Jachut

I dream in colour. I too have been told lots of times that nobody dreams in colour but I most definitely do.

Nope. It really isnt as if you'll never eat your fave foods again. Sorry, but I just cannot understand the logic of pigging out before you have weight loss surgery, it just rings alarm bells for me that you're not ready for the commitment. I dont want to sound sanctimonious but the minute I committed to that surgery, my lifestyle changed. Plus you're going in for a general anaesthetic! Having a huge gutload of food in you is not really sensible - even if its left your stomach it will still be in your intestines.

Dont you just do that though? Eat something and then think "why on earth did I bother" but you eat it next time just the same.

Hahaha, ah, NO! That'd be right Dawg. And grab us a stubbie while you're at it mate can ya? Beut. She'll be apples.

No, I dont take off my shoes and its a really big peeve of mine when I'm expected to do it in somebody else's home. I'm not some filthy thing that has to be decontaminated when I walk through their door. I hate it, I think its really rude. I can understand people taking off their shoes in their own home to keep their floors in good condition, but you take visitors warts and all - what's more precious, their visitors or their carpet? Eliza goes to family daycare, ie not a centre, she's looked after in someone's home and her carer Maxine asks that you take your shoes off at the front door (the entire house is tiled anyway, no carpet). It drives me freaking nuts, since i have to stand outside in the rain or whatever and get my blasted shoes back on after I've dropped her off. Usually I have on something like birkenstocks or boots or backless shoes but if I've got my runners on its a pain in the bottom. It doesnt work here anyway, since the kids come in the front door, kick off their shoes and run out the backdoor in their socks - tracking dirt all over when they come back in anyway. I solved the problem by ditching the carpet, we only have carpet in our bedrooms now. I hate carpet anyway. As to taking off my shoes at the door if I hadnt been asked to, no I wouldnt do that. Probably because I dont do it at home, but I notice lots and lots of people (kids friends parents etc) do it when they come to collect their kids or whatever from here.

Does G'Day Cobber, how's it hangin? or Jeez, gor blimey Bluey I reckon she'll cuma croppa count as a foreign language? Kind of SteveIrwinish. No real Australian's talk like that by the way. He's a tosser.

Not at all! I eat out a couple of times a month with friends. I dont eat a lot but I can eat everything. People have way better things to do than check out what is on your plate. However I do choose to be less filled than a lot of bandsters. I chose this surgery to help me along the way to a healthier lifestyle, and to help me loose weight and more importantly keep it off. I didnt choose it to curtail my social life, make me unable to eat anything outside my home or vomit daily. So I have my band looser, I use common sense and yep, a bit of willpower in my day to day choices, but I have the option to eat out, to eat anything that I wish to. I lose weight more slowly than a lot of people have but that's the trade off and one I"m happy to make. This is a lifestyle, and I dont wish to have the kind of lifestyle a tight band entails. And more and more I'm discovering that to lose weight with a lap band I still have to do what I would have had to do before, but that its much much MUCH easier to keep the weight coming off and not to regain. I really dont think I could regain, I simply cant eat enough. But after the initial easy weight loss I've found I have to consciously retrict what I'm eating to lose. My band doesnt really do that for me, it just makes keeping portions small without raging hunger easy. I also hate to take specific issue with anything anyone says but I dont call a good level of restriction one where you PB 3 times in one meal, that to me is WAY over-restricted. But that's a personal thing and you pretty much get to choose that.

I suspect fills are personality dependent to a degree. Perhaps people who have less fills are just better "dieters". I hate to use the word better for fear of it sounding judgemental but some people have more discipline in that arena (eating less, exercising more) than do others. Some people need their bands tighter to work for them. And if one of the main signs of needing a fill is a slowing or halting of weight loss, then it stands to reason that people who have more fills may not lose weight as efficiently or easily in the first place. They may be older, less mobile and therefore less active etc, have slower metabolisms therefore the entire process would be slower and more trying.

If it doesnt settle I'd personally have Fluid out. I wouldnt want to have to put up with that. Two bites isnt very much and that discomfort and sliming would mean you could never eat away from home.

Ok, so hot jam donuts wouldnt be all that good cold either. Maybe that's it - perhaps they dont even cook them at Sydney airport but ship em over (surface mail) from the states?. Perhaps I ought to get in the car now and go down and test one? I am supposed to be doing my assignment on Euler Circuits which is why I've been on here all darn morning. Another form of procrastination cant hurt!

I thought prenatal vitamins just had more folate, less vitamin A, so you dont actually have to be pregnant, they wont hurt you.

Just to feel better generally. I had 35kg to lose when I had surgery (about 90lb or so). So I didnt think I'd gotten to a point of fatness where my weight was really affecting me, I didnt even really accept that my ankle problem was weight related - I honestly thought I had some obscure injury. Six months on, 45lb down or so and I cannot believe how much more comfortable I am all round. I didnt realise how poorly I had been sleeping, it was like trying to sleep when you're 8 months pregnant, you know that hip and shoulder ache you get from lying on your side, due to the weight through your belly? I had that every night and I didnt even have a particularly big belly. Sore back, again like when you're heavily pregnant. Sore knees, sore ankles, no energy. I surprise myself by doing things like running up stairs, bounding up travelators and escalators and powering past people when I"m just walking through the shopping centre. You dont realise what a burden your weight is till you lose some of it.

Ooh they are. You'll be driving somewhere, generally not in the middle of the city, but outskirts and you'll see a donut van on the side of the road - just a caravan usually. "HOT JAM DONUTS", and there's always a van at the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne too, there's always vans at things like the Royal Melbourne Show, Moomba (which is a Melbourne festival) etc etc. Fresh cooked, piping hot, they're heaven. Nothing like other donuts you buy at Donut King or packaged in the supermarket etc.

I dont know, Alexandra. Lol, just because I have something to say on nearly every topic doesnt mean I know anything about it, tee hee. I just meant really that till I came on this board I'd never ever heard of anaesthaesia causing hair loss, I've never experienced it and nobody of my immediate acquaintance had ever experienced it, when I asked my doctor, he kind of made a dismissive snort and said that there's no proof that as a general rule people lose hair after anaesthaesia. Perhaps some do and some dont? But I think you could generalise pretty heavily and say that after a couple of weeks of pre op Optifast and up to two months of a very low calorie liquid/mushy diet, many people would be pretty nutritionally depleted therefore hair loss is not surprising and probably more attributable to that than to the actual anaesthetic.

You lose hair after your babies are born because during pregnancy the normal hair cycle is disrupted and you dont lose as much. That's why you have such glorious hair during pregnancy. Then due to hormonal levels after the birth, within a couple of months your hair growth/loss cycle returns to normal and all that wonderful hair you held onto for 9 months comes out. YOu dont generally lose any more than what you had on your head prior to conception.

People say Biotin helps. Many people believe getting lots of Protein will prevent it. Zinc is another important nutrient for hair and yet other people believe Omega 3's such as flaxseed oil help I think its generally a more widespread nutritional deficiency and that the only way to really avoid it is to accept that you have to eat more, eat more wide a variety and therefore accept that you will lose weight more slowly. If you're eating 800,900 calories a day you are NOT eating as much as you need to to be well nourished. There's also no real proof that anaesthesia causes hair loss as a general rule. It might for some, but many never experience it.

I couldnt live without my Hoover Floormate! I have an entire houseful of hardfloors and barely any carpet, I hate carpet. Its such a massive job to wash the floors and they go streaky with an ordinary mop. Homewise, I'm big on organic non chemical products. My current faves are awesome: www.cinderella.com.au The bathroom spray smells like coconut suntain oil, and the all purpose one is really peppermint-y, and the smells linger and are really divine. I also got addicted to Sportwash which I had to buy online from the USA. We did totally cloth diapers for Eliza and its an amazing world out there. There are so many incredibly gorgeous work of art cloth diapers that were so much fun to use. Sportwash leaves no residue in your clothing, so is awesome for diapers, particularly hemp ones, which can start to repel if you use things like fabric softner www.luxebabydiapers.com www.verybaby.com were two of my faves. I reckon I spent thousands on nappies for Eliza but it was really fun.

I too agree though that the rebuke ought to be public so that everybody knows that person has been addressed. Even a statement such as "this matter has been dealth with privately". In any other forum I have ever been a part of, neanderthal behaviour such as that would mean the person was banned from the site. End of story. It must be such a hard job and you've come under some unfair fire over the past week or two, I'd like to say that I appreciate that you're giving of your time and are doing the best you can.

How gorgeous are you? And how happy? Looks like you had a great time.

hahaha! You said it, tee hee

I drink coffee instead. Most of the time I just ignore head hunger, I dont try to substitute what I'm craving with something healthier, it doesnt work for me. I want what I want. Sometimes i give into it. That doesnt hurt occasionally. Its not like you're never allowed to eat anything nice or just for the sake of it again, everybody does that occasionally. Its what you do 90% of the time that matters, so sometimes I do treat myself. Most of the time I get non specific head hunger where I just want to eat something, nothing specific, and most of the time that happens to me in the afternoon, which is when I like to jump on my treadmill and do my run. That always kills my appetite dead. The other time I get the munchies is when I sit down to do some study, that I just have to ignore. Or chew gum.

Amazing! You'll be able to slip in and out of here soon and nobody will even see you!

I like a very natural look with make up and whilst I rarely go without any (very deep set eyes, shadows, sigh.), I dont like looking "made up" every day. I'd feel stupid running round after kids and doing my day to day stuff with a full face on. I'd never wear lipliner anyway, ever. So for me, nup, I wouldnt do it. I say that because I know someone who's had it done, and we were away camping with them and it just looked freaky to have on eyeliner and lipliner as you get out of a tent in the morning, lol. There's so many situations where wearing make up would be weird. That's my lifestyle though, no doubt it would change were I older and back working all week. Eybrows or correction of faults I can understand, I used to have a chunk out of my natural lipline due to a coldsore scar that really bothered me but it seems to have filled in again now many years later.

I cant conceptualise ounces, it means nothing to me and I cant be stuffed looking up a conversion right this minute, lol I drink about 1.2 litres of Water a day - 2 600ml bottles. One during my run and one during the day. I might have another glass here or there, perhaps 2 or 3. But I drink about five or six cups of coffee. I dont drink anything else really, dont drink soft drink, maybe a glass of wine at arsenic hour.

Ionic hair dryer, hair serum, Redken All Soft Shampoo and Conditioner Clinique Moisture Lock Body Formula Facial scrub of any kind and any old face moisturiser will do, I usually use Olay Aromatics Elixir or Chanel No. 19 or Allure, my 3 faves Dior Addict lip gloss I can get by without almost anything else