Jachut

I have big cookups and freeze stuff in lunch sized portions for myself and for Doug to take to work and little teeny ones for Eliza to take to daycare. I never cook anything without making a double batch to do this with. Sometimes I'll eat a can of baked beans for lunch, canned soup, flavoured tuna etc.

What worries me too is when you hear stories of when a doctor is obviously just applying all the same rules to band patients as for bypass patients - same diet, same warnings about sugar etc. Obviously they've added the band to their services because its obviously a growing trend. That would scare the sh*t out of me - its an entirely different procedure and a different lifestyle afterwards!

Case in point - I'm having lunch right now - Peanut Butter on a few crackers. I've just been to the gym and had an awesome workout, what my body really desires is aobut 20 crackers with peanut butter, it's looking for a huge carb hit, afterall I've just run 5km and lifted weights for 40 minutes. Reality - I am just nibbling my four crackers because peanut butter on crackers gets stuck for me, its difficult to eat. By the time I get through them, the desire for 20 will have gone away. But I agree, its an individual thing.

Oh 30's the new 20 anyway, so you've got a decade to go. You're only very recently banded, dont lose hope, its a slow process but you'll get there. I'm glad I got my band when I did, I have 12 months and 3 weeks till I turn 40 and I reckon its going to take me that bloody long to get the other 15kg off! Sigh.

The thing I've discovered about being banded is that this doesnt happen to me anymore. Oh, I might go up 2 or 3lb after a bad weekend, but it comes off again within a day or two so its obviously just bloating, because when you think about it, I cant physically eat enough to gain 2 or 3 lb of fat in a short space of time. I've completely lost my fear of outings, family gatherings, holidays because I know that whilst I'll probably eat more and not lose, my days of going on a 2 week holiday and coming home 5kg heavier - and that 5kg always stayed around - are over.

I've emailed you Andy.

I think she doesnt know what she's talking about. Maybe things work differently there, but what on earth does your general practitioner have to do with your band anyway? What does it matter what she thinks? As I said, maybe its different but I just went to mine, asked for a referral to a surgeon (I knew who I wanted to see as I just went with someone a friend saw). As it happened the doctor I saw thought it was a good idea. But there wouldnt be a reason in the world to discuss my band with a general practitioner now, all my care comes from the surgeon. Its not like the gp has anything to do with my weight loss. In fact unless they happened to read right back through my file and see the copy of the referral letter and I guess a letter back from the surgeon, they wouldnt have any idea.

Me too - its helped me enormously. I guess it depends what you mean by emotional eating, I'm talking head hunger, boredom eating, I hate my fat bum eating. I dont thing you need "issues" to eat inappropriately. Its worked for me threefold - number one, I'm so often definitely unhungry. I just dont have an appetite like I used to so the urge plain doesnt hit me, I just dont get peckish like I did. Number two, when I do decided to eat I cant eat a lot - no more binges of the size I used to have, they're very modest now. And number three, I feel so darn great about myself these days that I dont want to do that to myself. Nevertheless I have days and even weeks where I eat less well, and fit in quite a few between meal Snacks of things I shouldnt really be eating. Well actually, I dont view it like that, more things I shouldnt eat so often. Because I no longer gain and lose weight on a day to day basis and I dont pig out for a week and gain 2 kilos, all the guilt associated with a little treat has just evaporated, I can have it and then just not think about it, not judge myself for having it. Its like being freed, honestly. But I think a lot of it depends on whether you are prepared to embrace your new lifestyle. I think there's an awful lot of people out there who havent done that, who rely on the band alot, I dont quite know how to say it but you have to change from the minute you make the decision to be banded, have a go out and get em attitude, actively make the positive changes.

I was never told that either but it goes without saying that high sugar foods are not everyday foods. I dont really believe in low carb diets but I think there's something in the glycaemic index theory - processed white carbs - ie. sugar - just give you that whole insulin rush thing, make you crave it more, stuff up your body's metabolic/fat burning systems and basically make it very easy to get fat and stay that way. Plus sugar is empty calories and eating as a bandster is like feeding a baby - you dont waste your tiny stomach space on crap food very often. And I definitely find the more sugar I eat, the more I crave.

I tend to agree. Sometimes when I get the golfball, its in my chest, above my stomach - that's the chewing too little, eating too fast feeling and feels like its only a spit away from a PB (which hasnt happened to me yet). But when I eat any of the foods that my band doesnt like - soft bread, donuts, or as I found out today, dried apricots, I get pain where the stoma must be as it goes through, very uncomfortable feeling - but it happens two minutes or so after the first bite of that food - so the food is DEFINITELY starts moving through the pouch very quickly. But it cant all get through in the space of 15 minutes so a small meal fills me up, but I am positive I am not walking around with a nice little stash of the next four hours nutrition sitting there in my pouch, it moves on through fairly quickly and if I cared to, I could eat more within 10 minutes of feeling "stuffed". I might do this if I'm out - I can still eat dessert as well as a small main course. But overall, my head has had the satiety message so the desire to eat evaporates for me. The fact that I could isnt really relevant as I dont particularly want to. Case in point, I ate a ham cheese and pineapple toasted sandwich for lunch today - quite a big one actually (gourmet bread, large slices). I was utterly satiated after that, stuffed in fact. And I"m not hungry now 3 hours later, I still feel pleasantly full. I'll easily get through till dinner time on that. Which brings your other point to the fore - yes, if you eat more "difficult" solid foods you stay full longer. Soup etc does not fill you up as easily. But I still eat a lot of soup - becuase I love making soup and I make good hearty soups full of veges and lentils etc. There's not much you could eat that could be healthier for you, so I still eat it. I cant eat bowls and bowls at a sitting, to slow it down I might add a piece of toast or some crackers and finish with a piece of fruit. But I still eat it because its a great food if its fresh and homemade - and thick and chunky. But I wouldnt eat yogurt on its own for Breakfast because I'd be starving an hour later, I might have some on top of some muesli. Dinner tends to be my most solid meal as its often meat and 3 veg and I can only eat a tiny dinner when I eat something like that. But I do have other things too becuase who wants to eat the same thing all the time? I know when I want to get serious and drop a bit of weight I only have to stick to egg on toast for breakie, sandwhich and fruit for lunch and meat and 3 veg for dinner and I'll drop weight but generally I'm happy to lose slower and eat a wider variety of foods..

I've done a looooong slow run on the treadmill this morning - I had two lectures to listen to that were podcast and I decided to walk and listen to them, but walking got too boring, lol. So a very slow easy run, but I covered 7kms - YAY, I'm trying to build up to 8 to do a fun run in september. Man, it feels SO good to see that you've burned 750 calories! I'm not even tired, before I even got on the treadie I'd hung out two loads of bed linen I washed and vacuumed and mopped the kitchen and family room floor, not to mention all the making of lunches and breakfasts and dropping the kidlets to school I'm making a concerted effort to spend less time on the computer and burn more calories by doing more around the house, its a pigsty and incidental exercise is a big determiner of how fat or thin you are. Gonna wash some windows later this arvo.

If there's one thing I found absolutely unbearable about my lapbanding experience, it was lying in bed all day on my back after the op. Of course I slept of the anaesthetic and then could not sleep at all that night, and I was soooooo uncomfortable from having been on my back all day. I did manage to get onto my side for short periods of time just for some relief - it took the hangy thing above the bed to haul myself over though, and a pillow under my tummy to support it. By the next night at home I could sleep on my side just fine.

I dont believe a lot of the hype about Water - sure you need to drink water and many people do not drink enough water, but once you are properly hydrated, any more is just excess, same as with taking Vitamins. Six to eight glasses a day (plus extra when you exercise, I usually get through a litre with a run) is enough for most people. Everyone feels and looks better when properly hydrated though - and you probably should drink before you're actually thirsty, but there's no need to force down gallons and gallons of it.

I was walking the next day, we got home from the hospital and went out and walked 2-3kms (about half an hour, so a nice gentle walk). I did that for a few weeks before I got back into the gym, and from then on, I progressed very quickly.

I reckon you can never go wrong with jeans and heels for things like that. As long as you get a good funky bootleg jean that's long enough to wear a heel with, you can pretty much put almost anything on top and look good. Find yourself some really great high heeled boots or something as its winter over there.

I really have the same pattern. I must swell after fills, I come home from each fill and within a day or two I'm thinking "this is the one" and I lose a kilogram or two within that first week. After that, the restriction reduces very significantly and I can eat virtually normally (with restriction on certain items and pain on eating too fast) for the rest of the month and dont lose anymore. So the last four months has been one to two kilograms a month off and thats it. In between I feel I have ever so slightly more restriction than I had last month so I am inching v-e-r-y slowly towards perfect restriction. My surgeon says one to two kilograms a month is great, very healthy weight loss, but its frustratingly slow, I'm so close to goal weight and it'll take over a year to get there at this point. I dont want to lose 8kg in a month, just perhaps 3 per month! I think though that despite naturally getting impatient its important to just inch your way there gradually, you will get there eventually.

I wouldnt go to a surgeon who'd only done a few bands, not even for initial consultation. If I'd met with a surgeon and he said stupid things like no caffeine because it makes people eat more or carbonation stretches your pouch or if was all rules and not all about this being MY journey, I wouldnt choose him, I'd figure he may be qualified to perform the surgery but he knows jack sh*t about good nutrition and healthy lifestyle. Other than that, poor patient manner would turn me off. Anyone rude, abrupt etc.

The thing I've learned is that being banded and losing is still all about doing the traditional things you need to do to lose weight. Its not quite so life and death as a prebanded diet though - your bad days arent nearly as bad, nor are your bad weeks, or even months. You can always get back on the bike and get going again. But I guess some people just arent the best candidates for banding, their issues are too deep set and too troubling to be controlled by the band and if you want to find a way, you certainly can consume easy to eat foods in huge quantities and gain weight.

Like Vines says though, I think you end up looking younger as a total package, despite any lines or wrinkles.

It depends what it is you want to say I think - what you were offering was quite reasonable in my opinion and for what its worth I agree with you. I do hold my tongue a lot though because I disagree vehemently with the bandster rules and practices that are promoted in the US. I honestly cannot believe medical professionals are spouting such rubbish - especially myths about the carbonation stretching your pouch and the like. Protein first, then vegetables? Eeek, good way to give yourself colon cancer and miss out on your two fruit five veg if you ask me. But nobody DID ask me and therefore whilst I sometimes mildly disagree with things I dont often come out and say what I really think, lol. But on a thread about colon cleansing, which is a somewhat "alternative" practice and which is surrounded by a lot of misinformation people are only too ready to believe, I'd speak up too.

We had a formal work function for Doug last night, Mum made the dress for me, but no faffing around making patterns bigger, just a stock standard McCalls pattern, no dramas. No panicking about fat bits hanging out, no stress. I felt great. I actually would have liked to go a little sexier but it was a work thing and Doug's the CFO so I had to act all middle aged and responsible.

Oh, I'm laughing so hard at the visuals. I remember acid wash and I remember jeans with pleats too. Break out the Human League records and enjoy them!

Yay for you! And you sound so grounded and mellow about it all, honestly the lessons you've learned are as valuable as the weight lost arent they?

Northing "formal" today but I've done some super duper heavy housework, the house is just filthy at the moment, so the kids and I have done some wall scrubbing, down on hands and knees floor scrubbing, I've cleaned both bathrooms and washed the floors in the entire house. I'm shagged, I'm sure that's burned off a few calories, and no more grubby handprints all over the walls and doorjambs at kid height, lol.

Woohoo. I"m on the hunt for some boardies too, I just dont think this will be the bikini summer, lol. I found some really nice chocolate brown Seafolly one's in DJ's last week, but the XL was um, tight, lol. I might buy them anyway, I'm sure I'll get into them by summer. God love boardshorts! I need to look online for a top though, there's just no stuffing these boobies into normal sizes, I need something underwired!