Jachut

No but on the other hand I now get PMT symptoms for the first time since before I had babies. Sore boobs particularly. Go figure, generally I've found I only get symptoms like that if I've been eating really badly and not looking after myself, but every months since surgery Iv'e been unable to lie on my tummy for a week prior.

It sounds like you're very sensitive to fills so I'd be very careful and I'd ONLY have a fill if you're really certain you need it. Good luck, hopefully this one will go smoothly.

50% of your excess weight - ie the weight you should lose.

Oh, its so hard going through that stage. I changed my mind a few times and cancelled a few appointments with my surgeon before I actually got there. Its normal to have these fears and it is healthy to do some soul searching as to whether or not you're ready for this step. What really helped me was suddenly realising "if I want to lose this weight and keep it off, I can ever eat this way again band or no band". Then I figured I may as well go with it and have the tool to help me stick to that because I was honest and knew I couldnt do it without. It also pays to remember that here is a place where people come for support with their problems. The people here make up a miniscule proportion of bandsters in general and you heare about their problems, trials and tribulations, but in all honestly, my lifestyle has not changed at ALL since banding. I just eat less (and healthier) and have lost weight. But heck yeah, I still have a drink occasionally, still eat cake, chocolate etc. I've also never vomited or had any problems with my band.

I dont know about over there, but I had to sign a consent form saying that if they needed to switch to open surgery rather than laparascopic then I gave my consent. I would imagine that would be their first line of action.

I'd love to be an Australian 14, which is a US 12. I'm 5ft 10 so that would be nice and slender, but healthy.

I've lost 20kg in less than 6 months which I consider fairly fast. Well really I lost most of that in about 4 months. But it IS coming off very slowly now, however I could work at it a lot harder than what I am doing. I may have a lower BMI but I'm pretty tall and very active, so i'd say I burn quite a lot more calories than someone shorter, fatter but not as active. Seems to be the case since I've done this whole thing so far eating around 1500 to 1800 calories a day, which seems to generally be only possible for men, yet it works for me.

Nuts are high in calories but they are soooo good for you that they're worth it. Walnuts particularly are high in Omega 3's but nuts also contain Vitamin E, Protein, fibre etc. They're really super foods - as long as you dont eat them by the bucketfull and dont eat them salted, or honey roasted. I eat a small handful a day - about 200 calories worth, they make a great afternoon snack with an apple or something. If you eat a few nuts everyday you'll really notice it in your skin, nails and hair.

Well I know I'm weird but I cant stand pretty men! I chose Robin Williams. He looks comfy, middle aged and cuddly. I dont think he's particularly HOT, but he's more my "type" than the others. Men who are all buff and bronzed and waxed, ick. I dont want a man vainer than me. I just dont go for that stuff. I dont like men who look like they spend all their time preening, working out etc. This whole metrosexual thing doesnt do it for me I'm afraid.

I think my DH should consider it too, he's not as overweight as I was but he's really struggling to get it off and keep it off. He had lost 20kg since early 2005 but it's creeping back on again now.He's almost 40 and he sits at a desk for 10 hours a day and in the car for at least 2, just a heart attack waiting to happen. He has a stressful job too. But he's also the more lily livered of the two of us! I always knew I wouldnt have problems with PBing and not being able to eat foods, I've always had a cast iron cut and I was right. I dont have those issues. But poor old Doug, he'll puke at the drop of a hat, he fainted while I was giving birth, roflmao! I just know (and he does too) if he were banded, he'd be the one with difficulties, constant PBing etc and I dont know, in Australia anyway, it would be decidedly unmanly not to be able to go out to business lunches, drink beer etc. YOu jsut couldnt order an entree and that's it if you're a bloke. It requires a lifestyle that our culture just doesnt really support for men. So I think your hubby is very brave and what a great step to take!

I voted Queen Latifah because that's the closest to how I'm built anyway. I could never be a Salma Hayeck because I'm just too tall to be curvy like that. Nicole Ritchie, ugh. And Angelina Jolie is a freaked out weirdo who looks OK photographed and airbrushed but in real life is skin and bones. So I'd like to be Queen, but maybe another 20lb lighter. I dont want to be perfect, I'm quite fine with looking like a 39 year old mother of 3. I just want to be healthy and beautiful in my own way.

We all need carbs in our diet, you'll be lacking in energy, sluggish and mentally slow without any carbs, ketosis is not a normal or healthy state for the body and eating in an Atkins style is a pretty good way to clog up your arteries and wreck your kidneys. That said I dont believe we need the amount of carbs we eat these days and we most definitely do not need processed white carbs. More of a focus on Protein is a good thing although I think with bandsters it can lead to a bit of a problem where due to lack of tummy space, they then dont eat enough fruit and vegetables. Its not healthy just to eat protein for any meal. You still need to eat from the five food groups, I'm just not so sure they've got the proportions right. People have just gotten fatter and fatter and diseases like diabetes are on the rise. And I dont believe all fat is the devil either. It pays to remember, debates aside, there is still NO scientific proof behind Atkins' theories. And you certainly CAN influence your cholesterol levels by your diet and exercise habits, a tendency to have high levels can be genetic but so can being obese. We can contol those things by diet. Everything in moderation seems to be the safest bet to me.

I wouldnt take anything. I dont believe those things are good for you and I left that kind of desperate stuff behind forever when I got banded. I wouldnt have taken them when I wasnt banded. As an adult anyway. I got put on Tenuate and Duromine when I was 16 and had a hip injury becuase I was a massive 7kg above my ideal weight. I feel so furious when I think about it now, those things made me nuts, I'd be up vacuuming my bedroom at 3 am. Speed! For a child! Nuh uh, no way would I ever take anything like that again. Its not sustainable, band or no band. I think you've got 3 catories - Speed/amphetamine type substances which arent worth the health risks, silly stuff like Zetacap which are designed to make you lose a lot of weight from your wallet and then you have your amino acids/health supplements which may confer a teensy tiny benefit but really probably arent worth the money.

Today Breakfast: tinned peaches, strawberry yogurt and some walnuts Lunch: ham, avocado and tiny piece of cheese in a bread roll Afternoon: 2 shortbread finger biscuits and a cup of coffee Dinner: (in a few hours time) spaghetti bolognaise

Well I'll be honest and say that it fairly leaped off me for the first 3 months or so with no effort on my part, yes, I did the liquids and mushies and stuck to the rules to the nth degree but that was easy because I never felt like eating. My appetite has normalised a bit now, but its nowehre near the level it was, so I have to use a bit of willpowr to keep on the straight and narrow but nowhere near as much as I would have had to use before. I thik as mentioned above, its really true that the benefit of the band is keeping you going after the easy coast has finished. I know for sure if I ran five times a week and watched what I ate and lost a measly kilograme and a half per month like I"m doing now I'd give up in disgust. But now because I can see that over 12 months, that adds up to ALL my remaining excess weight, it doesnt seem so futile and ridiculous to keep going. I dont feel as if I"ll never get there, I think its a huge mental tool as well as a physical one. And I'm fairly sure as long as I keep my band I will never be able to eat like I did before, this time I know that each kilogram I struggle for is gone for good. I was a hopeless dieter before. I dont know how I wasnt much fatter than I was, but at the rate it was going on it wouldnt have been long before I was morbidly obese. I'm a resistant bandster now. I refuse to be filled to anywhere near the level most people talk about and I steadfastly refuse to focus on Protein first as well. I am determined to eat a "normal" diet where nothing is forbidden. You do have those options. It's amazing how you dont overeat when you can have any old thing any old time and know that over the long haul it doesnt make a difference here or there.

Well I was a hardcore rule follower in that period but am not now. The difference shows, lol. I was simply way too afraid to break the rules. But I had a marked lack of appetite, it wasnt difficult at all to stick with the rules. It lasted about 5 weeks for me, and then I only had a week to get through till my first fill.

I interpret that statistic to mean if you get the band, you are average about sticking to the rules, you dont exercise more than a token walk every now and again, and when your weightloss run stops - ie. when it stops becoming pretty easy to lose, you dont do anything further to get it going again other than get more fills rather than working harder, exercising more, you'll probably lose about 50% of your excess weight. IF on the other hand you stick to the rules, remain positive, develop a really good exercise routine, enjoy the easy ride while it lasts and then get cracking doing all the same things you would have done preband to lose weight - keep your calorie levels and whatever else you're counting at the right levels - then you'll lose as much as you want to lose, just the same as you would have preband.

Everything I knew and expected, I learned from places like here. I was told "you realise there might be complications such as erosion or that you may not be able to eat meat again" and that was it. Didnt bother me because I'd done my own research but it was pretty poor. I've learned more from my doctor since becuase I've bought up the topic.

I lost almost as much prior to my first fill at 6 weeks as I have in the four months since.

I didnt mean it wasnt important, just that when it comes to weight loss, what you eat is 80% of it. People who exercise while dieting will lose more, lose a little faster and do better overall. But you dont start doing spin classes and going to the gym and suddenly drop 20lb in a few weeks. And if you start exercising heavily without watching what you eat you wont lose more than a pound or two either. You're doing great MelAnne - what I meant was dont focus on the exercise solely as a means of weight loss, theres a zillion important reasons to be doing it and its making your body into a lean mean fat burning machine over time, that's its primary function. You'll see and feel the reward for that lots further down the track, not on the scales within a week or two.

Eeeeew, I dont want to be throwing up black gunk! I dont know if hot dogs are the same here as there. Here they are just a red frankfurt sausage, full of dye preservatives and mainly lips and assholes as the meat. Really bottom of the foodchain stuff. We also tend to eat them as little cocktail sausages. The kids love them but I have a chemically induced headache if I so much as go near one. Then they make me nauseous. Hot dogs and softdrink my two phobias - whenever my kids have them (at a party or something) I cant look. Its like I believe they'll instantly be struck dead. Now a hotdog with a gourmet sausage, mmmmmmm But being thin is WAY better!

Breakfast: a small bottle of orange juice lunch: sashimi eight pieces - well 7 and a bit, I nearly burst. afternoon: handful of almonds and an apple dinner: (in about an hour from now) mediterranean chicken casserole (tomatoes, onions, olives) and rice. Had a latte with skim milk this morning and am about to pour myself a glass of wine.

Although I answered in Pnut's post that I never saw myself as really "big" either, I have stuck in my head that I'm a "big girl". I am taller and larger built than most women, yet still smaller than most men. However, I was bigger than most boys in late primary school and throughout high school. I've learned to appreciate myself as "Amazonian", lol. I really dont think I"ll ever feel thin because I didnt feel think when I was 70kg, and I dont feel any fatter now than I did then either. I feel just the same. Gawd, I need a drink. Its wine o'clock here. That made no sense did it?

Snot funny Telly!

I didnt vote because I dont live in the states but the way I see it, whatever you choose, its down to the doctor and how many surgeries he's done. If you can get aftercare locally then I'd be searching out a good doctor first and foremost. We have the same thing here with cosmetic surgery and going to Thailand/Malaysia for it. There is no reason to assume that Thai or Malaysian hospitals are substandard compared to Australian hospitals and the only thing that would worry me about that is the lack of consultation beforehand (important for cosmetic surgery I'd say). Its a lot cheaper and easier to get to Mexico from the states than it is to get ANYWHERE from Australia, so you probably wouldnt even have that issue.