Jachut

Agreed. We dont even DO halloween in Australia and I've got lots to say about sending your kids off into the streets to knock on strangers doors - because there's never any adults with them. Because the adults wont DO it because they know that it annoys people here becuase we dont do halloween, kind of thing. If little kids knock, are dressed up and have an adult with them I will find something for them. Otherwise - and particularly to teenage boys not even dressing up - I tell them to go away. Its not out tradition. Sooner or later we'll probably end up doing Thankgsiving too! And how ridiculous would that be?

I eat of smaller plates too and have been doing that since before banding, the difference is now I'm not hungry again 2 hours later. But I have to really watch the stretching out the meal so you can fit more in over a longer time period thing. Its a very bad habit of mine. Because even an entree plate is too much for me many nights, but I just keep picking till its finished even if it takes an hour.

Lol, well I guess my avatar shows I would but truth is I never let my weight stop me. I would wear one, I'd feel embarrassed for a few seconds and then I'd relax. Nobody cares about you in particular, everyone is overweight these days, you're not going to stick out like a sore thumb. I wore boardshorts and a tankini though, I felt much more comfortable that way.

The trots = diarrhoea, running back and forth to the toilet.

Lol Kat, I am a VERY typical Leo!

I took small gentle walks of about 3km every day from the day after surgery, when I came home from hospital. By 2 weeks out, I went to the gym a few times a week to use the elliptical for half an hour, 40 minutes. At about 3 months out, I started running with a short 3km run, and from then on I was hooked, I gradually built up to 40 minutes to an hour four or five times a week.

Oh gee, I better not answer this. I"m in enough trouble with my views on goal weight. I set mine at the top of the healthy weight range for my height. When I got there I was still chubby, so I kept going. I"m about half way down the range now, and I still need to lose a bit more round the middle so I guess I'll keep going. I might have to actually diet hard to make any more come off though.

Good luck with it! Like my stomach, my upper arms survived pretty well, but they're just that bit flappy, enough for my kids to hold them up and bat them around, lol. But like my stomach, they're not bad enough to make the op a no brainer, its a LOT of money and some scarring for a very very minor problem kind of thing. So I will live vicariously through all you glamour girls getting yourselves all perfect! You're going to look great!

Hello. Today I ate my cat. Do you think I am eating too much? Also, my cat had just eaten half a can of Whiskers and there is no nutrition panel on the can. How many calories should I count?

Yes, you are definitely not alone. I can stick my hand up here too. I'm perhaps not a true "binge" eater quanity wise, although I can put away a fair bit. But I cannot, absolutely cannot handle some foods in reasonable portions. Cookies, when I know I want them and when I've decided I'm going to eat them, its a given I'm going to eat 15 of them. I simply cannot, absolutely cannot stop at one or two. For me, I just accept that this is me, it is always going to be that way and I just feel grateful that it is enough under control that I am not overweight and it was never so bad that I became morbidly obese. Its not every day, its not terribly upsetting to me, I really dont think I do it to disguise any emotions, I just enjoy the act of stuffing my cake hole with delightful sugary carb foods. They cannot be and will never be moderation foods, or everyday foods for me, when I eat them I have consciously decided to OVEREAT them and I know it. For me, I just live with it. That's probably because I have no idea how I could actually tackle this behaviour. The band has helped me simply because now I can put those episodes behind me and carry on with healthy eating instead of descending into poor eating for weeks at a time.

Can I just clarify - you never can tell with the differences. To me, cottage cheese, it comes in a tub in the dairy section and its all curdy, little lumps of stuff, doesnt taste cheesy? Coz what you're all talking about sounds good, lol and to me its just one of those, I dont hate it but wont go out of my way to eat it type foods. I am talking about the same thing - white curdy lumps in a small bit of liquid, not sharp cheesy tasting?

What a little doll she is! And its as it should be, she's gotten bigger and you my dear have gotten WAY smaller. Well done! We dont really do Halloween here. Its a recognized date but we dont have all the traditon that surrounds it.

That's about where mine is about two inches up from my belly button and also two inches left of it. I never wear pants that come above the navel. Most of my jeans etc stop well below the navel, just above the hip bones so I've never had waistbands dig into my port. Before low rise was the fashion, I used to have to buy men's jeans to avoid that zipped up to the armpits look, I always found it so darn uncomfortable.

Oh, sorry, you were asking about liquids, stupid me. Here I am just tempting you with things, lol. When I was on liquids, I blended up real food. I didnt live on Protein shakes (although I had them then as I wasnt eating a lot of anything). but I made really good hearty Soups full of Pasta, meat, lentils and veg and I blended those up, I'd blend yogurt and fruit together with some bran in it too for a smoothie with some fibre, and for some carbs for energy. I even blended up my Christmas dinner with extra chicken stock! I found liquids really easy and honestly, I lost tons of weight in that time, eating well didnt stop me losing.

I've always been able to lose on a fairly high intake - I've rarely dipped below about 1500 per day throughout this journey. I think to lose well now, I'd have to be eating around 1000 though, I maintain on about 1800 now.

can we refrain from blatant advertising do you think? What's on my menu for today? Um, I had oatmeal with sultanas and cinnamon for Breakfast Just had a corned beef and pickle sandwich and a yogurt for lunch chicken chow mein for dinner tonight. I will NOT eat between meals today! I've been shocking lately. Probably because if I can eat a sandwich and a yogurt all within an hour I probably need some fill. Not sure.

Help. I drink 17 cups of coffee a day. Do you think that is too much? *ducks for cover*

I found I just couldnt survive on Protein shakes, Water, juice etc. Once I was off clear fluids and beginning to heal up well, my doc was happy for me to have anything that went through a straw. So I took him at his word and ate real food - just blended it up. So I had thick, chunky Soups blended well and perhaps thinned a little - stuff with meat and Pasta in it, things like that, gradually the texture could thicken as I got nearer mushies. I found my portion size very limited of course, but I wasnt hollow like I was on just those "lighter" foods - everytime I got hungry I could just have a bit more. So I put REAL fruit and yogurt in smoothies, had REAL meat and pasta, plenty of lentils/veges etc in soups, that kind of thing. And honestly, I found liquids easy. Its the consistency that matters, you dont want chunks for your stomach to have to break down. But nobody ever said you cant have real, healthy food.

Just put it behind you and move on, it wont be the last time. Iv'e done that about a zillion times in the last 2 years. I've just had a great day so far today after six entire weeks of eating very poorly. I've hurt my foot and probably wont be able to run for a while and the thought of that has scared me into action, lol. You CAN do it!

Um... howabout "overdraft"???.. lol.

Oh yes, I'd rote learn stuff like that. And I'm paranoid about last minute work, I always start essays and things well before time and finish a few days in advance. I'm not a sit up all night type person. And quite frankly, I think the night before an exam is too late, I'd go to bed and get some important sleep. What you dont know at 8pm the night before, you dont know. I picked a course where I genuinely wanted the career at the end of it, but I suspect there's a big element of knowing its where my skills lie - its all humanities based with only very BASIC scientific/mathematical stuff, its more about learning how children learn, not what to teach them. So since I can talk underwater, I tend to do well at stuff like that. Perhaps I shouldnt admit this but I write all my essays full of my own opinions and only when they're finished do I head off the library to find references to back them up, lol.

Wow, were we separated at birth?

I dont take notes at all, I actually LISTEN. I cant believe all the people around me scribbing madly trying to get every single detail, when the whole lecture, extended reading, etc is put up online before the lecture anyway. So I sit and listen, absorb it. That's why I dont need to study. Although to be fair, I do study in a way. I spend ages thinking about stuff, turning it over in my mind. I'd spend the whole 40 minute trip to uni thinking about stuff like that. I argue both sides, I weigh it up, I've got pretty good metacognitive skills. So I dont do "no work" at all, I just dont need to sit with a book and rote learn something. But lol,I just waltzed into my children and mathematics exam yesterday having not studied, did the whole thing in 45 minutes (3 hour exam) and was out having a coffee before 11 am, roflmoa! Although I have to admit, its not all down to my natural genius (modest arent I). There's a terrible teacher shortage in Victoria, well in Australia as a whole. There's 2 jobs out there for everyone when they graduate. So they sure as eggs dont want anyone to fail this course. So they make it pretty much impossible TO fail - I mean we actually had 3 mark questions about working out the area of a rectangular garden bed! For crying out loud, do we need to be examined on such basics?

Um, puts hand up. That would pretty much describe me to a T, although generally I dont ahve the Type A traits - the stressful, time conscious, insecure sort of personality, I'm way more laid back and lazy than that. Anything I know I cant win or will never have, I just somehow mentally turn it around into something undesirable. I have often observed myself doing that. And I also get a strong feeling that that's behind some people's goal weights. They've realised they need to lose for their health but they dont feel they can get to a statistically normal weight so they come up with justifications that are rather flawed and sometimes, one or two can tend to become a bit nasty or jealous towards those who have done it. Typically, Wheetsin, you have just summed up in a nutshell what its taken me 50 posts and a lot of heated huffing and puffing to say, lol. My point having only ever been you CAN do it if you want to. Fine if you dont want to, but dont give me silly reasons for why its the most sensible decision in the world not to. Just accept that its because of who and what you are. Perhaps one of the only reasons why I didnt take that sort of attitude about my weight is that I can be pretty vain. I feel I look better the thinner I get (to a sensible point of course). And the feeling better came as a surprise.

Babygirl - I get it. My original goal is still right there on my ticker - 79kg is the highest limit for my healthy weight range. That's where I was shooting. Its only when I got there that I realised I could go further and I've cautiously done so. Now I'm just seeing what happens although I could go as low as 63kg. I dont want to live on a diet, I dont want to exercise obsessively, I'm just seeing what happens. I'm not all about being the tiniest you can force yourself to be. I'm not *againt* high goal weights, I was enjoying an indepth discussion and I get ruffled by idiots who fly off into hysterical suppositions that I'm saying I'm better than them and then start to make up crazy information to get the last word in.