Jachut

I need some more running clothes. Well another sports bra at least. I'm waiting for them to finish in the dryer so I can do my 5km. I think I'll do an interval program today.

That's why I find it hard to tell - I have the little sticky up regrowth all over my head all the time anyway - I had to have my basically straight hair straightened with that new bio ionic technique to tame all those little hairs, my hair was so frizzy. But it was like that before banding.

Not to specifically take shot at GeezerSue by any means, I just thought this illustrated something pretty well. Nobody goes around telling newly weds "just you wait, it'll be drudgery in a few years time". They might think it, but they dont say it, they smile and enjoy their newlywed enthusiasm and think back to a time when their own life was so wonderful.

That sounds a little crackpot to me - appetite suppressants?. The whole point of being banded is so that you dont have to do that type of desperate stuff anymore. But all info is helpful and it probably suits the way many people like to eat so it was nice of you to post it.

After a loss of a whole kilogram for the past four weeks, I had a .3ml fill yesterday, taking me up to 1.7 (I think). I was really apprehensive about this one although I knew I needed it, I thought I'd be saying goodbye to the really good place I've been in with my band in favour of actually losing the other 20kg. I ate lunch very very carefully after the fill, all fine. I went out for Mexican for dinner last night, all fine. Today everything I normally eat is going down. But whereas I'd started picking and nibbling, my interest in food has just evaporated again. I can eat anything, I enjoy it but I'm not overly interested so a little bit is enough. But I dont have physical restriction - no hard stops, no actual real signs that the band is there (unless I scoff too fast), I just feel the normal full sensations that I felt before the band, except a lot sooner. And I have no real desire to eat between meals. It seems to work exactly like an appetite suppressant (like Tenuate or Duromine) for me, without making me feel the need to get up and vacuum the house at 3 am. I can eat whatever when I decide its time to but just dont get really hungry. I know I'm very lucky - but I never hear anyone else say that this is how it works for them.

Hehehe, Nykee, I spoke a bit too soon. The steak incident was the first sign of full on restriction I've ever had - so maybe I cant eat anything now. As to the appetite supressant thing - well I get hungry when its time to eat but in between, just no interest. I've always been someone who would eat regardless of whether or not I'm hungry too so this no interest thing is really new to me since banding. What I really meant was that despite not having restriction as most people refer to it the band still works for me. Um, then I ate the steak, hehe.

Ok - daytime during the week, preferably after my exams, lol (so late June onwards). I can also do weekend days, and I'm happy to do an evening, be it a weekend or week if I can make it on that particular day. But city and other side of the city is pretty impossible timewise for evenings. What about Malvern/Prahran sort of area? A sunday afternoon would be really great though, no rushing to pick up kids from school, no other things needing to be done, and husbands at home to start dinner!

OK - here is where I admit I've just been pacing the ensuite spitting in the sink for the better part of an hour, groan. Big fat piece of porterhouse for dinner. What a totally stupid thing to try to eat the day after a fill hehe, I can eat cheap steak, the thin BBQ stuff no problem but this was a really fat juicy one. I only had a teensie bit. But still no PB, lol. God knows what I'd have to eat to actually bring it back up again. I did get wicked hiccups though. But what I said above is true too. It was $18 worth of steak for dinner, I can sure give that up easily enough. eggs are much cheaper!

Hehehe, I cant say I've ever had anything quite that stupid said to me! But my MIL and FIL believe everything they read. The go on weird diets or start doing strange things because they've read it makes you lose weight ony from your buttocks or that if you drink stout you have really strong toenails and stupid stuff like that. They wont use HBA for home and contents insurance because MIL once spoke to a representative of the company in 1982 who was short with her (she probably asked a stupid question) so of course that means that 24 years later she still wont speak to them.

Quitting smoking is quite enough to concentrate on at one time! Jeez, what does your doctor think you are, superhuman? Give yourself a huge pat on the back for tackling that one and worry about the rest of it later. I dont really drink more than the odd diet coke - like a can once every few months, but I can drink soda just fine, you dont necessarily have to give it up, although if you're drinking the full calorie stuff I'm sure you know how many calories it could add to your day. Nobody could give up all those things, change all those habits at once. Dont be so hard on yourself, you've done great so far. I'd tell your doc the truth.

The hardest thing about deciding to be banded is that you really are admitting that you just cant do it without. It doesnt really matter if anyone else understands that or not, although I went blue in the face trying to tell my mother that insisting that Weight Watchers works when she's been back 547 times in the last 15 years is a bit illogical.

Well what's wrong with a weekend? Sunday coffee or something? And if not, well if we have one in the evening this time, just do a daytime one next time. Then if someone cant make it, they can the next time perhaps?

I know I despaired over my weight and felt fat and disgusting and couldnt buy decent clothes when I was in my early twenties and occasionally nudged 84kg. I was 84kg at 15 and my teenage years were miserable. I didnt wear jeans for about 8 years becuase back in those days nothing went over a size 14. I"m also very tall so although I'd now feel positively willowly at that weight, I was a "big" girl and bigger than most boys and just never felt feminine. Once or twice I got down to about 72kg and I felt fantastic at that weight, but to be honest, I could have lost more, but I just couldnt get below 72. I know I would look and feel absolutly fabulous at 65kg (that's somewhere around 145lb I think), but I've never weighed that and I'm not sure its possible. At the moment I'm aiming for 75 because I know that whilst I wasnt really thrilled with my body at that weight (even though it was my low end of normal), the way I wanted to look at 24 is different to what I'll be happy with at 40. Dont get me wrong, if I can get to 65 I will, but I'm going to get to 75 first and take it from there. I am going to be interested in lowering my weight to improve my running too because I'm hooked now so its going to be more than just about how I look. For the record, my BMI now at 92kg is 29, I've got loads to lose still, at 84kg would be 27 and at 75 it was 24. 65kg would be a BMI of 21. I'm not really small boned but not large boned either so towards the lower end of my healthy weight range is better for me. Also, last time I was 84kg I was much younger and like most people as they age, I no longer carry that much weight around my face, so I had fifty chins back then whereas I dont now, its very hard to judge how you'll look at the same weight 20 or more years later.

I would have thought heel space would mean the shoe would slip and you'd get blisters.

I'm the same. I do not vomit. I will do anything I can to avoid it. I'm actually not afraid of a PB so much but I just know that I'll suffer huge pain and it wont come up when it finally happens to me. I think over the years I've developed such an ability NOT to vomit when I actually should that I bet I wont be able to bring up the offending item either.

What a fantastic idea. We often have omelette's and salad for dinner to have a cheap meal, feeding meat and 3 veg to a family of 5 every night is a bit hard on the hip pocket these days. But they're a pain in the bum to cook, one after another and the kids hate them when they get brown on the bottom. I'm definitely gong to try this.

That's an AWESOME achievement. Huge congratulations. You must feel incredible about having done that.

Yeah, I'd say that's more a statistical observation based on people's motivation and commitment. Plus you do just naturally lose more weight quickly at first.

6km run on the treadmill at an incline of 3, plus I did all of the housework today and walked the length and breadth of Chadstone (largest shopping centre in the southern hemisphere). But I went out for dinner for Mexican (right after a .3 ml fill, am I nuts or what, it all went down fine), tee hee, so probably undid all my good work.

Couldnt agree more.

I havent lost that much weight, but I didnt have that much to lose in the first place. I had lost 50% of my excess at 5 months, my doc was really really pleased with me. I've never PB'd or had difficulty with any foods either, so I'm probably in the same boat - one of the lucky ones for whom it does work very well. But I think whether you say it works or not depends largely on your expectations of it! I'm pretty sure a lot of people expect that they're not going to have to put in much work themselves, that they just wont be able to eat much and that magically they'll lose weight. It doesnt work that way at all. There's always personal choice and willpower come into play. I suspect people that want their bands that way are also the people who need to be very tight to feel in control. I think 15lb in 5 months is success! We all lose weight at different rates and by different methods and I think you just have to accept that the way the band works for you is your personal success and not to compare yourself to other people. I could be anxious and worrying about "can I eat too much"? But instead I just feel lucky that I get to lose weight without the downsides of having trouble eating out or PBing all the time. So what if I dont lose it as fast as someone else? I think that holds true for most people but there are people whose eating is so disordered and who have so many issues to do with food that the band in itself is not enough for them. I really feal for those people because I think a lot of the time those problems are almost insurmountable.

I always let the first few bites clear before I eat another. I'll take a bite and wait a significant amount of time - particularly if I"m not at home, just to make sure it's all OK. I do sometimes get a touch of that first bite thing going on where my stomach just needs to ready itself for what's happening. Once I'm sure that my band is behaving, then I just eat normally, chew decently, small bites.

I think 10's reasonable. I have started leaving my boys (10 and 8) home alone for short periods this year. I might have a hairdressers appointment or something during school holidays, I'd go and leave them at home. Of course we've been through safety and not to answer the door or phone etc. I've also just this week let them start riding their bikes to school - its 3km there and 3km back. But they have to cross and ride along an 80km/hr 2 lane road, so I walked them to school for an entire term to make sure they were confident and sensible with the lights. They love it and its great exercise for them. I've just gotten to the stage where I need to be able to do this. Eliza is in daycare so she's safe and looked after but I've so far structred my uni timetable so that I've done all the units that are on at a convenient time for me, but next Semester I've got a 4pm lecture on a Thursday - so I need them to be able to come home and let themselves into the house. I've had to do two units so far where I've been unable to attend the lectures for an entire semester, I did well but I hate being out of the loop like that. Its much easier to just go to the lecture than find the time at home around 3 weeks to teach yourself the course!

I really fail to see how any doctor could think that drinking liquids but not being able to eat solids is OK. That is no way to live long term. If you cant eat a reasonable variety of solid foods, then I think you're too tight. If you cant eat entire food groups, you're too tight. Its personal choice, some people want and need to be tighter than others to lose weight reasonably but for me personally, there's no way I'd tolerate even for a week not being able to eat a relatively normal diet without having fill removed. I've just had .3ml this morning on top of the 1.3 I already had and I'm very very nervous about so big a fill, eeek. I'm about to have lunch, will see how that goes.

Your face is probably the first area you'll see weight lost too.