Do you have the "10,000 steps" program as an official thing there? Here, they're just trying to encourage people to move more, but I think the health profession is pushing it as an anything is better than nothing at all kind of thing. If making it non threatening and easy gets people off the couch, that's a good thing, but it is NOT the same as real fitness and it does improve health and help to prevent those risk factors (obesity, high blood pressure etc) from escalating, but people really need to be FIT, not just doing what they should be doing anyway. Its a fantastic place to start when you're very obese and unfit and it takes effort, and I applaud it, but over time you need more. By the way, my mum is much brighter and happier this morning, had a good night, no more episodes and is going in for an angiogram today. My grandma had a heart attack at the same age and lived to the ripe old age of 85 driving us all nuts, lol, so we're all positive that this is nothing more than a warning and she's going to be just fine.

I could cross my legs fairly elegantly even at my highest weight - didnt have to do the man style ankle on knee thing, so this wasnt an NSV for me, but I just then caught myself not only crossing my leg but twining my foot and ankle round the back of the leg - I try to remind myself not to do it becuase doesnt it give you varicose veins?

2 years on December 9 and still thrilled. No complications.

Nighty night! Its time here to clean up this pigsty and cook dinner, groan.

How ironic that I should be the first one to answer, being in Australia, it works differently and cost etc, well, its a lot easier and cheaper here. But the port - yes it remains in your body but there is nothing visible or open anywhere, its quite safe. I'm normal weight now and I can feel it easily but you cant see it. It doesnt get in the way, doesnt hurt after its healed, its fine. It was totally worth it, I'd do it 100 times over. One big try - dont even waste your time. I finally got through to my family who said EXACTLY the same thing. I said "if I were sitting here today telling you I was having an operation to fix my ankle (which was giving me huge grief) you wouldnt blink an eye or worry about the anaesthetic or panic that I was going to die in surgery and the ankle would take LONGER than the lap band - this is no different, something in me does not work the way it should and I'm having surgery to fix it". OK, it wasnt instant blessing, but it made sense, I had to really impress the fact that I just plain didnt have a proper stop signal to quit eating and it could be fixed. Of course, to hear my mother talk now you'd think it was all HER idea!

I used to hate when I was a newbie and the doomsayers would warn that the honeymoon would be over soon and my band would erode and pretty soon I'd be fatter than when I'd started. So not true, but for me anyway, that lack of interest in food did not last longer than a few months, but it did NOT mean my band stopped working, just that (really a blessing) you do start to enjoy it again and the head hunger and non hungry eating issues need some work. But the band really really helps with it. Whilst you're like this, milk it for all its worth! You can lose tons of weight early on really easily if you're lucky enough to feel this way, so enjoy it for now, but sooner or later, you will enjoy your food again and that's a GOOD thing. You will learn to both enjoy your food but not overdo it, and that's the life skill you need. Life wouldnt be a lot of fun if you never enjoyed anything you ate again - this is a journey of self love, not punishment.

And I better shut up now, becuase you know, he (or she) who protests the loudest....

Sorry, I didnt mean to delete it, I edited and lost it! See rewritten post above, sheesh this board is complicated.

Chocolatesnaps - I agree to a point we're all a mix of nature and nurture, we're all what we are becuase of our life history, of course it shapes our personalities. Does this translate into "issues" for everyone or does everyone need therapy? Pffft, no way!

WASA - 50/50? If someone doesnt like the answer, I'll just say you wrote it, and I'll take all the credit for the popular ones!

Start a petition, lol? I was reflecting on this down at the shops today, had lunch with my kids down there (salad sandwiches on wholegrain bread all around!). As a normal weight person now, I am harsh on myself and whether my body is good enough yet, but looking around, I'm unusually thin for a woman who's had a couple of babies. Most people in Australia are not morbidly obese, but everybody has their muffin top going on and their blobby belly bouncing round under the Tshirt. Everyone is overweight these days. Do all these people have "issues'. Uh, no of COURSE they dont. They're victims of convenience eating, busy, work focussed or baby focussed sedentary lifestyles and poor lifestyle habits, nothing more. Getting to be morbidly obese may indeed be an emotional reaction to traumatic life circumstances, and it sure as heck indicates more than a tweak to the lifestyle is required, but I found it quite easy to become obese without really being an obvious piggy or terribly terribly lazy. I lived the same lifestyle that most people I know of my age and circumstances live - and it made me fatter than it makes some other people, pure and simple. Now I live an exemplary lifestyle compared to my peers and that's what it takes for ME to stay at a normal weight, whereas many of my friends remain nice and thin despite not living all that well.

Well, I totally disagree, lol. Most thin people use food inappropriately too. Nearly everyone does, the person who views food ONLY as a source of nutrition is a very rare person. Our culture has led us to viewing food as a source of pleasure, socialising, celebrating, most cultures approach food in that manner. Also human beings, like animals are really evolved to stuff themselves stupid, lie around in blissful satiation for a few days and then go and eat again. When we do eat, we're meant to expend huge calories to catch our meal. There's LOTS of reasons people have become fatter that have nothing to do with emotions or issues. We dont even have to wind our car windows down anymore. Speaking for myself, I was someone who held a bit of extra weight but was not obese for the majority of my childhood and up to when I started having babies. When I had babies, my lifestyle changed, the exercise dropped, the ability to think only for myself (and thus plan to shop and eat appropriately) disappeared into a haze of breastfeeding and nappy changing, followed by toddlerhood and with each baby, the weight went up a little more and whammo, sudddenly that 8kg weight problem was a 38kg one. On top of simply being a person who liked to eat, liked to cook and entertain and liked to sit on my well cushioned rear end in front of the telly, I was prone to that weight gain. I can see it in my kids now, one is active and thin, one is getting pudgy and is by nature very sedentary and one is too little to tell yet. So I have to insist - I dont have ANY issues. I just like to eat, specially when I'm bored and have nothing else to do. I learned to associate telly watching and internet surfing with food too, a habit I've broken. I couldnt say I ever had a food "addiction" in the way others talk about it, I just ate a bit too much. I dont call myself "lazy" but I enjoyed too many non active pursuits. I could always find the energy for whatever it was I really wanted, its just that my downtime I liked to spend non actively. Lazy doesnt translate into not good enough in my mind, it just means I like to be horizontal, blissing out. I can still be that, I just have to counter it with some activity. Actually, valuable as therapy can be, the whole "overtherapising" trend annoys me, it shifts responsibility onto some external event, person or thing. Seriously, I didnt exercise enough becuase that was something I didnt care to find the energy for and I ate too much because I just liked eating. When I really faced that issue - that I could do something about it if I really wanted to - I lost weight. Simple. It was down to me, it wasnt due to anything BUT me, and when I faced up to how big a problem it had gotten I knew I had to act so I did. There's no complicated issues there, it was just a matter of seeing the problem and taking action.

Inexplicably some people are VERY sensitive to fills and you may be one of them, and may indeed have enough restriction with an unfilled band for the time being. It makes me very angry when doctors try to tell patients how they are or are not feeling - obviously from what you say your pouch is dilating due to your band being tight. I'm glad you got the unfill, no doubt you are still a bit swollen and irritated, and like kat says, babying your system for a while with mushies and liquid foods is the way to go, till it settles, then go cautiously onto solids. And in future, teeny tiny fills. What size is your band? If its 4cc, I'm simply astounded that you'd have gotten a first fill that big, it took me 6 fills to reach 3cc in my band. I'd insist on very small increments when you feel you need filling, given your past experience.

I really worry about what will happen when I return to work, lol. Being home with kids is a very busy lifestyle, but it wont always be so easy for me to clock up 10,000 without trying either. A word of warning though - my mum is in hospital, she had a minor heart attack yesterday at 67. She's going to be fine, she's having a stent put in, but she walks 18 holes of golf 3 times a week, yet I've been worried lately about her fitness, on holidays recently, a walk up to the lighthouse nearly killed her, she was puffing and panting, and she had a go on my treadmill and could barely keep up with walking 4 miles an hour, she hopped off and tried to pretend she wasnt out of breath kind of thing. She does a LOT of steps courtesy of her golf, but it doesnt do a thing for fitness - SOME of your steps each day need to be at a much higher intensity than strolling around, some of us hate exercise, but you really need to be FIT for your health, not just moving if you know what I mean.

Hi JQ great to hear from you again!

Definitely! I cannot eat after running, not for quite a while. At first I thought it was great, go for a run at 5.30 and eat no dinner, but I realise I need to eat so I try to run after dinner.

Actually I've been wearing a pedometer lately becuase I've not been running much - had a back injury, had to let that rest and then developed a horrid sinus infection, I've just felt crap. On an average day, bit of shopping, bit of housework, go to uni for a lecture, take kids to sport, etc, I clock up around 10,000 steps. Being at home with kids is quite an active lifestyle. But if I schlep around spending too long in front of the computer, its down around 6,000. When I run - and i really AM going again tonight, feelign crap or not, I usually run about 7km and that equates to 7,000 steps. So for me, probably 5 days a week I do 17,000 or so, and two days I do about 10,000.

Its about the only time I'd admit Protein shakes are worthwhile foods - just to get something in to start your day and wake up your metabolism. Although I'd be MUCH more likely to blend a banana or some berries into a glass of milk.

Even thin people do it LJM. It solves nothign, it doesnt make you feel good but nearly everyone does it. Just put it behind you, healthy lifestyles are not defined by just one day.