Jachut

I think it depends which direction you approach it from. To me, I never acknowledged how fat I got. I simply stopped seeing myself. So I dont feel like a different person now, its just that what I see in the mirror is reality, not what I wish I were seeing. I have had no anxiety shedding that fat person whatsoever. I still dont really know how fat I got or what I truly looked like. There dont exist many photos of me, not that I consciously avoided them but when I posted in the before and after the other night, looking at that old photo of me was painful. I couldnt make myself really "look" at it. So I just refused to acknowledge what I had become, its just that now my image matches my imagination.

You're talking sh*t!

They've just opened a drive through down at our local shopping centre, first one in Victoria. There's been one for ages at Sydney Airport and everyone comes onto the plane laden with donuts. The queue through the drive through was right out onto the main road. Everybody's talking about it, its in the local papers. Thing is I reckon they taste revolting. Why does everyone love them so much. They're like stale cake, horrible, cold, the fat in them has solidified, the sugar crystallises, so they're tough like old boots. A donut should be recently deep fried, like taken out of the oil as you pay for it. It should be covered in powdery sugar and cinnamon and full of hot jam in the middle. Its no more than a morsel, eaten out of the bag on freezing cold morning at the football. Not a horrid huge hunk of days ago fried dough with horrid sticky icing. Ick. What am I missing?

I think what makes you a good banding candidate has as much to do with your personality and outlook as anything. like I feel for someone in Sandy's position because it can be every single bit as much of a struggle losing weight and maintaining weight loss whether your BMI is 27 or 67 and honestly, much lighter people could benefit just as much as heavier people. But they have to draw the line somewhere or you'd end up with teenage girls having bands to prevent them ever reaching a normal weight let alone getting fat. If you've got a lot to lose and are willing to work on your lifestyle and make the commitment to change within yourself as well as use your band as a tool to help you do that, then its fantastic. I found it easy surgery, very little recovery and a very smooth transition into everyday life. But people can and do have complications and can be very sensitive to the band, having to cope with a difficulty in finding good restriction without being unable to eat many foods or vomiting all the time. Weed through this board very thoroughly and I believe you'll get a really good balanced views of all the pros and cons.

I dont think exercise really results in short term scale victories. I run substantial distances and it doesnt for me. What exercise does is regulate your appetite, build muscle in your body, increase your body's efficience at burning fat for fuel, raise your metabolic rate for hours afterwards (if you're willing to truly put in, not just walk round the block), tone you up, give you affirmation time to think about your weight loss goals, give you other areas of achievement to focus on and most importantly it makes it much much harder to regain weight. Everybody is always very quick to say "oh its muscle" when they gain a little weight too - but even professional body builders find it takes quite a while (like months) to put on a very small amount of weight in muscle, you dont start a walking program and suddenly gain 3lb of muscle in a week or two, sorry to say. It'd be nice. its such a worthwhile activity but ever so much more rewarding when you undertake it for reasons other than to just see weight come off, because it tends to be quite disappointing in that regard. Unless you do huge amounts.

Sounds OK to me.

It just shows how infrequently we really "look" at ourselves doesnt it? We see what we always saw and forget to really enjoy how far we've come. I was hanging up my jeans the other night and they didnt look "right" to me either, way to small!

What's your BMI? Sometimes if you're very petite, 35lb can be significant excess weight. But even in Australia, where you can get banded from a BMI of 30 without too much argument, I doubt you'd get approved. You'd have to be very tiny to be obese at only 35lb overweight. And having only about the same amount of weight to lose now, it is every bit as important to "diet" like I would have had to before. Weight has come off steadily since I was banded at about 80lb overweight, but has slowed to almost nothing now and only comes off in fits and starts when I pull my finger out and really work at it. The main advantage to me from hereoin in is it's near impossible to just "give up" as I cant eat the way I used to but I still need my willpower to keep me on the straight and narrow. You've done so brilliantly and youv'e kept a large weight loss off for quite a long time, you can find it within yourself to keep going, I'm sure. Dont get desperate and do silly things, slow and steady wins the race. Do you exercise regularly? That helps an awful lot.

I've found I've fallen into a pattern of 4 300 or so calorie meals per day so I dont really "snack" per se, but most afternoons I have a cup of vegetable Soup (home made, make a big batch weekly) and a small handful of nuts such as walnuts or almonds. Makes sure I at least get 2 serves of veges in per day as I often cant fit in significant amounts at dinner, and the nuts give me fantastic skin and nails. I tend to eat breakfast at about 8, early-ish lunch at midday, my soup and nuts "snack" at around 4 and then dinner at 7 or so.

What do they expect to see? If you could diet and lose weight successfully you would have done so by now. That 6 month supervised diet thing has to be the stupidest idea I've ever heard, thank goodness they dont do it here. Most people would not even be at their surgeon's office unless they'd tried every conceivable way to lose weight known to modern man. Maybe in a miniscule percentage of borderline patients, they actually lose weight and either decide they can keep going or more likely lose enough to then be easily disqualified by the insurance company on the basis that they're not fat enough. If it were me in that position, I'd make absolute sure I lost nothing. Just stick at it, and I'm sure it wont go against you. It probably almost never works.

Sounds like you need an unfill, weight loss aside you cant live on Cheetos. I wonder if you'd turn orange, lol? Hope you get it sorted, that would drive me nuts.

I think you sound as if you need an unfill. Perfect example of how being too tight can work against you. Weight loss aside you cant live on Cheeto's, you'll probably turn orange soon. Hope you get it sorted, that would drive me insane.

I agree with Alexandra. It aint his decision. I'll do what I bloody well want thanks very much! Although Mr Anal Accountant bitches and moans and has done for the last 10 years I've been home with the kids - conveniently ignores the fact that due to the fact that the tax system and childcare system in this country is utterly stuffed, I cannot afford to work. I would earn no money becuase he earns too much, we get no childcare rebate and paying $80 in childcare per day (IF I could get a place, they're very rare) would negate any income I earned. The fact that I choose to stay at home AND do no housework is my business, lol.

Ditto - and I think even those who did have concerns or complaints over certain things can still see that this is a voluntary task and appreciate you putting your time into it.

No time, too many essays/assignments due and exams to study for.

Yeah, when I say timber, I mean laminate. 3Loves I can so identify with that picture. We've got the same type of stuff and its fantastic. It doesnt scratch either. We have it right through the entire house in a lovely dark red colour. As well as kids, we had a as a bilious cat who puked up orange cat biscuits every day, several major coffee spills, our casual dining furniture sitting on carpet, not to mention massive kid vomits left right and centre, eeeeeew. I will never ever ever live on carpet again when I saw what came out of that every time it was cleaned and what was under it when it was finally removed. Interestingly, our son's asthma and eczema is vastly improved now we have no carpet and have replaced upholstered sofas with leather ones. We also have no drapes, I much prefer blinds.

You'll probably find that your tummy tuck will bring you down to goal weight anyway. I dont think you're mad. You're a healthy weight and really within that range, any weight YOU feel comfy at is the right weight.

Even those of us who have been overweight find it hard to understand sometimes. I find myself looking at my girlfriend who must be 150kg (300lb+) and wondering HOW she could not have done anything about it. Not in a nasty way, but I know how bad I felt when I was 35 kg overweight, I simply could not have allowed that to become 70kg. I was at breaking point when I did something. So even though I know how it creeps up on you, I still find it hard to understand how others ignore their problem far longer than I did. I would NEVER say that to someone though, that would be really hurtful and rude. Its one of those things you might think but keep to yourself. And I wouldnt ever think of it or frame it in terms of "hating" yourself as if you've done something to be ashamed of.

Not too good this week, sick on Saturday, thankfully not very. Had a lunch with some girlfriends and their kids Thursday and ALL the kiddies except Eliza came down with violent gastro. Eek. I felt yucky but not nauseous. Anyhow, didnt run. Planned to run on Sunday, worked all day on my assignment, then we decideed to go and see The Da Vinci code, so didnt get my afternoon run in. Eliza in daycare monday, worked like a maniac all day to finish this assignment, which I almost did, had to do the housework, dinner etc in the afternoon, no run again. I cant run after dinner, just cant do it. So... today, have just finished the assignment, done some work on my other essay that's due on two weeks so I can return the overdue library books, about to race off to uni to return books, hand in assignment, need to do grocery shopping, by that time will collect kidlets from school, they ahve basketball this afternoon, so I neve run Tuesdays. Perhaps tomorrow? Lol. On Thursday I have to have surgery on my eye which will put me out of action for about 5 days. sigh. Oh well, back on the bike when I"m all better.

Has anyone else had to buy new scales because they had a big tantrum and threw the blasted things away (and didnt calm down soon enough to get them out of the bin before the garbage men came)? I've done that 3 times now. Doug would get home from work and say "where's the scales" and I'd say "I threw the bloody things out" and he'd just shrug, lol.

Just a Soehnle digital one - but no matter what scale I have it is ALWAYS 2 kg or so lighter than everywhere else - doctors, obstetrician, Weight Watchers, wherever I happen to be weighed outside of home. We're built on a concrete slab and the scales are on the tiles so I actually think mine is likely to be more accurate as the floors are exactly plumb etc.

Its torture isnt it? I couldnt hack it!

I had a BMI of 35, which was the highest point I ever reached and I did gain quite significant weight, in the six months before I snapped and started thinking about this surgery. I thankfully cannot identify with the high blood pressure, sleep apnoea, diabetes etc that others have unfortunately been through, but I believe I was well on the way. I had an ankle problem that had been bugging me for about a year, a really sore ankle with localised swelling but no real problem that could be diagnosed. I'd had two cortisone shots in it, which is about the maximum they will do around the achilles tendon. I had no trouble getting approval because I live in Australia and our medical system is different, no jumping through hoops and proving your case. I was fat, the surgeon agreed the surgery would help me, end of story. I lost significant weight right after surgery, 9kg in 6 weeks. Not the spectacular weightloss some have, but it was great, I've gone on to lose a total of 20kg in almost 6 months which works out to just under 1kg (or 2lb) a week. It was good because I had lots of changes, going down in size, fitting into regular store clothing etc very quickly due to not having as much weight to lose. All my issues with my ankle have been resolved, I'm now no longer obese, I dont stand out in a crowd, I feel fantastic so all the weight loss from hereon in is for cosmetic/vanity reasons, not health reasons. Its really really slowed down now and that's for two reasons - one because I now only have about 16kg to lose and two because lately I'm relaxing a bit too much, snacking more and choosing more fattening foods more often, as you tend to do when you've dieted for a long while. Its made me realise that the real benefit of the band is to prevent weight regain (I really honestly cant eat enough to gain weight) but that you stil have to do all the work to lose the weight, it just makes it easier because you wont be starving all the time. Its been so worth it for me. I only had a modest weight problem but it crept up on my over the years and I really hadnt realised how crappy I was feeling day in and day out. I feel so much better now.

And here's me thinking, "oh, last time I was a size 16 I was about 75kg" and now I"m a size 16 at 90kg! Sizes have changed a LOT over the years. But yeah, that's just numbers. When clothes are measured in inches there should be no way a 46 can be smaller than a 44! Kids clothes are what really drive me insane. You dont take a 3 year old shopping and try all the clothes on her. Its impossible, you jsut cant do it. You have to just buy them, yet the sizes are all over the place, even from one store.

I feel the same, lol warts and fungas and tinea, yucky. Not all over my floor thanks. But I do admit, I removed all the carpet and replaced it with timber, and the only carpet is in the bedrooms and is very dark grey. So I dont worry about stains - our last carpet was a mushroom colour and by the time the boys were 4 and 6 it looked like wall to wall pizza.