Jachut

Ok I was in a Australian 12 at 13 years old! That's about a US 10. And you know what? I wasnt fat! I was tall and big but I was not overweight at that point in my life.

There's also Iron to consider. If you're eating as badly as you say you could be anaemic, which would make you very tired. Get yourself checked out Nykee. Most of those things take nothing more than blood tests to ferret out.

Sounds like a good one. I had an enormous hoover top loader that died after over a decade of service - and I do about three to four loads a day with 3 kids so it gave plenty of service. We bought an LG frontloader, man what a piece of utter crap that is. It's been fixed 3 times under warranty in 12 months. The minute the warranty finishes we'll buy a new washer.

I loooooove lamb and it's also very Australian because we have so many sheep, we eat a lot of it here. We eat it probably twice a week but its horribly horribly expensive in Australia due to the drought. I've eaten roast lamb, but I did get a little uncomfy when I tried to eat a little loin chop. Those are much tougher. Well have to get to posting a few Aussie recipes, like a good pavlova or pumpkin scones!

Yeah, I wouldnt mix it with lettuce or anything *shudder*. It's a lone thing or just with cheese.

You must have rice crackers there? The round ones that come in flavours like Cheese and Barbecue, those are so yummy and 10 of them are only 1 point on Weight Watchers. You can literally eat the entire packet and not have done any damage. They're very low fat but probably sky high MSG and salt to give them the flavour, lol

This was my biggest problem preband, for me the limit I could reach was about 8kg lost, I would feel better, feel thin (even though I'd been horrified when I hit that particular weight on the way up) and lose my mojo. I love love love exercise, but I'd let it slide, start putting the weight back on. I've gotten past that previous limit with the band but I still expect the same thing will hit me somewhere down the track. Perhaps try something different exercise wise? Something that you'll have a bit of excitement and enthusiasm for for a while. It's not great for you to do the same old same old for ages anyway.

Saturday 20th Jan Breakfast: (went out ) eggs Benedict and 2 lattes Late Afternoon: An orange Dinner: 1 slice deli roast beef and mixed salad, low fat pesto mayonnaise Sunday 21st Breakfast: oatbran with fruit, with more tinned fruit on top Lunch: 2 Ryvitas with hummus, tomato and cheese, 2 apricots Afternoon: 2 lattes at a lap band forum meet up Dinner: Cold roast chicken and mixed salad Sunday spent 1.5 hours at the gym It was a SCORCHER of a weekend in Melbourne, hence the cold dinners. 43 degrees celcius yesterday!

Yay for you Kel. I remember that feeling, 2 years ago I got into the Bachelor of Primary Education at Deakin. I absolutely love being a uni student, I only have a part time load at the moment, and it's perfect. Something interesting to do, a little bit of pressure to keep me on my toes and motivated and plenty of time still to be a mum and to work on myself. Life is what we make of it and that's a few enormous steps you've taken.

Oh yeah, I talked myself out of it very quickly, the thought of living without my little comfort foods and the like, I just couldnt face it. I feared I would be one of the few to fail with the band, I feared the surgery, I felt guilty at appropriating money that my family could use for what was really a vanity operation as my health wasnt bad and I convinced myself my ankle problem was not a result of my weight. Trouble is, I knew deep down that I had really begun to feel my excess weight in the past year or so and that my condition wasnt static. It was going to worsen if I didnt face up to it and do something. So I really had to bite the bullet and make myself go and see a surgeon (I cancelled initial appointments with 2 surgeons twice). I was almost taken aback that he really didnt even question me, afterall I had a BMI of 35, but he saw all my reasons as entirely appropriate and told me to give him my final answer after the information evening. It was the information evening that convinced me, the sheer statistical futility of trying to lose 36kg and keep it off was confronting. So I did it, six and a bit weeks ago and I havent had a moment's trouble or one single regret since.

Well, you've gotta admire people with persistance. But there comes a point where persistance morphs into plain stupidity. Like my mother when I told her I was thinking about being banded "why dont you go back to Weight Watchers, it works soooo well for me". Yeah right Mum, that's why youve joined at least once a year for the last 25 years. I just roll my eyes at that now. I'm smarter. But I get extremely annoyed at the WLS is taking the easy way out attitude. There's been plenty of work on my part - the band doesnt go to the gym or run on the treadmill or get through the circuit class that was so hard it made me want to vomit last Wednesday does it? Nor does it choose most of what I eat, it just controls my appetite.

Hahahaha, brace yourself you will be absolutely horrified. If you're not brought up on it the look of it and the smell is enough to scare you away before you even taste it. Have you ever had Promite or Marmite, its similar but they're way inferior. Its a thick black yeast spread. Completely black. It's kind of salty would be the best way to describe it, but its choc full of B Vitamins. I like it spread v-e-r-y thinly on buttered toast and I love it with butter on crackers too. But you dont eat a big spoonful of it or you'll probably blow the top of your head off. It looks and smells waaaay worse than it tastes, its actually very nice. But to Aussies it's a cultural icon so we're game, to everyone else its very scary looking.

I think most people lose weight no matter how well or badly they eat. But I'm the fruit and veg nazi, my kids eat their 2 fruit and 5 veg every single day and so do I. They are the most important foods, with all thier Vitamins, minerals, antioxidants. You really have to experiment with finding ones you like and ways of cooking - for instance have you tried grating zucchini and carrot into bolognaise sauce, or hiding them in hamburgers and all sorts of stuff like that. You need them for fibre as well and you should eat lots of colours of veges every day. There's no point getting thin on nothing but Protein and getting scurvey! If you really cant stomach anything like that, make sure you take loads of vitamins.

Can I qualify my answer lest it sound a bit irresponsible - it IS important that you try to do it, due to the liver shrinkage. I really just meant that so far, not so good, but pick yourself up and keep going, not that it doesnt matter whether or not you do it at all.

My doc usually prescribes Optifast pre surgery, but I didnt officially have to do it because I had a BMI of 35. I had a go and failed miserably, I think I would need a gun held to my head to stick with that. But on the morning of surgery, I wasnt weighed, merely asked for an estimate by the anaesthetist (which is standard practice for any surgery here), and I hadnt actually seen my doc for about 6 weeks. In short, my doc wouldnt have had ANY idea whether I'd done the Optifast or not. Not having actually eyeballed my liver pre surgery he also wouldnt really have known how big or fatty it was either. So if you can pull yourself together a bit, take a deep breath and resolve to stick to the diet from now, I wouldnt cancel your surgery. And dont be too hard on yourself, if it were that easy you wouldnt need a band would you?

It's not so much wanting to drink while I eat but wanting a coffee after I've eaten that I struggle with. To be honest, I stick to it when it suits me but times when I'm out and you might buy lunch and a coffee at the same time I just do it. But I dont tend to feel " restriction" as such, the band seems to work for me by just deadening my appetite, so even after one fill, I really dont feel like it washes everything through faster. I think everything's going through anyway so it makes no difference, but with the very small appetite I have I really wouldnt need to be any tighter for a while. So short answer, I dont worry about it. My doctor said " it's up to you, see how it makes you feel".

I got 1.5 the other day and feel nothing, but I supposed I might within the next 2 weeks. But to me, being banded feels like being on an appetite suppressant. I dont have any trouble with any foods and I dont have any real STOP signal, no feeling, no pain, I just know I've had enough. But the main effect is just no interest in food whatsoever. I was getting a little peckish before the fill and it's gone away again and I actually forgot to eat all day to day, but actual restriction? Nup. Nor do I think I need to actually feel restriction at all as long as my appetite stays away like it has. I dont care because it's working anyway but I guess the point is everybody's completely different.

Maybe lie him on a pillow. I could have breastfed pretty easily after surgery, it honestly wasnt very sore.

I think you should be trying to find the balance between eating the most you can and still lowing weight. Better for you allround. Health wise, metabolism wise, sanity wise.

I stuck to the full cup diet, lol. I think I've lost plenty. I do think it's a bit more important to listen to your body than to follow rules like that but I wouldnt eat any more than a cup.

I am so incredibly happy I did this. I think people close to me had doubts because I wasnt so incredibly obese to begin with. I think they all thought it was too drastic. But I've had NO trouble with any foods, yet have lost almost 10kg - in fact I'm down about 12 from my all time high - and I've NEVER lost that much weight all at once before. Let alone kept it off! But even better than the weight loss is my new relationship with food. It just doesent control me anymore, I eat to live now not the other way round.

And NO age limits Jenny :-) Would love to meet you.

That sounds good. What about after school holidays are over? Chapel St is reasonable central, a good location.

I think I've missed the 18th Jan but cant remember now what I ate anyway. But I recall I did a Boot Camp Circuit class that nearly had me vomiting, it was so hard. Am I weird that I got a huge high from that and was on cloud 9 all day. Like, I got through it! 19th January ( had my first fill at 9.30 am a few hours after breakfast) Breakfast: 2 weetbix with sliced banana and skim milk Lunch: a very tiny amount of a mushroom chicken Pasta salad and a latte at the pool with Mum and the kids Dinner: 1 lentil burger with tomato sauce, a spoonfull of potato salad and some regular garden salad.

Hmm, maybe go visit her when she's 60 and has a broken hip and is really really wrinkly, and unhealthy due to malnutrition. You dont want that. It's just not worth it. Skin and bones is not beautiful, vibrant healthy people are beautiful.