Jachut

I drank a bottle of diet coke the other day because DH bought me one and I had no trouble with it, other than it tastes like a bottle full of chemicals, lol. I dont drink fizzy drinks anyway - except for champagne, lol. And all the rest, yes I can eat anything. Even bread now which initially caused me discomfort.

Hehe, I love getting up in the morning and turing the puter on - because of the time differences you've all been busy while I've been sleeping. I always have at least 4 pages of New Posts to go through guaranteed, takes me 2 cups of coffee, while the kids are still asleep.

Gosh, I wish I lived over there. I want some new undies. Do you know everything half reasonable stops at size 16 here (US 14) and if you need larger, it's either the dreaded grandma full brief or just very boring plain knickers. Although I laybyed this the other day in a 16D and matching knickers: http://www.bendonlingerie.com.au/products/range.asp?rangeID=313 How divine is that? But I dont know when (or if) it will fit. Its just so prtty I want it anyway.

Yay for being a trendsetter!

When you're anaesthetised they stick a big tube down your throat. I've had a couple of surgeries in my lifetime and have often had a very sore throat afterwards, they're not very gentle. I'd say you've had bleeding in the back of your throat and that's what's coming out.

It might take several fills. My first fill has made no difference to me in that way. I'm dieting, the old fashioned way.

Oh, please dont think I was being flippant about it, I know it's major surgery. Just turned out to be very easy for me, didnt hold me back for more than the day I was in hospital. Then again I dropped 2 babies in less than an hour each time and was back to full duties less than a week after a caesarean, I dont seem to feel pain a lot and I seem to heal really quickly.

I was very achey and sore over my left hip after my fill, but it went away within a day or two. It's probably the same type of thing.

Sounds like you've lucked out a little with how fast you've healed and the swelling gone down. Believe me, once you've healed and before you're filled you do feel about 99% as you used to. I find all that it's doing for me right now is that I cant eat fast and I can eat less, but not a helluva lot less. However I pretty much got a six week easy ride where the weight just fell off and I didnt have to make an effort at all. You're just going to have to grit your teeth and hang on because it's very important for the next month that you dont deviate from your post-op instructions. If you're very hungry, I found proper home made Soups really helped out, blend them up but I could tolerate thicker liquids easily enough and it did feel way better than juice, milk etc. And mushies isnt really hard, you can eat loads of variety.

I've got 3 kids, lol. So, I clean the house, take kids to and from school, take kids to and from sporting activities, clean the house, take kids to and from friends houses, grocery shop constantly, clean the house, take Eliza to and from kinder, swimming and play group, grocery shop, clean the house, go to uni, visit my mum, clean the house, grocery shop, catch up with friends and their toddler's at each other's houses for the kids to play, keep up with forums, clean the house, grocery shop, run errands, window shop, clean the house and grocery shop. If I have time I do a bit in the garden and I do at least 2 loads of laundry every single bleeding day, in the washer, out on the line, bring it in, fold it all, into the respective wardrobes. I never sit still apart from when I'm on the computer.

There's actually a new recognizeable leg disorder caused by tight lowriders - where the leg goes numb from pressure in a nerve that crosses the front of the hip. I like low rise jeans. Relatively low rise jeans that is, I cant stand "women's cut" jeans that go to your waist. Ugh. When low rise jeans werent the norm, I bought mens jeans for their lower rise. Much more flattering, much more funky and much MUCH more comfortable. They dont cut off your lungs when you sit down and you dont need to undo them after you eat. I manage to find them just the right rise, not super low, so that I dont have my undies hanging over the top (although the day I buy a full brief will be the day I go into a nursing home) and I dont have yards of bare back showing everytime I sit down either. I think you get used to lower rises, and skinny women certainly seem comfortable in the super low ones, so unfortunately do lots of chunkier women, that muffin top is not a great look.

Dawg, I'd like to take the opportunity to say the reason that Rolf AND the Minogue sisters and (any other soapie turned songstress for that matter) have all defected to the UK in search of fame and fortune is that Australian's do not listen to that crud. I feel I must stand up for myself and other Aussies on this board to defend our musical tastes. Bringing up Rolf and Kylie is not fair play! Though I'm pretty sure Rolf did a Cleo centrefold way back in the 70's.

Dawg, you're on thin ice today boy, lol. Yes, I mean like Poison or Winger, ugh. And NO Rolf Harris does not have a place in my collection, nor g-r-o-a-n does Kylie. How about Rolf does Kylie? That could be interesting.

It was me that ate the cheeseburger. It was one of those situations where the kids were starving, Doug and I were starving, it was dinner time and we still had a 2 hour drive ahead of us to get home. I think I made a better choice than a quarterpounder, large fries and a coke. I aimed to do the least damage calorie wise as I could. I ate yogurt for Breakfast and a salad for lunch that day and that was all. I think a cheeseburger and fries as a once in say 3 months thing is not a problem at all. I just ate a chocolate biscuit too! But I only ate one. That is a huge victory, not a failure.

I totally agree with you, and I have approached this in exactly that way, and have had good success without much in the way of restriction so far. I've pretty much dieted. The first few weeks were really easy because I did have restriction but since week 5 I've been able to eat anything and my appetite has returned to normal. It's not rocket science, eat what I used to eat and I will return to my previous weight. I'm holding on now, cant manage to keep the intake low enough to keep the weight coming off at that rate without more fill. What I tell myself though is when I find myself frustrated at people's choices, I just thank my lucky stars that I got banded before I got to the point where I was not capable of making good choices and holding on for restriction to finally hit. There are people here all along the spectrum of disordered eating and where I know that I simply dont eat pizza or ice cream or chocolate there are other people who just dont have that strength yet. It's going to take them a bit longer to get there. It does come down to basic maths, energy in versus energy out but there's an awful lot of emotion and dysfunction clouding the path. It's not that easy for everyone just to throw out the old and bring in new habits. But you've said it very well and the tough love thing I'm sure is appreciated.

Well I bet I'm the only one with a husband who has tried sleeping upside down in bed because he's worried about the electricity meter box on the outside wall behind the bedroom giving him a brain tumor!

I'm at pretty much the same stage, maybe my fill has kicked in a bit more though. We had McDonalds the other day out of sheer necessity and the salads there are soggy and disgusting. So I ate a cheeseburger and small fries, slowly. I was full after that, well and truly so I can certainly not eat as much as I did prebanding. I'm not sure I would have gotten through a quarterpounder, but I'm pretty sure what I eat is just going through without much hindrance. I find I've got the hungries in the afternoon and I'm starving by midday for lunch again so I definitely need more in there. Compare it to the old days. If you're anything like me you'd eat the quarterpounder and fries and then an hour later decide you'd blown it anyway and keep on eating for the rest of the day. You say you were still full 5 hours later, so that's probably a good sign. If you just eat the burger and fries and then go through to dinner, that's one up on the old days Lou, it all happens in tiny steps. Its frustrating to not be where you want to be but if you think about it you probably have made good progress towards gaining control of your eating. I doubt you've stretched your pouch, I reckon you just need to be filled more and it takes some people longer than it takes others. Most of what I've lost I lost while I still had restriction following surgery, its slowed down so much now and I just want to get it moving again. I hope you're OK and that these big life changes will see you right.

I love folkey, acoustic kind of stuff but generally Australian - Paul Kelly, Deborah Conway, not sure if any of them would even be heard of in the States. Love John Butler. I grew up on Country music but dont like it so awfully much, it's Ok but I'd never listen to it on purpose. I love good Aussie pub rock, bands like Cold Chisel, Midnight Oil, again Australian artists you may not have even heard of. I do like most things, everyday pop - its pretty good. I like Greenday and Maroon 5 a lot, but will listen to nearly anything. We have a pretty eclectic CD collection. I wouldnt say I like a particular "style" of music just that certain artists appeal and they're all very different. I loathe stadium rock though - bands like Bon Jovi, and those bleeding heart rock ballads, ugh.

It's covered here anyway so no need. But in the situation like in the States where it isnt, I would be prepared to pay a modest amount to ensure totally covered aftercare. Nothing like $50K though, you may as well keep it in the bank and only use if if you needed to.

I dont know about there but here Flu shots prevent influenza - which is mainly a respiratory disease. They wont prevent gastro at all. Three days after I got home from hospital after getting my band my oldest son started vomiting and it became obvious we had a bug in the household. G-r-o-a-n. He was right by next day and son no. 2 started up. I went straight to the doctor and got a script for some anti nausea medication, which I held off taking until Doug started chucking too. Given we sleep in the same bed I thought I was a goner so I started taking my medication. I felt like utter crap for a few days but couldnt figure out if it was the medication or whether I was sick, and the anticipation of getting sick and vomiting was way worse than the actual event could have been, lol. Anyway I had a night of having hot flushes which I think was fever so I'd say I had the bug and didnt get the vomiting. Given that it was going round everywhere and I didnt contract it later either I'd say the medication worked for me. I've got plenty of it left to keep for future cases.

You're so right PhotoNut. This week, I've eaten really badly and it's reminded me that it was ME doing the work the last 8 weeks and it will continue to be ME doing the work for the next 8 months. The main difference to me is I can get back up on the wagon after a little spill.

I dont get defensive about it personally. I mean, it is way easier than trying to diet without the band. You can have a breather, you can plateau, you can get through Christmas and even if you do gain, it's only going to be a little. And when you lose the weight, it stays lost. Previously without the band hunger did my head in. Now I dont have to "diet" because I dont really get hungry. What's not easier about that? BUT - that doesnt make me somehow morally weaker or less tenacious than the next person. If someone wants to think that's cheating, then that's their problem.

It's been done in Australia for over decade too. On the Australian forums I keep up with it certainly isnt one person after another eroding but that's not to say it doesnt happen. There's less people on those boards than on this one for starters. All you can really know with certainty is that for most people most of the time the band is still performing well 10 years down the track. But erosions and slippage and all that stuff happens in Europe and Australia too.

We saw it at the drive in on Saturday night with the kids. It was soooo bad, lol. It will be a flop anyhow, wont be on the screens for long. It's no different to any other stereotypical movie though. Legally Blonde was on the telly last night, that's just as bad. If you're blonde or good looking you cant possibly have a brain type of thing.

I didnt think I'd be back so soon to say I'm feeling the same way now, lol. I just cant get my act together the last few days and I've stopped losing, I've really only lost 1.5kg since my fill on 19 Jan. Sigh. I think I might actually track points with Weight Watchers for a while. And I was going great in the gym but as always happens soon after I really get into exercise, I'm sick. I got a stinker of a cold, really bad headaches for days and sooooooo tired. I know from past experience if I push it at the moment, I'll end up with bronchitis or something. So I'm having a little break from the gym for a few days. I'm having another fill next Monday so perhaps that will kick start me anyway.