Jachut

I've found that there's a big cultural difference around what we eat as our normal diet in Australia and what we view as balanced versus what is more normal in the US. The main thing I've noticed is the Protein thing. The high protein low carb diet has been pretty much maligned and debunked in our culture - NOT that I'm saying that's correct or right or having a go at anybody here - and we're led much more towards a different balance of protein and carbs. I think Australia has realised that the high carb/low fat diet that became de rigeur during the 80's is not working to make the population slimmer and healthier and there's more of a move towards a low GI diet containing more protein and a smaller quanity of wholegrains. Although the CSIRO Wellbeing Diet copped a hiding in The Age recently, the cynical journo making note of the fact that it's sponsored by the meat and Livestock industry. Interestingly in Dr. John Tickells new book he notes that the longest living populations in the world eat loads of Beans, legumes, fruit and veg, lots of fish and only about 200g of red meat a week. On a practical note for bandsters I was told to only include nutritional drinks/protein shakes during the liquid phase and then abolish them forever, along with all other calorie laden liquids in favour of a solid diet. I was also told to eat 2 cups of vegetables a day, um, how I'm supposed to manage that much I have no idea. I just think we're so blessed in this country to have the wonderful range of fresh produce that we do and its still very easy and cheap to eat a totally fresh diet without relying on packaged foods. I personally think the less human intervention in what I eat the better, and I like to stick with organic produce despite the cost, better for me, better for my kids. I get wonderful organic fruit and veg delivered in a box every Friday. I agree to avoid white bread, white rice and white Pasta - I think there's something in the theory of fat storage and insulin imbalanced and I'm only just weaning off mushies but I like to start my day with a high fibre Cereal like All Bran, oatmeal or Weetbix with fruit, I have some sort of salad, usually with a legume like chickpeas and maybe some cottage cheese for lunch and dinner has basically been a protein and vegetables. I've had the odd thing like a few chewy toffees, Christmas pudding or the odd glass of wine and I try to include yogurt and fruit for Breakfast every couple of days and try to eat some fruit for an afternoon snack. I'm supplementing with a multi Vitamin and a bit of Iron. I'm happy with this balance, my body runs well on it which is all that really matters, I think this whole protein balance thing depends really on what YOUR body runs best on. But I'd be very worried to be eating lots of protein foods and only a spoonful or so of vegetables with a meal, not getting my fruit in. Fast track to bowel cancer if you ask me. I think probably high protein works great to zap weight off but its my whole body I want to be healthy, I dont just want to be thin. Anyway, its working for me. Everybody neesd to do what they feel best doing and what they've been instructed to do by their dieticians/surgeons.

I paid a once only $3,000 to my surgeon which covers his gap, and fills and aftercare (as well as any necessary revision surgery) forever. Medicare and health insurance covered the rest.

Much more calorie efficient to eat your protein because it comes with lots of other vitamins and minerals which you then dont have to go to other foods to find.

2nd JAn Breakfast: All bran w chopped apricots Lunch: small can of baked Beans Dinner: oven baked fish, mashed vegetables.

You can just about guarantee your basal metabolic rate is at least that much, probably way more. Best ways to break through plateaus include different types of exercise, change your routine completely, focus more on something you havent been focussing on so much for example. Change what you're eating, when you're eating it - like six small meals a day instead of 3, even try eating more! Plateaus are natural, they dont mean you're doing something wrong.

Well I guess I'll reconsider after fills and on a totally solid diet but at the moment I dont have any trouble at all drinking with meals. I've only done it a couple of times - when I've been out over Christmas/New Year and wanted to have a glass of wine with dinner. I still got full and I still stayed full. I have way more trouble waiting the requisite 2 hours after a meal to drink, I often want a cuppa sooner than that and to be honest I've just had it. Again, I stay full, it doesnt seem to wash anything through and make me hungry at all. I'm going to listen to my body on this one, if it doesnt make me hungry sooner, I'll continue to drink when I want to. It may of course be loads different when I've had a fill and am on a more solid diet. But if I were you I'd take small sips throughout my meal and only worry about it if you appear to get inappropriately hungry too fast and/or stop losing weight.

Oh, but I get a definite feeling of fullness, exactly the same as before, pretty quickly on a lot less food. I have no trouble recognising it, it feels just the same as it always did, just sooner.

It hasnt been like that so far for me at all. I drink normally and I eat just a bit slower - but I'm still eating relatively soft foods. I will have to slow down and chew more as I introduce more foods but having to take an hour to eat a meal isnt realistic either. I was told 20 minutes or so max, much longer and the food would already be passing through the stoma while I was still eating.

Mine havent changed on the way up so probably wont on the way down, but I have size 10 feet which is pretty much the largest easily available women's shoe here (its about a 41-42 in your sizes). And I'm supposed to wear orthotics which makes it pretty darn hard to find nice shoes that fit. Summer is awful since I dont wear closed in shoes at all but I've developed a new obsession, birkenstocks, which are cheap as chips on US ebay and there's so many nice sizes and styles and most of them have a buckle adjustment so you can alter the width to suit your feet. You can buy them here but they're way over $100 AUD a pair.

It always happens doesnt it, you get into something you love and something happens to stop you going. I was swimming during my second pregnancy, getting really fit, keeping the pregnancy weight gain at bay and then I broke my hand at 27 weeks and put on about 15kg before my baby was born at 37 weeks. I love the deep Water running class at my local pool, its such a shame they only have one a week. Water exercise is fantastic when you're overweight, no pressure on your joints, not so strenuous that you cant keep going a couple of times a week, its really worth a try if you struggle with anything else.

You cant edit posts without a million smilies on this new board, grrr. I meant to say also that the whole eyes bigger than the stomach thing would probably take a while to come back. YOu'd be used to a certain meal size and eating slowly and the like. Who knows?

They're certainly right onto blood clots these days arent they! I was in bed for 2 days after my caesar, primarily because the epidural fell out of my back and nobody knew and I was in too much pain to get up. Nobody mentioned restrictive stockings or anything like it, half a day in bed after lap band surgery and I was trussed up in stockings and a weird machine that blew air into these things round my legs to squeeze the blood round. Not to mention heparin injections. Seems like overkill for a very minor operation if you ask me. My caesar was only just under 3 years ago too. with regard to the other question I've often pondered this. Seems to me yes you would have many modified behaviours but also consider how you feel when you eat with a band. You're aiming for a soft stop but I'm definitely full after I've eaten. On a much lesser amount of food. I can sort of see that you'd still be looking for that sensation of "fullness" after having your band removed but it would take four times more food to achieve it. Who knows, but I suspect there's a lot more to obesity than just being hungry or not. Also I read the other day that the band itself just through being there puts pressure on the stomach and causes a feeling of satiety all the time. I dont know how true it is but it was on my surgeon's website. It would be nice if you could have the thing while you lose weight and then go back to normal life but that's just not how it works.

From Australia (and the surgeon I chose works closely with Prof. O'Brien within the same team) its really not necessary becuase our public health system mainly covers it, with private health insurance picking up the rest. It may be interesting for those without private health cover, since the public waiting list is enormously long (7 years in Melbourne!!!!). If you're insured though, there's no need to go overseas to save money as it doesnt cost a lot anyway. Then again, if you chose to go o/s for surgery, in Australia at any rate, you'd have no trouble getting the surgery done overseas and hooking up with an experienced surgeon at home for all the aftercare. I'd say Mexico works best for the majority here because of proximity. A trip to the Phillipines would be a lot more expensive and inconvenient from the US than a trip to Mexico, which can be driven, afterall.

its a huge life change and you'd be nuts not to be nervous about it. Surgery is scary too - I've had several small surgeries before and never given it a moments thought, heck, both my daughters and my life were probably at way more risk when I had my caesar (which was elective) and I calmly walked into the hospital for that one. I was literally shaking and getting very teary right before my surgery, kept thinking about my 3 beautiful kids and the fact that I was going under and it wasnt strictly necessary, what if something happened? But generally speaking its a very very safe surgery, and since it was done, I'm on cloud 9. The changes I've had to make, I would have had to make anyway if I were to ever lose weight and keep it off. That's the truth, you have to do it all anyway, if you want the result, that lifestyle change has to come and there can be no going back. Getting banded simply makes it easier.

January 1 (yesterday for me) Breakfast: 150g Fruche (a fromage fraise/yogurt thing) and one tinned apple mushed up Lunch: tuna mornay and mashed broccoli, carrot, potato, pumpkin Dinner: 2 tbspn refriend Beans topped with chopped tomato, avocado, some salsa and a dollop of natural yogurt Had about 1.5 litres of Water and a couple of cups of coffee - I usually get a cup of skim milk a day in via coffee and decaf tea. I went for a fast hour's walk (about 5km) yesterday but my bloody ankle is sore sore sore today.

I wont say never but seriously doubt it. Heck, Im 38, I'm normal looking, definitely not model material, I'm past getting around in a bikini or baring my middle in public, unless i had seriously loads of hanging skin, I cant see that it would be worth the money. My family could use the money for way better things - $3,000 AUD for lap band surgery is one thing $25,000 for belly and boobs is quite another.

You have water weight gains and losses every day as well. You dont gain a couple of pounds of fat overnight, its water. Weighing daily, although I do it obsessively myself, tells you very little and usually only causes worry.

YOu dont build muscle without working towards doing so though. No matter how much Protein you eat if you dont improve your physical output, namely exercise, you wont build much muscle. And whilst it's by no means proven wrong, most of the scientific mumbo jumbo outlined in programs like Atkins is entirely unproven. You cant rely on it as absolutely true - they dont know for sure that eating protein spares the body from burning muscle tissue in a low calorie situation. It looks to me like moderation in all things is the way to go. Not much point having lots of muscles if you've got scurvey. The best thing about eating your protein rather than drinking it is it comes packaged with lots of good stuff like Vitamin B-12 or Calcium and a host of other things. Totally different of course when you're on a liquid diet.

I never had a problem with speed, more continuity like mentioned above - I never had any problem losing 2lb a week on quite a high calorie intake (1500 to 1800 a day) but I couldnt keep it going for longer than six or eight weeks. I'd lose 8kg or so, the urgent feeling would pass, I'd be feeling thinner and it would just peter out, then start the cycle of regaining. Its coming off a bit faster now because I've never maintained such a low calorie intake for very long but I bet you I eat a lot more than a lot of other people on mushies. I do have a reasonably fast metabolism because I'm tall and pretty active. So I'm not finding being easily able to eat a cup of food at a time a problem in the least - but I am making good choices too. I've really got it pretty easy I guess compared to a lot of people who have problems like PCOS and thyroid disorders etc. If I set my mind to it I'm sure the weight will just come off with the band over a reasonable period of time. I've never managed that before.

I havent myself but one of my online friends in Melbourne had her tubing punctured during her first fill (her surgeon was on holidays and she had someone else do it). She went a few months and just wasnt losing, when it was discovered it was fixed and now her band is working well for her. Yes, its more surgery, what a pain in the behind, but its the only way to fix it and the only way to get your band working properley.

I eat meat but I love Beans and legumes too - there's just so many ways you can eat them and they contain not only Protein but good carbs and plenty of fibre. They're superfoods, everyone should eat more of them regardless of whether they're meat eaters or not. I went off meat for quite a while when I was a physiotherapy student and spent my days carving up dead bodies for a look. Ugh, not much difference between that and the steak on your plate, it put me off for a good long while.

I've spent a good part of my post baby adult life at a BMI of around 32-33 and always enjoyed good health, even if I was not a fashion plate I felt I looked OK. But recent years and a third baby at 35 saw my weight jump to about BMI 35-37 (depending on the month, lol and where in the whole diet lose gain cycle I was). I tell you what, I really felt that last little bit of weight. I started up having chronic ankle problems much like you describe with your weight, knowing weightloss and exercise would help it but being unable to do what I wanted because any weightbearing exercise just made it worse. I saw lapbanding as my only real option, I had become too fat to go it alone, but not so fat that my goal was simply so far away as to be hopeless (in my mind). I'm blessed that I'm in Australia where banding people from BMI 30 is not unusual. But if I were you I'd shop around to find someone who really understands that the problems dont magically start when you reach a BMI of 40 and that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Nup. I dont have any fear I'll eat so much as to make myself sick and if I want to eat more than usual because I'm out for dinner (which is not every night of the week afterall, more like once a month) and if I can fit it in without discomfort I will do so. Who cares? It's what you do 90% of the time that matters. At home I serve myself up only as much as I can eat. I dont have trouble stopping when I'm full but its just that for me, prebanding, that full feeling obviously didnt come until I'd eaten more than my calorie needs. Now, judging by my weight loss its coming before. But I dont have much problem obeying it either way.

I think you've probably tried the bacon too early too - even though I know you've got your surgeon's blessing you probably arent ready. It can be hard to know, I was banded Dec 9th and I'm going quite cautiously although I suspect I could eat far more challenging things than I have been. I havent experienced stuck food or a PB yet so I cant really help on what to do but my notes from my surgeon did say half a glass of flat coca cola can clear a blockage - that stuff can do anything, we used to use it at work to clean the coins from the bottom of the wishing well. Ugh, and people drink it? Lol.

Hmm I can just scrape in for 31st December (but I went to a party, lol) Breakfast - 1/2 cup All Bran with chopped apricots and skim milk lunch - salad of chickpeas, tuna, tomato, cucumber and beetroot dinner (at the party) - a tandoori chicken pattie, about 1/2 cup more of the chickpea salad, a glass of sauvignon blanc, about a gallon of Water (really really HOT here yesterday) and a tiny piece of chocolate raspberry pavlova - all over about 5 hours.