Jachut

I think that's true. I dont think I'll have a washboard stomach by any means, but I dont think I'll need a tummy tuck. My stomach is not getting looser or flabbier as I lose and I've never had an apron. I'll probably have the normal post motherhood poochie bit at th bottom of my stomach and I"m fine with that, to me that's no worse than a huge scar from hip to hip. Boobs are another matter entirely though. I'm blown away that my boobs just arent shrinking! They look terrible. Fine clothed, although the size difference between lefty and righty has become more noticeable and can now be seen when I'm clothed if you're looking for it. I bought new bras yesterday and have gone down several back sizes only to discover I had to size up to an E cup - OMG. They're not huuuuuge because I"m tall and large framed but boy oh boy at an E I'll be able to turn on the "I've got backaches and cant play sport" story and have a "medically necessary" reduction and lift which I'm now sure I'm going to do. So again, its just your luck. If you were big breasted before WLS chances are you'll have a bit of a disaster happening on your chest no matter what your age. If you carried a lot of weight on your stomach and had a bit of a hanging apron, that's not going to magically go away either. Its depressing, sigh.

I get busy with stuff I normally would ignore, with a household of five people there is mountains of "stuff" to get through. If I think about it too much I might kill myself. Washing, folding, putting clothes away, picking up a million socks from outside (my middle son, grrr, just runs round outside in his socks and ditches them in spots through the garden), tidying up bedrooms, keeping cupboards tidy, cleaning out the car (does anyone else's kids seem to leave a mountain of crap in the car), going through school bags finding notices, keeping our budget updated on the computer. I'm also on a computer diet though, too much time on forums has given me a typists behind. During the afternoon between picking up the kids and dinner, I only have one afternoon where I'm out for a long time, I used to eat a lot at this time of day, now that I have a treadmill and some basic weights equipment, its workout time for me then followed by another tidyup (will it never end) and dinner. I never had a problem with eating after dinner so that gets me through the danger period of the day. Weekends for us are so busy with 2 of our 3 kids playing various sports, its never a sit around and eat type of weekend here.

I generally eat to satisfaction, not fullness. I was used to eating till I was stuffed so this has taken some doing but to me feeling full feels like it always does, that side stretching feeling. Only its really unpleasant now because there's a sensation from within like a geyser about to blow, lol. It never has and I do my best to avoid it but sometimes it does sneak up on me and I'm a mouthful or two over where I should have stopped. Luckily I've never actually vomited but boy, tonight it REALLY hurt to feed my 3 year old 2/3 of a very expensive and very delicious salmon fillet. I so wanted to keep eating.

I actually find fast walking harder on my body than running. I have to walk so fast to get any cardiovascular benefit because I'm already reasonably fit, that my gait starts to suffer and get weird and then I always end up with really bad back and ankle pain, and yes, shin splints. I find a slow, lowish impact jog (not really running as such) at only slightly faster than a very fast walk, a lot gentler.

It sounds so corny and I'm not generally a reality TV person but we've just had the finale of The Biggest Loser in Australia on TV tonight and that show and the participants have really inspired me the past few months. When you see the blood, sweat and tears that go into the training they do and the grit that one character Kristy found within herself, it makes me realise we all have that if we can only reach in and grab it - and that a chatty stroll round the block with a girlfriend is not enough to really rip the weight off. I'd love to see what happens long term though, some of the guys lost nearly 70kg in a couple of months, surely that'll be impossible to keep off. Boy oh boy though, do I wish Bob (they had Bob and Gillian, same as the American show) would come round and give me some one on one attention! I can say that now as my husband has gone back to The Footy Show and is no longer reading over my shoulder. I'd lose 10kg a week for him for sure, he is hot!

I think I've convinced myself that although I still feel this I dont need to go tighter. I really believe there is no point of restriction at which this feeling will go away and that the best thing is to work on making good choices, not filling myself ever tighter in an effort not to have to make those choices - ie. I dont want to eat just small amounts of crap, I want to eat well all round. When I eat well - low fat and lots of fruit and veg, the amount that I can physically eat is small enough to ensure good weight loss. I think its been made easier in that I paid for this operation, there aint nowhere to go from here so its finally time that if I cant make good choices now I never will and this seems to be working for me. I have good times and times when I struggle. The times when I struggle I do exactly what I used to, eat nutritionally worthless food meal after meal, graze in between. The difference now is that I stop losing, I dont gain. That's good enough for me. In my head it means I have an "out", I can slip back into comforting ways when I really feel I need to just to have a breather and then get going with my program again. Those times that I "need to" are coming less and less often as I'm learning they're prompted not by need within myself but by circumstances - being busy, having too many things to think about than just myself, and especially in keeping a 3 year old occupied, hey, let's go to Maccas! I'm slowly teaching myself other ways to deal with these situations. The way I see it, this band and this level of fill means I can eat an amount appropriate to nourish my body whilst still losing weight. My part of the bargain is to choose the right foods to keep the calorie count reasonable. No band and no fill can ever do that for me.

For me its been a few different things. One is that I can lose weight when I do the right thing and it does keep coming off long term. The band has helped me stick with that for obvious reasons and once the realisation set in, it has made it easier to keep going. I do have bad times, I've eaten like a pig for the past two weeks over and after Easter, and regained half a kilo but it doesnt worry me, I know that to pick up and keep going will bring results. So its no longer an all or nothing thing for me. Losing the initial weight made it possible for me to run again. Which has shifted my focus entirely from weight loss to getting in peak physical condition of which weight loss is only one part of the equation. So I have reasons other than to please a scale or a doctor to lose weight. WHat I want to achieve now is to be a good athlete, which is a way more concrete goal than the perfect body. The most important thing I think I've learned though is there is no amount of restriction which will mean I cant cheat, cant eat badly or otherwise not comply. So it's still down to me at the end of the day. Weight loss surgery is no easy answer. That is motivating to me, rather than discouraging. Also I think I now feel that there is no point at which I will suddenly be "successful". I've gained so much this far, that I'm already successful. Its not an all or nothing thing. I have good health and a great frame of mind now which is much more important than a number on a scale.

Sometimes I feel like people must get sick of me here, I'm so full of how wonderful it all was/is, how easy it's been and how bloody great I feel. I know people have problems that run deeper than what I did, were more overweight and there are people who's bodies dont love having a band in them as much as mine seems to. So I hope my enthusing is motivating rather than annoying.

Youre totally right, the more muscle you have the better you will look. Well, within reason, lol. I dont think muscle bound females with zero body fat is a look I want to attain but each to their own. Dianechef you look awesome!

A total change in my mental state. I was just thinking about this this morning. Ten months ago when I first began thinking about this surgery, I was overwraught, overworked and not coping with life. I'd get the kids out the door to school after screaming, shouting and leaving a filthy pigsty behind me as I just hadnt had time to clean it all up. I'd get them out of the car and more mornings than not just dissolve into tears at the stress of it all, I hated that stage of my life. I hated the chaos and mess we lived in. I felt my skyrocketing weight was a reflection of my inability to cope and I just kind of felt that THAT was what I must work on first. Fast forward to this morning, when the morning consisted not only of bedmaking, Breakfast and lunch making, clothes washing, dishwashing AND Vacuuming before 7.30 am, but also chasing Ewan round the house shrieking (it was a game) and having a jump on the bed and fall down game with Eliza, plus singing very loud and doing a few high kicks just because I was so happy and had the day to myself becuase I've finished my assignment that is due on Friday since I'm so organised. I am so much more in control of everything and I am just so freaking happy all the time now, its like this enourmous weight is gone from my shoulders. I have control of what I never had control of before, my body and since I started running, my mood has shot through the stratosphere, I didnt realised how depressed and down I had become. Life is now just full of wonderful possibilities and if the work of combining a university degree and three children is time consuming, well I'm no longer exhaused at 4pm and can work long into the night to keep the house and my life in control. Its got hardly anything to do with the fact that I now look HOT (lol) although that helps. I feel so much better about myself, no more fat days and no more bad hair days either since I had it straightened, and I have a wardrobe full of nice clothes that I actually want to wear. My husband has suddenly become hot again too, lol, I'm getting way more exercise after bedtime too. I'm sleeping well due to all the exercise I'm getting, I hit the pillow and out like a light and Eliza is pretty much sleeping through now too so for the first time in 10 years I'm getting 7 to 8 hours a night which must be making me feel heaps better too, previously I'd made do on 4-5 hours total of broken broken sleep. I'm so freaking happy it ought to be illegal.

I'd just keep doing what you are doing, perhaps change things around a bit with some different exercise or eating at different times of the day, more meals for the same calories type of thing, it will move again eventually. Unfortunately I think plateaus are just a fact of life. I seem to lose 1.5kg, stay the same for two weeks, lose another 1.5kg type of thing, its weird.

I was advised to just eat and drink normally before and after. All doctors are different I guess.

I'd eat it with Water crackers or something. I would think that eating dips with a spoon, it would be super easy to take in a LOAD of calories. Crackers that turn to mush are fine for this stage.

Honestly, being overweight was not so horribly bad for me because I never got really fat, I always looked pretty normal compared to the general population. I'm an average looking person, some people no doubt would think I'm attractive and some would think I'm not. Just like most people really. So I've never expeirenced that desperation of not being able to go out, not fitting in, being looked at etc. I cant think of anything positive about being 40kg overweight that happened to me though - just that I was better off than a lot of people so it wasnt so terribly bad.

There's no easy answer to this other than to just not drink so much. Space your drinks out with Water or diet coke or whatever you liek that has no calories. Stick with lower calorie drinks like wine spritzers or light beer. I find with alcohol it makes me not care any more about what I eat - and that's not with getting tipsy or drunk that's just after a glass or two. We've had a few bottles of wine open round here lately, I've had a glass almost every night with dinner and voila! Weight loss stopped. Its deadly when you're trying to lose and needs to be a very occasional one or two only really. That sucks when you're at that time of life when everyone is out drinking and its a big part of the weekend. But you cant fool your body, you just have to cut down on it to lose weight.

Ditto those exercises. I've recently began running and started fully expecting injury as the main reason why I had band surgery was due to a chronic bursitis problem in my heal and ankle. I had a year of physio, expensive orthotics and lots of strengthening exercises, then after I'd lost about 14kg I gave it a try. I took it v-e-r-y slowly at first. Would only allow myself to run 2 days per week, did the elliptical and other stuff on other days. I gradually built up and I've had "sore" days but no real trouble, the most I could say is that whilst I dont have a lot of pain in the ankle anymore ever I can feel "dysfunction" in that leg. It just doesnt feel the same as my other leg, I suspect my lower back is more responsible than any foot problem like the podiatrist thought. Shoes and orthotics help me ENORMOUSLY though, and I was told by both the physio and podiatrist that almost anyone who runs regularly (particularly heavier people) will need to go down this path eventually. I was told Brooks or Asics shoes and stay clear of Nike, that they're just fashion shoes and not really good running shoes. Have your feet assessed for inward/outward pronation and buy the right shoe, although it will cost an arm and a leg. I got a treadmill recently too and the softer surface is much kinder to me, as I'm still 18kg or so overweight. But it really hasnt taken me that long to build up - I can feel the increased strength in my legs and that's done nothing but improve the situation and reduce the risk of injury - when I started I could already run for half an hour in a cardiovascular sense, I didnt get too winded, but my lower body got so fatigued I had to stop. That's completely gone now and I can feel hard muscles under there. I think 200# is an arbitrary number, obviously a large 200# man will have the bone, muscle and ligament strength to cope with running whilst a small very overweight woman may not. Keep going, its soooooo worth it. I really believe nothing will be as good for your weightloss as running will. Just stay within your limitations, there's no rush, allow yourself rest days in between each run, that's vitally important at first, and cross train to keep up the increasing fitness and stretch stretch stretch, I spend as much time doing that as I do actually running.

Between the kids and I I wonder why I bothered buying or cooking for anyone besides Doug. Grocery shopping is a big strain on the budget, its gotten hugely expensive in Australia what with droughts, cyclones and horrendous petrol prices. I have growing almost teenage boys. But they never eat their blasted dinner becuase they're too full of between meal stuff. I do cook loads smaller amounts, poor Doug is going hungry but he could use a diet too.

Best just to ignore them. I was once a member of a site called 9Months which has been utterly ruined by trolls because people just could not ignore them, but had to bite. Some of us broke off about 3 years ago and formed a private MSN group out of which I've made lifelong real life friendships. But 9M is a joke now, its overrun with trolls.

Best just to ignore them. I was once a member of a site called 9Months which has been utterly ruined by trolls because people just could not ignore them, but had to bite. Some of us broke off about 3 years ago and formed a private MSN group out of which I've made lifelong real life friendships. But 9M is a joke now, its overrun with trolls.

That's really true. I swear the eating slow is doing much more for me than actual restriction per se. I get to about 20 minutes and I have that feeling of satisfaction, simply because Ive eaten for that long. Once upon a time I got a lot of food in in that 20 minutes, now its much less but equals similar satisfaction.

It sounds a lot like me and I've had little trouble keeping the weight coming off. The most I could say is that five months down the track now I do have to work to lose, I have to consciously say no to things, I have to keep up the exercise and make good food choices but all I'll be rewarded for for that work is a small 1lb loss per week. But really, its sure adding up over time, and my doc is so happy with how I've gone. I could lose faster with more fill I guess but at this rate I'll be at goal well before the end of the year, I wont have to go clothes shopping every 3 weeks and its healthy and gives my skin a chance to keep up. I also get a little satisfaction out of knowing that my band is helping me but I"m still thinking about what I need to do and using discipline to do it. I dont want to just only be able to eat 1/3 of a cup and just lose weight automatically. I also want to be able to continue to enjoy my life, go out and eat with friends etc. So my view on it is if you're losing then you dont really need a fill. But it doesnt mean you cant have one if that's the way you want to play it.

I dont want to be smug since I've been totally good when it comes to exercise. Im very lucky that I was not too terribly far gone when I had my band and that I'm relatively young, pretty athletic and have 50% of my weight gone and am now only about 20kg overweight. But I've been running for the past 8 weeks or so and am getting so into it. Two weeks ago my darling husband bought me a fantastic NordicTrack treadmill to supplement my outdoor running so I've been running about 5kms five or six days a week, a mix of outdoor and treadmill (most of the time). I can keep up about a 7.8km an hour pace now for 40 minutes or so. I did the Performance program on my treadmill last night though and it really whipped my ass. I've actually got a very upset tummy today, it was way too hard and I pushed myself to a heart rate of about 185 which is stupid. So rest day today. I've also been doing resistance training with some very strong resistance bands which for some insane reason I like way more than free weights. Three times a week or so. I started out slowly about 2 months before I got banded with some treadmill/elliptical and weights in the gym, now I'm seeing real results six months down the track and have the motivation to ditch my gym membership and do it alone. Having a treadmill at home means I can utilise the time I have in the afternoon and early evening to exercise rather than having to go to the gym in the morning when Eliza could go in the creche and therefore end up not doing many other things I needed to be doing - like housework, shopping, going to tutes/lectures at uni, etc. This is the only time in my life that I've started out slowly and realistically (babying a bad ankle) and actually worked at it for long enough and consistently enough to get results. That's 2-3 times a week for a couple of months and the reward is that when you get to the point where you can handle quite intense exercise five days or more a week, that's when the weight simply pours off you. I'm loving it now.

Actually I think there's something in that. I have made a concerted effort to not be on the computer as much, I used to spend hours a day on here. And everytime I find myself sitting on the couch with a coffee I tell myself I'm "acting fat" and I get up and go and do something, like clean the bathroom or vacuum the floor. I ration my computer time now, helped by the fact that our modem blew out and I havent had internet access for about two weeks. I'm here now because I'm actually completing a maths assignment due at the end of the week, lol. Its very boring, hence quick visits elsewhere. But internet boards are fun and a good way of connecting with others in your situation. I've made lifelong real friendships with people I see several times a mont on my main home on the net, basically an online mothers' group. They're more than worthwhile just not for hours and hours.

Actually I've stumbled on this too. I've never PB'd but sometimes things get stuck and cause discomfort and I hold my breath too. It seems the increase in chest pressure squeezes the esophagus closed and the pressure behind that must push the offending item through. I tried jumping up and down but that just jiggled my boosies too much, lol. Cant do that in public.

Those are good suggestions. I can eat bread and all cereals so often do toast or Cereal, I'm just too afraid of the cholesterol to eat multiple eggs daily, a couple a week is all I eat, if that. I dont like em much anyway. Yogurt is nice for breakie, I often have a carton as I dont feel very hungry in the mornings and its not too filling. Or I might slice up an apple and eat that while I'm making the kids lunches, so fruit in any form is good too. Of course my very regular breakfast of 2 or 3 cups of coffee is probably not to be recommended.