Jachut

Lol, you're not pregnant are you? I was EXACTLY like that.

I'd go nuts too not becuase I wanted the mousse but because I'm sick to death of my kids eating everything in the house almost before its out of the shopping bags and into the fridge.! I'm always screaming about who's eaten ALL the food! But no, you're not crazy. Its very common to get quite teary and emotional after any general anaesthetic, let alone such a life changing operation.

People disgust me now. Everyone scarfs down HUGE meals when you go out to eat. Massive plates of food (and this is Australia, where we havent quite reached the gargantuan US portions yet!) and they shovel it in, talk with their mouths open, ugh. Its horrid to watch. And this is just my girlfriends, lol!

I dont know whether to feel envious or sympathetic, lol. That would be horrendously embarrassing, so I do feel sympathy. But on the other hand, on the two or three times I've PB'd since being banded, its taken at least an hour of agony before the offending item makes a reappearance. And when it does, there's nothing burp like about it. Its exorcist head spinning round stuff. Oh to be able to think "uh oh" and just get rid of it! With enough time to walk sedately to the bathroom of course. I've never been a vomiter, so I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

Definitely. I dont eat when I'm like that. Its just not going to work so I dont even try.

I had a 9 year old a 7 year old and a 2 year old. The boys were dropped at school for a day or two for me, and brought home by a friend so I didnt have to drive. Just for two days. Eliza (the 2 year old) went off with Doug in the morning to my mum's house for I think 3 days. Might have been 4, cant remember. I had my surgery on a Friday and came home saturday morning, so Doug was there for the weekend. So I think in total I had 5 days where I didnt have to do much for eliza, and of course the boys didnt need to be lifted up, put in and out of the car and have nappies changed, lol. By day 5 or 6 (whenever it was that I got Eliza back) I was fine to do everything on my own. I wasnt running marathons, but Doug's gone at 7 am and back home at about 7pm, 7.30pm so I was on my own all day and coped fine.

Nah. Long term married relationship, 3 kids, lol. Libido......gone, lol. Seriously though, it was always very good, although I always always have to take a mental deep breath and just do it, I'd far rather read a chapter of my book before I go to sleep! But its been 3 or 4 times a week for as long as I can remember, and we've pretty much got it down to a fine art now.

It must be like the opposite of being pregnant, when your stretched out skin can get very itchy. I itched like mad, but never got stretch markes. Moisturising helped, as did anything cold. YOu know those things full of blue gel that you freeze for wrapping around food in a portable fridge - I had a big one of those in the freezer to lay over my tummy. Probably not that pleasant for the inhabitant, lol.

I'd go to bed at that time of night! But yes, on occasion when I've really felt like pigging out on something that happens to be in the house, I've eaten an apple. Those are so hard to eat and SO filling for me and if the craving remains, then a tiny bit of whatever it is - just enough to fill in the chinks, will do it then. Those diet tricks actually WORK when you're banded. Eat a huge plate of steamed veges and it will at least slow you down so you do a lot less damage.

Very true Susan, there's loads of bandsters out there that would regain in a heartbeat if they were to lose their bands - in fact statistics say that most of us would. Its easy to *think* you've changed your habits. The only one I know for sure that I've changed is that I now exercise regularly and that's got nothing to do with my band.

Its not worth it. Its soooooooo tempting to look good now, but it seriously will ruin your skin. Fake it. These days there are such good fake tans. Ironically the only reason I like to be brown is to cover up all the sun damage from my youth in the 80's when frying yourself in baby oil was in. The freckles etc just blend in and look good with a tan. If I had porcelain pale beautiful freckle free skin, I would embrace it, I swear. But I have average of Irish descent Australian skin for a 40 year old which means sun damaged, freckled and beginning to age. I will have suspicious bits cut off me over coming years. Its just not worth it. When you start to get older you realise that. The sun totally ruins your skin, the best thing you can ever do for your looks is to stay out of it. But most of the damage we do is done before we're 20.

I'm glad to hear you're doing well, I remember you fine!

Silicone is fairly inert in the body (apart from liquid form that leaks out of breast implants). To "reject" it would be extraordinarily rare. Its not likely to happen. People have rods, pins etc in them all the time.

You've got to wonder what the source of those problems with the band is in a lot of cases - the erosion, slippage, pouch dilation. I mean, the major problem with the band is that it is user driven. And in any group of majorly obese people, you are definitely going to find a huge percentage of people who simply cannot remain complaint in terms of what they eat, how much they eat etc. I really wonder how much user error is involved. What I'd really like to know is what can *I* expect and how can I influence that? I mean can a totally complaint person who works on developing good habits, incorporates a lot of exercise, eats the right foods and doesnt have their band tight - does not PB and have overfill episodes etc has regular care but not a lot of mucking around filling and unfilling their band expect to keep their band and keep their weight off? Because that's my personal experience of banding and I'm not blowing my own horn and suggesting I'm morally superior because I've been "good" and done it "right". But it is blatantly obvious to me that not many people have such a smooth journey. And I wonder how much the fills and the tight restrictions and the PBing etc contributes to the poor outcome over the longer term? It would be nice to feel safe but unfortunately I think we all took this risk when we decided to be banded, I dont see why you should be flamed for posting it, but yeah, people dont necessarily want to think about it early on.

It feels strange, it doesnt feel like running. But being a distance runner is ALL about pacing yourself. If you can slow it down you will be able to run MUCH further. But the simple action of jogging over walking seems to make you much stronger. I'm 5ft 10 and I"m sure I looked VERY strange at first, but the speed comes later. The main thing now is to keep going. So slow down and then slow down some more.

Oh girls, I'm SO excited for you. Do it do it do it. Running is the most awesome sport if you can get past the pain of getting fit enough. I run along now, honestly, once you're seasoned you dont have your lungs burning and your heart thumping out of your chest, when you're fit it just feels like fast walking does - effort yes, but your heart and lungs are quite comfortable and able to cope and its only at the end of a long distance that your body starts to get tired. It becomes the most pleasurable activity, and you get that burst of endorphins a little way into your run and you just feel euphoric. Its truly addictive, people admire you so much when you say you run regularly but there's a secret. It doesnt take willpower because its freaking awesome! But the initial stages are hard, take it very easy. And one word of advice. LJM, I think you said early on that you run at 5, 5.5mph. Well I can only run consistently (for 10kms or so) at that speed now after 18 months. If you can learn to s-l-o-w down so it feels like a weird shuffle and is almost a motion *just* beyond a race walk, you'll find you're running continuously for kms very very soon. I started running at 4 miles per hour - I could WALK faster than I was running. But it really quickly strengthened up my leg muscles and lower body so that I could run further. Because that's what holds you back, your lower body strength and its ability to carry your weight. Cardiovascularly your fitness builds extremely quickly! Good luck everyone!

I dont know other than it must have been still sitting there. Weird hey?

Oh, I ditched my old love. I'm now a scale whore, a running trollop and a new clothes tart. There's plenty more fun out there than being faithfull to your boring old faithful food.! And you can enjoy NORMAL amounts of those foods in time anyway. If you even want to.

Yes, I agree, I think if your weight is seriously life threatening then its maybe an option for super fast weight loss but in that condition you're not great candidate for surgery anyway. I've actually never heard of it being done here at all, of recent times. Its all bands here.

I can still eat it in a smallish quanity. If I"m out I try to go sashimi because I figure the fish is better for me than lots of rice. But we make sushi, just nori rolls at home because the kids absolutely LOVE it and its a good weekend lunch that's healthy but also a treat for them. I can usually eat 4 or 5 pieces.

I think that one's a bit of an urban myth. Most bandsters I know still drink coffee if they were coffee drinkers before.

I can see how regain would easily happen and this post is a very relevant one. I have been guilty for very long periods of time of relying totally on my band, thinking I can eat whatever I like because the quantity is controlled. But we have to take charge of it every single day and consciously make those good decisions. I find running five or six days a week allows me a myriad of indiscretions that dont show on the scales. Were I to be injured, I'd be in trouble, no doubt about it. This is a good reminder to stay focussed, even once you get to goal. And I think of it like being born with a deformity. You just cant see it, but its there and nothing will fix it, we can only hope to manage it. We will always have to try harder than the next person. We all have an eating problem/disorder. Yet ironically, its the most normal thing of all, our bodies have not evolved to know that we dont need to eat everythign today, it will still be there tomorrow. So we have to fight that. Jasmine, there is nothign done that you cant undo. You do not need to panic, just get with the program again. You CAN do it, you've done it before.

I've told pretty much everyone. Why not? What's to be embarrassed about? I dont feel I ever need to explain my eating habits though, nobody would notice I was on a diet. If Snacks were going round I would either just say no thanks (I'm still full from dinner) or just have a taste of something. Nobody cares what you eat. Being obsessed over stuff like that is a mentality you'll probably be able to shed with time and its pretty common as an initial anxiety when you havent really learned to live with being banded. Truly, the thought wouldnt even come up for me, I wouldnt even think to worry about it.

Ah ....... Gulp.