Jachut

Mainly weight watchers and home delivered diet meals. Many many times. But if I'd tried running regularly like I am now, I'm pretty sure I would have seen success. I find it ironic that the band doesnt make me exercise and yet that's been the biggest success factor for me. Because I still eat a LOT for a bandster and can still eat anything and like to keep my band loose as a reminder not to overeat, not something that literally FORCES me to stop. I like to stop eating by myself. I dont claim I could have done it without the band by a long shot, but I sure think I wouldnt ever have gotten so fat if I'd just exercised like I do now.

Easy choice here for me. They dont do GBP or RNY due to the belief that the lapband is a far safer procedure. Yes there can be complications with a lap band but the risks are very low compared to those other surgeries, statistically speaking. Someone is always going to be the person who suffers those complications but the risk of it being me were extremely low. There's no way I would have chosen either GBP or RNY had I had the option either, I just didnt have a weight problem of the size to justify something so major and I wasnt desperate enough about it yet to consider reconfiguring my insides. I would have preferred to suffer my obesity and live with it. Lapband simply didnt seem so "extreme" to me.

Well gosh, its one entire year later, and I'm now running regularly. I still think exercise is great, now I'd say its even MORE important than what you put in your mouth. I'd probably be exaggerating but its at least of equal importance. However, as the year panned out, I've done loads and loads of cardio and not very much resistance stuff and gotten good results. Its looking time for abit of toning up though.

I've learned not to rely on anything except my self, lol. The band seems to be doing something, but restriction is chancy, sporadic and seems to only limit what I can eat at certain times. I cant eat a lot at once but at 2.5cc in a 4cc band I can still eat absolutely anything and its easier than it was a few weeks back, sigh. I just keep on doing what I know I should, with slip ups, which I dont beat myself up over, they're much fewer than they once were, but some days I eat badly, most of the time I eat well. It seems to be good enough, the weight is still moving for me. and I keep up my exercise no matter what. Unfortunately the band is a tool that works differently for differnet people and differently for each individual at different times. Working with what you have at the time is the only way to go. Hopefully though you'll get the fill level right and it will become easier for you.

Or are you sick? Would you be actually vomiting if you didnt have a band? I've heard people tell it both ways - they can vomit entirely normally and I've also heard people say nothing comes up anymore, they just dry heave. Either way, poooooor you. That's horrible. And not even the relief of a good barf. Hope you feel better soon.

Oh golly, sooooo many things I would have stayed at uni and finished my physiotherapy degree and waited a few extra years to get married, and lived and home and saved my money. Instead Doug and I were so desperate to get out of home and I was so sick of being a student that I dropped out and we moved out of home and got married at 23. First mistake, paying rent for years when we neednt have. Then when we bought a house we built a new home in a new suburb. Second mistake, what idiots we were. Everybody with half a brain knows you should buy the worst house in the best suburb. I just wanted everything new and shiny. Stupid stupid stupid. Third mistake was having our first baby a year or two before we should have. We've done everything in our lives that year or two early and though Doug earns a big salary, we are in nowhere near the same position as others in comparable positions. We should own a lovely house in a nice suburb, and though our lives are far from awful and we're very comfortable, we're still stuck in our first home in an area we dont want to be living in because real estate prices closer in have gotten away from us.

It depends when and what I am eating. I eat very slowly at night, I'm tighter then, but for me, not so slowly that people would really notice, they just think I have nice manners. My first few bites are always extremely cautious though. I tend to get a bit of that first bite syndrome.

I sort of hadnt noticed that my feet had gotten bigger. I have size 10 feet anyway, pretty much the biggest you can get in Australia in women's shoes, without going into specialist shoes or having them made. Because of the ankle problem - chronic bursitis - that I'd developed that was my main reason for surgery, I had huge swellings on the lateral side of either ankle, in that hollow at the side of your heel and it was very painful to press. So for a year at least, all I'd worn on my feet apart from boots or similar when I went out at night, was clogs and birkenstocks. Which is my general everyday style anyway. But with all the loafers and the like that came into fashion last winter, I suddenly realised I couldnt get size 10 shoes on my feet anymore. Since losing 29kg, and getting my ankles better too, I'm now a 9 to 9 and a half again.

You're very unlikely to truly mess up though. Your body will most definitely tell you when you've had enough. Its not that important to the ounce what you eat, honestly. Just stop when you feel you've had enough, allow yourself to feel that. Measure out by all means, but dont obsess over it, you dont need to.

I live in Australia and we dont have all those high Protein recommendations here, nor are we given anything like the strict rules to follow that a lot of American patients seem to be. I tend to eat 3 times a day with an afternoon snack. I might eat Cereal with some fruit and yogurt from Breakfast, a ham and salad roll or sushi or cheese and crackers or Soup or even a bowl of baked Beans for lunch, some yogurt or maybe a small treat in the afternoon (like a bikkie or two) and then a normal family dinner, anything from spaghetti bolognaise to meat and 3 veg to more exotic curries and the like. Totally normal, everyday food. But I eat about half as much as I used to, probably get through a cup of food at a time. For instance, if I do eat a roll for lunch, I usually cant finish the entire thing.

Well that's just plain stupid if you ask me, lol. It forces you into unhealthy food choices - calorie dense high fat foods to get in the calories. If it were me I'd totally ignore any rules about numbers of meals/sizes of meals and eat when I was hungry, till I wasnt hungry, how ever many times a day that is. I wouldnt worry about the fact that some days I'd reach 1500 and some days I wouldnt and I've never counted a Protein gram in my life either. Of course not everyone would be comfortable with that but my point is, that's the way I eat and it hasnt stopped me losing. Rules are often just your surgeon's own personal viewpoint, and in no way are they universally "right" for everyone. Rules like that make it difficult to waste your stomach space on low calorie foods that your body needs, like fruit and vegetables which is idiotic.

Sorry, I'm not going to make it, we're having a family thing for my sister's and my dad's birthdays which are this week and next week. Next time.

Hmm, mystic tans and acrylic nails are really doing my budget in. Oh and hair colouring. I spend a bleeding fortune to look healthy and natural and not like something that just got dug up.

This is how I find its worked for me..... Before, I'd get the munchies, head hungers, whatever you want to call them. Late morning, late afternoon, whenever, I always wanted carbs - biscuits, cake etc. I'd give in nine times out of ten. Then if I'd eaten a muffin mid morning, I'd figure I may as well have McDonalds for lunch, and that would be followed by more junk in the afternoon, because why stop there? If I didnt give in, I'd make it to dinner and be starving and eat an enormous meal. Sometimes I'd do well for a few weeks at a time. Now, I get the munchies, head hunger etc mid morning, late afternoon. I still want carbs. I resist nine times out of ten. Because I couldnt get a McDonalds burger down anyway, I dont eat it for lunch, even if I did eat the wicked muffin mid morning. And if I've resisted all day, I may be hungry at dinner time, but a small meal fills me up. And if I didnt resit, I usually cant even eat dinner at all. My band tightens up around 5 pm and unless my stomach is empty at that point, that's the end of eating for the day for me, as long as I make sure I'm really hungry I can get a small dinner down. Its perfect - give in to the head hunger and I automatically compensate at the next meal and dont go off on a week long binge, dont give in and I dont overeat to compensate.

I'm a little sensitive to dairy since banding. I feel nauseous if I drink full cream milk - which I havent drunk on a regular basis since I was a child, apart from if I buy a coffee when I'm out. Nine times out of ten I would request skim milk in my latte or cappucino anyway, but if I dont, look out. In fact even skim milk in coffee upsets my stomach a bit now. I'm also having terrible trouble with major bowel cramps (as painful as labour, honestly) the day before I get my period. Its absolutely awful, it comes on suddenly, and I'm stuck on the toilet with the cold sweats for about 3 hours, and then it passes, and next day my period arrives. My doc reckons that's a hormonal thing, that all the estrogen stored in fat can cause problems.

Its entirely an individual thing, how much fill you have, what foods you tolerate etc. I'd eat a bit more than that per meal, more like a cup to a cup and a half, but I'm very active. I think if your fill level allows you to eat x amount without discomfort and you're most definitely not ignoring your body's signals to stop, then you dont need to worry about stretching your pouch. If I were finishing each meal bursting and in pain, I'd worry but I'm not. I feel just "satisfied" - that's what you should be aiming for. Although I think most of us measure out at first right after surgery.

Yeah, the fun runs are AWESOME. Its so so gratifying to finish one, I too did myt first every 7.5 last weekend in the Melbourne marathon and I was bawling as I crossed the finish line. it really gives you something to work towards, now I've finished that I want to do a 10km one in December. Its motivating and gives you the chance to really map out a proper training program - now that I can run longish distances, I do a short run, an interval run, a tempo (speed) run and a long slow run every week - and every week I'm adding .5km to the long slow one to build myself up to 10.

Assuming no problems, its supposed to last forever. However its only been done for around a decade in Australia, much less in the US. There's simply no data to show that it can or will last that long. Many people in Australia who have had their bands for 10 years have had revision surgeries, but you have to weigh up that they were the original guinea pigs and techniques and knowledge are improving all the time. I fully expect to have further surgery related to this band some time way ahead in the future. Its just something I accepted when I made the decision to have it.

Yeah, caffeine doesnt increase my appetite - I'm prone to drinking coffee instead of eating throughout the day. I cant tolerate milky coffee anymore though - lattes and cappucinos. Which is probably a good thing, but every time I have one that isnt made with Skinny milk, I get nauseous. I've never liked full cream milk anyway, but now it just turns my stomach. Generally I just drink regular coffee with a dash of cold milk in it.

The trouble is really that many many people, whilst not racist or bigoted, still view whiteness as the normative postion and measure blackness against it. In the same way that people assume it is "normal" to be heteroxexual. It is the normalising of whiteness or heterosexuality that problemises blackness or homosexuality. People can always say "I'm not racist" or "I'm not homophobic" but when they view white/black or gay/straight as binaries, it creates a fundamental inequality. That's not a racist thing so much as something so deeply embedded culturally as to appear unquestionable. Most people dont even realise they do it. To be white and middle class sure is a luxury. You can afford to be very unbiased from that position cant you? When you've always been one of the "in" crowd in the mind of almost every person in society. I could call myself unracist but the only reason I've even thought about stuff like that is that I've had it put into my mind at university. It wouldnt have occurred to me otherwise and its a shame that that's the case.

Nothing as far as I'm concerned. I probably drink a similar amount. Although these days I have 1 to 2 cups real coffee and the rest decaf. Its more that too much caffeine is just not good for you. I think its just rubbish that you cant have it because of the lap band, just an urban myth.

Precisely. It doesnt have to be binge eating and you dont have to do it at every meal. But if you're overweight, you eat more than you need.

Me too lately. Although I think its just my body telling me it needs a chance to catch up. Its like I lose a bit and then eat more and stay where I am for a while and all of a sudden it keeps going again.

I think we've come a long way - in Australia anyway. We have a very multicultural society but its quite white multicultural with a strong Asian contingent too. Australian aborigines are of course black, but you dont see many Aboriginal people around in the major capital cities. Anyway, where I drop Eliza off to daycare is a very Sri Lankan community but in the street is a few families living next to each other of very very black people, that midnight black skin tone. You hardly ever see that in Australia - my boys stare as they're always getting off school buses and the like as we arrive to get Eliza. I said to Fraser one day "why are you staring, you see these people every time we come here". He said "they're just amazing, look how incredible their skin is and how athletic they look". I was pretty proud of him. He wasnt staring because they were "different" or "weird" but because they were beautiful. Who doesnt look twice at incredible looking people? He's 10 and its not really something we've ever talked about, so that's come from within him. I just thought it was great that it wouldnt enter his head to judge or make assumptions, he was just looking at somebody who was very physically commanding - a good balance I think. Its silly to think you have to be so PC as to not acknowledge cultural and physical difference, but its healthy when you can simply accept it.

I've got long but not thick hair also. I really havent lost any. Of course its likely that I"m just lucky but nevertheless here's how I've done it. I eat a "normal" diet. No high Protein diet, no low carb, no shakes ever - wholegrain carbs contain important nutrients for skin and hair health. I eat a relatively high number of calories - 1500 per day or so, I rely on running regularly to up my calorie burn and keep the weight coming off. Apart from the initial fast loss, I've settled in to 4lb per month or so, sometimes a bit less. Perhaps I'm lucky that I can eat that much, and that way and still lose but I really do work hard at my running and can easily burn 800 to 1000 calories in a session.