Jachut

Its my decision whether I want a fill (within reason of course) but I'd rely on my doctors guidance as to how much. I'm not on a "schedule" or anything. For me because I've still be losing, its been left up to me whether I want it, but we've been conservative on amount. There's no point whacking half a ml in there at a time if I dont need it.

Yes, I often make it on pita breads, I hate thick crusts on pizza anyway. And if you make it yourself its lots healthier. Although I love a good woodfired gourmet pizza, I loathe that pizza hut crap.

I get first bite syndrome from time to time too, especially at night.

Hi Simone, I live in melbourne. Sheesh, no offence but your surgeon sounds like an idiot. How on earth can he tell you to just put up with it without investigating further? If you're positive your managing your band properly, not gulping or eating too fast to cause the pain, then there is obviously something not right which should be investigated. If he wont do it I'd find someone else who will. You could be slipped for sure. Didnt he even try a small unfill? I'd honestly find another surgeon. That is no way to live, you must feel below par surviving on fluids.

They have soooo many styles though, there are some very nice ones! www.germanshoesonline.com. There's hundreds. Although I guess if you're into stilettos, then no they're not cute clol.

I can handle it fine, its VERY filling though, one piece is all I can manage. Which is pretty good when you're talking pizza.

Slow cooked recipes?

Oh yes, birkenstocks, I live in them. I was prescribed orthotics but I couldnt wear any summer shoes with them and I'm not ready for lace ups just yet thanks. I got a couple of pairs of birks for the summer, they were brilliant.

If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten. That's what inspired me to be brave and get banded rather than go on another diet.

Yesterday I did an hour's walk on the treadmill - I needed to do some reading for uni and I wanted to get my exercise in. Unfortunately I couldnt walk any faster than 5.5 km/hr and still be able to read, so I upped the incline to 6. It felt OK, I took my pulse when I finished and it was 90 - WHOA, have I gotten fitter or what? Just goes to prove all that baloney about walking being better than jogging is just that, baloney. When you've gotten fit you cant even get into your fat burning zone walking uphill! Anyhow, not wasted time, it still burned 500 calories, and warmed me up nicely for my Bella Strength DVD - which is a pretty hard hour of Body Pump style weights. Today will be an interval training program on the treadmill.

Wheetsin, I shrank for a while to 5ft 9 and have grown again to 5ft 10. I had all these theories about my discs being compressed by the weight but the ladies at my clinic put me straight. When your fatter your big bum stops you getting close enough to the wall to be measured properly, you have to lean back to put your back and head against the measuring stick. When you're lighter your bum doesnt stick out as far and you can stand at the measuring stick properly. That's why you appear to shrink as you get fatter.

I cant answer this specifically because I live in Australia, but I was worried about this as I had a BMI of 36. I asked my surgeon that and he just laughed, said dont be silly.

I can identify with that. I was trying on swimwear yesterday, its just hit the shops here (in the middle of winter). Oh. My. God. Sigh. My head is still stuck in my 20's, my body is careering towards 40, lol. Tankini and boarshorts for me, I have developed the most awful saddlebags somewhere in the last 10 years. But I will have to buy online, I need a swimsuit top that will handle a pair of DD's and has an underwire. No matter what I did I just couldnt stuff my bosoms into the tops I tired on. Luckily I've found some really nice online stuff, not grandma bathers at all. I've changed my mind about cosmetic surgery. There is most definitely going to be some lipo going on here. I'll have to wait till I'm working (3 years).

I would hope your doctor wouldnt do it. If you can keep to about 1500 calories a day you'll be able to eat enough to nourish yourself and your baby but you'll probably lose weight as well, holding the scale steadyish, or having a small gain but losing body fat. I wasnt banded when I was pregnant but with my doctors blessing I stuck to about 28 weight watchers points a day and gained about 4kg for the entire pregnancy, two weeks after Eliza was born I was 10kg less than when I'd conceived her. She was a healthy 9lb baby, so she didnt do without anything. You never know either, to me being banded feels almost exactly like being pregnant with Eliza felt - she was a weirdly positioned breech baby - I could eat more than a mouthful or two at a time with her as I just had no stomach capacity whatsoever (lets not even talk about the heartburn and reflux). It literally fell off me in my last trimester. Congratulations on your pregnancy, and there's no reason for it to spell disaster to your diet or long term weight plans.

User error would be my guess. Measuring yourself with a tape measure is an inexact science at best. If you've dropped 2 sizes, you've dropped inches! It is utterly bizarre to lose inches and not weight on the scales though, isnt it?

I had surgery for heel spurs when I was about 18, but they were on the back of my heels, not the underneath where they usually are. They were very painful. When the heel/ankle pain started again last year I was sure I had spurs again, and I almost cried when xrays showed nothing because I just wanted something to fix the pain, I too was in agony when I got up in the morning, and after I sat down after dinner at night, it would kill me to walk again. I had about six months of three times a week physio, that and the stretching etc they got me to do made it more manageable, in the end though it was a cortisone shot that fixed me up, by the time that wore off to any degree I"d lost 15kg and the pain had gone away to a huge degree. My problem was chronic bursitis in one heel, and I"m sure its caused, like Elizabeth by my favouring one leg. I have a lower back problem that I"ve had since pregnancy and I can feel that my entire right leg functions differently to my left. Unfortunately my heel is bothering me a bit again now (nothing like it was), disappointing after it had virtually gone away. Its really debilitating and it just really drags down your quality of living, I hope you get it sorted soon, but really a good weight loss makes ALL the difference. It was the main reason I was banded and it was really very successful.

I'm 5-10 so almost, I'm shooting for around 150. I'm at about 195 now and waaaaaay too fat still, can only shop certain places (though no longer just plus stores), wanted to kill myself after trying on swimwear today kinda thing. I'd say I'll end up shedding around 90lb total too - I've lost half of that in six months, but I dont think I'll lose the other half by the end of this year, its s-l-o-w now no matter what I do and I am busting my butt running and have started doing weight training too now.

I think you have to know your body. Height weight charts give you only an estimate. I'm 5ft 10 and currently weigh about 195lb - 89kg to me. I'm kind of medium build, I'm not a "big" blokey kind of person, but I'm not one of those willowy model types either. My healthy weight range is about 65-80kg and I know that I look and feel much much better at the bottom end of that range. I may be healthy at 80, as I am now, and pretty fit, but I carry way too much fat. I dont seem to have a lot of muscle, I'm more slender in that regard even though the size of my wrists etc would indicate that I have a largeish build. At 80kg I'm blobby and fat and definitely overweight for me. I have no intention of a near enough is good enough attitude to this, I want to get down to a good weight for me. I dont need to look perfect in a bathing suit, but I know where I look and feel best.

Nup, I went all out. I bought an entirely new wardrobe for this winter and luckily timing was just so that I made it into normal store sizes as the winter clothes came out in Australia. I had a fair few things that I'd bought "to get into" though. Stuff the cost, and I forced myself to buy things nice and fitted. Most of the basic stuff, long sleeve T's and sweaters and things I think will fit me at goal too anyway and it'll just be the bottom halves I'm replacing. Jeans are so cheap these days, I just buy a pair I like as I see em and put them away for when they fit. I'll be buying an entirely new summer wardrobe too as I have NOTHING to fit me. Its expensive yes, but I try to buy so that lots of it will last. Easier to do because I lost all the weight from my top half first and dont actually think that will change much from now on.

This is just what I need. I like different sort of music for working out than I would ordinarily listen to and I find it hard to think of stuff to download. My playlist is full of stuff you'd never have heard off, much of it being Australian. But I do love Greenday and The Offspring to run to, got a fair bit of both on there.

They havent had to. I eat what I used to eat - I did eat a reasonable diet at mealtimes becuase I was feeding a family, it was what I put in my mouth between meals and the amount of food I ate as a whole that caused the problems. I guess the family diet has improved even more though, but we still eat regular food. I did have a problem after my third fill with a piece of steak and have not tried anything like that again since, and the kids were complaining that we havent had lamb chops for a while, so I guess they're on the shopping list for this week. And I think my hubby feels the lack of support for little evening pig outs. Krispy Kremes has just opened an outlet near here, the first one in Victoria, and its a bit of a novelty in Australia, the queue for the drive through is literally hundreds of cars long even five weeks later. Doug wanted to go down and buy a box last night and I said no thanks, lol.

My doctor's never told me to do this. I've had small fills though, .2 or .3 cc at a time. And its time for another fill when I think it is, there's no food test like whether you can eat this or that or whatever. When I stop losing or feel like I need another I can have it, although my doc has been perfectly happy with 1-2kg per month, the month I only lost 1kg I asked for another fill!

More than ever before in my life, quite honestly. I never used to bother to cook anything special before becuase I knew I'd pig out, now I make the effort all the time. When I go out to eat now, I dont get pissed about the tiny little bit of food in the middle of the huge white plate, lol. Everything tastes better becuase you dont just inhale it, you take your time to eat carefully. Even things like Cookies, which I used to just stuff in are not satisfying because I eat one or two slowly. I havent had to give up ANY food at all, my band is pretty much half filled and I can eat any food, perhaps with the exception of tough red meat. Well cooked red meat I can do. Which means I often eat it if I go out or go to Mum and Dad's since I tend to murder it if I cook it.

Has anyone seen Memento? That was an awesome film. I loved American Beauty too, Kevin Spacey is a great actor.

Oh, drool, bananas - they're over $12 a kilo here now, since the cyclones in Queensland, horrendously expensive. I love summer stone fruits too.