Jachut

However much it ends up being you could lose a lot of weight by then. The best thing about losing weight too is that you dont have to get to any particular goal, you start to feel better immediately and you feel awesome pretty darn quickly. 12kg down I dont look an awful lot different yet, specially since I'm tall and have lots of places to hide weight, but gosh I feel fantastic.

I could have done it easily, no exaggeration. If it was a desk job. I packed off my 3 year old to my mum's house, had the house to myself, and was anticipating lazing around, having an afternoon sleep, instead I was climbing the walls by 10 am and went shopping. I had a bad day or two where the anaesthetic caught up with m e though, a couple of days later, where I had a few fainting spells but even that passed. To me this operation was an absolute cinch.

I had appointments with 2 but my appointment with the surgeon I didnt use was about 2 months after my appointment with Mr Crosthwaite, I liked him a lot so I never saw the other guy.

I type lots of things and then dont post them. I always think "does this add anything" and if it's just rehashing, if I actually feel like saying something to someone in particular or I'm just pushing my opinion when it realy doesnt add alot, I dont post it. If someting feels like it's directed at me - which hasnt ever happened on this board by the way - I think about it a while before I retaliate.

Mmm I had a toasted cheese sanga for breakie this morning. I havent sworn off anything, but I've only had one fill so that may change.

My husband bitches and moans about how I spend $11 on an eyebrow wax or OK $200 on a cut and colour. He is an accountant, BOY is he an accountant. Every penny spent in this household is budgetted, computerised, accounted for. I know that toilet paper was $1.99 for 8 rolls in 1993, because it's still there on our computer. So I cop flack all the time about how irresponsible I am for not wanting to go round grey haired with eyebrows like a man. Apparently its my fault we're not rolling in it. So why then, is it OK to pull out the entire front garden becuase it's a bit "messy", leave it bare for 2 freaking years, and then expensively, extravagently relandscape it, thereby spending $5,000 that wasnt necessary. I cant figure it out. But wait, he's also now pulled out the entire backyard - which wasnt as messy as the front, that's now been sitting bare for 18 months and this weekend he's out there, having spent $1,000 on timber to erect slatted screens around the pergola. And he reckons my $11 eyebrow wax once every 8 weeks is the problem. Sheesh.

There's plenty of people around who didnt have to do a pre op liquid diet. I was one of them, but I thought I'd have a go anyway for the "kick start". I sucked at it, lol and fainted after 3 days at which point my surgeon said the only reason for it is liver shrinkage and that he didnt consider I needed that. Therefore not to do the diet because the weight you lose is muscle tissue and Water, and very little fat and therefore it's not really that great a kick start. It's done for medical necessity only. Not all doctors agree that it's necessary and not all doctors recommend it. I didnt have to do it because I had a relatively low BMI of 36.

I've never been a fainting female but I just did some pretty serious gagging. Doug ran up from the family room to see if I was OK. Too funny.

I so know how you feel on this one. I have spent 3 years learning not to inject my opinion loud and clear, to the exclusion of everyone else. I belong to a private MSN group, which is pretty much a mother's group online, we have all been together for four years or so and these women are my closest friends, as it has translated into real life as well. But my golly, did I get in some "debates" in the early days. On things like private schools, which suburbs to live in, whether 4WD's ought to be driven in the city, anything you can think of. I can be very opinionated and I've sooooo often wished I'd just shut my damn trap, said one thing and not continued to argue and argue and argue. I dont know how these girls love me for what I am but they do. I have learned so much from the more broadminded and liberal attitudes others have and I'm a better person for it. Not that I'm saying you need that - I'm just saying I understand that horrible feeling of regret when you think you've said too much. I love your posts. You always have something considered and interesting to say and you're bloody funny to boot. You have absolutely nothing to apologise for. You've been through a lot and therefore I respect what you have to say on the matter.

Well I've been bigmouthing about how I wont need a tummy tuck, no stretchmarks blah blah blah. But 12kg down, everything is lookign decidedly looser, lol. Perhaps I'll be eating my words. But for me, I plan to wait until I'm at goal weight and assess it then. And for me it also means to be at the lower end of my healthy weight range - you can still carry a fair bit of fat on your stomach at the upper end. I would never go through an operation that big if losing another 10kg would half solve the problem. And lastly I'm prepared to accept a bit of flab there. I dont get around in belly baring clothes afterall. I dont need to look perfect, just blend with the crowd. There's an awfully big scar with a tummy tuck that in my mind is worse than a female contoured tummy. So - depends on the extent of the problem, but I would wait till I was at goal.

Well without having read all the posts in between, that just rammed home two things for me. One, there are many doctors making a buck with obesity surgery who have no freaking idea of the emotional journey we take when we undergo it. Choosing a surgeon for this is like choosing an obstetrician, its somebody who you hope to have a long respectful relationship with and I've been appalled at stories I've heard from people about how little understanding their doctors have shown. TYou bare your soul to them afterall. This was just another example. What, is weight loss surgery the next big money spinner, but you hate fat people? And two, how very glad I am that I live in Australia. For a measly $3,000 I have my band AND I have guaranteed aftercare FOR EVER and that INCLUDES revision surgery if necessary. I know our health systems operate very differently but this should be the case for everyone.

We eat dinner at about 7pm and I dont eat after that generally

My dietician told me well steamed vegies were considered mushies anyway. So I wouldnt worry about it. Six weeks is a common time to get a fill. I was pretty restricted and very unhungry for about five weeks, I was thinking I wouldnt have that first fill when it was scheduled but in the week following, I suddenly got hungry. The first fill hasnt really made a difference, but I certainly cant eat as much at a sitting.

Hee Hee, very romantic!

I so dont want to go from one bad habit to another - ie. overeating in the daytime (I've never ever had a problem with night time eating) to eating all my food at night. I would go so far as to say that if any particular fill takes me to a point where I cant eat in the morning, I will be back having that fill removed pronto. I just want to be able to eat 3 small meals a day and if I have to be unfilled enough that that requires some willpower and ignoring of head/stomach hunger (ie. the late arvo munchies) then so be it. I am pretty sure I can manage that, I'm blessed that I wasnt truly a disordered eater in the first place, just lost my way a little. Heck, I'm losing well now and have barely noticeable restriction. It just isnt good for you to eat almost your whole day's intake and then go to bed with it sitting in your stomach. I've heard that theory before and it makes perfect sense to me, plus your metabolism works much better if you spread your intake evenly over the day.

Once you're back on a normal diet, its Ok to eat anything as long as it goes down without problems. The only reason bread and rice are mentioned so often is becuase they are common problem foods, not because they're inherently evil and must be avoided by everyone.

I think it was about 1 week for me, I had a glass of bubbly, and then a week later it was Christmas so I had more glasses! I generally am happy to have a drink whenever I go out or over to mum's for dinner or anything like that however these days I have one, before dinner and then stop drinking. I'm still open enough that if I had 2 or 3 I'd say "what the hell" and overeat, the way alcohol tends to make you do.

Golly, she's beautiful, remember to enjoy every single moment, it just goes too darn fast. However already having 3 little treasures myself is what got me into this mess and considering I have taken considerable pains to ensure I dont have any more I would be more than a bit pissed off to find myself up the duff again, lol.

I've got a couple for this week. Yesterday I hit double figures, I now weigh under 100kg and only have about 8kg to go before I'm merely overweight instead of obese. Today I called into the gym very quickly, as I have to go out, so I just wanted to clock up 40 minutes on the treadmill. I picked a hill program, set level 10, speed 6.5 kms per hour. I could not get my heart rate over 119 for love nor money, I physically cannot walk any faster than that or I'd have to jog and the incline at times was at 8! So I've gotten LOADS fitter. And my ankle didnt even give me a twinge. I am so freaking happy today.

Oh boy, perhaps he's had a bit of a rush of blood away from his head? Tee hee.

Jamie, I have the opposite problem. My husband bitches and moans about $11 for an eyebrow wax and just about has heart failure everytime I get my grey hairs coloured, yet he's just about saved every penny for the boob job at the end. I'm not even sure I want to have one (whether I need it or not), but he seems set on the idea!

Wow, that's a big decision. I dont reckon you looked like you needed much work, but we all hide a few secrets under our clothes, lol. It's only half a kilo a week or so, you can do that. Maybe shake something around with your gym and eating routine, that might help with a quick loss. Now the smoking, never been a smoker so I cant imagine how hard that must be but you do NOT want your nipples to fall off. That ought to be incentive.

Oh, quickies. I soooo wish he was into quickies. A man can be too darn considerate and attentive at times. He'd get it a lot more often if it didnt require me to stay away for an hour and a half. Ten minutes and then sleep, now I'd be up for that nearly every single night. No sir, every time it has to be the full on thing, it must be earthmoving for me, blah de blah. Sometimes you just want to bonk, you know?

Just like my food too much I'm afraid!

I had a BMI of 36 on the day of surgery and I've lost well and I think pretty fast - 12kg or so in less than 2 months. I've lost faster than many people I know who weighed far more than I did. I feel getting banded before my BMI got lots higher had several major advantages to me. Number one, I was still reasonably fit and limber, so no building up from walking a mile kind of thing - I already exercised before my surgery and can handle the major type of exercise needed to really rip weight off you, I do a LOT of very hard exercise. Number 2, my eating habits had not really slipped that far. I wasnt focussing on them and had kind of lost my way but I havent found making the changes I needed to to get weight coming off steadily in the least bit difficult - and I have no real restriction yet either. And thirdly my surgery was quick, easy and uncomplicated, in fact my surgeon was pleased because it was over in 40 minutes and he had a bit of time up his sleeve as he had a very full list that day. I recovered very quickly and I also didnt have to do that awful Optifast diet. I think I caught myself before I really descended into obesity. This operation was in large part a preventative for me. It was also about vanity - at 38 I still want to look young, good, fashionable. I was tired of wasting money on getting my nails done or buying tons of clothes when what would make the most difference was losing a lot of weight.