Jachut

Have you asked about being rebanded though? Like, can your esophagus be given time to heal and normalise and then a new band placed?

I lost weight really fast at first, I had a BMI of 35, but overall, although Im within my healthy weight range now, its taken me a good 18 months to lose 80lb. After the initial 9 weeks or so, in which I lost about 30lb (which is a lot when you're only 80lb overweight), my weight loss has been slowish compared to others. But then again, I havent had to lose 100lb before every few lb makes a difference iykwim. Like even when Iw as still 90kg, even 3kg made a visible difference on me, whereas you wouldnt even notice it on someone much bigger. So there's a trade off to the slower loss. I felt I was blessed becuase I was still light enough and fit enough to plunge straight into running after my surgery and was able to exercise intensely from quite early on. Also, I was banded right before Christmas 05, I had a champagne or two over the Christmas period. I'd avoid it for a week or two after surgery but after that, in moderation, alcohol is fine for a special occasion.

I loved it before banding. But I wasnt very consistent with it, life got in the way - I allowed life to get in the way more like. I do about an hour 5 or 6 times a week. But I'm not obsessed, nor have I transferred any addiction, I dont really have an addictive personality, I was fat more becuase I was disorganised, lazy and failed to put myself a a priority. If I dont get to run, or I miss 2 or 3 sessions, I dont stress over it, in fact every now and then I have a good week off or so. Its an important part of my life now, and a daily habit for the most part but not something that takes precedence over everything. I've always been pretty athletic and good at most sports too. I'm not a gifted runner by any means though, I'm slow, flat footed and plodding but I love it.

None of us could do this without the band, that's why we're banded! Some of us could try harder, be more positive, and stick at it longer than others could but we're all failed dieters here. Dont be so hard on yourself! When you have your band, you WILL be able to do it. Well, you'll probably fall off the wagon many times, like most of us have. But its not so far to fall and its ever so much easier to get back on.

I guess, never having gotten past a BMI of 35, I havent ever been the butt of jokes and stares, so I cant really say that I can identify in that it hits too close to home. I wasnt happy with myself, but I looked like a million other people walking around, there was always someone fatter to be started at. What I think is that the thought of being that obese is so horrific to most people, it scares them and that's why they make fun of it. What I dont understand is why. There's lots of worse things you could be like a thief or a wife beater, or a paedophile! Seems we tolerate those things better than the simple fact of obesity! Its insane. It leaves a nasty taste in my mouth too, I dont really get fat humour, even when wrapped in a moral message like in Shallow Hal, oh, yeah, the fat girl is really a good person. Well why the hell wouldnt she be? I dont need some cheesy movie to teach me that lesson.

Oh - one more thing. For me, dark yellow urine was a sure sign I was pregnant, lol. Its the first thing I noticed all 3 times.

See to me, that's just a ridiculous fad diet. Banding should free us from drastic measures like this, look at the foodlist. How is that balanced? Terrible for you! And how is it a detox when you're filling yourself full of animal products (and all the hormones and chemicals they contain?). Not to mention artificially sweetened products and salty bullions.

You probably need to drink more, if your urine is more concentrated and therefore a darker colour, you're getting a bit dehydrated.

Just to eat a healthy diet including all food groups. Advice that solid food should be eaten for best restriction. No food plan as such. I think I'm probably lucky in that I was a bit of a carbaholic, but basically a healthy eater - my normal diet was healthy and well balanced because I'm feeding a family. So once I was able to cut out all the extras, I've lost well on what I normally based my diet on, in smaller quantities. I guess I have readdressed the carb balance though - I still eat bread, rice, Pasta, cereals, potatoes. But I dont eat 4 slices of bread a day anymore. And I dont eat all those things in one day. But that's just kind of happened naturally, not becuase I was told to.

Hmmm, other than jsut being sick and tired of being a fatty boombah, I wanted to experience the joy of running again. And I had in mind my 40th birthday. I didnt want to be fat, bloated and miserable with myself. My birthday is in 2 weeks and I'm not fat, bloated OR miserable with myself!

Its a yeast extract,a little like Marmite or Promite. But its unique. Thick, about the consistency of margarine and completely black. Its a spread, you eat it on toast, or in sandwiches. Most Aussies adore the stuff. Most people from the rest of the world gag on it, or at the very thought of it. You cant describe the flavour. But its very high in folate!

I know that when I've finished a very long run, my sacral area (very lower back) is absolutely numb to the touch. Yet I've never had so much as a twinge of knee pain. My ankle's completely pharked though. Truly, with running, I think its something you just have a love for, a passion for and you do it because of that. Its really not good for your body at all in a lot of ways. I fully expect to suffer pains in my old age caused by running. I run despite a bad ankle and back, and I seek advice for neither becuase I'm afraid of being told not to run. I know I would defy such orders without second thought. Its not a rational thing.

I've been thinking lately, looking at my body. YOu know, there are stubbourn pockets of fat that are never going to go away. I feel so blessed not to need a tummy tuck, but I am seriously thinking about some major lipo. I have a pocket on my upper abdomen that drives me nuts, the muffin top and my outer thighs are very sad. My lovely DH said to me that we could perhaps finance it, he sees it as a shame not to get it done for another few years because I'm about to turn 40 and he wants me to be young enough to enjoy it. I'm going to go and have a consultation or two anyway and see what's possible. Personally I'd hesitate to finance it, we have 3 kids, one of whom is coming into adolescence, beginning his secondary education (private school fees to pay), we need a larger home, we really need to start investing more in the future. To my way of thinking it can wait 2 years till I finish my teaching degree and get back to work. But I'd like to see what's possible!

I eat it. My typical day might be oatmeal or muesli with some sliced banana for Breakfast, half a tuna and salad sandwich (on one slice multigrain bread) for lunch, a piece of fruit or even two during the afternoon and maybe a small piece of Protein (chicken, fish, red meat) with some mashed potato and steamed veg for dinner. I also run a lot and consume a fair bit of Water. I've never had any constipation problems at all.

I'll just follow Jack around nodding. I was of the belief that there's only so much your body can absorb at one time. The rest just means you have expensive urine and/or your body will just store it as fat.

I'm really enjoying it! Its a weird mix of feeling the same as I did before, afterall I still ahve 2 arms and 2 legs, and its not as mystical and amazing as you imagine, but that feeling of going into a change room and slipping on something, and it FITS is pretty incredible. I can remember being this weight, I wasnt very fat for very long but I *feel* like I've been fat my whole life. I've never been very thin or really slender. But 169lb for a 5ft 10 woman is a perfectly nice looking and healthy weight when she's 40 like I am now, but at 20, it wasnt a perfectly n ice looking healthy weight because I was surrounded by an entirely different peer group. Now I stand out as being in pretty incredible shape for a 40 year old whose had 3 babies (have excercised a LOT and become very fit) then I was an enormous cow compared to my pretty, cute, petite peers. I also have the self confidence and respect for my body that comes with getting older, and no longer have the self doubt and insecurities that mark adolescence and early adulthood. So although I've been a healthy weight for the greater part of my life, this is the first time I've felt in really great shape, its certainly the fittest I've ever been and I'm at least a clothing size SMALLER at this weight than I was before due to the better body composition I now have.

*giggle*, no I wrote that wrong, lol. I know you were agreeing on that point. Jeez, lucky we're not talking about launching a nuclear missile, lol.

Oh Bubble, I didnt mean you said that or implied it, I just meant there's any number of ways to skin a cat and none of them are 100% right. Actually I like conversing with you. I can be stubborn and get annoyed when people dont agree with me, but I never get pissed at you for some reason. I think its because you have thought about your way of doing things and you stick by it. What really amazes me though - like you say - 600 to maintain. Eeek. That is just asking for osteoporosis, fractured hips, cracked vertebrae, dowages humps, teeth falling out, thinning hair, wasted muscles etc To eat like that for years and years and years - that simply CANNOT be the expected outcome of lap band surgery.

Lol, I eat bread a couple of times a week, potatoes a couple of times a week, same with rice and Pasta and I'm 2kg below my goal weight with a BMI in the healthy range. Am I not a successful loser? It is entirely possible to eat less of everything and cut out no foods and lose weight! But sometimes our bands will not tolerate certain foods. And there's not much you can do about that but kiss them goodbye, but believe me, when you feel the effects of eating something your band wont tolerate, its not as hard as you think it will be. I made the most beautiful masterpiece of a cake this weekend. It was stupendously delicious - from a recipe we saw on TV. One half of a tiny sliver was all I could enjoy, it was like trying to eat a housebrick. Yummy, but not good friends with my band. Never even looked at the thing again, not even remotely tempted. Which for me, a self confessed carbaholic pre banding, is miraculous.

I wont even pretned that I know what it is liek to be morbidly obese, I was about 245lb but at 5ft 10, that's a BMI of about 36. I had (and still do) a chronic bursitis problem in one heel. I dont know if its my back, or my gait that's causing it, its time for more investigation, suffice to say I had massive heel pain and swelling that was seriously affecting my life, I could barely walk. Nowadays, that whole lower quadrant of my body, leg, foot, hip and back are out of whack, not so much painful as tight and knotted and just "different" to the other side. I certainly couldnt do much in the way of exercise, all my previous walking and similar activity were too painful, and swimming has never been a convenient enough activity that I will actually do it consistently. So I was getting fatter. Its why I elected to be banded, I desperately needed to reduce the weight on my heel. Its worked to a large degree. I mean, there's something wrong there, but I now can run up to 10 miles at a time, and I'll be a bit sore next day but not crippled. I can manage it easily now and its not intensely painful like it was. I just knew that there was no structural damage there, its a soft tissue problem and my achilles tendon is absolutley fine, so I pretty much ignored the pain, managed it with anti inflammatory creams and heat in the early days and as the weight has reduced so has the pain. I'm extremely active now, run five or six times a week, weight circuits, etc. A huge huge part of that was the strengthening of the surrounding musculature that running has achieved. I coudlnt even do basic calf raises 18 months ago and now of course I can do single leg ones. So its strengthened up enormously and that has helped. OK, ankles and backs are not knees, but you may find similar effects if your knee pain is caused by your weight. If you have meniscus damage etc its going to be more involved.

I would consider a reduction, it will make so much difference to everything, and you'll look heaps slimmer as well. In the meantime, I'd be doing some upper back exercises to strengthen shoulders, neck and back and try to provide a bit more support. A back brace could certainly help as well.

Hehe, there's NEVER going to be complete agreement on this one is there? I think that its great that at least we can all respect one another's opinions. To me, there's more to food than nutrition. Its social, its custom, its ritual and it still holds an important place in my life. I dont think that's a "fat" attitude, it no longer holds an OVER important place in my life. Its like I said in another post - for me, this was a journey to health and that included mental health as well as physical. I wouldnt personally consider my journey to be successful if I were still counting calories and keeping them to what I personally believe to be dangerously low, if I were morbidly afraid of carbs, if I never ate another really good piece of cake and I'd SERIOUSLY consider the surgery a failure if I had to live on 600 calories for evermore. Truly, I would rather have the weight problem I had. But I think that's totally personality dependent. Some people love to be structured and rigorous like that, its not in me. But whilst I cannot say I am right or you must not do this, nor can you say that its the only way or the right way to lose weight, there's loads of people here would never want to or never need to drop their calories below 1000 to 1200 a day. Scientific arguments aside - my theories are only my theories, I dont make any pretense that they're anything other than that. They're just what I believe. I just think that if your BASAL metabolic rate is 600 calories a day you're either 2 feet tall and 20lb in weight or there's something drastically wrong with the way your body is operating. Eating 600 to lose is one thing, you can get nourished and your body will find its energy from its stores, but to maintain? That's just not normal. Once you've burned your fat stores, where will your body look? Directly at your lean body mass.

Sliming is really the precursor to a PB. You get that lump in your chest or pain in your stomach, whatever your own personal signal is that something is stuck-ish. YOu feel the pressure. Then you start to salivate profusely, and becuase something is stuck enough that nothing is going through, you cant swallow the saliva as it worsens the pain. So you have to spit spit spit. Sliming to me is not something I could hide, I have to go and bend over and just spit. It may as well be a PB. I can get a little stuck and as long as I dont take another bite till its gone I'm fine. Sliming for me happens when I take the bites (even small and well chewed) too close together. I get four bites in before I realise that the first one is causing problems.

Its never even been mentioned to me, I dont take any supplements at all. I always mean to but I'm too lazy. I had my 12 months follow up blood tests and was fine across the board apart from Iron, which was a bit low (and what woman of childbearing age does not struggle with iron levels?). I should take iron and i have it but I just forget all the time.

Yeah, its just wheat flakes compressed into a small brick shape, no sugar, no salt in it, really plain cereal. I cant believe it isnt common as mud there, Weetbix are an Australian Institution! But much more palatable than vegemite, lol. Its nothing fancy or weird, just plain cereal.