Jachut

I'm listening to my body atm. I'd like to be about 12lb lighter, but I'm aware of the fact that I'm 40 and my face and hands and neck have shown the signs of weightloss too - I'm going to get stringy looking as well, so I just kind of want to see what happens. I'm trying, but not really trying, kind of thing. I know that for me, to not have a bit of a muffin top and to make my sad pathetic backside and thighs the best they can be, I need to be about 145 at five foot ten, I just have a light build and fairly narrow frame. 175 is FAT on me at my height. Although it depends what you define as fat, I get a strong sense that in America where there are more overweight people and they are much much bigger than you see here, that 175 looks slender and normal to a lot of you whereas to me, it's quite large and you really could lose a few pounds kind of weight. I think that was half the thing behind the huge goal weight debate, you define normal by what you see around you. I know that at 5ft 10, 145 lb I'm about a US size 8-10, perfect. No lumps, bumps and difficult bits but still have boobs and hips

If my husband told me that he specifically wanted any part of me to look a certain way because HE liked it like that, I'd kick him in the nuts, lol. That's for ME to decide and ME only, I dont look any way to please anybody but myself. My DH is overweight, probably has a BMI of 31, 32, pretty "normal" looking these days, but big beer gut. However he's also 40, works in a high stress, high pressure sedentary job, spends 3 hours per day driving to and from work and has had high blood pressure since his teens. He's reasonably fit, interested in exercise but the work of carrying his weight means he doesnt stand a chance of keeping up with me. I'd really love to see him lose weight so that we could run togther, etc, and I really really really dont want to be a widow at 50 when he has a massive heart attack. I dont push because like I just said above, I would find it offensive if someone told me they wanted me to lose weight, I just try to encourage. He's going to ask the doc for a referral to my lap band surgeon this month when he goes for his blood pressure check. But I doubt he'll follow up, he's seen how well its owrked for me, but he knows how weak stomached and bilious he is compared to me, he gets heartburn, he'll pick up any stomach bug going around and its just kind of assumed that he'll be the one with restriction issues, pb issues etc. He's afraid of that and I think he's afraid of being less of a "bloke" because he eats like a bird and doesnt want to guzzle 10 beers at the pub on Friday night. I think banding is much harder on men in that regard, there's a certain expectation about hearty appetites, alcohol consumption and business lunches that just isnt there for most women.

There's not even any such thing as creamer here! I define coffee as black with a dash of skim milk - lattes etc (which again are different here, they're still just coffee but with more milk) not to mention confectionary mega whipped cream, there's coffee in there somewhere concoctions - be careful with those obviously. I think there might be somethign called Coffeemate here which is creamer, but its normally on the bottom supermarket shelf, I've never seen anyone buy it. Giving up sugar in coffee and tea - which I did at about age 17, is EASY. It takes about 2 weeks for the taste to become normal with you but in the whole scheme of dieting sacrifices, this is an easy one. Ditch the artificial sweetener, just give it up, it honestly doesnt take long. And at least have real skim milk in it rather than something separated, dried, powdered, chemically altered and spooned in. Yuck, I dont understand that one.

The coffee thing - some docs believe it, some dont. My doc snorted when I asked about that, he said "where on earth did you hear that one, the internet?". I said yeah. He said "that's rubbish, dont rely on the internet for your information". I actually disagree as I learned lots of valuable information here, but the coffee one I choose to disregard and feel justified because my doctor does not believe it, lol. I. cannot. live. without. coffee. And I have no intention of even trying. I do stick to decaf for most of my coffee though, I only have 2 or 3 caffeinated ones a day.

Here ya go - my 40 year old carcass after almost 2 years of banding. I wore this bikini last week on the beach in Byron Bay, it was perhaps the sweetest moment since I was banded!

We dont do thanksgiving in Australia, but Christmas is just around the corner. I've actually never had a problem with celebratory eating, I was a little and often overeater not a massive humungous intake all at once eater and i've never ever liked the sensation of scarfing down Christmas dinner, followed by plum pudding, washed down with four or five wines till you need to undo your pants type eating. I hate it. So I've not really dont it. Likewise in any other situation where weight gain was a threat - holidays and pregnancy mainly - I have an Iron will, I plan ahead of time not to overeat and I dont. its the day to day routine eating where I tend to go off track, just not planning, thinking about it or shopping properly.

You're probably too tight and need some fill out. Seriously, I dont mean to say you "should" do this or that but its beyond me how you can elect to be constantly medicated rather than simply loosen your band and be more comfortable! And the relatively shortlived heartburn I suffered during pregnancy nearly drove me insane. I could not live with this condition, I would have to remove fill. No weight loss is worth possibly damaging your esophagus with the reflux, not to mention the possible link between overly tight bands and complications such as erosion.

I loved running when I was younger, I also love swimming but it doesnt love my hair. I've always been quite sporty, so it wasnt that hard to rekindle my athleticism.

sigh, mini goals are not in my personality. I'm an all or nothing type of girl. Which means I'm either spectacularly successful or I fail dismally and then justify that failure by convincing myself i never wanted the prize in the first place. Anything hard that seems too far away I usually just dont try for, lol. If I decide that I am going to try, I bloody well do it. No middle ground, no small goals, I'm going to get to the finish line in a blaze of glory. It makes life hard sometimes, I think mini goals are a very sensible idea, I just cant really help you with setting any, lol.

Same here, I really love running. And once you get fit and it no longer feels like torture, you love it even more. Its so worth getting through the initial phase of getting fit enough. Once you're really fit, activity is enjoyable, you WANT to do it.

Its true. My appetite is less and my binges (not that I was a true binge eater) are fewer and smaller. A bad day now is nothing like it once was. But head hunger and inappropriate eating, yes, I still do it too. Its still there. I need my lapband, that's for sure. But you know, I think there's barely ANYONE who doesnt use food inappropriately at times, thin people too. Our culture has encouraged it, its part of the way we think about food in these times. Everyone enjoys a good pig out of popcorn at the movies, or McDonalds once in a while. The world is not full of thin people walking around who never eat bad food or think about eating bad food. Very few people have no feelings about food other than nourishment, very few. I can do the right thing, behave in the right ways MOST of the time, but I still fall off the wagon, and the lapband is there to stop that fall being a major disaster, I can get straight back on again next day. I fall off the wagon the way thin people fall off the wagon, with a moderate pig out on chocolate, or cake or whatever, not eating one thing I shouldnt, thinking "oh, I've blown it" and eating myself stupid till next Monday when I can start the diet again. And I know that when I choose appropriately, I do not have stomach room for junk. But start eating easy foods and suddenly, I'm eating all day.

The general goal is 10,000 for health. But I think that's way understating what you need to do for weightloss. If you have an everyday lifestyle which gets you up to 10,000 steps (step AWAY from the computer, television, playstation, lol) in your running around, shopping, cleaning etc, then you're not too sedentary but for lasting weightloss after the initial easy stuff, you'd probably need to exercise on top of that 10,000. I know for myself, when I do a moderate run and my everyday life I take about 18,000 a day. I wear a pedometer sometimes to remind me to get OFF my butt and away from the computer and go and clean something instead. They're a really useful tool for increasing your incidental activity, which is a big part of the challenge of losing weight, changing everyday habits. There's no point going for a run or to the gym if you sit on your behind the rest of the day. But I do believe you need a fitness activity four or five times a week on TOP of your 10,000 steps a day.

I'm not hungry for Breakfast and often miss it (busy) but I try to remember to eat becuase supposedly you should. Not sure that works for me, the less I eat, the less I want to eat and I find I get starving around 11 am whereas without breakfast I can go through to lunch at about 1 or so without a problem. But breakfast speeds up your metabolism doesnt it? Other than that I get hungry if I havent eaten in a while, normally around dinner time I start to feel hungry.

Yes, I wet it and then slather through a treatment and then wear a cap on top, during teaching I dont submerge my head but even the splashing was bleaching the colour out. Sigh. I do love swimming, its a great workout.

Yes, definitely. I mean I have 3 ml in a 4ml band, which would be way too tight for a lot of people. But for me, for some unknown reason it is not very much restriction, I can eat bread, steak, all the common problem foods and when I dont set my mind to it, I can overeat, but not seriously. Its just enough to keep the amount I eat in check, and more importantly its enough to slow me down, I can block and PB very easily if I gulp, and just slowing down really makes a difference to how much you eat. If I were obsessed with that "sweet spot" I'd be upset that I havent reached it becuase half a cup is not usually enough to satisfy me and I can eat bread. But I think good restriction means different things to different people and for me, what I have has been enough to work with. I'm now a healthy weight but I would like to lose another 15lb or so, but will I go get more fill to make this easy? No, I wont. I really believe if it aint broke, dont fix it, I am very lucky to have gotten this far without having to be as restricted as other people and I am not about to start messing about with it now, if I get those 15lb off (and it is coming off, v-e-r-y slowly) it will be under my own steam and not becuase of more fill. I think I'd be a fool to mess with it now. Unless it becomes way looser and I suddenly get way hungrier, there'll be no more fills for me.

I like swimming and I do go occasionally and swim a kilometre or two to give my legs a rest from running. Trouble is I've just started teaching swimming to preschoolers and am already spending 8 hours a week in chlorinated Water. it is absolutely KILLING my hair - I have very dry hair at the best of times. So I have to coat it in conditioner and wear a cap, none of the other instructors wear caps, lol. But given that, I'm not likely to feel like spending even more time in the chlorine which is a shame as I'm good at it and can get a great workout from it

5tbsn olive oil 1 tbspn balsamic vinegar 1 tbspn sweet soy (kecap manis) 350 g spring onions 3 fresh red chillies chopped 1 butternut pumpkin (I just used 2 big halves from supermarket) peeled, seeded and cut into cubes 1 tsp fresh thyme 1/2 cup flat leafed parsley 1 small garlic clove finely chopped 3/4 cup chopped walnuts 150 grams feta cheese salt and black pepper Preheat oven to 200 celcius. Beat olive oil, balsamic and soy in a bowl to mix, toss pumpkin, spring onions and 2 chillies in to mix, roast in the oven 35 to 40 minutes until the pumpkin is tender, remove, and stir in the chopped thyme. Set aside to cool if you're going to eat it cold. Chop the parsley and garlic, mix with wallnuts, and remaining chopped chilli, stir into the pumpkin mix, taste and season, adding a little extra balsamic if desired. Crumble the fetta and add to the salad. I also cooked some brown rice and stirred about 2 cups through, to make it into more of a "meal" than a sidedish, lots of leftovers whch went into the freezer and are fine heated in the microwave for lunches as you can eat it hot or cold.

1 do best on 3 times a day, no Snacks. Doesnt mean I dont snack, I often dont stick to that. But when I want to lose weight, 3 times per day NO snacks is best for me. It just suits my personality better, once I start snacking, I dont stop, I just graze all day - snackign seems to really turn on my appetite.

I eat bread, almost daily. But its a go slow food, its quite heavy on the stomach, extremely filling and you have to know exactly where to stop. It just blocks you up very easily and its very common to not be able to tolerate it. Whether or not you believe you can eat bread and lose weight is another matter entirely - and there I think people are different, some do do better on a much lower carb diet. I dont seem to have to worry about that.

I really waver on this because in many ways I think about PS - at 40 - what is the point? For example, I have been to see someone about a breast lift, I may indeed go ahead with it. I'd like to, and it would make me feel good. But one of my main concerns is that the tops of my breasts have awful stretchmarks, from puberty. Now that my skin is aging, when I put a bra on and it pushes them up, that skin just puddles in the most disgusting manner. I can bare my chest, but I have to choose a full coverage bra, no demi cup or push up hides the stretchies, the right bikini top does. The surgeon said to me the only way to even partially fix it was with an implant, to fill out the skin. I already have D bordering on DD breasts, I dont want an implant and I'm 40. We all know that implants require replacement a few times in your lifetime, what am I going to do at 60, get another new set of big bouncy plastic tits? I dont think so, they'll have to come out and then I'll have boobs 100 times worse than if I'd just left them alone. Sometimes plastic surgery can create more problems than it solves. A tummy tuck is not quite the same of course, and i could probably have one of those too, I'd have an awesome stomach if I did as I dont have much excess skin there now. But meh, my thighs are like cottage cheese - courtesy of aging and genetics, and there is NOTHING that can be done about cellulite at this time, even lipo doesnt fix it and will probably leave behind even looser skin. So...... how important is that perfect stomach when my thighs are not in great shape and will ONLY get worse at a faster and faster rate as I get older? To me, I look great clothed, I dont look any worse than anyone else in a bathing suit and although I have my fantasies about $25,000 worth of PS and looking perfect, I really do believe in learning to live with yourself as you are. That said, I dont have an apron or any really obvious *problem*, I'm talking about taking an OK body and trying to make it perfect, not about fixing really serious skin problems left by weight loss. For me, that would be a no brainer, but when you've not got that one obvious problem, its kind of like once you start, where do you stop? I'm really not even sure about the boobs, same thing. Who really cares? Can anyone tell they're saggy anyway? They're still going to drop regardless, is it worth it?

For me it was pretty similar except that I was only on clear liquids for the first day, after that I could progress, gradually through to thicker liquids for three weeks. But I still wasnt doing solids till five or six weeks. But its better to err on the side of caution, it sounds like a reasonable diet and the only thing you can do is follow YOUR doctor's orders.

Well..... it was two words. The second one was "off".

Not sure how much mine will help, but anyway: Yesterday I had Breakfast: 2 poached eggs, a bit later a pear. Snack: banana, skim milk latte Lunch: tuna sandwich on wholegrain bread dinner: glass red wine, Pasta bake, green salad, coffee (dinner at my sister's). Today so far I've eaten: Breakfast: 1/3 cup muesli with a bit of natural yogurt and some stewed plums on top. Skim milk latte Just made another tuna sandwich for lunch to use up the other half of the can. Dinner tonight is a vegetarian recipe - roast butternut pumpkin salad with walnuts and fetta cheese, have made it before its yummmy. I'm about to go to my sisters and pick up my daughter who had a sleepover, I'm not going to come back and admit to what yummy carb laden indulgence I've slipped in, as she said she's baking, lol.

I deleted my response. It was very rude. Lol. Boy it felt good to type though.

Just a word on swimming - great exercise and easy on your joints BUT you need to be good at it to really benefit. YOu have to be able to swim continuously for half an hour, and keep your heart rate up - you see so many people swim a lane so slowly, then stop at the end for ages, then swim back, all in a nice gentle breaststroke. Wont work. Think heart rate up and keep it up, so if you can swim well, swimming is excellent, if you're just a beginner at it, by all means practice and become good at it, but supplement with something else such as walking for the weight loss benefits.