Jachut

That's an amazing achievement!

Oh gosh, I think I do have a problem, lol. I had decided to put my tanning ways behind me, now since this thread, I keep coming back to it. I keep thinking "maybe once a week wouldnt be so bad", hmmm, maybe I'll try the mist on tan again, we could do without food to pay for it etc. Despite the fact that I have a white spot thingie appeared on my eyelid that I dont know what it is and must have checked out, a huge dark brown birthmark in my upper thigh that should not go in the sun and a suspicious mole on my back. Despite the fact that I have fairly pale Caucasion skin with lots of freckles and moles, have light brown hair and green eyes. I seem to have forgotten my first post in this thread where I outlined the dangers. I need help. Maybe we could start Tanners Anonymous.

I'm not saying its good for them, but a tan helps disguise scars and stretchmarks.

PS: not meaning everyone from America is rude, of course! Just funny that she was like something out of the movies.

Actually cutting all your food up at once and then swapping your fork to your right hand is an American custom - we dont do that in Australia. We cut off a bite at a time with knife and fork, keeping the fork in the left hand. I never thought about it but it probably does slow you down. We also eat the salad with the meal, not before it. You might order steak and a salad and they'll come together. My girfriend spent nearly an hour at the table with a salad in front of her before she finally asked where her steak was. The waitress looked at her like she had two heads :second: I can remember having girls over from Orange County to play softball, billeted at all our houses. I was absolutely enthralled at the way this girl cut up all her food at once and ate so fast! Plus she thought mum's effort at a lovely roast lamb was quaint, refused to eat it and asked where the nearest McDonalds was, lol. And the next day she made a sandwich, just like you see in the movies - 3 layers of bread and ALL the ham meant to last for our school lunches all week. Its amazing how little things can be so different from country to country isnt it?

We've only had one a few months back. It just seems really difficult because we're from all over Melbourne and getting everyone together at the same time is easier said than done. For what it's worth, I pretty much cant do evenings. I have 3 kids and live way out the other side of town, and Doug doesnt get home till reasonably late. Daytime meetups, fantastic, I'll be in one of those. I reckon just mix it up, if we want to do an evening one soon, then fine, if I can make it I will, if not, I'll catch you all some other time. Do what suits the majority.

Which is precisely why its not such a struggle to get banded over here. They will generally consider anyone who is obese, with a BMI of 30 or above. What I'm finding, having had a BMI of 35 when I was banded is that there truly is a preventative element in there. I had the potential to get much much fatter but it was nipped in the bud and I feel that I've had so much of an easier time adjusting to life with the band (and have well exceeded those averages stated above) because my eating habits had not become really out of whack yet. I was also more fit and abled bodied than many more obese patients and have been able to get back to a pretty rigorous trainign schedule very early in the peace.

I dont have a problem with night eating and never have. But late afternoon, look out. The best way I find to control it is to eat proper meals for breakfast and for lunch - if I eat a proper breakie of say cereal and yogurt I'll be stuffed all morning and wont really want lunch. But if I eat say a sandwich anyway, then I dont get the munchies in the late afternoon. In short, proper eating. I'm really really really bad at not eating lunch but just grazing all day, its always been a problem of mine. If I couldnt eat proper meals at breakfast and lunch and was consequently getting hungry later, i'd have fill removed, but that's just me. I'm fill phobic and think 90% of bandsters are too tight and can not be healthy long term on what they consume. Not that that's a judgement, everyone has to do it the way it suits them, just my opinion.

One of the more way out benefits of the band is that I now feel like I eat like a lady. I dont look like the fat slob stuffing her gob anymore, I eat slowly and politely and I drink slowly. My glass of wine isnt gone in 2 seconds so I tend to get less loud and giggly now. Of course I always ate "nicely" in public anyway, but it was an effort to do so. Its nice not to be the first one finished all the time. And I try not to but I do judge what others eat. You get to the point where it disgusts you what others consume in a single sitting. My husband especially, I dont hesitate to tell him off. But I couldnt have enjoyed eating a small plateful of food slowly before either. I feel like I eat now as my appetite demands I do, but that the demands of my appetite are now a lot more ladylike and socially acceptable. It really only took me a month or two to learn these new habits. I ate very very very carefully immediately after banding, once the swelling went down it only took a few golfballs to make me realise how slowly I should be eating and now it's just automatic habit. I do tend to wolf a bit at the start of the meal if I'm hungry though.

Mmm, dresses arent my thing either. They make my boobs look like they're sitting on my stomach. I have a formal do in July, I spied a to die for dress in the shop the other day and only $200 but they only had it up to size 14. I dont think I"m going to be there by July!

O....kay.... have just discovered something interesting. When we bought out treadmill (a NordicTrack) it has miles per hour buttons on it, but the fellow that delivered it told me he calibrated it in kilometres for me. So the speed flashing on the console is km/hr. BUT - that's the only thing in kilometres, so whilst I thought I was doing 4km runs, I was actually doing 4 mile runs - so closer to 6kms. No bloody wonder I completed my 4km fun run in 29 minutes - was stoked at the time. That's an 8km per hour pace, yet when I run 8km per hour on the treadmll I'm sprinting and no way could I keep it up for half an hour. So my treadmill info is misleading. Poop. Shall have to get myself a pedometer I think. Anyhow Tuesday night I walked for 10 mins on it before I had to get off. A glass of red wine and a slice of pizza for dinner does not make for a good workout, I got the worst pain around my band, I think the pizza had corners. Wednesday (yesterday) I had an awesome run. I pulled out a CD that I hadnt listened to in 10 years, and I did the aerobic 3 program which is quite a difficult one involving killer inclines. Felt great when I got off. 40 minutes, and yep, 6kms I'm training for a 5km fun run, I thought i'd have to add distance gradually but I'm already doing more than that, lol.

1. how long have you been banded? 5.5 months 2. rate your level of restriction: C. Moderate (have some restriction but portions are still ) However - I call this a sweet spot - in that my band helps me to lose weight but I dont have problems with pbing, eating out or eating any healthy foods. What most people call a sweet spot, I'd probably call too tight. 3. how long after you wake do you drink your first liquids, are they hot or cold: First thing I do in the morning is have a cup of coffee or three. 4. how long after you wake do you eat your first food, is it solid or mushy? An hour or two. Its solid - well may be mushy but not intentionally. Like I'll eat yogurt because I feel like it, not because I have to. But I might just as easily have toast. if it is mushy, when is your first dense protien solid? 5. does your restriction change throughout the day? Ever so slightly tighter at night. dinner is a very small meal for me. I eat way more during the day. 6. how often do you PB? Never. 7. is it mostly Slime/Saliva or is it the offending food or liquid that comes up? Occasional excess salivation if I eat too fast. 8. why are you PB'ing? Like I said, I dont, but I do tend to still eat a little too fast though. I'm sure when my first PB happens, that will be why.

Well..........I found a bottle of spray on tan in the bathroom cupboard and thought I'd use it up. I went out into the backyard in a bikini (its almost winter here) and sprayed myself. It goes on so blotchy, with runs, but if you wait for it to dry it really does even up. An hour later I was in the shower scrubbing it off. Eeeeew, sticky and stinky. It was foul. I couldnt get dressed again it was too icky. Sigh. For those that use bottle tan, how do you get round that. I find it always rubs off and gets uneven around the bra line and around the shoe line. IT also gets blotchy and yuck after a week or two when you've had several applications. The thing I love about a sunbed tan is it's ALL over.

I'm not sure actually - I'm almost as restricted as I care to be, I really dont want to live long term on a diet of no meat and no bread. I think I'll have another small fill this week becuase hunger is getting out of control but I havent managed to reexperience that feeling of the early weeks and I know if I was that restricted I'd be pbing and not being able to eat lots of foods, which is just not something I'm prepared to do. I find I have hunger, like anyone would, but that it's much more easily manageable now. Its satisfied quicker and it happens less. I have less interest in food than I used to have but enough so that I do have to use some willpower, I'm not losing automatically.

I'm a fairly simple girl, just being able to buy whatever's really in fashion (well not but crack showing skinny leg jeans, eeeew) at the time, not having to hope and pray the store has an Xlarge. Being able to buy a nice bra, not the super dooper over the shoulder boulder holder. Doug's thinking lacy black lingerie, I loathe stuff like that. Horrible. Scratchy nylon lace, like something out of a bad 80's porn flick. I like nice undies but not slutty ones. Being able to wander into a shop in a seaside town on holidays and pick up something summery.

I dont think restriction feels like most people anticipate it will and therefore we dont always recognise it. To me, eating feels entirely normal, its just that I get full sooner. I can eat more when I'm super hungry and cant really force myself to eat if I'm really not hungry. But getting full feels just like it always did, it just happens sooner.

I used to get to the 6 week mark too and then fail, in fact then I'd gain back what I'd lost THEN some. Like every other single diet I've ever been on my motivation started high on this and waned over time. I lost enormous amounts of weight early on. Know what? Doesnt matter! The thing I've learned is that the major benefit of the lap band is that it gets you through that period. I've far from perfect restriction, and far from perfect eating habits. I got through liquids/mushies and early solids without faltering and then some of my less than perfect habits crept back. But I simply cannot eat enough to stop my weight loss completely or to cause a weight gain. It continues to come off at a slow rate and I cannot even contemplate my worst habits - like a Quarter Pounder, Large fries, large coffee and caramel sundae. I'll never ever be able to eat all that again. The lap band is so great becuase you dont have to be perfect, you just have to improve. That's all it takes. Some people are more determined, have more self control than others, and some have absolutely none at all for a variety of reasons. But most of us fall in the middle somewhere and will have varying degrees of success with the lap band. I find now as I get to weights I havent seen in 10 years, my motivation and enthusiasm are gearing up again and I'm starting to lose more quickly again.

Yep, you'll probably have some fill removed. BUT - it is perfectly and easily possible to have a bouncing healthy baby with NO weight gain at all and keeping to around 1500 calories a day. I did it, with the blessing of my obstetrician becuase I was around 104kg when I fell pregnant with my third baby. He said to keep the calorie count down but to eat really good, nourishing food becuase the baby needs nourishment, not calories. In fact your body really only needs about 200 calories extra per day from the third trimester energy wise. I counted Weight Watchers points and ate very very carefuly and at the end of the pregnancy, not only did I have a healthy 3.72kg daughter, but I walked out of the hospital over 10kg lighter than when I'd conceived. My weight went up by about 3 or 4 kgs over the course of the pregnancy. That's becuase I was 25-30kg overweight though, if you've reached a normal weight you will need to eat more and gain more.

I used "seabands" during my pregnancy with Eliza, she was the only one who gave me vile morning sickness, that awful relentless nausea but no vomiting kind of morning sickness. They were brilliant, sound like the same deal, a band that put pressure on a point in your wrists, and are usually used for motion sickness, to me morning sickness always felt exactly the same as being carsick or sea sick. They really did help me get through the first four months, but it might have been a psychological dependence because lots of my friends say they did nothing for them.

I was thinking about this thread again this morning, since its coming into winter here and I"ve definitely lost my glow. I'm so depressed about it, there's something about being brown isnt there? I would go so far as to say that very moderate tanning bed use year round and staying out of the sun completely - and always using SPF 30+ outdoors - could surely be no more damaging to your skin than the average sun exposure that most non careful people get outdoors over summer etc. Like the girls that bake on the beach. I think though that I'm going to start doing without some other things and getting a weekly spray tan.

I always lose tons of hair anyway, its disgusting, it's all over the bathroom. Lately I suspect I'm losing even more, my brushes are always full, I seem to be cleaning them all the time, when I dry my hair in the morning, I always have to pull hairs off my clothes, they hang all over me, that kind of thing. But my hair doesnt appear any thinner or weaker than it was and I did also have the bio ionic straightening done a few months ago too. I'm 5 months out from surgery. I'm not too worried as I dont appear to be going bald, its just more annoying than anything becuase I hate cleaning it up. You try and clean the bathroom and all you do is smear hair all over the place. I have long hair though too (mid back which is the longest its ever ever been and about the longest it will grow) - so lots of my hair would be at the end of its growing cycle and falling out naturally too.

34 Lbs since Feb is fantastic weight loss. It really can be slow with the band but its much much MUCH healthier for your body and for your mind. I'm really losing like 1/2 - 1 lb a week now and I do feel a bit impatient with it but I have a lifestyle I enjoy and that I can maintain and I never ever thought I'd be able to do that and lose weight at the same time.

OK - well maybe my ladies arent as saggy as I thought, lol. Because between them its bony. I would worry it would poke out on the sternum? I've got quite a bony chest now, most of the weight I"ve lost so far has come from my upper body.

Great idea. It'd go really nicely with pork too. I never buy pork steaks even though lots of cuts of pork are very lean because I never know what to do with them. I"m going to give that a try.

I've never noticed any difference, but then nor do I morning versus night, at that time of the month or anything like that. The biggest thing I noticed last time I flew was that I was actually satisfied by an airline meal, lol