Jachut

Wow, that's a huge fill, I have a 4cc band and its taken me 7 months to work my way up to 1.7. I've never done liquids, then mushies then solid after a fill but then my fills have been like .3 or .2 cc at a time.

I've got the book, blah, too many rules. To much weirdo Protein drinking, I just used the book to give me some ideas about what to do with the dumbells I have at home, and then never did them anyway, lol. I just cant be bothered living on such a strict diet where you have to drink this at that time, etc etc etc. And I'm sure all the pictures are NOT the results people achieved in 12 weeks!

I eat sweet things in moderation anyway, a cookie here or there, that type of thing. I could count on one hand the number of times I've had true cravings though, really strong ones. Usually that happens right before my period and I have a day where all I want to eat is Cookies, all day long. I just give into it to be honest. Its barely a blip on the radar, doesnt happen often and doesnt hurt every now and then. I just get back on the bike next day. As a general rule I dont have stuff in the house that's tempting though. Giving into a very rare craving is one thing, but if there were cookies and stuff here all the time, I'd eat too many.

Thinking "I'll just run for a little bit, see how far I get" and running 4kms, I was like a mad thing after that, Doug couldnt calm me down. It really really hit me then how much my health had improved. That's been my biggest wow/NSV. I had one the other day too though, I was cleaning out the cupboard, looking for stuff to sell on ebay and pulled out a pair of pants that I'd bought a year ago in the winter sales. I couldnt even get them past my thighs back then, yesterday I zipped them up. It just hit me that I have gone down sizes and sizes! I'll be wearing then on the beach for our holiday in September. Finishing a fun run in the middle of the pack, 4kms in 31 minutes was pretty darn good too.

Anything that targets the lower abdomen will be good - you need to think in terms of curling the pelvis up. So when you do crunches, lift your knees at the same time, but dont just raise the legs, curl from the pelvis. You need to focus on not using your hip flexors to raise your legs. The key to this is to try to press the small of your back to the floor and not let your back arch, this by definition keeps your pelvis tilted up and requires you to suck your stomach muscles in hard. One good exercise is to lie on your back and bend your knees then raise your legs from the hips to 90 degrees. Keeping the small of your back pressed hard to the floor, slowly lower one leg from the hip, keeping the knee bent till your foot just touches the floor, then raise it and repeat with the other leg. Its quite difficult when you do it properly - you'll feel your back wanting to arch and the effort comes from resisting this, not from the raising and lowering of your leg. If you have access to a gym, you can get on the power tower, the one where you rest on your elbows and hang, and you bend your knees and raise your legs to your chest by curling from the pelvis. You can also lie on your back with your legs straight up and raise your hips and backside off the floor, again by curling the pelvis, not just "throwing" your legs upwards. It will be a tiny movement but very effective. And static bridges are really really good too, get in a full push up position, only rest on your elbows, not your hand, and just hold for as long as possible keeping your torso straight in line, dont let your back arch and sag and dont poke your bum up in the air to make it easier. This works every single section of your abs. Finally, its a case of do what I say, not what I do since I rarely pull my finger out and do any of that, lol.

Oh, I'm sure plenty of people dont wait, it is a long time.

I think the thing with a tummy tuck for example is that if you're say 5kg above your goal weight, the tummy tuck may get you there. YOu might not need to lose any more fat and only be over your goal weight becuase of the excess skin. Probably that close to goal you'd be safe with a breast lift too. Personally I would wait until I was at goal but I dont think its necessarily vital that you do.

That's so true - when I use the leg press machine in the gym I lift on the heaviest possible weight that it can do - which is about 200kg. I have never been hugely overweight but boy do I have some muscle in there, it astounds me when little, normal sized women (I'm five ft 10) get on and put the machne on the third of fourth pin hole down and I come along and put it on the 20th, lol. My thoughts were exactly the same - I'm strong from being heavy, if I can just keep that muscle...... That's in the lower body though, my shoulder strength is pathetic! Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) as you lose, you will lose some of that muscle no matter what you do, as your body just wont have the constant drain of carrying weight around. Even if you work out, your muscles wont have as much work to do if you're 100lb or more lighter.

Free weights versus machines is an ongoing debate. Machines support you and guide your joints through the correct range of movement while you're lifting the weight. By keeping your back against the seat etc you can also isolate the muscle well and avoid using momentum provided by your body to life the weight. So your workout is very targetted and efficient. Free weights however use all the little synergystic muscles while you lift, lots of other muscles come into play to stabilise the joint you are working through. Many people believe it provides more functional or real life fitness because you use each muscle and joint in a realistic way. If you're really trying to build big visible muscles, you'll get better results from free weights because you can work each muscle group from several angles with varying exercises, this is what most body builders do. On chest and back day for example, they'll do several exercises for each muscle to work the upper, middle and lower portion of that muscle kind of thing. For a normal woman's needs, if she just wants to maintain and tone and not become obsessed with body building, machines are a great alternative, they're easy, you wont injure yourself, they're quick, etc etc. I prefer machines, I hate lifting free weights because I just find it more difficult and annoying - and I hate the mucking around with changing weights, getting into position etc etc. We're going to buy a weights machine for home as soon as we move and have room for one.

Oh, its not so great being a pear either, lol. My face is getting gaunt, I'm looking too old, because I lose weight from my face virtually straight away. I have hollow dark eyes now because they were very deep set anyway. I'm definitely going to have to choose between my face and my bum at some stage or I'll look like a concentration camp victim if I whittle my backside down too much.

My last meal was canned Soup and toast, lol. I didnt want to eat up big the night before surgery. And before that, I decided my life was changed the day I made the decision to have the surgery, so I didnt rush around eating everything I thought I'd never eat again. I've eaten all my favourite things since banding.

Definitely being fit enough to run!

Sigh. We will do it again sometime.

Until now I've been focussing on cardio. I dont know it just felt like too many things to change at once, and I've worked on my cardio for six months and feel its now a daily habit and not something I have to think about, I just do it. I know I need weights/strength training though and this week I've started. We're gong to move house next year and we'll be buying something with room for a home gym - just something with a rumpus room probably and then I'll buy a decent weights machine. I loathe free weights, hate hate hate using dumbells but there's no real choice just now. What I'd really like is a routine that was weights free - push ups, tricep dips, chin ups etc but I cant do any of those things effectively and I need help to get to the point where I can. I can only do girlie push ups and I never feel as if I"m using the proper muscles. And abs - I just dick around here, I need a kick ass ab program, my core really needs work. So I too have been thinking about say, a once a month session with a trainer, no way can I afford to do it weekly. I like to do all this at home too - I bought myself a treadmill - because I just cant get the time to get to the gym five times a week much as I love it. And when I go I dont have hours to spend there, I can afford an hour tops. So it works really well for me to work out at home, in fact its made all the difference between doing it and not.

Why dont we reschedule it then? I dont want to pike and I'd be happy to travel just to meet up with only the two of you, but I would like to go to Fraser's footy on Sunday as I'm meant to do canteen duty and feel a bit bad about making Doug do it when he has to also keep an eye on Ewan and Eliza at the same time. If Jenny's daughter also has something on that she'd like to go to I'd as soon make it for another Sunday. I've tried very hard to get people from my other site to come along as I have about five bandsters living in my immediate vicinity, one of whom I've know for years. But I dont know the others and I think they think I'm an axe murderer or something. Hmph, I was looking forward to it. And where the heck is Jess? Does she have a life or something now?

I think they say give it at least a year, preferably two.

Unfortunately, I think its possible to have both, lol. Great muscles and saggy skin over the top!

I've been on the fence on this, my hair's at the longest it grows, so lots of hairs are at the end of the growing cycle, but I do believe I'm losing more than normal - its not alarming and I havent noticed thinning, but the amount of hair I leave around the place is driving me nuts. I do not believe hair loss has much to do with Protein however, its either related to poor nutrition as a whole - as in people who drop lots of weight very fast (which really, I havent, its taken 7 months to lose a bit over 20kg) or its hormonal and somehow related to your body letting go of all that fat.

I wouldnt touch Herbalife with a bargepole, nor Amway or any of that pyramid selling stuff. It gets right up my nose, I hate the way its sold. It makes people use their friends and acquaintances, I've been contacted so many times by people from my past, been delighted to hear from them only to then discover they're trying to sell me something. And the secret to health and long life does not come in the form of expensive powders and pills - it comes from eating a healthy balanced diet and doing exercise. If it were as easy as buying a product, nobody would be fat.

there was a thread on this yesterday. I ignore this rule. I dont drink a huge glass of water with my meal, but sometimes I might have a glass of wine with dinner. But I drink as soon as I want to afterwards. It makes zero difference to me or my feeling of fullness.

I'd love one too, yes they charge for their services - often even when they're provided by a gym. That I cant work out, I mean at my gym you can get a new program worked out for you for nothing, and a staff member will go through it with you in detail, you also get a one on one workout every 8 weeks. Yet you pay $25 for a personal training session, wtf?

I voted no but I'm sure I'd get faster results if I did. I plan to finish off by counting calories, I know I'm going ot have to get those last 10 kg off.

If its gotten hot enough to melt together there's no way I'd eat it. I'd chuck it out, its not safe to eat.

For me its a day a month and i just give into it. It doesnt stop me losing weight. I eat carbs all the time too, no high Protein diets around here. I had Pasta for lunch yesterday AND I had pasta for dinner last night becuase I went out, lol. It wont hurt you. YOu burn more calories in the lead up to your period anyway. I dont go wild, but I have a little of what I fancy.

It doesnt sound like you need more. I've taken a long long time to creep up on good restriction too and I'm not there yet, but I'm where I want to be for now. With so little to lose, it is hard, I know as I'm in the same boat. It just doesnt fall off anymore. But the payoff is that small amounts of weight now make a big difference on your body! YOu just have to dig in and live the traditional diet behaviour, watch what you eat closely, perhaps count calories now if you havent before and exercise exercise exercise!