Jachut

The very brief periods where I've had tight restriction (right after my last 2 fills) and could really only eat 1/2 cup of food, I was STARVING all the time. Fine, you eat it, it fills you up but your body still knows its hardly any food and tells you so. For me, the band just doesnt work that way. For me, I still have normal hunger and appetite (which wasnt really out of control, it was non hungry eating I battled with) but the band slows my eating so I can satisfy that hunger much more easily and appopriately. Before I just didnt know when to stop. But I have had to do all the hard work in regard to head hunger, eating when bored, eating just because there's something good to eat etc. Its always said but really the band is just a tool and makes doing what you need to do easier, but its still up to you.

Yep, yogurt is the most common food I block up on. I still eat it, but yogurt and also canned fruit, slimy like Wheetsin said.

Oh - and I do remember looking down at my hands probably 12 months ago now and thinking "who in the hell do they belong too, they're not mine!". Weird. My hands and wrists are very thin now.

Upper body, face, chest, shoulders. it really surprised me. I had a BMI of 35, I didnt think I carried *much* weight on my upper body. Its continued to astound me. I mean, I knew I had a fat arse, but only really FAT people have fat shoulders right? So...... the fact that I obviously had fat shoulders means i was fat? What? Why didnt someone tell me? My upper body shrinkage is still causing me problems. Just had to buy an new dress for a do saturday night because the armholes on the one I bought back in July are so big that my boobs were hanging out the sides. And I've only lost about 10lb since then!

Never! You're such an inspiration. Although I know what you mean. IRL I'm getting a bit tired of my weight being discussed, becuase everyone wants to live vicariously and discuss it and it makes me highly uncomfortable, as if i"m bragging. Girls night every month, people want to talk about it. You look fantastic etc etc. And there sits my poor 150kg girlfriend who goes all quiet, it obviously upsets her. I dont want to talk about it. Same with my sister, she's struggling a bit with her weight at the moment and I know sometimes she doesnt even want to see me. So when we do get together and then my mum starts talking about it again, I want to tell her to shut up. But on a weight loss forum, its NOT bragging, its NOT inappropriate, its very inspirational and I think its REALLY important for longer term, successful bandsters to hang around and try to provide support and sensible advice.

Oh - and my PB's are projectile, exactly like a normal vomit and they come out my nose too. Erk. One bite can do it. When your band says stop, you have to listen.

Definitely. Only twice since banding have I done this, pressed on with something becuase it was sooooo good and really eaten too much! And I was a bees dick away from Pbing both times. If I had have moved, taken a deep breath or bent over I would have lost the lot. It was only force of will that kept it down (was in public). Its a horrid feeling, bad enough for me to not do it again. But yeah, its like its sitting in your throat, backed all the way up.

Rainer, I couldnt agree MORE with you. I even have this argument with my husband. I too have a beautiful daughter and the number of times peopel tell me she should be modelling, it really gets my goat. My husband is on about it all the time, accountant that she is. He thinks how much money she could make (for her, to be saved for her future). I couldnt have less interest in being a stage mother and I really really really object to the thought of setting up a four year old to be valued on her looks. The very thought disgusts me, no way would I ever do that to my child. Yet everyone else seems to think its fine.

Whilst breastfeeding I would defnintely not go chugging down a ton of soy products, the dangers of soy are by no means a proven thing but there's enough research done to suggest that basing our entire diet on it is not a good thing. And its never recommended to feed infants (particularly boys) soy products such as soy milk without medical approval. So that would go triple for breastfeeding.

Great advice above. LJM we all have those times. Its so hard. I find that now I'm better at reigning them in, but sure they happen. I felt so good when I got back from holidays and then I get home and get back into all the bad habits again - eating all day, not eating meals, eating bad food. Sometimes I feel on top of the world and others I feel like I havent changed one bit, the band is doing it ALL. What helps me - I keep running. I just keep doing it. I know that that's one habit I can maintain, that the band is not helping me with and that will keep me thinner. Its not negotiable and it does not depend on whether I've eaten well or not that day, I just do it. And its never ever too late to get back on track. But sometimes the routine of losing weight gets old. I really do sometimes have to commit to ONE week in my head. ONE week of perfect eating. Which to me just means 3 meals per day, nothing in between, its nothing too restrictive or impossible. ONE week. It always turns out that if I can do that, then I can get going again. I see a weight loss, I become motivated and I'm good to go for another little while, before motivation wanes again. I think this will be the cycle for life, once a fat person, always a fat person unfortunately. Although we think all these thin people have no issues, just eat properly all the time when the truth is that probably half the thin people out there are just bloody lucky that their bodies dont put on weight easily - they dont do anything to earn it. They pig out and make poor choices and dont exercise too.

Lol, you'd NEVER live that down in Melbourne. In Sydney they're called Westies and in Brisbane they're Bevans. But bogan is becoming a national saying. You probably have the type too, similar to a redneck but in an Australianised way.

Glad Jodie Foster broke that mold then! But yeah, it does appear to be true of Britney. And McCaulay Culkin, and Lindsay Lohan and the Olsen Twins (how freaking annoying are they!) and and and ....

I use the F word WAY too much. I love it, its such an expressive word, it fits every situation, lol. I use it all the time, and my kids do not need to hear it. That and the word bogan. A bogan in Melbourne is someone who lives probably in the outer western suburbs (not the best part of Melbourne) or in the very outer South Eastern suburbs. Russell Crowe is a HUGE bogan. He's a cashed up bogan - someone from a poor, working class background with no couth, no culture and no class who's rough and uneducated and has a lot of money - there's loads of cashed up bogans these days, but he's the worst. Australian men are not all like russell crowe with his horrid ocker accent, his slack face, that roughness about him. Yuck, he's utterly repulsive. He's a bogan. But I complain about bogans all the time becuase I live in a bogan suburb I'm pathetically ashamed of it, because I dont ever want to be thought of as one. Not that I'm any better, lol - white middle class priviledged princess that I am - and that's why I shouldnt use the F word!

Thats true - I mean I've always stated that you dont have to give up carbs to lose weight and I think that's true. Calories are calories, you can lose weight eating nothign but chocolate. And I do eat bread, etc. But the truth is I eat way less of it and if pizza's on the menu, I'll probably say no thanks because of the difficulty in getting it down. Pasta fills me up in literally one bite, so when the family has spaghetti bolognaise (a staple round here) I serve myself up some but generally eat the meat sauce, a mouthfull of spaghetti and I'm good. If we have sandwiches for lunch, I'll pick at half a one, not a whole one. So the carb content of my diet HAS dropped markedly simply because even though I can eat bread, rice and pasta, they're hard to eat and I usually cant be bothered to eat much of them. And that does make a difference. I dont have the carb cravings I once did.

Wheetsin, that's interesting about your mother. I really feel for my baby sister at the moment. she and I are very similar in looks and build, but she never got very fat, she always managed to keep it in control. Interesting she's now hitting the stage of life at which I got really fat as opposed to just not thin, 2 kids, bored stiff at home, no job, nothing much to do but shop, eat, have coffee, meet friends to eat and have coffee, etc etc. She's piled on probably 30 or 40lb over the last couple of years and is really starting to look hefty. And she's not said anything to me but she has to mum about how she finds my weight loss so confronting. You get so down on yourself when you start to gain weight and get older, you feel so ugly and horrid and I know what it is to attend the family functions and feel like I'm the fat ugly one out of my two sisters and I. Now its her feeling it and my heart bleeds for her. I dont want to talk about my weight or bask in the success in front of her but everyone else brings it up, its like its STILL the main topic of conversation. And we've got Dad's 70th on Saturday night, a formal affair and I've bought this utterly gorgeous dress and I know she's going to be in tears trying to find something to wear that actually fits (and our middle sis is truly model material, stunning), and I almost dont want to go!

I dont go back to eating right away but I dont do 24 hours liquids. But a few hours later when I'm hungry I'll eat. But its likely to be more than two. I dont get irritated or anything, once its over its over and I'm totally back to normal the split second its happened. Sliming without PB takes much longer and it will indeed probably be six or eight hours before I think about food again.

Hmmm, I'd have to say no, not really. We always ate "healthy" as a family. I provide good meals for them, I dont let my kids eat crap Cereal, we never ever ever have cordial or softdrinks or even orange juice in the house, they've grown up drinking skim milk and Water, we dont eat McDonalds or takeaways like pizza apart from VERY rare occasions, and they get plenty of fruit, vegetables and good quality meat. We spend a lot more than other families on food becuase we buy good food and often organic. But they still do get the chips, the packages snack foods etc that their peers have becuase they're kids. Two of them are normal weight, my oldest son (12) is getting quite overweight, but I'm really not sure that he isnt jsut about to have a huge pubescent growth spurt, he's going to be enormous, his feet are bigger than mine (and mine are size 10), his hands are bigger than mine and I'm not small for a woman! But he's very inactive and he overeats quantity wise although his diet is good. I mean he plays basketball and gets lots of sport at school but in between by nature he's sedentary and can always be found inside doing something quiet. Whereas Ewan disappears after Breakfast and shows up around dinner time. My husband overeats too - just huge quantities of food. He's obese, only just, but obese nonetheless. So yeah, we eat good food, same food that we always did but I just eat less of it and I no longer sneak in all the crap around the sides - the cakes, muffins and coffees at the shops, the McDonalds for lunch etc

Oh - but I have to add - when I have periods of absolutely faultless eating and lots of exercise, it does start movingmore quickly again.

Yeah, I'd be happy with that now. I have about 10lb to go to my goal, and I'm well under the top limit of my healthy weight range. I'm definitely losing that slowy - well it averages out that slowly. In truth I go weeks without any loss at all and then suddenly 3lb will disappear overnight.

I think its probably unlikely anyone banded could eat too much Protein since we're so limited on quantity. I question the safety of multiple Protein shakes per day, day aftr day though, especially soy based protein, but actual protein you're unlikely to get too much to the point where it causes you problems.

And yeah, I exercise a lot!

I've never counted calories. What I do do is figure out if I really want to eat when I get the urge. Am I hungry? Can I last till dinner? What if I ate an apple instead? Generally I just try to avoid eating in between meals and eat 3 small meals a day. That keeps the calories automatically in check.

So do I. And I have one when I feel like it. obviously alcohol is empty calories to a degree and detrimental to strict dieting. But moderate wine consumption is actually GOOD for your health.

Yes, I agree, that one's way out of leftfield. Lots and lots of committed relationships are not built on marriage! And people I love a lot like my parents also at first could not understand why I'd not just eat less and exercise more. Its an impossible concept to grasp if you dont suffer from obesity yourself, that its not within your complete control, that the solution is not so simple. Its an impossible concept to grasp often even when you do. I have a lapband and I still feel exasperated with people who are eating themselves to death. I feel disgusted at fat people in the shopping centre eating ice creams and walking around, I feel revolted at all the people sitting in the food court eating McDonalds. So really, when it comes right down to it, it has to be YOUR decision and even someone so significant in your life as a boyfriend or spouse cant be the deciding factor. Its like giving up smoking, its something you do entirely for you.

I tend to moralise on these issues and dismiss people - we have a situation going on here with an AFL footballer and drug issues, he was caught a few months ago and allowed to play again after rehab, he had a deal of sympathy from the public as our AFL footballers are pretty much treated as gods. So when he gets caught again the other day I immediately say "what a freaking idiot, he's betrayed everyone's trust, blah blah blah" - and like most people almost take delight in his fall. Because there's so much ego involved, its like these people become famous and we just absolutely love it when they come crashing down. But this guy, he's probably quite ill and has serious problems. I'd not want someone to be so heartless if it were my son in trouble like that. And so it is with Britney. yeah, she's acting like a bloody idiot and its very satisifying to call her a slut or trailer trash or a wreck, but truth is there's something very wrong in this girl's life. She has not had the adult guidance she needs through the kind of life that would bamboozle any young girl and she's desperate for help now, but the trouble is they become so rich and powerful that nobody CAN help them if they dont want them to. I still tend to sneer at her, dismiss her, think she's a dickhead. But in reality she needs help and sympathy.