Jachut

We had a bad dose through the family 2 weeks after I was banded. I got a script from the doc and managed to avoid it but I nearly went insane thinking "do I feel sick" every 2 seconds. I think I did but didnt vomit. I am deathly afraid of vomiting (which is never as bad as you think its going to be), but although I've never PB'd I'm not so afraid of that, I can see how it's different. Its been unbelievable in Melbourne this year, I normally dont get the gastro bugs because I have a cast Iron stomach (although if there's a cold going round I'll get it and get it bad). But we've had at least 4 doses of tummy bugs since the beginning of the year, its just incredible. And it seems to be the same for everyone else, there's always another bug doing the rounds.

I cant stop looking at myself This operation has simply been miraculous. I havent broken any weight loss speed records but then I didnt have that much to lose in the first place. I'm now down to 95kg, Im fitting into a regular store size 18 (US 16), I've had my hair straightened so I now have straight silky non frizzy Jennifer Anniston Hair, I have cool clothes, not mumsy large size crap. I started running regularly a few weeks back and the weight is literally FALLING off me now, not so much in kilograms but in inches, every week I can get into something that didnt fit a week ago kind of thing. I've got a wardrobe full of stuff I've bought over time that I can now get into and I have my nice long acrylic french nails back. Instead of feeling huge and masculine I now feel divine and willowy and am enjoying towering over other people again, lol. Where my motivation was waning a few weeks back, this sudden cascade of NSV's has really fired me up again and I'm still going strong with only 1.3ml in my band, so I also have the bonus of being able to eat anything and have never even come close to PBing at 4 months down the track. I really think I've died and gone to heaven.

It is an awfully big risk to take. Any surgeon will probably tell you its possible but they cant guarantee it and I've got two friends (which is only two, of course) one of whom had a reduction and one of whom had a lift and neither was able to breastfeed. There's no saying whether they would have been able to anyway of course. I'd be more worried about spending the money. Pregnancy itself let alone breastfeeding can do a lot of damage to your breasts, they can increase hugely in size during both and you might need reconstructive work again afterwards. Afterall, you're hardly going to spend the money having a lift, get pregnant, breastfeed a baby or two or three and then not worry when they've gone to pot after that. You'll get a better result with a lift if your weight and breast size stays stable after it's been done.

Nothing to do but pick yourself up and move on. You're undoubtedly OK if you havent noticed any ill effects and really, its only human to slip up when living on such a restricted diet. Dont take it as a sign of things to come!

Size 8, you must be tiny. I can only dream! Way to go, it just gets easier and easier as you see the results doesnt it?

Sounds like a plan.

I've recently been through a plateau like that, although I did end up losing 2kg for the month. I dont want any more fill than necessary. I am really loving living a totally normal live, just eating a smaller quanity but still eating anything I desire and I dont want to mess with that. But the weight loss was slowing. I started running again for the first time in years and the weight is literally melting off now. I think the theory goes that you dont burn any more energy really than walking the same distance but I'm not really sure about that. I believe the higher heart rate and the intensity of it has your metabolism higher for hours than what you could achieve with walking and I have most definitely gained significant strenght and muscle definition in my legs. So ........... in short, take up some form of high intensity aerobic exercise, burn some serious calories. Secondly I ahd a good hard look at what I was eating. It was healthy food but I'd been avoiding bread and steak and things that are notorious for causing trouble, what I've actually found is that by including those difficult foods I get far more satiety on less food and stay fuller for longer. Its worked brilliantly, I now eat a sandwich for lunch and get thorugh 6 hours or so till dinner rather than getting starving at 3.30 in the afternoon and eating far too big a snack. Snacks for me are never as healthy as meals are. My weight seems to be moving again.

I'm never going on a diet ever ever again, lol. It honestly works for me not to diet. But I guess in doing that I did eat well before surgery (just too much) and I have a family to feed too so I do make an effort to eat from all food groups, not eat loads of fat, avoid junk food and of course portion size is taken care of. I really truly believe that as far as the actual numbers of weight loss are concerned, apart from people who suffer from insulin resistance and the like, portion sizes are all that matter. If you eat less than you burn up you will lose weight and that's as difficult as it needs to be. I dont believe in high Protein low carb diets or any other altered way of eating. I just eat what I feel like eating day to day. Today I had an apple and a banana for breakfast, a curried egg sandwich for lunch, a few crackers and we're having tacos for dinner. I eat small amounts now because of my band, I've made a big effort to get more exercise and now run regularly and the weight is just melting away. If you really have lost touch with what constitutes a healthy diet I think you cant go wrong cutting out a lot of the fat, decreasing processed carbohydrates - so avoid too much white bread, Pasta, rice etc and getting fresh fruit or veges with every meal

Jack's approach sits well with me too. I could eat 4 devilled eggs in a sitting if I cared to, but I'd find that one or two satisfied me. The meals i eat now are not so small that people would notice anything about what I"m eating, for dinner I might eat a 120g piece of steak, half a potato and a big scoop of tossed salad. I'd eat about the same amount of chicken, I'd probably take off half the breast and eat that, about a cassette tape sized portion. I couldnt eat half a chicken in a sitting. I eat a regular sized bowl of cereal in the morning, probably about a cup. I can eat a sandwich at lunchtime followed by a piece of fruit. Its all good, its working, I'm losing, but I'm prepared to exercise a fair bit in order to keep it working since I like the level of restriction I have - I can still eat normal amounts (just not overeat) and I can eat anything within reason.

And anyway, if you give up all the bad stuff do you really live longer? Or does it just feel like it?

It's impossible to say. I've got 1.4ml in a 4ml band and its working well for me, yet I dont feel "restriction" in the sense that others here have talked about it. I can and do eat anything, yet I never get those hard stops, have never PB'd, dont get full on 1/2 cup of food. Overall I'm eating way less than I used to and i eat more slowly and carefully. I can feel it with bread, I have to eat that really slowly. Yet I still cant identify with others' experience with restriction. If you're losing, its working is all I can say.

So true. I think everything in moderation is the best bet.

The main thing I have trouble with is feeling full but not being ready in my head to stop eating. Like having gone to the trouble to cook something nice, have 4 bites and be full my head is still thinking "hey! You're not done yet surely?". If I crave something like McDonalds I just have it. This isnt a diet, its an entire new way of life and to me, junk food fits right in there in very small quantities. McDonalds is most definitely not an everyday or even everyweek food. I loathe their breakfast food though. Ever since I was pregnant with Eliza when I ate a sausage and egg McMuffin every day for the first three months (and I gained no weight during that pregnancy) I havent ever been back for breakfast.

I can eat all those foods. Fluffy breads are more work but also equal filling me up wonderfully for much longer so I'm now making an effort to eat a sandwich for lunch, it really helps me avoid the mid afternoon munchies. I only eat good wholemeal breads though, not white bowel cancer bread.

Its an individual thing and will change with fills, but there's nothing on that list that should be a regular part of a healthy diet. Those are all just very very occasional treat foods, loaded with fat, salt and other nasties. You'd need to be thinking about changing what you eat as well as how much.

I was thinking about this the other day. I was sayng to some friends online (non band related site but we have a weight loss board) that I'd struck a bit of a plateau and everyone was surprised, they all thought I"d have this surgery and that the weight would just automatically fall off. But for me the really really big advantage of the band is that on bad days, during bad weeks you dont gain weight. Yep, my weight loss is slow now and yep, its 2-3 weeks to lose 5lb (and longer) but I cant just "give up" like I once would have done. I simply cant eat that way anymore. When I dont behave like a dieter - ie. when I dont keep a rough control of calories and when I dont mostly avoid fattening foods, I dont lose weight. I've had to step up my exercise and am now running regularly as well as going to the gym. That's been absolutely vital to keep weight coming off. So you have to do all the hard work still. Its just that when you have a breather or fall off the wagon a bit or simply dont try so hard for while you dont start to regain, it doesnt turn into a huge binge. And I can see now how I wont simply start to get heavier when I reach my goal weight. It really is amazing. I wanted to feel like *I* have done a lot of the work myself and I do. It's still within my personal control, its not the band doing it, its me and I'm very proud of that.

I lay on my tummy the other night to do some stretching after my run, YOUCH! I dont lay on my tummy often, its a pregnancy thing that's lingered for me and I always expect to feel that icky weird feeling of laying on your baby.

I've kind of learned that restriction is not always a wham bam in your face thing! I'd say after 2 fills I had none but when I changed what I was eating slightly to more difficult foods like bread suddenly my band is working awesomely for me. I was eating healthy, low fat foods but sticking with softer stuff, not mushies exactly but maybe tuna, chickpeas and tomatoes in a salad for lunch and was able to eat too much. Put that in bread or a wrap and I can eat way less and it sticks with me for hours. So I do have restriction, I just wasnt utilising it properly.

I honestly dont bother with this, it doesnt seem to make a difference to me. I mean I dont go drinking huge glasses of Water right after I've eaten but if I want a coffee half an hour later I have it. It doesnt seem to make me hungrier or anything. My official instructions were not to drink half an hour before a meal and for 2 hours after.

You can eat anything after banding, you wont have that dumping syndrome thing going on with sugar. I can eat bread and cake, and have done although I dont eat much cake anymore. I love muffins, lol. But it takes a lot of work to eat one, very careful eating and I find it's the slowness and carefullness of eating that makes a smaller amount of something like cake more satisfying - when I've spent 20 minutes getting one down, I'm not feeling like eating another one. Also, you say goodbye to many of those foods with far less sadness than you think you will. I simply dont care about food so much anymore, its a source of nourishment and not much else. I enjoy it of course but I might walk past Muffin Break and think hmmm "cappucino? Muffin" and can now say "nah, not worth it". I was really fearful of the changes I'd have to make until I realised that if I wanted to lose weight I had to make them, band or no band.

It could take a couple of fills to really feel restriction. But we all cheat the band to a degree. I'd been ticking along, weight loss had slowed considerably and I was thinking I needed another fill. Went to my mum's for lunch, she gave me a sandwich, something I hadnt eaten since being banded. I ate it, it took me 40 minutes to get it down, it was incredible how full I was (couldnt eat the whole thing) and how I stayed full for hours and hours and hours. It was a bit of a light bulb moment for me, disciplined though I am I was cheating the band to a degree. I shoud take advantage of the fact that I seem to be one of the lucky few that can eat bread, steak etc. So that's what I've done and guess what? food intake significantly decreased and weight moving again. Perhaps make a pact with yourself that you can have the nachos, cheeseballs, whatever it is you want only AFTER you've eaten something healthy like a sandwich. You probably wont be able to get more than a bite or two down. Eat the good stuff first and just have a taste of the other things after that. And perhaps the old dieter's trick of eating an apple before your meal might help too.

Wow, that's a huge transformation Kel. You can see how great you're going to look in a very short time. The look on your face is priceless, you look like you've been hit by a truck. Ouch ouch ouch.

If you spend the 8 grand now you could be a totally new person by the time your name would have come up on the public list. I wouldnt hesitate to spend the money and have it done privately if I could afford to. That's a whole year of your life (or more) and you only get a limited amount of them. Why waste a whole precious year waiting?

Next time my husband's work has the Franchisee Awards Night I will not have to throw a tantrum and end up in tears over not being able to find anything to wear. I will not have to wear the same stretchy pants and tunic top that I've worn for the last four years and then go and spend a gazillion dollars on hair, make up and tanning to cover the fact that I'm wearing a sack. He hates that job but I hope hes still there for one more awards night. I'm going on a clothes buying frenzy. Doug put $700 aside this month for clothes for me, and I'm blown away buy how much less normal size clothes cost. I was thinking "I want more, I want more" because it honestly wouldnt have bought that much but I've got a bursting wardrobe. I need to lose another 5kg to look good in any of it and it will only last me probably 3-4 months but who cares? I'll just go shopping again!

I shed loads of hair too, our ensuite is disgusting. Long brown hairs hanging off the light fitting, clogging the shower drains, all over the basin etc. That's totally normal for me though, I've always been this way, there's been no increase since banding. Period problems are not at all unusual when you either take up vigorous exercise or lose a lot of weight. It will sort itself out in the end for you. I've been on a long plateau now, about 4 weeks, I've lost a bit more but I think I need to face the fact that I cannot remain able to eat bread, red meat etc and still have enough restriction to keep me losing, sigh. Its about perfect right now, my intake is regular, under control but I have variety and can enjoy going out. I'm going to have a tiny tiny fill today. What's struck me as odd is that I've lost like ONE kilogram for the entire month of March yet a pair of shorts I put on five weeks ago which were tightish (I had to breath in very deeply before I sat down so the velcro fly didnt rip open) literally fell to the ground when I put them on yesterday - that's ONE kilogram difference in weight. I know people say you can be losing inches when you're not losing weight but that many? It was werid. I cant stop touching myself, lol. I feel all bony!