Jachut

The kids have their cousins over to stay so I made pancakes this morning, I had one small one with a bit of lemon and sugar. For lunch we've got some minestrone I made yesterday and the kids will have toast with that and I've got a fetta and spinach scone and dinner is going to be roast chicken, roast potatoes and steamed veg.

Well I dyed my hair through all 3 pregnancies, there's no real consensus on whether you should or not. And I had a cut, colour and blow dry the day before surgery. There's no conceivable way a hair dye would affect surgery or your band.

Finally got onto my treadmill again after having the flu. I wouldnt say I'm better but it's been 9 days since I last ran. Ugh. Still all congested, but boy did the run clear the pipes (eeeeeew)

I notice it when I do things like lift my daughter, or carry stuff pressed against my side/abdomen. In everyday movement I dont feel it unless it is touched. Once or twice its burned a little but that's literally once or twice in six months.

I had 1 ml in a 4lm band - I think that roughly equates to cc's ie. its the same thing.

Yes, I lose best and fastest at around 1500 calories a day. My band is loose enough so that on a not so great day, I'd eat 1800 calories or so. I'm tall and I'm very active so I dont even come close to gaining on that kind of level and in fact I lose, but only about 1kg a month which is what I've been doing for the last few months. But 1300-1500 is great for me, I've always lost 1kg a week at that level - although I've never lost 20kg before and I think I'm slower now simply becuase my calorie needs are probably a little less and your weight loss does slow down over time

6 meals a day doesnt work that great for me, I tend to eat way more overall when I do this. I do better on a 3 meals absolutely no Snacks plan, when I eat 6, I tend to eat 6 meals the same size as I would 3 if you know what I mean. Its a personal thing, not a hard and fast rule. Go with what works best for you.

We want to take the whole family on a holiday to Fiji next year for my 40th - its pretty cheap and easy to access from Australia. A few weeks on a tropical island, bliss.

Funny you should mention that, I was wondering about this the other day. I was reading the menu for a formal do we're going to next month and oysters kilpatrick are the entree. You surely couldnt just swallow an oyster whole banded? Yet chewing it up would be like chewing well on a big glob of snot, eeeeeeeeew. I dont think I fancy taking tiny bites of oyster and chewing thoroughly. Might just eat the bacon and drink the juice out of the shell.

I do better when I dont eat all the time, although I'm a grazer by nature. I dont want breakfast much but eat it anyway becuase you should and then I can and often do just pick all day. I hate lunch for some reason. I just never want anything in particular, I'm always out doing stuff and never home to sit down and actually eat a meal and I hate sandwiches and other portable lunch foods. However I am forcing the issue lately and my weight has started moving again, ever so slowly. three meals a day works for me. If I eat a decent lunch it gets me through - for some reason I'm afraid of the calories at lunchtime, but really a 300 calorie breakfast, 500 calorie lunch and 500 calorie dinner is perfect for me, but I shy away from eating that much at lunchtime and end up eating far more in the form of Snacks.

I've never been a PMT sufferer except occasionally in months where I've really been hard on myself - like at around Christmas time - all the alcohol, rich food etc, then I'll suffer. Months when I treated myself well I'd be surprised by the arrival of my period, absolutely no warning signs, and I've never been one to plot it on the calendar. Since banding, I've had PMT every single month. Sore boobs, bloated tummy and cranky moods. Its weird. I've never had a return of period pain since I had my first baby though thank goodness. I'm not on the pill as I got fixed after my last baby :clap2: and I've never suffered any sort of gynaecological problem at all.

I stop losing a week before my period, and then suddenly drop on day 1. I dont notice any band patterns per se - I may be ever so slightly tighter at night but I suspect its because I eat hard Protein at night, whereas I rarely would eat a piece of chicken or meat in the daytime. My band seems to be very considerate in that when I go out its always wide open - hmm, maybe two glasses of wine before every meal would be a good idea? But lately, I dont lose for weeks, then suddenly off comes a kilo, then no loss again for weeks.

I do, I guess becuase I dont have a lot of restriction so its very rare that I have complications like getting stuck - although as I type a piece of fluffy fresh white bread hot out of the breadmaker is making its lumpy way through my stoma, ouch. It mainly comes with being hungry and just hoeing in. I get brought up to a very quick stop then!

I occasionally do a deep water running class with flotation belts in the deep part of the local pool and its great! But you're feet dont touch the bottom - you're not "running" per say - much of the workout is in your core that you use to avoid tipping over.

Life is just one long string of rewards at the moment, lol. Doug is going to FREAK when the credit card statement comes in. Clothing is my reward - I've always been fussy about having hair done, getting my nails done, so those are everyday things. I have a really bad habit of laybying stuff in smaller sizes but I find it great incentive. I used to do it before too and then buy the clothes when the layby finished and then throw into the back of the wardrobe never to be seen again, but I now have put ALL those clothes in the charity bin because they all got too big for me. But its' been great, I've had a terrific wardrobe all the way through, not had to make do because I didnt want to spend money on something I wasnt goign to wear for long. So yeah, every time I hit a new low, I just buy more clothes to get into in the future, to keep me going.

I was just reflecting on this yesterday - I have an appointment with my doc on Friday and think I will get a tiny bit more fill. I feel like I havent lost for weeks and weeks and its true, I havent, I last went to see him in late May. My losses are so infrequent, I cant even remember them because I'm 2.5kg down since then, but it seems like day after day after day after flipping day I get on the scales and see the same weight. But those tiny little losses slip in there just frequently enough I guess. My doc will be pleased with that loss, I"m not. I want to see weekly progress dammit. Not surprise tiny losses that I cant count on. I want to know that when I go away in September, I'm going to be down another 10kg, not another 4. But I guess I'm just commiserating that much as we'd like to we cant control what our bodies do. Its not really normal to just drop weight week in week out and its no wonder our bodies arc up a bit when there's been significant weight lost already. So I think we just have to suck it up to a degree, plateaus are going to happen and all you can do is just keep doing the right things and eventually you WILL win! But you cant schedule it to your own personal timetable, sad to say. I hope your ankles get better though, no diuretics when you're suffering like that seems a bit harsh.

Yep at 6 months all my worst habits are just waiting for any chink in the armour, to come rushing back. The enthusiasm and fast weight loss carried me so far and then I lost my mojo big time and just relaxed into maintenance eating. I dont seem to still have the habit of boredom eating, I no longer turn to food for things like that, but I do still have this habit of suddenly thinking "enough" with the salads, the healthy foods and going on days long binges of more luxurious foods. I still do it. It doesnt affect me soooo badly becuase I dont eat as much, I honestly believe I've retrained my eye and my head to be in tune with my new stomach capacity. But I still want to eat pancakes for Breakfast, Pasta for lunch and pizza for dinner every now and then. And if there's leftover food or Cookies in the house, then I dont stop till they're gone. I think normal people do this too though so I really dont think its realistic to ever thing those habits are going to be gone or that I'm ever not going to have to think about what I eat and consciously make good decisions. That doesnt bother me, that's everybody's lot in life if they want to stay healthy. I know I'm a good maintainer though. I did gain my weight in three short fast bursts after my kids were born, until I got so fat after the third that I just gave up in desperation and kind of fed myself up as punishment and pushed myself from overweight to obese (that took a pretty hard effort though, lol). So I think I can handle my habits, I've learned a lot about that - and I think that's the key - learning how to handle your habits, not necessarily eradicating them entirely.

My doc checked this for me because it was like overnight, what restriction I had just disappeared. The whole 1.4 ml was there. I had .3 added and its made no difference whatsoever. It was just after I started running, I got about six or seven weeks into it and completed my fun run and all of a sudden I could eat like a normal person again. My doc says intense aerobic exercise burns huge amounts of your visceral fat, the fat that is around your organs and deep in your belly. And yes, that'd be true becuase whilst my bodysize dropped quite substantially, I still appear to have all the surface flab still. Its like someone popped a balloon and I deflated (although my skin kept up than goodness). I guess I just lost a ton of weight round my actual stomach. It could be the same for you too. It is normal to lose restriction as you shrink.

Eliza and I went to see Cars just on the spur of the moment, went down to Fountain Gate to do some grocery shopping and there's a huge movie complex there too, so I just said what the heck. It wasnt holidays, a weekend, special occasion just 11 am on a Tuesday. I bought her some popcorn and myself a coffee and in we went. We loved it. I took all 3 to see Ice Age and Doug took them to see Over the Hedge last weekend so I could study for my exam. The boys went in on their own to see The Benchwarmers whilst I did some shopping.

Hehe, its just after dinner here 6.45pm and at the moment Neighbours is on telly and Big Brother starts at 7pm. Got a quiet 15 mins to kill. Poor Eliza is sick as a dog on the couch.

Wow, thank goodness they fit you in! To have spent all that money to get there and not have surgery, I would have been one VERY angry customer. I guess he knew that there'd be repercussions if you didnt get your surgery and I guess he also knew how much it means to people.

I too couldnt say that I have a weekly average, I tend to not lose for weeks and then suddenly drop some. It is tending to be 3-4 pounds a month - would love it to be faster and am inching towards that ever perfect restriction. Trouble is I dont define perfect restriction as the point at which I lose 1-2lb per week, I define perfect restriction as not PBing, not constantly having discomfort or getting stuck, yet able to have enough control that your diet is pretty good and portions appropriate to keep weight coming off. And if that's what I have now and its only 3-4lbs per month then so be it. I only have 40 to go, so I will get there.

I'm a bit like you, impatient to get to the good stuff. I hate walking, I have no patience for it. I mean I enjoy it as an activity but not as an exercise. I was very frustrated because I had a bad ankle, so I really had to force myself to take it easy with less weightbearing stuff. So prior to getting my band I went back the gym and started working out really hard on the elliptical. I used my cardio coach (www.cardiocoach.com) volumes on my MP3 - its interval training and they make those long boring minutes on stationary equipment fly by, great music and they have you working in really intense bursts alternated with recoveries. For the first time in my life I was enjoying the elliptical almost as much as running on the treadmill (not that I'd been able to do more than a minute or two interspersed with walking for years). Anyhow I kept at it, using bike and elliptical, 3 or 4 times a week, 40 minutes. And I had my surgery and was down about 14kg when I decided I was really going to have to bite the bullet and get some walking in simply to get enough exercise - I was really struggling to maintain 3-4 times a week at the gym, it was dwindling to 1-2. So I went out one night and I thought "I'll just try a little bit of jogging since my ankle feels so much better". I expected to go a few minutes and have to walk, I was amazed that I ran 3.5km that night. I was hooked from then on, I made myself do it only twice a week since I was afraid of injuring my ankle again, but it never happened and pretty soon I was running 4 times a week, then I bought a treadmill and since then my mileage and speed has really increased. I've done two fun runs as well and finished quite respectably in the middle of the pack. I really believe in the benefits of running, there's nothing like it for the exhilaration and positive outlook it provides you and all the long held theories about low intensity exercise for fat loss are now being disproven as they've discovered that more intense activity provides a far greater "afterburn" - in increased calorie usage for hours after, something walking doesn not achieve. And basic math provides you with the rest, walking may burn more percentage fat than running, but if you run for the same time you walk you'll burn many many more calories and much more fat overall. If you can get to a spot where you can exercise that hard, over time your heart rate stays way more stable (mind doesnt budge over 150 when I run now) anyway and you drop into that maximum fat burning range anyway, but can burn way more calories doing it than you can walking. And as a 20kg overweight person, I can easily now run for 50 minutes so that old argument that you cant run for as long as you can walk doesnt hold Water either. I dont have any longer than about an hour in my day to exercise so I like to make the very most of it. If you have a look at www.coolrunning.com you'll find the couch to 5K program designed for beginners, that's a good way to start. Very best of luck, its an awesomely worthwhile goal to have.

Wow - in the park - like Step into Life? That's a fantastic idea. I've done that before and it was great fun. There'd be no stopping you if you got that going - something specifically for obese and/or older people. I think you're right, there's a niche there, you just have to work out how to fill it.

Not that its an everyday thing, but I still drink champagne occasionally, much as I did before. The bubbles dont cause me discomfort. I dont drink softdrinks ever anyway. Maybe a diet coke two or three times a year.