Jachut

Your body needs Protein - how much depends on things like how much you weigh. But whether or not you need a high protein diet to lose weight is pretty debatable, I really believe eating normal proportions of carbs, protein and fat is good enough, there's no proven scientific evidence behind Atkins, South Beach, The Zone or any of those diets, it just sounds believable becuase of all the scientific mumbo jumbo. What you're eating is probably adequate. Personally I dont find I run well without some carbs and I choose not to follow a high protein way of eating and I'm losing weight just fine and all my blood chemistry is nice and healthy. I dont see the need to up my protein intake. I reckon eat in a way that makes you feel well and that you find easy to maintain and that's good enough. Worrying about toting up grams of protein or anything else is not really necessary unless its something you like to do - plenty of people feel more in control dieting this way.

Actually this has made me realise I'm a bit like this in other areas of my life - I do well enough but dont shoot for outstanding success. My career/working life springs to mind. I did really really well in my final year of school and got straight A's in my higher school certificate. I could have gotten into medicine or law, I chose physiotherapy. For some reason I failed to apply myself after the first year and eventually dropped out. I worked as a secretary/receptionist till I Had babies. I was groomed by Ernst & Young to become an indirect tax consultant as they could see I had talent they could use (and exploit but another story altogether) but I left half way through that process too. Now I'm doing a Bachelor or Primary Education at Deakin University. A course of study well below my academic skills and not a few people have said to me "what on earth are you doing that for, why not do something better". Because I dont have to leave my comfort zone, that's why. I can get High Distinctions all the way through and graduate with honours and I'll barely have to do any work. But I do want to be a teacher too! I do shy away from hard work. It wont take all that much to get to 80kg but it will to get to 68 and I reckon I'll just settle for good enough so I dont have to put that work in. We did the same with buying a house. I talked Doug out of buying a small run down older place closer in and renovating. I wanted the bright shiny new surrounds NOW and I didnt want to have to work or wait for it. Mr Accountant was easy to convince becuase he was terrified of borrowing money. Well 12 years later, all our friends are living the high life, Doug earns in the top 5% wage bracket, he earns a fortune but we're stuck in the outer burbs unable to achieve our dreams becuase our house, all the way out here may have doubled in value over all those years but double nothing is still nothing. A piddling $250,000 is what we'd get for our place, that little house we looked at all those years ago is now worth about $500,000. We cant buy in a suburb we want to live in because despite a large income we a tiny deposit, the types of houses we need in the areas we want are now $800,000 or more and of course I"m not working because I never pulled my finger out and put in the hard work at the right time and now have 3 years to go before I'll be finished this course and out in the workforce again. THanks Pnut I needed a reminder that you just have to plug away at things and keep up the hard work.

This morning I was in the supermarket last minute buying some packets of chips for the boys morning snack at school (they had fruit too :eekB:). Man, did I want to buy a packet and scoff them in the car. We have these gourmet lime and black pepper flavoured ones here and they are sooooooo good. But I've never been a chip/savoury overeater. Always liked them but they werent a problem food for me. Lately however, when I get the munchies, I always want stuff like this and if I happen to eat chocolate or Cookies, they make me feel sick. I cant seem to tolerate rich things anymore. Ditto coffee - lattes and cappucinos still taste good going down, but all the milk, bleuch it makes me nauseous. I've pretty much given them up (even though I always drank skim varieties) and go for a brewed coffee with a dash of cold milk if I"m buying. I have an espresso machine at home and only use it this way now too. I'm still thinking about those chips, lol. Its a few hours later now and I can feel my mouth Water just thinking about them.

Hmmm, well I have my fantasy of 68kg or so and looking like a model. But truth is I would just be skinnier, I'm not suddenly going to develop differnet proportions and look entirely different. And I feel comfortable that nearly anything is "good enough" because I"m going to be healthier, shop in normal size stores and I have a great family and a great life and they love me as I am. So I'd be happy to get to 80kg too. I think perhaps I feel that way because I"m afraid to shoot for the 68 in case I fail. And I'm afraid of the life changes it'd take to get there. I'm not afraid to be that, but I dont truly allow myself to believe its possible.

Good on you. I'll join you. I've been absolutely terrible for the past two weeks. Was it me only last week mouthing off about how I've learned new habits? I'm suitably humbled and will not be eating lime and cracked pepper chips for Breakfast again tomorrow. I'm lucky not to have gained. Never stop visiting. Everyone here has been through that and all you'll get is support.

It reinforced what I thought about fast food. I'd go so far as to say that letting your kids eat McDonalds several times a week ought to be a crime punishable by law. The absolutely MOST horrifying thing about that movie though was the school lunch thing. Please tell me that wasnt typical of what kids in American schools get fed for lunch? Did you see that muck - all that neon yellow and orange food and barely a vegetable in sight and that stupid stupid moronic woman trying to argue that it wasnt their responsibility that if they served poison that kids chose to eat it. Somewhere there was a bowl of sad, tired fruit hidden away and she had the gall to suggest that the kids could choose that if they wanted to! We dont have school lunches provided here, they either bring from home or have a lunch order from the school canteen. The government has just banned soft drinks from ALL school canteens which I think is a good thing but I"m disgusted by the options offered by our school canteen locally, its run by a business separate to the school and they have no care in the world for children's health, just in selling what kids will buy. I still let my kids eat Maccas of course, but we've actually never really touched KFC or Subway or any of that, it looks too disgusting for words, I havent eaten KFC since I was a kid myself. But I swear there's something addictive in that stuff that makes kids want it more and more. Its a constant battle. Now, I'm all excited this mornign because we have our first local farmer's market down at the football oval near the shopping centre this morning, loads of lovely organic produce from surrounding Gippsland. My kids actually do get excited about organic fruit because it tastes so good.

"Hang in there" *snort* *giggle*

Thank goodness for dip sticks hey?

I have no problem with it but I too find it doesnt stay with me for long, I'll definitely be hungry mid morning. But I usually eat cereal because I just cant face heavy stuff like eggs in the morning, I have to stick with cardboard.

I'd be suspecting diet to be honest. Spots on your nails and ridges and things like that are signs of deficiencies of things like Iron. But such is life being banded - have you tried a hair, nail and skin supplement? Are you taking a multi? If you start taking something specific it could take a few months to take effect. Its always possible of course that its something specific to you that you're prone to and not diet related, but it'd be my first thought, especially since it happened before when you were dieting.

What you generally see in a gym is lots of people just like you trying to get in shape. Depends when you go too - for the last 10 years I've been a stay at home mum, so go in the morning, after I've dropped the kids at school and yep, its full of stay at home mums. And there's certainly never any star jumps being done in the circuit classes, roflmao!

Hahahaha! That is

I'm a bit like that. I didnt have staples after my lap band surgery but did after my caesar and had no problems with them.

It was a bit weird. When he first pulled fluid out I though OK, so he's checking its all still there, makes sense. But why the in, out, in out, in, out? I would have slapped him. But it's true - once the needle's in the port you dont feel all that in out stuff.

40lb averaged over 6 months is over a pound a week, its GREAT weight loss. But I guess I expected more like 80. When my surgeon said to me I'll see you in about July (he works with another wonderful doctors who does the fills and general check ups) I thought "I'll be at goal by then". Um, probably not, lol.

Wow, that's a HUGE victory. Big congratulations.

Wearing a bikini is not a big part of my life. I love that today's swimsuits have all sorts of mix and match options - I do love those boyleg styles, but like Kel said, boardies are just the best. Not many women out of their 20's truly have a bikini body. A bikini body to me also means a lovely even tan and we all know that if you have that at 35, you'll be covering up and being mistaken for somebody's grandma by the time you're 45 not to mention having all your melanomas removed. It comes at a price. Skin wise I've not done badly but I have no idea bout what my stomach will look like when I'm 150lb. I'm not sure that I'd ever have a tummy tuck, I cant imagine taking money from the family finances to do it - we need a new house, our kids need to be educated. I didnt have a bikini body when I was young. I want to look HOT! For sure but with the amount of time I spend on the beach or swimming, I couldnt give a toss about wearing a bikini. As long as I can buy great clothes I'll be happy. I'm beautiful because I'm ME! And I really believe that. I'm hot to my hubby, my friends love my, my family loves me, so I really dont care about bikinis.

Wow, those sound like my kinda gadgety things. Nothing like that on the shelves here yet but I guess its only a matter of time. We had the butter sprays and that butter powder stuff years ago and it all went off the market.

Grrr, that happened to me last night, and I have a 3 year old to buckle in on that side of the car. I had to back out to do it. I hate it when I'm walking back to my car and I've got to hold 4 shopping bags, a 3 year old's hand, a handbag that will not stay on your shoulder (I cannot keep any handbag on my shoulder, have sloping shoulders) and its windy and I have hair in my eyes, my nose and my mouth and cant see and my shirts flies open in the wind, or my top rides up and the brastraps ALWAYS fall off my shoulders so my boobs are everywhere and you cant fix any of it. And when you put all the bags down to get your car keys, they collapse and your groceries roll everywhere. Yep, I've had a bad morning.

Nah, I wouldnt think so. Although if my husband rested his full weight on top of me in that postiion for any lenght of time I'd probably suffocate.

At 5 months, I've lost 18kg which is about 40lb, pretty much half my excess weight. I expected to have lost more, but when you average it out its actually pretty good weight loss. The main things I've achieved are I've regained my health, my mental control and organisation of my life in general, gained huge increases in fitness and can now fit into regular store clothing.l If I were to never lose another pound I'd be thrilled that I did this and with the results. However from hereon in its all cosmetic and I am keen to keep going to look better.

There may be a number of ways to tackle it, you dont necessarily need to be overeating for it to happen - maybe you're taking too large bites, not chewing enough and maybe some foods are now just going to be impossible for you. Or you could be too tight, which you'd probably know if working on the above factors does not help matters. But you wont sound like a paranoid whinger if you ring your doctor, this is quite a scary process when you're new at it and you dont know what effects you can expect on your body. I found the only reason I had any idea at all about any of it was from what I learned here, not from anything my doctor told me which was pretty much zip.

I'm a cat lover. I'm horribly allergic to dog's so will smile at a cute pic but that's about it. But pussy cats, they're divine. My own moggie is rubbing her bum in my face seeking dinner as I type.

The clincher for me is that I realised band or no band, if I wanted to lose the weight and keep it off then I could never ever eat that way again anyway. I could avoid eating that way with the help of the band or I could struggle to do the impossible on my own, either way I could not return to that way of eating or I would get fat again. That's the truth. You cannot be a comfort eater, an overeater, a disorganised eater, a disordered eater. You cannot indulge yourself daily with foods that you love that dont nourish your body and you cannot stick your head in the sand and tell yourself that getting more active round the house constitutes the type of exercise that is really going to change your body. YOu have to change those things if you want to lose weight and keep it off. You can do it with a helping hand or you can do it a much harder way, neither way is easy, but do it you must. What you cant fathom at the stage your at is that these foods will cease to matter to you so much anyway and you wont care. You also probably cant fathom that you can and will eat them again, but hopefully in a more sensible way. Or that the restriction on your diet comes in stages, and that you are in control of those stages (ie. when you get your fills) so you can move through them as you feel ready to.

Wow, all these people saying they feel poor. Subaru Outbacks and Honda Accords are VERY nice cars here in Australia, and quite expensive ones at that. A far fewer proportion of people drive new cars as they're so pricey, we can only afford to keep our cars updated every 4 years because they're salary packaged and it saves us heaps of tax. No way on earth could we afford two new cars out of our after tax dollers and Doug earns in the top 5%, a nice big fat six figure salary.