Jachut

The trouble is though that you are risking your band with this behaviour. The more you continue to vomit, the more likely it is you will slip and then you could lose your band altogether.

Its not uncommon. I dont have a problem with excess skin, but I dont look like a 20 year old either, I look like someone who's 40ish and had 3 babies. Fine by me, its not like I walk around naked.

Hehehe, just eating less has worked fine for me till now, but I did have a relatively good diet beforehand too, it was more volume than food choice that made me fat. But now, yes, I do have to be "careful" to lose, however it seems to be that adopting a no junk, no eating between meals policy is careful enough. Again, its the humungous amounts of running I do that buy me that freedom. However, it takes time to work up to that sort of level of exercise, so start out with what you can handle, but always aim to do the most you can and never ever miss an opportunity to be active. Everytime you sit down think "what else could I be doing". It does become habit after a while, I never thought I'd prefer cleaning to sitting on my ample bum on the couch, but I do now. I save my relaxing time for night after I've been for my run.

We call that sort of Chinese meal Yum Cha and it has lots of other things besides dim sims. Dim sims are kind of the layman's chinese over here, you get them in any takeaway store, steamed or deep fried, at the footy, at the school canteen, in the fish and chip shop, frozen in the freezer section at the supermarket. In fact we had steamed dim sims and home made fried rice for dinner last night. But real Chinese ones are great. We also have a thing very similar to a dim sim called a Chiko Roll, its an Aussie Icon. Nobody has ever worked out what is actually in the things, they're like a big long deep fried spring roll, but you may as well shove them down your aorta as eat them, they're going to end up there anyhow, lol.

Since our moggie hung herself from the picket fence courtesy of a collar, she no longer wears one at all, luckily I was there to get her down. Cats have to be registered in Melbourne, so she should wear a collar and a registration tag but with cats, who climb, its just too dangerous. Once when I was a child we put our cat in the kennels when we went away and when we went to pick her up she had her lower jaw caught in her collar and had been that way for ages, she was thin, hadnt eaten, had saliva dried all over her and her jaw never recovered properly, she was never able to fully close her mouth again. It was really awful.

Yes, if I get really blocked up I do, and I also get the most awful aching in the roof of my mouth and back of my throat. It hurts more than my actual stomach sometimes.

I've never eaten much crap apart from a few problem foods (like choc chip biscuits and muffins, even so these were usually home made). I always had a healthy respect for my body and keeping it functioning well - so organic fruit and vegetables, good quality wholegrain carbs and lean meats have always been part of my diet. Likewise I've always had a horror of anything bright orange, obviously artificially coloured or flavoured, things like McDonalds more than very very occasionally, and I dont feed my kids that sort of stuff either. They only get soft drinks once in a blue moon. I just wouldnt serve a big splodge of stodgy macaroni and cheese to my family for dinner, its always fresh colourful vegetables and a good Protein source and it always was. Foods that come in a packet or box or from the freezer section dont feature heavily on our menu. So I'm about the same. If I'm going to go all out and eat something indulgent, it wont be cheap crap from the chip aisle in the supermarket. Its more likely to be brie and crackers, with a nice port to wash it down. Its just as easy to get fat on good food as on bad,lol, I managed it quite well! All things in moderation but I do like good quality food. My main vice is coffee so I guess I'm lucky in that respect.

Middle age looming before me (I'm 39) and thinking how fat, miserable and unwell I was going to be if I didnt stop gaining weight.

I'm still up at around the 1500 a day mark. I hadnt lost anything for quite a while and then suddenly its started moving again. I dont think for me (I run regularly and do weights and am very active) that to go any lower would be sensible, I wouldnt get enough nutrition and energy on less. And its very doable without deprivation. I think I"ll get to my goal at this level but it will take a few months.

Yeah, I was thinking of just stabbing an entire huge dim sim with the chopstick, lol. Do you have dim sims over there when you eat Chinese?

Yum! I think of bread and rice and Pasta to a degree as "non-delicious fillers", lol. Its important I dont waste my stomach space on non delicious fillers and eat only the best bits of the meal! When I go out, it it aint delicious, I dont eat it.

I can drink unrestricted, just like I always could. The only time I cant drink is if I"ve had a bite of something that got stuck and then putting liquid on top of it is a recipe for disaster - a disaster that hasnt actually happened yet, but I"m not keen to push it, lol. But I can go on a run and chug down a litre while I"m running and then another litre in the space of a few minutes when I get home. There's no way I'd get dehydrated.

Good advice from everyone. I dont know how I've done it but I've managed to lose over Christmas, wow. What I did - kept up, no, INCREASED my exercise. Doug and I have walked 10km (6miles) per day - even at 10pm at night if we had to. Ate the celebration meal, in moderation, and enjoyed it, plum pudding and all - kept the wine to a minimum. No seconds. No dinner Christmas night, strict diet the rest of the time, fruit for Breakfast, kind of thing. We've just been out for Doug's 40th birthday lunch, so no dinner again tonight and a big big long walk. Its doable, you just have to be mindful of what goes in your mouth. Its really not what you sit down at the table to eat that does the damage, its the nibbling and mindless eating, the excessive alcohol, all the little "extras".

How much exercise are you getting? If you can combine a LOT of exercise (and exercise hard) with eating less you should see results.

Congratulations!! Not sure if you're asking about pregnancy advice in general or being pregnant and banded. Pregnancy is a wonderful, joyous time, and you should just enjoy it, savour every minute, indulge yourself and enjoy all the attention. But with regard to being banded: I havent been pregnant and banded but I have been fat and pregnant, lol. I was normal weight for my first two and 104kg when Eliza was conceived. Since I'd had preeclampsia with my two boys, I was concerned about my weight. My ob told me that there was no need for me to gain at all as long as I ate a healthy diet. He said a baby needs nutrients, not kilojoules, it was my body that needed the kilojoules to grow the baby and that energy I could get from my fat stores as long as I made sure to be eating enough nutrients. So in other words, if I cut all the junk from my diet, I'd be fine, but I'd lose body fat as a result. I pretty much did Weight Watchers but allowed about 28 points per day, so maybe a touch under 2000 calories. I didnt really exercise since it just doesnt come easily during pregnancy for me, dodgy back, bad braxton hicks etc. I did swim a little though. Over the course of the pregnancy my weight went up by only about 3kg and when I got home from the hospital I was 10kg down on what I'd been when I conceived. I had a 3.6 kg bub (8lb or so) so nice and big, no stretch marks and NO reappearance of the high blood pressure/preeclampsia, however I did have obsetric cholestasis this time, lol. I itched like fury for the last 2 months. I tend to put on weight alarmingly fast whilst breastfeeding, in fact I could attribute a good 90% of the excess weight i was carrying to lactation, it just does something to me, and I just pile it on. So I regained all I'd lost and then some and then the lifestyle changes that come after a baby. In fact I'd say THAT's the danger period, not the pregnancy, I've never gained a lot in pregnancy, its afterwards. But you most definitely do not need to eat for two and I would say I could easily cope with being pregnant and banded, restriction/hormonal issues aside. I'd easily eat enough now to sustain a healthy pregnancy. Very best of luck, that's fantastic news for you.

I peel apples but then I always have, I cant stand the skin. It does something to my teeth - a bit like fingernails on a blackboard. I know most of the nutrients are undre the skin. But I like them peeled and the peel does give me a bit of discomfort. Oranges I have no problem with at all.

Three weeks for me.

Dont panic, the swelling has gone down. If you'd caused a slip you'd most likely have ongoing problems and if you'd overeaten or chosen something you couldnt handle to that degree you most likely would have been in pain whilst doing it. If it went down fine, the chances are that it has done no damage. But just get back on the wagon. Dont feel like a failure, very few people are perfect right through this banding experience and we need to eat to live - its not unusual to feel hungry and hyperinterested in food if you're on a liquid diet!

Oh, I dont know. I'm a believer in all things in moderation. I cant remember the last time I had a milkshake because its not something I would have had prebanding either but I certainly have foods that I love that arent healthy choices, and I've not given them up entirely. I think the goal is to learn to handle those trouble foods, not just ban everything from the menu. I'm happy that I now eat like all the other normal weight people I know in my life. I dont ban anything from the menu, but I dont overeat anything either - good or bad. But that's a personality thing, some people do better on strict diets, the thought makes my eyes glaze over with boredom. I'm not giving up an occasional glass of wine for anybody. And the occasional piece of chocolate is necessary for my sanity, lol. And I've still lost weight.

That's great. Over the last year I've encouraged my DH to get more active and he's taken up the challenge and now most nights we go for looooong walks (I usually go for my run earlier in the day). Its great time together and we take Eliza in the jogger as well.

Yep, it means you've lost weight. I went through a terrible period where I suddenly looked so flabby and my cellulite was much worse, but then as I've lost more fat and toned up with exercise, its really improved again. Now my belly is still a bit blobby, but basically the only real problem will be crepey skin rather than an apron, I've been extremely lucky.

Oh god, drooool, I havent had an IT in about 20 years. Mmmmmmm. I can eat pancakes, VERY slowly and just one. I have it with just a bit of maple syrup when I make them for the kids, skip the butter. I'd actually say that bacon is more fattening than a plain pancake, but then I'm the lone carb crusader on this board, lol. I will never ever ever give up carbs and I'm nearly at goal so if you like pancakes, one in a while wont hurt you. However - if you're very newly banded and never eaten them banded before, you're braver than I am to try them for the first time in public. I would actually cook myself one prior and test it out. I've always handled all bread and the like fine, but it can block me up and cause a bit of discomfort if I hoe in too fast. And I actually agree TOTALLY with Cam. Its not all about deprivation and saying no to everything, its about learning to handle and live with food and conquer your emotional reactions to it. Its like worrying about wasting what you cant eat in a restaurant - the healthy, functional thing is to simply not care about what you dont eat, waste is waste, whether you shove it in when you're not hungry, take it home and eat it when you can fit it in, go through elaborate processes to be able to order and pay for smaller portions etc. The aim is to just not care, not come up with a way to make that food worth the money you paid for it. And in the same vein, its not all about sticking to a program for the rest of your life, its about being able to go out to eat, ordering what you genuinely fancy and being able to eat it till you're satisfied and then stop, not pig out and not eat for the rest of the day or do 20 hours of exercise to make up for it, or really wanting the pancake, but having the eggs and going home and eating cake when you should have just had the pancake in the first place. All of us like different levels of discipline and like to diet in different ways but for me, I just think the thing is not to "diet" at all. I havent found the band to be about dieting, I've found it to be a tool that's helped me achieve those attitudes I've just mentioned.

I only didnt have to do it because by pure chance I'd had a liver scan about 2 weeks before I saw my surgeon. When I went to my GP to ask for a referral he sent me on a barrage of tests. It was just lucky that I had proof that I didnt have a large or fatty liver otherwise I would have had to do the diet like everybody else.

I wasnt as restricted as you sound, which hopefully will ease off for you, but I had major restriction for about 9 weeks after my surgery, past my first fill. It was a blessing, I went with it with everything I had, I lost 15kg in that time and it was my most steady, fastest weight loss. I couldnt imagine how anyone could NOT lose in the after surgery period but I know that not everybody has the same experience. I experienced NO hunger and major satisfaction for hours from a cup of thick Soup. Its ironic because I have never had "good" restriction since but I've had enough to work with. I've never PB'd and I can eat anything, which is pretty unusual for having 3 ml in a 4ml band. Its there, so I know I'm not slipped but I "should" have more restriction than I do, I just seem to be particularly resistant to fills, lol. Its easy early on if you have that good restriction because you have the huge motivation and excitement for your new journey that does wane over time, so you can stick with your program and you also have the fear of trying to push things too far as you havent gotten comfortable with your band yet. Use it while you can, unfortunately for most people it doesnt last, but you do settle into a slower pattern which over time is just as effective.

Yeah, I'm quite organised this year. Today I need to take the kids down to the shops as Fraser is getting some And1 basketball shoes, so I need him with me, and I need to nick out alone at some point in time and buy them some swimming pool passes - we've given both boys four movie passes each and I'll get four pool passes and I got some tickets for Luna Park for them too (amusement park in Melbourne). Its summer here and they're off school for six weeks or so so we'll need something to do over the long holiday, as we're only going away for a week. We're going to SIL's and my sis's for Christmas Eve and Christmas day respectively so apart from make my super special Christmas Ice cream and brandied fruit thingo, I dont have to do anything - no cleaning or cooking. YAY! But I have to outlast the little buggers on Christmas Eve, Eliza is only little, but the boys know that Santa is really mum and dad and they will be staying awake to catch us out, I'll probably be up till 4am before they drop off!