Jachut

MyBand obviously you're in Melbourne if you had Paul O'Brien - there's a few of us here and several that were done at The Avenue. We sometimes have Melbourne meet ups - there's been a thread recently if you want to search it out. We're trying to settle on days/times.

It doesnt bother me either, although I rarely drink soda. Not that I'm virtuous or anthing, I practially live on coffee. If you reckon diet coke's bad. Ever found a year old cheeseburger? Ick, it looks the same as the day you bought it. (well it wasnt a year old, but we found it behind the wheelie bin, must have missed)

It depends how you look at it. Normal to me is you ate a bit, were hungry so ate a bit more. That's what most normal people do. If you havent had a fill yet you're goign to be able to eat more than other bandsters that have been filled by 3 months and more to the point, you're going to want to eat more. If you're still losing weight, I wouldnt worry too much about it. I personally think its more important to learn to listen to your body than to measure, weigh etc. You'll get to restriction soon enough and you'll know its time for a fill when the weight stops coming down.

It probably depends where your rolls are, lol. I have a good lower belly roll, but I dont have an upper belly one, so there's not much to push "up" there. But before jeans came in varying rises, and before a lower rise was normal, I used to buy mens jeans becuase jeans that did up round your actual waist with a ten foot long fly were always horribly uncomfortable to me. I like them an inch or two below the navel, but not butt crack baring.

Another example of sexism - since apparently that look is hot for males. Hope you had your good undies on, lol.

I dont do what I used to do - if I stuff up, I dont then go "oh well, might as well enjoy the rest of the day and start again tomorrow". Now if I eat something fattening - I dont consider it a stuff up. Its just food, I move on and make my next choice healthier. One cupcake or cocktail or whatever your poison is does not a diet break.

Its commonplace in Australia - that's exactly the position I was in. It has worked brilliantly for me, and that's what they've generally found which is why they're a lot more relaxed about actual BMI here. Everyperson who has a BMI of 40+ once had a BMI of 30 for however long.

There's nothing specific about bandsters and calories - its a totally individual thing depending on your metabolic rate and how active you are. I can lose (slowly but still significantly) on 1500-1800 or so a day but I dont count, it doesnt help me, it just makes me obsessed with food. I know whenever I do a mental tote up, it falls somewhere in there, so the occasional day may be more, but then again, the occasional day may be less too. Most doctors will advise on averages of course, what the average woman of average activity level burns per day but it really is particular to your individual body, find what works for you and stick with it. If I chose to count calories and stick down around 1000-1200 I'd be losing a kilo a week for sure. But I cant be bothered, too much like dieting for me. I honestly feel like I've lost the weight I have so far without dieting at all, which is the way I wanted it.

I want to run a 10k.

Pics! Sounds like it was a bit tough but a fantastic outcome. Congratulations.

water under the bridge now.

Monday morning, kids deposited at school/daycare, the week's magazines and a nice big cappucino (skinny milk of course), followed by window shopping. I do it every single week. New schoolbooks at the start of the academic year Foot massages Singing really really loudly in the car

This is a really interesting one - my physio felt that at my heaviest weight I was contributing to my ankle problem because I could not tie the lace on my right shoe on top of the shoe, it was always off to the side.

I had several bouts of fainting on the pre-op, post-op liquid phase. Pre-op my doc told me to just stop the Optifast as I didnt have a fatty enlarged liver anyhow, and had a BMI of 35. He said it just didnt matter enough if it was doing that to me. Post Op I ditched the optifast, juice and Water routine and made some more hearty Soups that contained Protein and carbs - like a lentil and vegetable Soup, and liquifying spaghetti bolognaise with a tin of tomatoes so it was soupy, I did just fine on that sort of food and was able to make it liquid enough for the various stages of recovery - ie. I had "real" food in liquid form, not a steady diet of yogurt and custard. I only had to do two days of Clear Liquids though.

Oh, look at those eyes. There's a recurring theme with messy faces here!

I'm an ignoramus. The only second language I speak is uppie duppie language - you put upp in front of vowels as in Hupellupo, mupy nupme upis Jupacquupie Hupintchupinsupon. I can do it at the speed of light and mum, my sisters and I can have entire conversations in it. It freaks our husbands out. We say things about them and they cant understand.

Droool. I ate half a Danish the other morning for mothers day breakie. But I had just run 4kms! it went down more easily than bread. Scones! OMG I tried to eat a scone, it was like cake for me. No golfball in the chest, it doesnt get stuck there, but hurts like heck going through the actual stoma. Its weird, because it doesnt get stuck, just really hurts. I get no desire to PB, no sliming, just pain as it passes through. Whereas with anything else I've eaten that's gotten stuck I get the typical symptoms.

I had a Magic Tan yesterday. Wow, its brilliant. Takes literally 20 seconds, you towell off so its not sticky, you can get dressed again right away - including putting on a bra, no standing while someone sprays you, its totally private and there's NO smell at all. The colour is instant, but light, then it develops over the next 5 hours or so and the bronzer washes off after your first shower. I'm golden brown ALL over today. I was really impressed because I hate fake tan sprays and lotions. I've got no streaks or runs at all, no white areas, my nails and palms didnt stain at all. Really worth a try if you like a tan but are afraid of the ageing sunbeds cause. I wish I could afford it weekly, but it was $40, sigh.

SunLounge is Aust wide: http://www.sunlounge.com.au/location_contact.html but if you google mystic tan you'll find other locations as well.

I didnt think I had any before pictures, as I never took any. I dont have any full body shots, but this is Eliza and I in May last year and then me sometime in march this year. Edited - Sammee resized them for me below.

OMG They're huge. Is anyone able to resize these?

Here's a couple, though I havent taken any for months. Ewan and Eliza, Eliza and Fraser and Eliza (at least 2 years ago) Edited: heather has resized these for me below. thanks Heather.

I've never had delayed restriction either, but I just dont get the idea that if things go down easily you dont have adequate fill. Surely the idea of the band is not to actually make eating difficult - that is just a side effect that sometimes happens. I'd say if you've lost more weight since your fill then its working! I find that because I can eat till I'm no longer hungry - even though the amount is smallish, I feel like I've overeaten all the time. My head cant break the "must go hungry" mentality - so if my tummy isnt rumbling when I go to bed I feel like I ate too much that day when in actual fact I've done just fine. So I feel like I eat too much but the weight just keeps coming off so I really dont. Does that make any sense, lol? I just mean really that if you eat to satiety, but dont have discomfort and PBing and you're losing, then your fill is fine. You really dont have to go looking for PB's, being unable to eat bread etc to have an adequate fill.

Yep, sounds exactly like what I"m talking about. Gas, and I also got sore there when each of my babies was born, just seems to follow the recovery. It always went away after a month or so.

I can understand why I dont lose more than 1lb a week - I eat too much to lose more than that and I'm happy that way. perhaps its easy for me to say because I have less than 40lb to go to my goal, so I'm losing slowly anyway, but 1 lb a week sure adds up - I'll be at goal round the end of the year at this rate. I'm happy because 1) I dont have to be filled too tight to achieve this, 2) I get to enjoy my food within reasonable limits and 3) its healthier anyway. My tummy is now smooth and relatively flat. I really dont believe the human body is designed to healthily lose weight at a faster rate and I think people in general just expect too much. It would be so nice to be down 10lb every month but its not a sustainable lifestyle to make that happen. I take the view that any loss is a good loss. Exercise will help you though - a lot.