Jachut

My second fill really seems to have kicked in today since i had it on Monday. I'm not "tighter" in a physical sense but suddenly, my appetite has just absolutely gone. That's what I was like after surgery, not tight, just not wanting to eat. Dare I hope it will be that easy for me? Like not tight so I PB or cant eat certain things, but just not hungry. Sounds too good to be true.

I've yet to PB too after about 10 weeks and 2 fills but by golly I've had the slimes and the pressure in the chest a couple of times - always from eating too fast no matter what it is. But it's always gone down for me, although sometimes I swear it feels like whatever goes through has sharp corners. We're having friends over for dinner tomorrow night and are doing a piece of beef hickory smoked in the Weber (Kettle BBQ). I've not eaten red meat in that form yet, and I'm actually really nervous. But slow slow tiny tiny bites usually works for me.

Jenn I just do it when I go out. I only have a glass, sipped slowly anyway because usually I'm driving so I dont worry about it. And I dont find drinking in small quanitities with my meals makes any difference to me. I dont bother with Water or anything else but if it's a special meal and I want wine, I have it. Ditto to coffee half an hour or so afterwards. I'm usually only going home to bed after than anyway and am not a night eater at all so it's not problem for me.

No idea where it is, obviously in Sydney somewhere given they've climbed the bridge and been to the Sydney Olympic pool and the rock baths. I've been watching! I think force feeding them is rather sick though, geez louise. Like the loser of the climb the bridge challenge being forced to eat brunch, and the cake and hamburger under the domes the other night. That's not responsible.

Oooh, maybe.... got a really busy one as we're heading up to Sydney for the weekend 25th 26th. It would depend where it was, I probably dont have time to come to Willie this week.

Gosh, I would have thought psychological and personality factors would have been WAY too influential for physical data like that to have any real meaning? I think its more down to the determination of the person in question and their ability to make and stick with the lifestyle changes required. Sorry, that's not a criticism, just food for thought.

Dawg I get the feeling you'd be an absolute hoot in real life. Written words are harder to interpret. I always get the feeling you're tongue in cheek and have a giggle, but I think its hard for people to read the tone of what you've said. Posting that was a good idea, I really hope that clears the air for a lot of people.

This surgery was the first time I've gone under after having a pre-med. I've never been given a premed before and I remember clearly the sensation of going under from previous small surgeries - it's actually rather nice, like being really really tired and just giving into sleep. Nothing to be afraid of at all. This time I remember nothing after hopping across from the trolley onto the table. I've often wondered why it's done under general when they can deliver babies under epidural or spinal. I mean my caesarean with a very breech baby in a very high position was not gentle surgery, I was nearly shoved off the table! Perhaps its because they need to anaesthetise you to much higher up your body that they cant do it - would it be that it would paralyse your lungs and heart and therefore you have to be on a respirator to have your heart/lung function taken over artificially. Makes sense to me. Nowadays, people just dont die on the operating table from anaesthesia. Its very very rare. Even at my relatively modest BMI of 35 when I was operated on I had way more risk of dying from complications of obesity than from the surgery. That really is true.

Yes, that's what I mean. I usually go to a restaurant to catch up with my girlfriends what I pay is the price of a night out with people I care about, want to catch up with etc. The food really is secondary. I rarely go out just with Doug because we have nothing to talk about, how sad is that, lol? Like "how's the kids?" just doesnt cut it with your husband.

Actually I couldnt care less if my hubby at KFC in front of me, but I did take exception to what he did the other night, lol He poured me a glass of wine after we'd had a hard day in the garden, a big one. I hadnt had a drink for quite a while and I got completely sloshed on one glass of wine, I was slurring and giggling a the end and had to go for a little lie down. He woke me up two hours later at 7.30 pm complaining that he and the kids were hungry. Excuse me? Who broke his arms and legs. I was drunk dammit, and enjoying my little snooze. He could have made Soup and toasted sandwiches, surely?

I know - it's totally stupid. Take-away is in exactly the same containers. Something to do with it having sat out for the duration of your meal and then being packaged up and not consumed right away, whereas take away food is generally cooked, packaged, taken home and eaten. Its only a relatively recent thing. I dont care though. I still get a perverse thrill after not being able to eat my meal while everyone else gorges themselves, I'd happily pay 10 bucks to feel that good and in control, lol.

Going out to eat for me was always less about the food, more about the company. I'd rather have a glass of wine and eat practically nothing and I have no problem paying for food I'll only eat a little bit of either (doggy bags arent allowed in Australia due to health regulations). So be it, I'd rather be thin and healthy and occasionally waste some money on a meal than be my previous self.

I started off in the mushy phase, with peeled cucumber and tomato. After about 6 weeks post op I tried a proper tossed salad and it was fine.

Being pretty much "undamaged" myself I do find myself sometimes wanting to post blunter, more abrupt answers. I read a lot of these discussions and they sound like lists of excuses why people cant change. But I realise that isnt what's needed, that people know that about themselves and they're here for support and friendship. Not for debate. You can too have a discussion without contradicting standpoints, and I have thoroughly enjoyed lots of them. If I find my feelings that people just need to get with the program and get on with it taking over, I think I"ll bow out quietly, not go posting threads saying exactly that. Enough already.

I dont know, I find life with kids sucks the big one sometimes. You just give up everything for them and wait years and years and years for your life to start again. Most days of course they are the light of your life but you really get sick of being everything to everyone else sometimes. You've done this for you and perhaps you're feeling a bit jipped that you dont really get to enjoy it just for you? Everyone else's life continues as it was and the demands dont stop do they? I dont know what the answer is to that, being a complete bitch to everyone around me and throwing tantrums generally makes me feel better but you sound a bit more down than that.

Contrary to what they say to weighing daily and your natural ups and downs I find it motivating. If my weight is down that puts me on a high and gives me the renewed dedication to keep going. If it's not moved for days and days or worse, gone up I know I have to reign things in and get back to basics.

I think its down to the individual what you can get away with and what you cant. Drinking and smoking, well the band wont stop you doing that. As to foods, well you may tolerate all those, you may tolerate them for a while till your filled or you may not tolerate them at all. But I've found that all those sorts of things that I was worried about have been way easier to let go of than I ever imagined they would be.

Kellie, romance and butterflies are for the early stages of the relationship. Its OK to miss them but you also need to realise that when they go and the relationship continues, you end up with something WAY better. And also that in losing weight, you end up just being you, only smaller and healthier. It wont magically transform your life the way we all tend to think. That's probably harder to come to terms with in reality than it is to say out loud.

I think that's true and anyway, I'm coming to learn that I cant control it - all I can do is do what I should and know that in time it will come off - at the rate my body wants it to and in the way my body wants it to. Its really pointless to say for example "I want to be 90kg by April 1st". There's no way you can control that. Its better to say "I want to be lighter and healthier by April 1st".

Yes, it could be what you're eating and when you eat hard foods you need to eat very slowly and carefully. It sounds easier but I'm actually finding that the hardest thing to master about being banded. But also, I'm beginning to learn, I think you need to look for a different sort of full. For most people I think it does involve serving a smaller portion than you think you want since we tend to serve up a full plate, eating it slowly and carefully and then stopping. You wont feel stuffed as you used to, but I find if you wait 10 minutes or so you do begin to realise you've had enough. It's satiety you're looking for not fullness.

Cripes you've had a shocker of a time lately! I'm sorry you have to go through all of that.

See, I think it's a bit like the calories in versus calories out equation. There can be SO many things affecting the balance and making it nigh on impossible for people to lose in any individual's body but in the end that's what weight loss boils down to. Take in less calories than you expend and you lose. And so with willpower. Whatever emotional, psychological issues cause you to be what you are, what goes in your mouth is at the very heart of it simply your choice. So it is about willpower to a large degree. Dont underestimate how much of that you are employing to lose weight with the band. It is so easy to just graze all day or eat easy foods or whatever and you dont. You do have willpower.

Its interesting you say that because I'm a bit the same. I havent PBd ever yet but I do get discomfort if I eat too fast (ie. normally) but like you I find if I eat slowly I eat what I consider too much. What I have noticed though is that I finish my meal (which is good bandster size, that's just what I serve myself) and still feel I'd like a bit more but if I wait, in about 10 minutes that feeling just goes away and I dont want it anymore. I dont know how to explain it, somehow I "know" when to stop without any warning signal from my body that I could put my finger on, but that comes before my head says its ready, therefore I have this "hmm, maybe a little dessert?" feeling. But like I said, 10 minutes and that's gone and I know I'm full. The thing is I think a lot of people still look for and expect that really "full" feeling like you used to have after you've finished a huge meal. I find that now, fullness to me isnt what it was, I cant achieve that feeling because my lower stomach isnt that full, but there's just a different kind of feeling that tells me to stop, but I really cant describe it, its just something I know. Do you think you could be failing to read your body's signals and eating past that?

Whilst I havent cut out eating anything, special treats included, I do not have anything like that in the house. I make Cookies for the kids but I make them from scratch so they're not full of crap and chemicals. We only really have healthy food here and I tend to throw away fattening leftovers from dinner parties, I like to enjoy the meal on the night and then be over it. If I really have a hankering for something, I have it, but I have to go out and buy it. But then I've come to learn that perhaps I'm very lucky in that the type of cravings others suffer from are foreign to me, I've gotten fat through being busy and failing to pay attention to what's going in my mouth, eating for convenience and eating on the run. But I learned long ago that I cant have certain things around - muffins, cakes, cookies (the kids eat them ALL when I bake them), or I will eat them, and I wont stop till they're gone.