Jachut

I dont find prechristmas so rough anymore now I dont work, it used to be a diet minefield with all the work lunches, christmas parties and after work drinks. Now for me Christmas is concentrated in two or three days - I've got Christmas dinner at the MIL's, Christmas dinner with my family and Christmas dinner (with the in lawas again) on Christmas day here at my house. But being on mushies, I find it pretty OK to just say I have rules I have to stick to and that's it. My big indulgence will just be a glass of wine here and there, lol. But when you can eat and you're out in the workforce, it must be a nightmare.

First day of mushies yesterday: Breakfast - about 3/4 cup oatmeal (the real kind, simmered for 5 minutes in a saucepan, pinch of salt), very milky, with some brown sugar on top, mmmmmmmm, I almost died and went to heaven. Lunch - a very small glass of champagne (went to my sisters for a birthday lunch) wasnt sure how the bubbles would go, but I let it go flat, was fine. A small bowl of potato and spinach soup. Dinner - mashed potatoe, broccoli, zucchini, carrot and cauliflower with some home made cheese sauce on top. 2 cups of coffee, 2 cups decaffeinated tea and lots of water.

I wish, about 3 months before I got banded, my hair suddently went awful. I have almost curly, very frizzy hair, and I bought a new top of the line straightener which made my hair look silky and absolutely divine. But despite the hairdresser insisting if used properly it would not damage my hair, which has always been dry, my hair has suddenly gone like straw. I stopped using it of course. Now I'm really afraid of losing it, since I shed like a post pregnant woman at the best of times. There's lots and lots and lots more nutrients your hair needs than just Protein though, concentrating on protein to the exclusion of other things could still mean you lose hair - there's Biotin and silica and all sorts of other things - I think its probably a good idea to take a hair, nails and skin supplement as well as a Multivitamin.

I lost about 8lb first week, I"ve lost about 13 in 2 weeks. I've never been someone who drops heaps in the first week of a diet either, 8lb is my biggest ever one week loss. I'm rapt with it.

It's not only surgery but weight loss itself that can stop your periods. If you're sure you're not pregnant, enjoy the break! Unless you feel horribly premenstrual the whole time, lol. 3 months of zits and sore boobs wouldnt be much fun.

I know myself and my cast Iron gut and I'd put money on it taking me a few fills to find restriction. I just know it. But whilst I dont really have restriction even 2 weeks out from surgery, I'm weirdly unhungry. I just dont really have much interest in food until meal time, I suddenly get starving, I eat, its gone and I dont think about it again till next meal time. It's honestly like a miracle, I was such a constant grazer.

I've just had the get go to start mushies as of yesterday, no real restriction here. I can eat a cup of food without a problem so I have to consciously measure out my food and limit it to that. But I'm not finding that a problem since I have nowhere near my ordinary hunger levels still. During the liquid phase I first tried the Protein Shake thing as the basis of my intake, it didnt work for me. Never liked those things, never will. I just blended real food very smooth - I made good hearty soups with lots of veges and lentils, I even blended up lasagna with extra tinned tomatoes, I put a little cheese in and blended that too - 3 squares a day of real food just in liquid form. That way I felt great and had no hunger issues. I've been very satisfied with my weight loss and I also believe I havent set myself up for rebound weight gain when I start solids since I've been having the same food, just blended, all along. I also have stayed regular, no constipation, as I've been getting fibre etc too.

Hmm, well we know they can last up to 10 years but nowhere in the world is there statistics to show they can last longer. I wouldnt plan on having it removed unless something went wrong. I find it really hard to believe though that after five, six years if you lost your band you wouldnt have entirely changed your eating habits, lifestyle and outlook on food and exercise anyway. I find it really hard to imagine that you'd simply put all the weight back on. Who really knows though? They dont understand obesity all that well yet.

Its taken actually getting my band for me to be able to really address this issue and I'm blessed that it's really very simple. I eat too much (or I ate too much). I've realised since being banded 2 weeks ago that never ever in my life have I had this feeling of satiety between meals. It's incredible to me to feel full like I just ate, yet not be bloated like you are after eating an enormous meal. I never realised just how bottomless I was! I dont have emotional eating issues. Like most people I tend to pick from boredom but I am now so optimistic that this band will work brilliantly for me because I now know, really my only issue was lack of satiety (if not actually hunger a lot of the time). I've just lost interest in food apart from when I'm hungry now. Now it's very early days and no doubt a few weeks and a bit more healing and I might be feeling a bit picky again!

doesnt sound sick to me Eileen, how on earth do you enjoy the taste of food with hardly any of it in your mouth? The small bits lots of chewing thing probably makes it not worth bothering to eat half the time!

I'm about the same stats as Debby above, same starting height, weight and BMI. I've lost 5.9 kg in the 12 days since surgery (what's that about 13lb or so). I call that very fast, but I bet my weight loss will be slower than someone much heavier. But then again I can no doubt trade increased mobility and fitness and am able to exercise hard and fast right from the start. I suspect I'll get down to 90kg pretty easily and it will be much harder from there.

I filled the freezer with soups, I made and froze meals for the rest of the family, did the grocery shopping for the week the night before I went into hospital and had plenty of ingredients for smoothies etc on hand.

This is going to be my biggest problem too - being insanely busy and eating on the run. I'd probably eat a banana and some nuts instead of the oatmeal, easier to eat whilst doing other things.

Weight Watchers is bringing out a brand new program in the New Year here in Australia - are they doing so in the States too? I have the entire home point program - I dont like the meetings much, I've got better things to do than sit around discussing how satisifying it is to mix jelly crystals in natural yogurt if you're after something sweet, lol. Puhlease! It just doesnt replace a Mars bar does it? Hehehe. But I love the concept of points, whereas I hate counting calories, go figure, it's basically the same thing.

The thought of being too tight gives me the heebie jeebies too and I'm only just banded and have no fill. I cant imagine one at the moment because I'm plenty restricted for now. But I think my doc fills little but much more often, like every 2 weeks, must ask him about that when I go for my first. I'd rather have to use a teensy bit of willpower and have room - last week when I was fainting all over the place and really really needed to get some serious energy into my body, I couldnt, that was very scary. And seriously, since I've loosened up as the swelling's gone down, and can get more in more regularly, I'm losing more weight more quickly. So just see how you go, if you feel it's too tight dont hesitate to go back and get some taken out.

You're right, you're not a failure. Most of us would be tempted by choccies sitting in our car, especially in traffic, lol. Have one or two a day, enjoy them and then employ some serious willpower to ignore them the rest of the time. We've always overdone it with the kids fundraising chocolates from school - whenever they bring them home everyone in the flipping street is trying to sell them anyway since they all go to the same school and who on earth lets their kids walk round unaccompanied knocking on strangers doors in this day and age? So we usually put the $60 in an envelope, send it back to school and eat ALL the chocolates within a matter of a week, sometimes even a few days. Next time I'm sending the chocolates back to school with a donation and not keeping any. My kids dont need them anymore than Dour or I do.

Yes, lest I sound sanctimonious, which I didnt mean to, I'm sure my bad habits will creep back in - eating on the run, eating what's easy. I want this band bedded in good and tight and I want to take advantage of the early fast weight loss so I'm not even tempted at the moment to do anything I shouldnt. But you dont need to have a "cheating" mentality either once you're on real food again. All food is a valid choice, its just some choices should be made less than others. If you want something "bad" have it, enjoy it and forget about it!

Way to go!

Why on earth would you want to "see how far you can go without throwing up?"? It's all in your attitude - the way to look at it is to eat what you know you should, in the amount you know you should and enjoy the fact that your band lets you do so without being bothered by acute hunger.

It can be done. I fell pregnant with my third child at right about the weight I am now and I was really worried - I'd had preeclampsia twice before and I just didnt want to end up being an enormous whale. I managed to not gain any weight for the entire pregnancy, and not only did my preeclampsia not reappear at all, I had a healthy 3.72kg baby girl. When you're already overweight, there is NO need to gain lots of weight in pregnancy.

Well my boobs are quite different in size - I dont want to show my nipples in public. If they happen to show through a shirt or whatever I'm wearing (it gets so cold in shopping centres!!) I get embarrassed because it's NOT a good look to have one nipple staring straight ahead and one pointing at the floor! Other than that I dont get what the big deal is. I wish my husband would bloody leave them alone. There's other bits of me I'd much rather he was obsessed with :-O

I'll be honest, no I havent cheated. I mean what did I do this for, so I could just cheat? I feel like I've been given a wonderful gift and I'm going to make the most of it. I'm also very concerned that I get adequate nutrition during this liquids/mushies stage and that means no room for crap like ice cream or sundaes or anything else like that I could possibly get down. I made this change in my head months ago and I intend to continue with it.

I think it's a good system, and very easy to learn, its automatic to me now, I know how many points are in just about everything. Hmmm, wonder why it never worked then? Oh well, at least I knew how many points I was overeating by.

I love mine too - not on food yet though, I've got to do liquids for 3 weeks, so a week and a half to go still. Will still be on liquids for Christmas. But I'm not hungry and I've lost 12lb or so as well and its' been soooooo easy. I feel fantastic!

It helped me to make the decision to have the band by thinking of it like this: I too ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted to. I was very afraid of no longer being able to do that and decided for a time not to get a band. But I realised that if I was going to lose weight for good - band or no - I could never eat that way again anyway. It's like bemoaning not being able to have Christmas dinner because I'm still on liquids. To my way of thinking - HOORAY - where is the pleasure in overindulging, feeling awful, feeling guilty and gaining weight. Having to start again from scratch on another bloody diet, same old new year's resolution again, blah blah blah. I'm GLAD I wont be on that treadmill this Christmas. It's all positive! You will be able to eat more normally again eventually but no, you can never go back to the way you were or you will end up weighing what you did. There is so much more to enjoy about life than food! I hope you truly feel that soon.