Jachut

It can be really really hard finding your style. But everyone has something going for them. Its as much about how you dress and present yourself too, when I think about people I admire its becuase they have a really great style and way of presenting themselves at their best. I'm sad because I'm aging. To finally have a body that I can bare in a bikini (yes, I DID IT!!!! just last week) but my face is getting old and my skin is not what it used to be. Sigh. I didnt make anyone sick by strutting around in a bikini, but I wasnt turning heads either. That's OK by me. But I'm 40, and I will never be 18 again. I wasted so much of my youthful beauty being fat. I just want to be the best I can be at any age. No way do I want to look like a Hollywood Freak, lifted, botoxed and tightened. That is really ugly in my opinion. It is so true that being comfortable with what you are is really sexy. I just fear getting old, dowdy and "sensible". Because beauty is in celebrating yourself and I never want to decide that now is the time to cover up or not wear this, or not do that. I'm not particularly pretty, I'm just average, and most of us are. But its in our style and our actions that we make ourselves attractive, nobody scrutinises our actual looks the way we do to ourselves.

I'm just noticing now too - I have minimal loose skin on my tummy, I could probably benefit from some cosmetic surgery but I can wear a bikini without making people vomit. But I'm developing horrid loose skin on my boobs, they're taking on that awful old flaccid appearance. I'm not sure what they can do about that, whether only implants could fill it out - and they're big enough, I sure dont need implants. But I'd be very pissed to have paid for a reduction only to end up getting implants!

Oh, our system has its faults, I think its easy to say its wonderful from my position as a high income earning middle class white person with private health insurance. i think you might look at it differently from a postion of less priviledge. Lapbanding must seem a ridiculous dream for many people facing 7 year waiting lists at The Alfred and no private health insurance. My surgeon wont take self pay patients at all, because they can run out of cash VERY quickly if complications occur. So you need to have private health insurance. But I'd take Australia's system ANY day over what people in the US have to go through. You dont get denied anything if you have private health insurance here, if the surgeon will do the operation, you're covered. To have to jump through hoops to qualify for things when you've paid the premiums is ridiculous.

The clothes issue is bugging me now too - it was a novelty at first. But it gets expensive. I'm at the end of my journey and just losing those last few pounds, but the trouble is, 6 or 7lb now takes me down a dress size. I just bought a few new pairs of jeans six weeks ago and they're enormous on me now, I need new ones. I dont know where my weight loss will stop either, I'm not really trying to lose anymore. But enjoy it early on, you'll get more wear out of what you buy at the start of your journey and looking forward to the really great stuff you want to wear is a big part of it. Inching closer to that is so exciting.

I eat bread regularly and have no trouble with it. Its a "difficult" food in that I need to eat it carefully and it fills me VERY quickly, cant eat a lot of it. But I can eat it and I do believe wholegrain bread is part of a healthy diet.

I have been banded for 22 months, have had no complications, only 3 PB's ever, and would say banding is a 1000% success for me - last week I wore a bikini on the beach on my holidays and looked absolutely fine in it - at 40 that's not bad!!! I am fit, healthy, can eat any foods in moderation and no longer think about food or obsess over it like I used to. I was able to go away on holidays, eat what I wanted, enjoy eating out, I ran ever day and came home to 73kg on the scales - still losing VERY slowly but I now have an normal BMI.

Yes, we are fast following in America's footsteps downunder! Welcome, where are you in Australia? I'm in Melbourne.

I'd agree with all that and say as a lower BMI bandster myself, I felt enough personal anguish over my weight and enough concern about the "possible" health problems I may have in my future to do something about it early. And believe me, 33 is obese! It only sounds not so obese in comparison to a lot of people who are far more ill. B ut it is obese, and it is bad for your health and puts strain on your body. Its also a lot easier to lose 70 or 80lb than it is to lose 150 or 200, so if there is any way you can pay for this yourself and get it done then I would do so. I'm glad I live in Australia!

Yes, obese people will lose much faster at the beginning. And its not all fat, a lot of it is water, fat holds lots and lots and lots of water. Just because you're losing faster doesnt mean you're busily burning up all your lean body tissue and turning yourself into a squidgy blimp. Just go with it - healthy, balanced, exercise and enjoy it while the fast weight loss lasts!

Well, you sound as if you need to eat more slowly to allow your body to send warning signals before you get pain. Chew chew chew and all that. Really make an effort to slow down. Serve yourself less to start with and just allow yourself what's on your plate - really, its probably very soon before you have your first fill and that will make it easier. YOu have to mentally dig in at this stage and really find some willpower, but you dont have to rely on that forever. As to overeating and the cup of food thing, well there are really no hard and fast rules on that one. If you're not getting pain, pbing and stupendous fullness, then you're not overstuffing your pouch, your body will tell you when you do this. The half cup to a cup thing never applies to some people, if you're unrestricted you can eat more than that and some people still lose on the larger amounts of food, so try to listen to your body and not some externally enforced "rule".

Well McDonalds sausage and egg may have Protein but its also disgustingly processed high fat, chemical laden food, its not OK to eat that on a daily basis. Not if you want to live to 100 without growing two heads and rupturing your aorta. Yuck. That's his business though. Calories are calories are calories, no matter where you get em from. Eat fewer calories, you'll lose weight and that's the simple truth. He's eating less calories than his body currently requires. If you want to eat McDonalds or ice cream as a treat occasionally, there's nothing in the world wrong with that. In the context of a balanced diet. But you wont be healthy - even if you're thinner - if you base your daily diet around foods like that. They do contain nutrients but they contain things that are terrible for you as well - saturated fat, sugar, preservatives, colourings. So I wouldnt envy him to be honest, I'd be horrified at what he's doing to himself. But no food is completely out of bounds in the right balance, enjoy what you want in moderation!

I wouldnt wait. I had mine right before Christmas, when you're ready and have made the decision, you've already left that part of your life behind. To make the decision but think 'Oh, I'll just get through the holidays first", well personally if I were a surgeon that would be the one thing I'd rip into a patient about. Its just not the right attitude, you are making a life change and a commitment to yourself and who gives a frig about a Christmas turkey? Its just food. I had a small Christmas dinner mushed up in the blender with some gravy. It was as good as any Christmas dinner I've ever had. Everyone was full of well wishes for me and hoped I'd be successful, they werent laughing at what I ate or watching me like a hawk - too busy stuffing their own gobs. I didnt struggle with the least temptation, I was full of the new hope and anticipation of what I was going to achieve and I was glad I did it when I did. But I've always been good at holiday times, I clamp down and find willpower when I know its a situation when I'm likely to overdo things, its the everyday denial, the cookie with the coffee, the piece of birthday cake etc that I find harder. Do it, you've made the decision, start NOW.

Everything I've read says to wait and see if you can get liquids down. I've not been too filled, I've been rather tight only once after my last fill and I didnt like it one bit. I cant live with wondering whether everything I eat is going to stay down. Its awful. But take it very very easy, if you have an episode and get swollen you may have to have fill out.

I often fail to appreciate how lucky I am that my surgeon is half an hour's drive away! I would wait. I wouldnt drive that far for something I could get a couple of weeks. If you're careful there's no reason to assume you wont lose in that couple of extra weeks. Its long term that's the problem, that and keeping it off.

No, I got my first fill at about 12 weeks when I could tell I was starting to be able to eat more and get hungry. All the rest of my fills have been when I want them, not to a schedule as such. For the first year I'd see my surgeon six weekly or so and he'd ask me if I wanted one or not, I didnt always elect to have one.

Hehe, you and I have a lot in common atm. I just put one on the back of the bedroom door too. I acutually like what I see these days, the only thing I have to be paranoid of is that dreaded anklebiter look if my jeans are too short to wear with heels, lol, which is why I needed the mirror. Standing on the edge of the bath wasnt working well. Being tall, you know, that's such a problem. Its a pet hate of mine, pants must sit almost on the floor if you have heels on or it just looks, to use an Aussie colloquialism, horribly daggy.

I have just noticed lately that I'm "almost" getting foot cramps at night. I'll stretch my toes or move my foot in a certain way and feel the cramp begin and have to stop whatever movement/position I'm holding quick smart or there'd be a full blown cramp. So not severe, but still, unusual for me. I had leg cramps during my first pregnancy but not the other two and it hasnt bothered me since I've been banded, just in the last few weeks. I've been beyond stressed and busy for the past few weeks and have eaten really badly - hardly any food and what there has been of it less than perfect. I'd say that's the explanation for me.

It took me about 12 weeks to get hungry, I never went through bandster hell. But my appetite did come back eventually. Dont worry about it, go with it!

I totally agree with Chickie. My boobs are just shrinking fast now, I'm into my healthy weight range and its only now I can notice that they're actually getting smaller - not just my back circumference. To have a breast reduction now, you'd risk jeaopardising the result if you get them all looking nice and then lose half their volume again. And a good sports bra, like the Enell ones, well they make all the difference. I've managed to run perfectly comfortably with large breasts (E cup, now a D to DD). I get a lot of honks, whistles, toots and stares which is a pain in the behind, but they dont bounce too much.

I'm off on holidays on Saturday up to beautiful Byron Bay. I lose 2kg when I went last year, so I vow to come back lighter. I had time to run every day, its seriously gorgeous along the beach, and we walked probably 10kms every day in our activities as well. We stay with my sis and her hubby and they're fit and healthy so we eat really really well and I just find the routine of 3 proper meals a day rather than the rushing from a to b shoving things in my mouth no meals routine that I tend to follow at home really does me good. So yes, I intend to be a bit closer to 70kg in 2 weeks time! And continue it on when I get home.

To some degree its true for me. I dont find a lot of junk food easy - pizza, fish and chips, McDonalds, I never ever eat or want those anymore. But Cookies, lollie, chocolate...oh yes, definitely. In times of stress, I revert to bad habits, eating too much of these foods and skipping meals entirely. I did it yesterday. Had a huge assignment to present at uni and another one to finish today. I ate nothing of any bulk, substance or nutritional value yesterday but fuelled myself by a huge sugar rush. It no longer affects my weight becuase its a much rarer occurrence and only happens under extreme stress, not day to day for every little thing. But I really am trying not to do it at ALL. Nachos I'd have no problem with. But I really do manage to keep away from that type of food most of the time. Its just the sugary stuff that I struggle with.

I'm standing on the outside looking in Standing on the outside looking in Whoa I never strayed outside the law I'm standing on the outside looking in Room full of money and the born to win And no amount of work's gonna get me through the door When I go walking down Bluewater Bay Surface in the city at the end of the day Whoa I got a bad case of the benz Standing on the sidewalk, you can see Somebody everybody wants to be But they've got means to justify every end I've got a friend broke through illegally Pulled a job on a small town TAB Five grand down on his own little piece of Eden (lol, what would 5 grand get you these days?) And I know And I know First thing I do when I get in town Is buy a 22 and blow the whole thing down No amount of work's going to buy my way to freedom I'm standing on the outside looking in I'm standing on the outside looking in Whoa, Whoa Oh Yeah Probably wasnt that one though - that was an Aussie hit. Dont think Cold Chisel were big in the states in the 80's.

It is like throwing up for me. Its only happened to me twice but it was violent, loud and forceful. Exactly like vomiting but without actual nausea.

The thing I've found is that it doesnt get easier as they get older, it gets harder. Everyone seems to hang out till their kids get to school thinking that they can then go back to work. I've found my input into my children's educations by being a classroom literacy assistant invaluable, and it breaks my heart that I wont be able to do that for Eliza, who starts school next year. But we had her um, accidentally, and not many people are in a position to stay at home for 20 years, which is what it would end up being if I waited till she was ten or so till I returned to work. childcare makes it all so easy, once you're dealing with school hours and sporting activities, ack, its a freaking nightmare. I've only had to do it for a month and I need a holiday and some valium. There's been a couple of near disasters and some raised eyebrows when I wasnt available and couldnt be contacted to collect Eliza from kinder because she had yes, two, lice eggs in her hair!

Very well said! That's how I look at it too. In fact I would go so far as to say that in many people "dieting" by that definition simply encourages even more dysfunctional eating behaviour. I know that it does in me. I could never ever do protein first or a high protein diet because it is just that to me "a diet" and not the natural way I eat. I would have to go "on" it and "off" it. I'm not about to debate the virtues of it or not, suffice to say I'm at goal weight (well, below it) having eaten bread, rice and Pasta the whole way though, within the bounds of healthy eating. Eating what I want in reasonable proportions means I dont overeat anything in particular. Easy peasy.