Jachut

YOu could certainly be well and truly hungry on nothing but liquids now. Some people get hungry more than others, personally, I have and always had normal levels of hunger prior to banding (just ate anyway, even when I wasnt hungry) and continued to get hungry normally after banding. Its just that now it takes much less to satisfy me. During the liquids and mushy phase, I was lucky, I had no return of hunger for abotu 12 weeks, lost about 20kg in that time. I'm in Melbourne too.

I've always been a guesstimator too, never wanted to "diet" but I've been tracking lately which is totally unlike me, but I really really want to get off 15lb more, to get to the bottom end of my healthy weight range. I've been using CalorieKing.com.au - Australian Online Diet and weight loss club. Lose weight for good!. There's a US one too CalorieKing - Diet and weight loss. Calorie Counter and more.. I tried fitday etc but I found I really needed and Australian one because otherwise I was having to enter every single darn thing I eat as a custom food. I've been pleasantly surprised to discover that when I choose a good day's menu, my proportion of carbs/fat/protein is pretty near perfect but also unpleasantly surprised to realise how poorly I had been eating for the last couple of months. When I choose the right foods, like I did early in my journey, I can barely make 1200 calories for the day, but I can still eat rubbish easily enough, lol.

The test I always do/did for myself is to track my calories for a few days. When you're really honest and eating good food, you can tell if you need a fill. I've been eating more than usual lately - more crap than usual that is. I've gotten lax because I hit goal weight, but truth be told I want to lose 15lb more, I need to be lighter in my weight range, I'm just of that type of build. So I've started tracking again. I was considering one more tiny fill but I've had more than a few occasions lately where I've been stuck on things, often embarrassingly in public. I realised I'm sticking to easier foods, which tends to be junk. Started tracking, eating good stuff - chicken, brown rice and stir fry veges for dinner, a tuna salad thing for lunch, eggs and fruit for Breakfast - and found that I need to supplement with the dreaded Protein shake which I never drink because when I choose the RIGHT foods, I have a lot of trouble even making 1200 calories. So for me, it smelled like I needed a fill, it looked like I needed a fill, it felt like I needed a fill but I didnt really when I was totally honest. Your only a little way in so another fill is more than reasonable, but if you're staying full for a couple of hours, you can probably make what you have work harder for you with the right choices. But bear in mind, it can take very little weight loss to have you needing another fill, so dont be surprised if you do need one soon.

My band is very kind to me and doesnt restrict my lifestyle too much. But one thing I absolutely cannot do is eat without concentrating or thinking. That means never eat in the car, on the phone or at the computer. I now sit down and eat properly, and it helps a lot. Just popping something in your mouth without thinking is a recipe for trouble for me.

First three months, lost about 20kg (44lb). Skip forward a year and a half - last 3 months, lost about 2kg, (4.4lb), lol.

Oh, I despair at the growing popularity of Starbucks and its copy cat Gloria Jeans in Australia. Australia has always been very European in its coffee tastes. A latte is 1/3 strong espresso topped with steamed skim milk. Served in a glass. Takeaway cups are just that, cups, not buckets. Confectionary coffees did not exist until the last few years. Not that they're not delicious now and then, lol, but boy oh boy, the last thing an increasingly obese population needs is hugely fattening milky coffees when we've always been perfectly satisfied by Italian style coffee - long blacks, lattes, cappucinos (which is just a latte with more milk froth) and flat whites. I try not to go near. And I wouldnt dare LOOK at a pastry, lol.

I immediately thought "I wouldnt have all those long periods of time where I didnt eat properly, where I just maintained my weight" But truthfully, I wouldnt change a thing. I'm still working on my eating habits and falling off the wagon is part of that. I'm really pleased with how my journey has gone and how I've approached it, I've not been perfect but I have no regrets.

Done. I'm off. Lets leave it on this note. You think I'm an uptight bitch who cant laugh at anything. I think youre a bigot with an IQ of 2. What I do agree with - you didnt post the joke. What upsets me - you're the one defending it and insisting its funny. Eddie Murphy is a filthy pig. I cant bear him. He's not funny. Dont know who the others are. We're probably both wrong about each other. We disagree. So lets leave it.

I'm not trying to make you sound like a bigot - you are making yourself sound like on. Do I have a problem with you - yes! Anyone who thinks its overly PC to avoid making insulting religious jokes in a public place is dangerous in my opinion. I dont see making that joke as ANY different to what you're describing in that pub. I have a big problem with you if you think that's OK. Did I say there was no problem in Australia? Maroubra is exactly my point. There is enough anger, paranoia and fear over Islam today and muslims living in western countries are living difficult enough lives without posting stupid jokes implying that they're all terrorists.

Oh FFS, that makes it OK? That you beat up someone who makes an obvious racial/religious slur and then that makes it OK to laugh at a stupid joke? Real smart. Oh for sure, that's made ALL the difference in my opinion. Hey, we can all laugh at hateful jokes because we'll just punch anyone who says anything in public! So glad the issue is all sorted.

Holy Sh*t! Its took me 18 months to lose 85lb. 100 in 4 months is incredible. leaves me no excuse as to why i cant seem to shed the last 15 I'd like to.

Because with a band, you CAN beat these demons and win the battles. You really can - its very hard work but its possible to do and more than that, its possible to win them and then not relax so much that you immediately put all the weight back on. personally, I never banked on how important exercise is. That's what made me successful and keeps me successful because I'm still not a perfect eater.

Congratulations, that is a really GREAT achievement!

You run the risk of either not getting the band becuase your liver is too big, or waking up with a huge vertical incision downt he middle of your stomach because you've had open instead of laparascopic surgery. I know one person that happened to. of course its also entirely possible and probably more likely that all will be fine and your liver wont present a problem. However, I'd question my own commitment, I mean my doc didnt require a pre op diet and I thought I'd do it anyway and failed miserably, but I did not gain any weight or do that last supper thing, I changed my life from the point I made the decision to be banded. Not being able to stick to two weeks of liquid torture is NO indication that you will fail after the band, I did just fine, very well in fact and didnt find liquids and mushies hard in the slightest. But I'd really be doing some soul searching about why I wasnt doing what I was told - I mean I *could* fail at the pre op becuase I didnt have to be doing it in the first place and I knew that.

I seriously never thought I'd get to this weight so easily but I thought I'd be "thin" when I got here. I'm really not, I still dont have that smooth figure I always wanted. I didnt have it when I was a teenager so I'm not sure why I thought I'd have it at 40, but our minds work in funny ways. I would have called myself big bones, I realise that actually I'm not, I'm quite fine framed and that for me, with my healthy weight range being 63 to 79kg, I'm truly meant to be down near the 63kg end. Now that's a weight I've NEVER ever weighed before, but I'd really like to. However, I didnt realise just how hard I'd have to work to get there, how much weight loss slows at the end of the journey. I'm not really sure I can do it, but never say never!

I get frustrated with people who's attitude is all wrong. Cheating already on liquids, eating the wrong foods, drinking calories, not exercising (oh, but they have EVERY valid excuse for that) etc etc. They dont need to be newbies, there's plenty of long time bandsters around that you just wonder "sheesh, why did you even bother?".

Of course you can, dont understimate what you can do with enough determination. But a number doesnt mean much, to me, getting to a normal BMI was very important, I didnt have surgery to remain overweight. But I had NO idea where I would choose to stop and to be honest, despite having a pic of me in a bikini on my avatar, that is one helluva lucky photo, and I've still got considerable work I think I need to do. I never for an instant considered that I would be shooting for a BMI of say 20, but I think my build is such that I need to be very thin to not be lumpy. But I didnt know that till I got somewhere in the general vicinity, you know? I reckon shoot for the top of your healthy weight range first, fine tune later.

The thing is Chris, that coming from an American, that joke about Islam was in very poor taste. Believe it or not, the rest of the world does not necessarily disagree with the view of fundamentalist Muslims on the American culture, nor does the rest of the world think that George ought to have sent the troops in. And I know you will understand that I am not dissing Americans at all, nor tarring all of you with one brush, as there's loads of decent, intelligent people here on this forum for starters. But speaking in generalities, you are in no position to be slamming Islam, I wouldnt think. Now a joke about Catholicism would have been funny - because a lot of Americans ARE catholic and it is not slamming a group of people who feel wronged enough to have undertaken heinous acts to prove their point. Get over it would you? It was a joke in poor taste and many people didnt find it funny. That doesnt mean nobody has a sense of humour (nor that I disagree on the Christmas thing), just that Americans making jokes about Muslims is not really that funny! Especially when the rest of the world has to be involved in cleaning up the mess. We've lost two Australians over there in the last few weeks - both fathers of young children, in a war that should have nothing to do with us. It pisses me off that we have to be so careful to remain allies because of the power that America has. So to see someone being so arrogant about it all is just not fricking funny, you idiot.

Now, that one IS kinda funny.

I just gave them away as I went, straight into the charity bin. It was fun at first, but now, when I want to fine tune just a few kilograms and its going to take me down a clothing size, its expensive and annoying!

I tend to lose my restriction with further weight loss all of a sudden like that. Like I wake up one day and suddenly need a fill. It really does vary a LOT as I lose more weight, like from barely being able to eat bread after the fill to eating it three months later. So I wouldnt automatically assume there's anything wrong, especially with no pain or other symptoms, but I would check it out. Hopefully you just need another fill!

I believe that being active when I was younger helped me a lot - I've always been quite athletic, if not gifted, then certainly competent at most things. If nothing more, I grew up playing sport and gained a love of being active that motivated me to exercise later on in life.

The difference is that speaking generally Catholics are not victimised, reviled and hated on the basis of the actions of a minority of their population the way Muslims are today. I know what it has been like in australia in the wake of 9/11, I can only imagine what its been like in the states.

Yeah, so not funny Derick. Really not.

I dont really have a soft stop either. I thought the initial lack of appetite and lack of interest in food would stay with me. Unfortunately it hasnt, and although it takes much less food to satisfy me, I still want to eat 1000 times a day like I always did.