Jachut

I dont have a problem with wanting to drink enormously fattening cocktails or anything, I'm a wine drinker. Wine o'clock comes early some days in this house, with 3 kids! I probably have a glass of wine four nights of the week. All the information I have been given is that moderate wine consumption has health benefits - particularly red wine which is full of antioxidants - but that turns my teeth black, lol. My surgeon did not see a problem with four standard drinks a week by any stretch of the imagination - standard drink being 150ml or so not one of those huge fishbowls on stems that pass for wine glasses these days. I've seen 2 surgeons and they've both provided the same information, wine in moderation a few times a week is perfectly fine, creamy cocktails, more than a drink or two, carbonated mixers all best avoided except for special occasions. I have absolutely no doubt that there will be times when I go out that I will choose to drink rather than eat though and times when I will have more than four drinks a week.

Hi Therese, I'm in Melbourne too.

I'm not afraid of the surgery because I think I'm a pretty intelligent and informed person and there's no way I would not notice or ignore symptoms like that. Like the surgeon pointed out, for somebody to die because of band surgery, both the patient and all those involved in her medical care need to be stupid repeatedly many steps along the way. What I'm really afraid of is the change of lifestyle afterwards

Its also not unusual for that much not to make a huge difference on an overweight person either. Over the past few years I've regularly lost 10kg (a bit over 20lb) and nobody ever notices - and all I can notice is that my clothes arent biting quite so much in the middle. And I'm only 80-90lb overweight! But soon you will really begin to see it too.

I know in the future when I'm banded I will: drink coffee straight after dinner. I dont care if it washes food through, I have no problem beating hunger at night anyway, its not a time when I eat much. I know on occasion I will drink wine with my meals too - when out or eating with family I know I will also occasionally choose to consume alcohol rather than food. I will continue to consume liquid calories in the form of yogurt for Breakfast. I love yogurt.

Lots of foils - blonde, honey, caramel and some dark brown ones. I'm not dark and I'm not fair. I would look seriously weird if I went all blonde, but as I get older, dark brown is too harsh. So I have lots and lots of colours and it all blends into a nice honey brown sort of tone - it hides the grey way better than a full tint does and it takes less maintenance but when you do get it done, sheesh, its expensive.

Yeah, I'm wondering how I'm going to explain the gazillions of dollars in the bank when I'm no longer buying cappucinos and muffins all week. I reckon it will be almost like feeding a whole less person in the family - Eliza (who's 2 and a half) and I will probably share one person's portion.

OK so my theory on this is that you've allowed your body to rest. We all know that rest is required to build muscle ergo you have built 1kg of muscle over the past three weeks! Simple.

Hmmm, if you're going to have permanent damage or scarring you maybe should think about it in terms of if you have future problems that could get expensive. But of course, you need to find someone who will work on a success basis, in Australia at any rate most people dont have the financial resources to sue over things like that. I did sue The Glen shopping centre and got $25,000 when I slipped over on spilt ice cream and broke my hand. The only reason I took legal action was I was 7 months pregnant at the time and my BIL who is a solicitor put the idea in my head because I'd had about 10 xrays and 2 lots of surgery in late pregnancy to pin my hand back together and he pointed out I'd need to have started the process if anything turned out to be wrong with my baby as a result. In the end I had some permanent damage to my left hand which is why I was awarded so much money, if it had have been a simple fractured finger that would have been about $4,000. It is entirely functional again 8 years later (just a tad stiff in my little finger) but it was a possibility that I would never be able to type 100 words a minute again which is how I earned a living at the time. So its not a matter of whether its a nice thing to do or not, its more a matter of whether there's going to be lasting problems or expensive problems as a result and whether you really are due compensation for that.

Cauliflower makes great mock rice too. You just cook it and kind of crumble it. Its a great way to get vegetables into the kids, they dont even realise.

I'm going to do my best to get rid of the diet mentality to be honest. I dont want to think about calories etc for ever. I think its inevitable that I will have to in order to keep weight coming off steadily though - Weight Watches works for me. I know the points value of every food in the modern world, its relatively easy. I'm not doing anything crackpot though - I plan on a normal family diet in smaller quantities - to me that means plenty of fruit and vegetables and watch the processed carbs, always allowing of course for foods that I may not be able to tolerate.

Hmmm, I wonder who the sperm donor was - its fairly obvious he's shooting blanks. I'm fairly convinced now that Tom Cruise is a psychotic alien from another planet. He's completely and utterly nuts. I hope they're paying Katie well for this publicity stunt.

And a dram is a measure for a shot of whisky, lol.

At least get some Gastrolyte into you. YOu can get it in liquid or icypole form. It is amazing how much better you feel when you balance up your electrolytes again. I cant figure why you couldnt have Immodium (or Buscopan for the cramps) but I agree, I usually only start that if the diarrhoea continues after the illness has passed, give your body a chance to expel the bugs - you know how it sometimes takes a week or more to ah, firm up a bit downstairs. It can be really annoying when you're stuck in a supermarket queue, lol.

I've got a very petite sister and a very petite SIL. To tell the truth, there's no magic to it, its just that those of us are cursed with an obsession with food that just simply does not exist in other people's heads. I fear it will always be so and I've resigned myself to a lifetime of thinking too much about what I eat, when I eat, what I dont eat, how much I weigh. Both my sis and my SIL eat great food. They're both gourmands. They love to cook. But unlike me who'll cook up something great and eat a gutload of it, their interest in food starts when they get hungry and finishes when they stop being hungry. They can cook up a lovely roast dinner and only eat a tiny bit because they're no longer hungry. One glass of wine sits all night, I guzzle mine quickly. They dont eat between meals unless they're hungry. They say no thanks to things they dont want. They dont weigh themselves every day. They play sport and get exercise for the love of it, not to achieve an end. I really dont think I'm wired that way. I'll feel peace if I can get thinner but still have to cope with this darned obsession. I really dont expect to ever become a thin person. I just dont think its possible.

Good on you Penni. You really begin to understand how controlling your weight is a life time commitment dont you? And its easy to understand why diets fail. You'll get there.

That makes sense to me - an eating disorder in the sense that we all have one - too much food and eating inappropriately. I like to think about it like this - I dont consider I have an eating disorder because I eat to the point of being full and when my body tells me its really had enough, I stop. My problem is that that message doesnt come until I've overloaded on calories, my stop point is higher than it should be, higher than it is for a normal person. But I respond to my appetite and my fullness in a normal way. Whereas I think of someone who's bulimic (and I dont really know so if I'm wrong I apologise) as somebody who cant stop, even when bursting full. So in my mind a bulimic person would be unlikely to listen to the band until physically forced to. Which would be more than enough to do lots of damage. That's what I call compulsive eating. What you're talking about I call simple overeating. And you sound like you've lost the urge to purge (I dont mean to make that sound like a funny rhyme). But I still wouldnt say anything about it. If you're set in your own mind that you are healed from those extreme behaviours then you are! What you did ten years ago or more is not really relevant now, and I just wouldnt give them the chance to seize upon it. Like you said, long ago, in your maiden name, they wont find it.

If I cant eat it at all once banded I will lose HEAPS of weight very fast because I must say processed carbs are my biggest demon. I regularly have periods of several days where I exist on muffins, bread, biscuits (cookies) and other crap. I'm really hoping I can handle crispbreads (my favourite lunch lately, a couple of Ryvitas with tuna, tomato and cucumber and salt and pepper), pita and the occasional piece of toast but I wont be crying if I cant eat much in the way of bread. Its crap for you and you dont need it. I only hope if I lose my vice I dont suddenly start to like ice cream!

I dont think that measuring your wrist is all that reliable to be honest. Going by that I'm a large frame - I'm five ten, and my wrists are larger than my husbands, I also lack those long slender fingers and feet that tall willowy people have. So judging by that I could say that I should be at the upper end of my healthy weight range 78kg or so. Except that when I did weight that, and that was a weight I held for a period of years, I was fat. And not body dysmorphia fat, I had rolls, I never wore sleevless tops because my upper arms were flabby, I could most definitely be called overweight, not obese of course. I dieted down to 72kg for my wedding and in the photos I look lots better than I do now. I could live with merely being overweight again - but my sister who is an inch shorter than me, same build, is 64kg and she looks absolutely amazing. She's exactly right, curvy and well covered without rolls of flab. Because we're so alike, I know that about 65kg would be perfect for me. Despite my large frame, I dont need a lot of flesh.

I was thinking about oranges, I love oranges. If you quarter in the skin them rather than peel the whole thing and eat the segments, you can kind of suck all the juice and goodness out of it and still enjoy an orange without eating all the stringy bit and the pith. One favourite meal of ours too is to roast up a heap of vegetables - eggplant, red capscicum, sweet potato, pumpkin and zucchini, with a drizzle of olive oil and some sea salt, chop them up in small bits and combine with some shredded chicken breast cooked in pesto and a sprinkle of cheese, roll them up in a pita bread and toast in the sandwich press, you can also combine the veges with pasta and pesto. Yummy. The bowl of vegetables, all the colours looks so absolutely delish but I realised the skins might cause me trouble, especially eggplant, that's very tough. Sigh. I'll peel the little buggers if I have to. I'm not giving up good food like that.

The thought of medical professionals telling people to eat that little is just astounding! Yes, if you eat 800 calories a day they weight will eventually go. But you will be malnourished, sick and can expect to spend your old age with all your bones breaking every time you move! And with the metabolism of a slug. You'll be malnourished, you'll look ghastly, your hair will probably fall out, not to mention your teeth. It is simply not worth it. You'll lose your beauty completely so its not worth doing it for looks and its way more risk to your health than accepting your weight is. Vines you're obviously battling metabolic issues like many people with PCOS do. Have you looked into a low GI way of eating, which is what they're currently recommending as treatment for insulin resistance, PCOS and infertility? I dont know all that much about it and if you're focussing on Protein you're probably pretty much doing it anyway, but I think it sounds like its got more to do with the way your body is functioning, not how many calories you're eating. It must be so frustrating and demoralising.

I had a general anaesthetic to have all 4 wisdom teeth removed when I had a headcold coming on (and I got my period that day too, what a freaking disaster, lol). Nobody was worried about the fact that I was sick but of course, what with having had 4 wisdom teeth removed and then the cold developing into its full glory, man was I miserable for a day or two. I wouldnt go filling myself up with cold medications or pain medications though just prior to surgery. But you could look forward to the general anaesthetic reliving your cold symptoms too for a while!

What about paracetamol? And what happens if you're on anti-inflammatories other than over the counter ones?

That is going to have me giggling all day. Fatter than ground beef? I bet you're a lot prettier!

If you're bulimic and an active bulimic the problem is the binging and purging. Its not that if you didnt binge then there's no need to vomit - you're still going to have that overriding urge to eat eat eat and you will not need to make yourself vomit with a band, it will happen anyway. You'd risk doing yourself some severe damage I'd imagine if you had a band in place. So although I said I'd lie about it I'd want to be very sure I'd given up that kind of behaviour for good. I agree everybody who's obese has an eating disorder - but I've never even thought of eating that much and making myself sick afterwards. It is a pretty severe disease but if you havent done it in 10 years I think you can be proud that you have it licked. But I guess you need to think long and hard about what you mean by "compulsive overeater". I mean, I overeat consistently, I eat when I'm not hungry and I eat rather a lot but not eyebrow raising quanities - I just tend to shovel it in all day whether I want it or I dont. If you are still binging on really big quantities of food and are unable to stop it its a psychological problem that needs addressing and not one the band is necessarily going to fix. You can see therefore why they might not band a person with a recognisable eating disorder. It could be dangerous. Sigh. What a prison we create for ourselves. I really hope you can get your band.