Jachut

I'm never actually hungry in the mornign but I still eat. However I like my carbs and I havent found it necessary to give them up. I used to be really bad at just banging two bits of white bread in the toaster and lathering them up with some butter and jam, but toast does give me a lump in the pit of my stomach now, so I dont eat it often unless we've got really good bread. I'm conscious of not eating low GI carbs so I tend to do muesli in the morning, it sticks to your ribs. I just whizz it in the microwave once I've put the milk on so its nice and warm.

I've eaten loads of salmon since banded - we either do it with a spicy African rub, baked in the oven, um with a red curry paste and lite coconut milk sauce, baked on its own, marinated, any old how. I adore salmon and its so good for you. Yikes its expensive though. the kids get cheap fish, lol.

The way I look at this is that I would consider how filled you are already - it sounds like this is your first fill. If so I'd go for it, what you describe sounds perfectly normal and reasonable in terms of time for a fill. Later on down the track I'd tend towards toughing it out a bit. I feel like that now, I'm up to 1.7 ml in my 4ml band and I do have to actually exert some willpower (I'm doing WW now) to keep on track. I can eat relatively normal amounts of food, so much so that most people wouldnt even notice I was dieting, let alone banded. Even so, weight's coming of v-e-r-y slowly. But to keep 1lb a week or so coming away, I have to "diet" now. yet I"m not willing to go back for more fill because I'm just on the brink of having to cut out certain foods like steak, bread, they can give me trouble, and I dont eat a lot for dinner, I'm quite tight at night. I'm just not willing to get to the point where I cant eat things or where I PB, so I'm toughing it out at the moment. Its still not anywhere near as hard as dieting in the ordinary sense of the word though. Its more about food choice, and portion size takes care of itself. When i say I can eat normal sized portions, its half of what I used to get through!

Hmm, everyone has to be a newbie sometime. It would make me uncomfortable though, but I think to me, what the most important factor would be is aftercare. Its the skills, knowledge etc that's important, the physical act of putting the band in place will no doubt be done perfectly well by him as he is already a surgeon. Its not like his maiden voyage! And you're right, by the time he gets to your turn, he'll have been practicing on other people. But I'd want the support of people who were experienced in what people went through after they had their bands. Your doc needs to be able to recognise signs and symptoms of trouble and he needs to be past having his own opinions on the way things should be done and have a good view about what real people's experiences are.

Ok, i get the theory about how if will flush food through to the lower stomach more quickly. What I dont understand is the difference in times recommended for one thing - like not drinking half an hour after meals or 2 hours after meals. Surely if liquids will flush food though faster, then whenever you drink them is a problem? Because even if you wait 2 hours to drink, an you've not been hungry in that time, then according to the theory, will you not just get hungry then, 2 hours later? And is it not still a problem to be hungry after meals whether its half an hour or two hours after? It just makes no sense to me - unless you can go 4, 5 hours without drinking (which obviously you cant) then you're going to flush your lunch through at some point or other and become hungry right? For the record, it doesnt seem to make a difference to me, but I'm not losing much these days so I'd be willing to implement this rule if somebody could explain it in terms that dont just sound like bull! I will ask my doc but am not seeing him for a fortnight yet.

For me, I dont know if I "gurgle" in the true sense of the word, like its not like liquid going down the sink. But it happens randomly, not when I eat or drink necessarily. Its like I dont often burp in the normal sense of the word anymore, but the burp happens in my stomach, air moves from the lower stomach to the upper through the stoma and that makes a long gurgling burp and then the gas just dissipates and I dont burp in my throat like I once would have. Does that make any sense? I can feel the air bubble through and it makes a loud rumble. It is a bit embarrassing, lol.

I wore jeans and was OK. They werent very tight and were fairly low rise. I wore them home the next day.

I suffered horribly from heartburn and reflux when I was pregnant, and I had just gotten to the point where it was becoming an everyday event (though not as bad as in pregnancy) - the 5oclock pick up of all the junk round the house was torture. I was nearly back to using the long barbeque tongs to pick stuff up off the floor, lol. I did that at 200 months pregnant. I've not had even an inkling of it since banding. It was as magic as giving birth, it just went away, like that!

Ok, I've just got home and can cheerfully report that seafood risotto, flourless orange cake, a nice cold chardy and a latte all go down just fine! Didnt finish any of it, but it was very nice. Especially the chardonnay!

It doesnt feel that way for me. I feel as if I am eating as much as I want and I can even go the whole hog and pig out on a food. The difference is for me, a cup of that food will leave me with that totally blissful, stuffed stupor that previously would have taken five or six times more. So I feel as I get to enjoy food just as much as I did before only now it takes less to find the off switch.

I havent been out to a Chinese restaurant since I was banded and seafood restaurants dont tend to feature regularly either. Its not a common thing to have a specific "seafood" restaurant here, its more mixed cuisine, heaps of Asian/Malaysian/Thai style cuisine. Italian I've been to a few times - I've had fettucine, and lasagne and woodfired pizza a few times. Going out for pizza tonight in fact. Nice think crispy crust gourmet pizzes, not that pizza hut crap. Those all go down fine for me. Chinese wouldnt present me with a problem either, I've had takeaway once I think since banding but I can generally eat anything moist like Chinese. Seafood, hmmm, I'd probably have prawns or calamari. I have eaten salt and pepper calamari and suprisingly, rubbery as it is, I had no problem. Had a bit of trouble with Lebanese though.

I can eat my points without drama, in fact I STILL find it hard to stick to, lol. I have to choose low point foods or I'd easily get to 30 + a day and I'm supposed to have 22. Of course that's the whole point. I havent needed to "diet" in any sense of the word so far, just eating less has made the weight fall away. But that easy ride appears to have stopped now, so I'm trying to stick to 20 points a day or so. Some days it probably doesnt matter if I go over a bit since I run 5 times a week and I dont in general count my bonus exercise points, I just dont fuss when I have a special dinner out or want some choccie on the weekend. Weight Watchers is a good healthy no nonsense program. And its versatile - you can indeed make it low carb if that's the way you like to eat.

At the moment, its like 1/2 lb per week. But I'm really not putting in much effort at the moment. I can pretty easily lose 1lb a week when I try a bit harder.

I'm with you. I've really lost my mojo lately. Still losing but I think I've just gotten too comfortable, feeling to good with the weight loss I've had and forgotten that I'm only half way there!

I was just beginning to feel that way at 38 years old and it scared the sh*t out of me to be honest. That plus a really sore ankle that had no reasonable explanation, nobody could diagnose anything wrong with it. I was a relatively modest 80lb overweight but I guess all our bodies have different tolerances. I look at my girlfriend who must be over 300lb now and I cant imagine how she must feel. It looks likes its difficult for her to stand up from sitting and walk, yet she is a dynamo, such an efficient and energetic person. I was to the point of wanting to just stay in bed all day and my house had turned into a tip. I've lost half my weight now and all my old energy has returned. My house is still a tip but that's because I prefer to spend my time out and about or running on the treadmill.

That really is the beauty of the band isnt it? You may regain a little when you go back to eating normally but you're not likely to have a rebound 14lb gain or anything. I must admit, I've been resistant to "dieting" with my band but my weight loss is soooooo slow now, its really frustrating. I'm within a bees dick of really being able to shop anywhere and I just cant get that next 14lb off. I might give this a try too - I've got a formal do on in six weeks and I need to find something to wear. I squeezed my fat ass into a size 14 dress in a boutique today (it was stretchy) but let me say, just because I can get into it, doesnt mean I should wear it!

I've had a really sore rash from doing water aerobics while wearing board shorts. There's the rash from your thighs rubbing and then there's the rash cause by chafing from the seams on your shorts as well. It can be really bad. That's probably what it is. Boardies cover a multitude of sins, but they're not really that comfortable to swim in.

Oh, yes that makes sense ddeidre! And its also probably the reason why drinking reasonably soon after a meal makes no difference to me, I generally would take 20 minutes or longer to eat anyway so my brain would have registered full well and truly. My habit tends to be to have a coffee 15 mins or so after I've eaten and I've never found it to flush things through faster. I still feel choc full. I definitely cant drink if I'm stuck though!

Never. I've been badly stuck maybe twice in six months. A little stuck many times. But I've never PB'd and I dont intend to ever be tight enough to do so. At the moment, I can eat anything within reason, with the exception of tough meat like steak. I can have a nibble of that, but that's all.

When I can afford it, lol. I think I'm too chicken to really have PS but I'd be confident to get my boobs done now. I'm about 35lb from my goal but I know my upper body wont change much from hereon in. I dont have much fat on my chest, arms or boobs at all, I'm just a tad dangly, and I'd like smaller boobs. Tummy tuck, I think within reasonable sight of your goal weight - like 25lb or less perhaps - it'd probably result in enough weight loss to almost get you to goal anyway. You are certainly going to see then if you're going to have a problem or not and really, why wait to see if it tightens. If you think your skin could tighten and then you'd not need the tummy tuck, then I think you probably dont need the tummy tuck anyway, lol. A whole apron is not going to magically disappear.

But how does that relate to the band? Dental infections are problematic as they can lead to heart disease, but I cant see how they'd affect your band. Sorry to get this off track Sparkey, you were just nicely sharing important info, not trying to incite a debate, lol.

I asked my doc about that - because I've never heard that mentioned in Australia. He said its not true, there's no possible reason why you'd need antibiotics just to get your teeth cleaned or filled or checked.

It doesnt have any adverse effects on me so I do it without worrying. But it doesnt make me fuller or stay full longer either.

Torpedo Tits, lol, that's a classic! I like Tshirt bras too. Doug keeps pointing out lacy numbers in catalogues but I"m just addicted to slinky microfibre foam padded ones. I think they're far sexier than nylon lace. Ddeirdre I'm noticing changes in my face too :-( I am definitely looking a tad older and I'm getting really hollow round the eyes. I always thought I'd want to aim for the bottom of my weight range since I know that I did actually still carry more fat than I'd like at the middle of it, but I may have to choose between my bum and my face at some point in time.

Yes, I had to go down TWO bra sizes. The bad side was that to do that I had to go up a cup size to an E. Holy cow, I have never been an E in my life. But a 16E fit better round the back than an 18DD.