Jachut

Hiccups is my version of a PB. I only ever get them when I"ve overdone it or am trying to eat something extra difficult. I've just had them this minute, from trying to eat sushi for lunch. Obviously since my last fill I cant eat sushi anymore, must make a mental note of that. I get a horrid blocked feeling, think "this is going to come up", slime a bit and then have several ENORMOUS hiccups and then it passes.

I do believe you're really made a huge leap when you no longer link your eating behaviour with your exercise behaviour. When you find somthing you love to do so much that you do it anyway, even if you ate poorly that day, or even if you're on holidays, etc, then you will stick with it. And I think that good exercise behaviour is probably 75% of weight maintenance. Your body is a lot more forgiving of food indiscretions when you're active. No more gaining 10lb just from Christmas day!

Yes to both. But its not a big ugly looking lump, just a slight difference when I look down - from front on you wouldnt notice it if you werent looking for it. Certainly it cant be seen under clothes.

I've heard a few people say they still have restriction for a while after their band is removed. Go with it, I guess!

Its the reason you often have a sore throat or a bit of a cough after any surgery requiring a general.

Oh gosh, SUCH a shame not to be able to shop in Kmart!!

I have faith that its safe to have in your body - we dont worry about hips, knees, pins and bits and pieces holding us together, the band is silicone and is safe. I did worry about what it may do to things like eosophageal motility etc over that period of time. I was prepared to take my chances. The alternative wasnt too tempting.

I think this is an amazing victory you know. Simply incredible that you can now do something that will improve your quality of life so much in years to come. I'm glad the recovery is going OK.

Oh, shopping is my greatest joy now, lol. I'm 40 in a few weeks and even I felt like I had to dress like my mother in law a lot of the time. Everyday clothes were OK (although I begrudge paying $75 for a darn Tshirt) but more formal stuff, ugh. And thank god I am a stay at home mum and didnt have to tackle work wear. Now its so bloody cheap!! Sales on, yeah, grab a few 14's, pay like $20 for a pair of pants, got 3 tops for $30 in Jay Jay's the other day, nip into somewhere like Kmart and buy a sleeveless parka for $30, its unbelievable. I have sooooo many clothes now becuase its so cheap when you're smaller. If I were buying workwear I'd spend more probably but for everyday clothes, its amazing. And we have a formal dinner next week for Doug's work, every year its been a tantrum and tears over the tent I've had to wear, last year wasnt so bad, at 86kg I had a nice dress made and felt good in it, but this year, I was at The Glen, saw a dress in the window, thought, I'll have that thanks, and bought it in 5 minutes flat, size 14, perfect fit, $190!!!

That's an inspiration to us all Losingjusme and also a good indication that you just have to start with what you CAN do and build it up. When I began running, I wasnt coming from a position of being exhausted by a walk around a mall, but still, 3, 4, 5km looks just ridiculous. I couldnt figure out HOW I was going to get there. So I didnt, I just did what I could do and built on it a little each week. If 8 minutes walking is what you can do then that's where you start. We've also had the debate about fat burning heart rates many times on here and early on lots of people said to me you shouldnt try to run, it puts your heart rate too high and you're not burning fat, you're better off walking for an hour than running for 25 minutes. Well firstly, judging by my body, I very definitely WAS burning fat, and now I can run for the said hour WITH my heartrate square in the fat burning zone, passing the talk test etc etc and burning twice the calories becuase I've covered twice the distance than if I'd just stuck with walking for that hour. The same principle applies - you can only withstand several minutes at the moment becuase walking for you is highly intense, anaerobic exercise. But a few minutes, building gradually and your body is just the same as mine, as anyone else's, it will respond, get stronger, build its aerobic capacity and one day you will be able to walk easily for an hour and burn plenty of fat. You just have to start small to get there.

My feet, ankles and calves, and my hands, wrists and forearms are postively boney now - I lost about 85lb. I didnt change a whole shoe size but6 I'm sure my feet have actually gotten smaller becuase I never used to wear closed shoes - I have bursitis of one heel that was very swollen and I always chose backless shoes - mules, clogs etc, apart from a few larger boots and winter shoes that I had, that were actually size 11, and noticeably too big but accommodated my sore heel. I notice I can wear closed shoes again in a size 10 comfortably, I just bought a really sexy pair of heels for a night out and some new winter boots. So they have probably shrunk a little. I also had to relace my running shoes several times where I've never had to do that before - because the tops of my feet lost fat, not that I had very fat feet in the first place but I did have to redo the way I laced them.

Nope, I was allowed (and had) coffee straight away.

I would buy it purely for the satisfaction of fitting into it at some point in time, even if its too big for you by next summer. I wouldnt care. I bought lots and lots of clothes in the presurgery lead up, I was so excited to think about shopping in normal stores again. I never got to wear some of them, but they were still motivating and it felt so good to try them on regularly and feeling them get closer and closer to fitting.

Julie, how do you motivate yourself to run that far? I know I'm fit enough to do it and I'd like to do a half marathon, but 10kms (7 miles or so) is just about as much as I can tolerate before I almost fall alseep from boredom. The first part of a run passes quickly, but then as you hit your stride and settle into the comfortable pace, I get sooooo bored. The thought of going out and running 18kms as a training run, I just dont know how I'd get through it.

I go with my cravings, its only a day or two a month and it doesnt seem to make me gain, so I just go with it. Some months, its bad - I can just eat a packet of choc chip biscuits all day, nothign else. Hardly healthy. But my body is telling me VERY strongly that that's what it wants. I'm not sure go with it is the answer many people want to hear when they're trying to lose, sorry, but it works for me. I'm sort of not afraid of cravings when I know there's a reason and I know it only lasts a day or so.

We dont tip in Australia.

I find apples hard - I have to peel and slice them to eat them, which doesnt worry me in the slightest since biting into an apple with the skin on sets my teeth on edge. The flesh does chew down but its still one of those foods that really fills me within a bite or two, I have to go slow.

Kero, I dont know about you but I always *could* do six or eight weeks of successful dieting/calorie counting and lose a little. It was after that that I failed. But I found that I had superb restriction without a fill for about eight weeks after surgery, I lost tons and tons of weight in that time. I was very lucky, you cant predict that but it does happen that way for many people. And if it doesnt, you're right, your weight loss starts when you get some restriction.

You know, I really dont know! I have meant to ask my doc this before and forgotten to do so, I just had another fill despite being at a healthy weight, motivated by the fact that I'd like to be even lighter, but surely you cant keep filling forever. Yet you dont hear horror stories of the band failing to work after max restriction has been obtained, over time, so it must continue. But I guess there's a point at which you have to work with it, not continue to rely on it and hopefully those skills have been learned during your journey.

I made coq au vin from scratch yesterday, drooool. I love cooking stuff like that, I love shopping at the deli and the butcher, and the fruit and veg shop, all the little separate shops, so much nicer than a supermarket. So we did all that, it was a rainy cold afternoon here in Melbourne and I spent it cooking. It was delcious, the smells in the house were divine. You cant beat a good casserole in winter.

Now I'm usually a person who will only eat fresh things, frozen stuff is not generally on my menu. but I do buy frozen plain fish fillets becuase fresh fish disgusts me. My husband brings it home all the time from fishing trips and it revolts me utterly. It sits in the freezer for 6 months and then I turf it out, I cant bear to touch it to cook it. Nice and sanitised, in a freezer bag, that's how I like fish. I dont like it much at all to be honest but its good for you so I eat it, you need the Omega 3's. Everything else I eat is fresh and/or organic. But fish has to be unrecognisable from its natural form, lol.

You know when to stop, your stomach will tell you in no uncertain terms. I still feel "full" the exact same way I used to although others find it different. Not stuffed, but pleasantly full. I still eat when I'm not hungry too - that will be a lifelong battle. But I do it less than I used to, simply due to willpower, the band often doesnt help head hunger. When I do it I eat way less. I used to not stop. A snack at 2pm would run into dinner. And if I do do it now and I eat a fair bit, I cant eat dinner. Which isnt good nutritionally speaking but the calories balance out. For quite a while, my stomach would get full but my head would be saying "no, you cant stop yet, this took too long to cook" or similar. It can be frustrating to be full in 4 or 5 bites. But you get used to that over time. Its a hard journey at times but in a year you'll be a different person. Its a good mix of band and behaviour modification, but its easier than without the band.

Yes. I know we cant call PBing "normal" because regular PBing is not good for your band, but it happens to most people - and often simply due to forgetting to concentrate on how we're eating or eating something that just doesnt agree with us. It doesnt mean you're too tight if its just an occasional thing. If you PB nearly everything you eat that's an entirely different matter.

Yes, that sounds similar. PBing for me is nothing like that awful nauseous vomiting when you're sick. Nothing at all. I fear that more than almost anything, but PBing is is kind of just an automatic response. Its not pleasant but its not horrible like vomiting is.

Bear in mind Australian sizes are smaller than American. 16 is our largest "normal store" size by and large and that's a US 12. I hit that size at about 185lb at 5ft 10. Anything over that and I'm doomed to plus sizes. And one of my goals was never ever ever to buy ANYTHING in My Size again (one of our major plus size stores) and since the day I was banded I havent.