Jachut

I've got the giggles again, just like I did last time this was mentioned. When I think "magic bullet" I dont think kitchen appliances.......

I think Silicea is an australian product. Its colloidal silicon, there's probably an equivalent on your shelves.

Well in Australia they dont really do many bypasses anyway. But I wouldnt have considered it. The band is such a safe procedure, such low stats for surgical complications, it is removable and if any better obesity treatment should come along, you can have the band out and go for it. If I cant live with the changes it requires it can come out, not that I'm even considering that option.

Generally the place you have the most problem will be the last place you lose it. I tend to be pear shaped, but finally got so fat that it started going on my belly and my boobs just got enormous and I have a parcel rack on the back now, lol. I bet my belly boobs and back shrink first and probably quickly, and then I'll hang around in that overweight, largish thighs and bottom stage for ages. In fact I've never not been like that which is why I scoff at their 80-85kg goal for me and think more like 65-70kg.

I guess you eat till you're just satisfied, not full, then wait 20 minutes before deciding whether to eat more. I'm sure I'm going to have this problem too.

I'm seriously considering throwing ours away. I do not need it, over the long term the weight will come off and I dont want to be agonising over daily fluctuations but I cant help myself, I jump on every morning without fail. Trouble is my DH is obsessed too and wont want me to get rid of it.

I'll tell you next week!

Well that settles it for me. When I go out I'm going to drink, not eat. I'd rather be known as a jolly drunk than a Napkin Lady!

I havent seen the dietician yet either, what information I've got from my surgeon has been like extracting teeth, but I'm one of those really really annoying patients that wants to know anything. I dont think he had any intention of going through post op diet etc with me, I have a feeling it will be the dietician that is my coach too, but I kind of wangled it all out of him. I like to know what I'm getting myself into, lol. I wont be seeing the dietician till after the op, and probably after christmas now, so the nurses will be giving me all the info I need.

Oh, 35, not low exactly, lol, but I wasnt one of his more obese patients either. He just said "oh, dont bother about that, you dont really need it".

If you think about it though, do you really continue eat when you're totally full? I find for me its just that totally full takes waaaaaaay more food than it does for other people. I know when I think i should stop eating, but I know my body does eventually give me the signal to stop. It's only after I've consumed a huuuuuuge meal that that happens though. I gave that a lot of thought myself, and I realised that my body does send its signals and I do obey them, its just that I want that signal to appear way earlier, before I've eaten a 1,000 calorie meal! But I admit I can eat till I"m stuffed and then be looking to graze just out of boredom an hour or two later.

I've been supplementing faithfully for a few months, I am soooo paranoid about this hair business. I wanted to get myself in really good shape and I must say after about 2 months it made an appreciable difference and now I feel fantastic. I found out in all the pre op blood tests that my Iron levels were rather low, not abnormal but not as good as they could be. I take daily a soluble Multivitamin, Floradix herbal iron mix (it has the B and C's mixed in to help absorbtion) a tablespoon of a supplement called Silicea which is specifically for hair, nails and skin, and a tablespoon of flax seed oil. I've also cut down on coffee to 2 cups a day. I feel absolutely vibrant after a few months of this, the dark circles under my eyes have disappeared, my colour is better, my nails have grown in stronger (they were absolutely wrecked from acrylics), the condition of my hair has improved and I'm sleeping way better. The flax seed oil worries me, it is a fabulous supplement which we got onto for my son's eczema, but it has so many health benefits, but its 150 calories a tablespoon - and if you take capsules you have to take a ton of them and the calories add up too. But I think it has such good health benefits that it's worth it. My son still has his eczema but it keeps it manageable and it breaks out only in spots, if he doesnt take it he is a crusted oozing mess. I should probably add some calcium to that mix too. I probably need it.

Oh golly, cross your fingers for me. Eliza woke up having vomited all over her bed last night, but she only did it once, I figured it was due to the fact that she drank the dregs of a few Coke cans (which she never has ordinarily) at Mum's last night. Then she woke a few hours later with another fit of nausea. I thought oh, no, she's got a tummy bug. Today I dont feel so great. Not nauseous just that funny sick headache. Gastro goes through the family like nobody's business. I have surgery on Friday!! Please if I'm going to go down with it, let me get it today and be over and done with by Friday! I've got the kids organised with parents and in laws, its going to be a nightmare if they're all spewy and unwell. Chances are like usual I'll just feel a bit bleuch for a day or two, if its been mild for Eliza I wont even get it, I've got a gut of cast Iron generally. But Doug's a wimp and a half, he always get the gastro bugs and always gets really sick with them. Groan, Sigh, Rant!!

OK - well I plan to use my 10 year old as a gopher. And he can carry the two year old round as well, lol!

Oh I can bet my kids would be rolling on the floor laughing if I did that. Its horrifying to think of it happening but I guess it does to nearly everyone eventually. I think I do not want to eat out for a good few months, lol.

I'm scheduled to start on solids week 4-5.

doncha think? Why am I preparing for this surgery by having massive cook ups. My freezer is bursting. Why do I think I'm going to be unable to even cook a meal for a month? Why do I even care, lol, I"m not going to be eating any of it. God forbid any of them should have to lift a finger to look after themselves. Oh well, at least there'll be less grocery shopping.

Well it's kind of passed over for me now, feel a bit more like myself after being up a few hours. I dont normally get the tummy bugs thank goodness, at the most I usually just feel a bit yuck for a little while. Neither of the boys has vomited over anything valuable yet so that's a good sign, lol. Eliza woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed too, she seems to have gotten over it, I'm just washing puked on doonas, bleurgh.

Oh golly, you're scaring me, lol. I'm coming home to a young one too, an almost 3 year old who insists on being carried everywhere. I've managed to pack her off for 5 straight days after my surgery. And I hear you on picking things up from the floor - when I was 75 months pregnant with Eliza I had to use the BBQ tongs - the really long ones - to pick stuff up, if I bent over I threw up! But thank goodness I got my monthly friend a week early because I too was due around today, right before surgery.

Out of interest - you probably couldnt immediately go back to the same fill level anyway could you? Wouldnt they have to work their way back up again?

I wax and wane on this one. Twice in my life I've lost significant weight and kept it off for very long periods of time, in fact it was only disrupted by pregnancy and nursing. That was when I decided dieting does not work and I wasnt going to do it anymore. I've never had that kind of success (over 12kg which was plenty on me at the time) with dieting. Trouble is, I dont truly know when I'm hungry and when I'm full. I was still stopping eating when I knew I should not when my body told me to. I was still resisting eating knowing I'd only just had lunch. But that is precisely what I hope the band will help me achieve. I have no intention of counting calories, becoming obsessed with single food groups or doing any of that kind of dieting behaviour ever again in my life.

I wouldnt do it either. You dont want food to be the focus of your celebrations and holidays, that's the whole point. Imagine having a holiday, having a great time AND losing weight as well!

The good thing about the band is that it is always there. Its never too late to start, even if you havent gotten off to the best beginning. As you do, I've thought about how to handle those sorts of situations, and I hope I dont sound trite because I havent gotten there yet and I am just as likely to scrap my plans and give into temptation. But I figure if I eat the things I should eat first, then I can see how much room I've got for the other stuff. It will just take willpower to fill up first on the proper choice (which I may not really want) to prevent me being able to drink the milkshake, eat the ice cream or whatever - ie. tell yourself you can have it but only after.

Why it would happen to you now I dont know, unless you're eating a lot less after the last fill. I've had a similar experience in the last few weeks, 3 days on Optifast and I was having trouble staying conscious, I fainted in public twice. I guess when you're active and running around, you actually do need energy to function. 3 piddly shakes a day is not enough for me, its not a matter of willpower, I plain cant function on that amount of energy. Are you sure you're eating enough? Regularly enough? Last time I fainted was about 15 years ago right before I got married, and yes, I'd been dieting like a fiend for months and lost a lot of weight. We do it for our long term health but its very stressful on the body.

I know someone in real life who had her band inserted 18 months ago and has lost 4kg to date. She just doesnt want to face the life changes she knows she must. She has had no fills. She eats the wrong foods, she doesnt exercise and she eats when she isnt hungry and then eats beyond feeling satisfied. You've got to be realistic, there are good banding candidates and then there are those that have more likelihood of failing. If you're truly a binge eater for example, probably no amount of physical restriction is going to quell that urge, you'll just probably make yourself very sick instead. If you have bulimia a band is unlikely in and of itself to fix that, if you simply cannot keep away from the wrong foods, you're not going to have great success. None of that means the band has malfunctioned, its just it takes the band AND you to make it work. I did some really honest thinking about this and when I realised just how much work I was going to have to do, I changed my mind about the band. I thought "if I can do that at all, I can do it without a band". But I've come round, I know the band will give me extra strength to tackle it. I've read entirely more positive statistics than that too so really as long as you're rock solid in your own determination and goals it's not relevant to you personally.