Jachut

I had the opposite problem, and I was unfilled too. After a big surgery late last year, I had to take this year off work. Full time work makes it super easy for me to eat three meals a day adn that's all - especially as I'm a teacher and in Australia we dont have school meals and vending machines in our schools or any of that stuff, heck int he public system we even ahve to buy our own tea and coffee for the staffroom. So there is no food to eat at school that I dont bring and as a teacher, you dont really leave the school at lunch time. At home I just revert to my old habits of constantly grazing all day - so what I found was that I had to change my habits to avoid downtime. I literally do not allow myself to sit down all darn day, I must always be doing SOMETHING - that usually isnt on the computer (coz I eat then). I must say the benefit is double edged - I get through the afternoon without eating and my house is pretty organised. As soon as I was well enough, I was looking for casual work even though i cant go back to my full time job this year. Anything to fill in my days. I ended up with a brilliantly physical job teaching gymnastics! On the days when I slack and sit down for any length of time, I always always always end up eating things I didnt want to eat. So my advice would be to identify when and why you eat badly and change the habits that lead to that also, rather than just relying purely on willpower to resist.

This really is so true. You just cant expect others to change, and I know you realise that, but you need to be in a place where you're not affected by what others choose for themselves. As long as they dont try to coax or cajole you into it, making a big song and dance about eating chocolate for example, you really do have to get to a state where you can identify whether you truly want something or are just reacting to the sight of it. We will be bombarded with food everywhere we go for our entire lives, not just at home with our families, so its an essential skill to develop. For me its about being able to have ANYTHING I want if I truly want it - knowing that, and having the years of experience behind me now to know that I can eat the occasional treat and not gain weight - means that I'm able to say no if I dont really want something just now, because I know I can have it anytime I truly want. Developing this skill has freed me from the diet merrygoround and is why I really dont believe in "dieting" as such. But I still get frustrated with those weeks where you have a zillion obligations on and they all involve eating and drinking! That drives me nuts, I think dont we have ANY social situations or celebrations in our society which arent focussed on alcohol and bad food?

Of course it depends entirely on what you're used to eating - what your energy needs are. If you're 500lb and live on 6000 calories a day you can lose weight darn fast still eating what I'd call a lot of food. But for me personally to shift 20lb in a month - a Protein shake diet is the only way I can think of to do that - 1000 calories a day or less, lots of cardio and just put up with being starving hungry. Now, I'm at a low weight, so no doubt you fit somewhere in the middle there. Its certainly doable, not pleasant, but doable. However, there's no magic in Protein shakes. If you can stick to 1000 calories or less a day on real food you'll lose weight just the same. But presurgery, high protein low carb is important - it shrinks your liver and much as I dont believe in low carb diets, its the best way to lose a lot of weight fast.

Nothing makes me angrier than doctors dissing a perfectly reasonable and healthy goal! 140 would be great, and personally i'd even aim for 130. I can tell you at five foot ten, I consider myself decidedly porky at 160! You can achieve anything you want!

I can easily do without breakfast, so it wouldnt worry me to just have a nice coffee (or two) whilst the others ate. When I say that, i dont mean whipped cream and syrup type coffee! And given that I'd go out for breakfast once in a blue moon, I probably would indulge my carb tooth, lol, with a nice muffin or somethiing to go with my coffee and just not eat all of it. But if I wanted to avoid that sort of food I just wouldnt eat. I wont eat bacon and stuff like that, I always viewed it as unhealthjy and my oncologist has pointed me to studies that it has recently been definitively linked with bowel cancer and current recommendations are to not eat processed meats, ever. If I liked them, I'd go for moderation rather than never eat them, but I dont like them anyway.

I have a few back up easy plans for days when I feel like this - everyone does occasionally, even those of us who are dedicated exercises. First and foremost though, you do have to realise when you really ARE just very tired, run down etc and could do with a day off. I've had trouble accepting this since having chemo, I ran right throughout my cancer treatment, surgery and all, even with an ileostomy bag, but after six months of chemo, I have still lost fitness and have to accept that I cant run 10k five days in a row like I could six months ago. My joints hurt, I get more tired etc. So, on those days when I really just dont want to run, I might just walk. Or I get on my treadmill and just walk (which is a significantly easier exercise than outdoor running). I put on a bit of an incline and pump some handweights and watch a bit of TV. On really lazy days I allow myself to hang onto the handrails! Or I go to Water aerobics, no bouncing, jumping, no impact. Both of those activities are easy enough at my level of fitness than on an ordinary energy day I would feel very guilty that that's all I'd done. See if you can think of a few things that are exercise but much easier than your normal level of exertion - if you're not an insane runner like I am, even housework might fit the bill, or walking round the shops for an hour or two, a stroll on the beach, whatever. And do recognise when you really DO need a day off. We all need rest and recovery.

See to me, that smacks of it being an unsustainable lifestyle - if you "blow everything" because a certain type of food is not available. I get that that's just my view and opinion on it though and that the South Beach diet is generally respected by the experts. Truly, how can you blow a lifestyle in just one weekend ? Such studies of this only reinforce to me that you must do what you personally believe suits you best. Because just like there's a zillion studies supporting a low carb way of eating, so obviously there is just as many pointing out the possible dangers. I think anyone who truly things that their way of eating is absolutely and utterly RIGHT is a bit nuts, anyone rational will admit that its a balance and leaning one way or another might make a difference to your health but that its completely a matter of swings and roundabouts - just like vegetarians are healthier than meat eaters in some respects but less healthy in others - they may get too little Iron, they may eat too much high fat cheese and too many eggs, or if they're vegan they might not be managing to combine plant Proteins properly etc etc. If you're healthy and happy on a low carb diet and your diabetes is controlled, then I wouldnt pay any attention to this study at all.

I wouldnt use packet oatmeal either - its too highly processed and added to, makes it no better than most of the other crap cereals in the Cereal aisle. We dont call it steel cut here, we call it rolled oats, but the unprocessed oats are best - all I do is decide the night before I want oats for breakfast, measure out about 1/3 of a cup, pour some milk on and stick it in a sealed container in the fridge overnight. In the morning, just microwave for 1 minute - its creamy and soft and no 20 minutes of simmering on the stove. I like a bit of brown sugar (just a level teaspoon full) and some more skim milk on top - oh and I always add a very tiny pinch of salt to it the night before too. Personally, with things like coffee, oatemeal etc, I think your best bet is to learn to like it plain, and wean off the habit of always trying to sweeten or flavour things, retrain your palate. None of those syrups, artificial sweeteners etc are good for you and they just prolong the problem of your mouth always looking for something sweet.

I can identify to a degree, I recently finished a six month course of 5 FU for rectal cancer. I have begun refilling because six weeks out hunger has picked up enormously. My.fill doc was reluctant because I lost a fair bit of weight through surgery, radiation and chemo but I yelled and screamed a bit - I am aftetall in the normal weight range, it is my body and my business how much I wish to weigh and she herself said everyone gains when unfilled! Coming back to this now I'm on my computer and not my phone, I'll add this: I did find everything tasted disgusting, but for me, that led to me not wanting to eat rather than eating and eating trying to find something normal tasting. I was also so conscious of being unfilled that I was extremely careful and actually lost TOO much weight. I really became quite afraid of food for a while there. I was pretty nauseous too so that had an effect. I think you've done pretty well, weight gain on breast cancer chemo treatments is well documented and can be pretty significant and very hard to shift, so you've contained it pretty damn well. the bad taste went away for me immediately chemo finished, wish I could say the same for the aching sore knees, shoulders and hips - I feel like I'm about 80 these days. I've started refilling my band as I mentioned, but it doesnt feel anything like the same as it did the first time round, I've got way less restriction than I had. I'm not too concerned, since I did a pretty good job of keepign the weight off whilst being unfilled for 8 months and I have to leave it anyway because I'm having another surgery next week and I dont really want to be tight at that point, but its what I feared - once you start mucking round with your band filling and unfilling, it can be hard to get back to where you were. Cancer sucks, its not fair and you shouldnt have to face these problems but we do and have to just accept that and do the best that you can in the circumstances. And dont be hard on yourself over a small weight gain.

I didnt have nausea at your stage, but since being banded long term, I now get sea sick, car sick, plane sick, cant go on amusement park rides anymore, and suffered terribly from nausea during chemotherapy where previously I was one of those people who NEVER felt nauseas. I had a cast iron stomach but not any longer.

Great news, i'm going to go myself. My joints are so painful since my chemo, I need something gentler a few days a week.

I would be if there was a convenient group a.d I wasnt about to have a surgery! Crossfit is my kind of thing.

Five and a half years, 120 lb loss which was about 120 percent of excess meaning I got down to a bmi of 19. Now maintaining easily, not effortlessly but definitely easily.

I get pain in my belly button when I pb. It sounds band related to me, but of course, hope you checked with your doc. I've had two small bowel obstructions this year and those are nothing like band related pain. Its deeper, cramping and it moves in waves from the left to right side of the abomen, with a huge build up of pressure behind it - I have a stoma and the pressure would feel like it was going to pass gas, only so strong that I felt like it was going to pop off and shoot across the room. Gradually these waves of pressure got more and more intense until you will be fairly ready to head into the hospital. Bowel obstructions are pretty unmistakeable, you'll know that when you feel it.

Real eggs all the way. Cant figure why anyone would use something like egg beaters for anything other than an emergency. Real and unprocessed is always going to be better, healthier and tastier. Yours are about as real as food gets, I wouldnt eat a packaged alternative!

If you're going to lose weight, even while training, then you have to take in less calories than you're burning. But you do need enough to fuel what you're doing too. I havent run a marathon, only a half but what I find with being a runner is that I need to eat carbs. I cant run on a Protein shake diet! It just doesnt fuel you properly, you need to instant energy that wholegrains provide AS WELL AS adequate protein. As long as I include foods like good bread and cereals in my daily plan, I didnt find even with half marathon distances that I needed specific sports nutrition - I firmly believe that sort of thing (the pre workout/post workout shake routine, gatorade etc) only adds calories and makes it harder to lose. I've done two halfs and at 43, my knees, hips and backs are not up to this sort of distance as a regular thing, so mainly I stick with 10K's and for that, obviously, my daily 1500 calires including carbs is perfectly adequate. I guess it depends why you're asking - are you jsut generally curious or did you really have trouble with the marathons you've done? Obviously it *might* be necessary to unfill to eat more.

I'd say it has value to "reset", that's a good way of putting it. To get you back on the straight and narrow. Nutritionally, its simply a fad diet, you'll lose, but you're in danger of stacking it right back on as you'll lose a lot of Water. Still, if you do get back to basics and keep eating properly you can also keep that weight off. personally, i wouldnt put myself through it. I know when I've been off track and I know its simply a matter of recommitting, I dont find the need for such a drastic measure.

My weight loss just kind of petered out over time. I stopped losing, only to see a few pounds go every now and then and it was purely chance that I settled at about my goal weight anyway (slightly below). SO I never unfilled, never changed anything. Yes, I can handle more empty calories now, and I guess I probably eat more carbs and more in total as the band does loosen over time. But I never had to specifically unfill to stop losing weight. I kept exercising, in fact I do more now than I did during the early part of my losing phase coz I'm much fitter.

I've been teaching gymnastics in a primary scghool on Fridays, which involves unloading a trailer and setting up all the equipment (huge floor mats, parallel bars, balance beam, high low bars etc), usually all by myself as the other girl I've been working with never manages to show up until about five to nine! Then we run five grades from preps to grade twos, a forty minute session each, during which I have to demonstrate the skills (so I'm doing forward rolls, handstands and cartwheels for five or ten minutes of every session) and keeping the kids in control, then its time to take down the equipment and repack the trailer! I get home so exhausted after that day, particularly since I'm an old and crusty 43 year old who's recently had a big surgery and chemo. Whilst I often do give myself permission to not run on a Friday, if I want to (like if I know I wont get a chance Saturday), I dont even go right inside the house when I get home. I park in the carport and run straight out my driveway (since I'm usually dressed for running anyhow)! That'd be my advice, just go on the way home from work or dont get settled, head right back out the door after you're changed.

Oh gosh no, you wont have to look forward that joy! I was diagnosed with rectal cancer a year ago, they took out half my colon and my rectum and created the ileostomy whilst it all heals up. So I've worn a bag for 8 months now, and they're going in to close it up in 2 weeks time, so once again, I will be back to using my rear end to do the business. Well, hopefully it all works anyway!

Coming up for six years now. Have never had a single problem. Keeping off the weight has been easy - and I got right down to a BMI of 20. I've been unfilled for 8 months due to needing another major surgery for bowel cancer, and I've even kept the weight off during that time, although I'm slowly filling again now. Hope someone else answers as going by the current postings, you could leap to the conclusion that the band causes cancer!

Mine has done this for the entire six years I've been banded - and now I have a stoma too (only for two more weeks, yay) so I also cant stop gas escaping from that - sometimes very loudly, exactly the same as it comes out the rear end only I have no muscles to control it. I hate it, with a passion! The stomach noises due the band I could live with but the farting and squirting stoma, man, every time I have an eyebrow wax, a massage, anything where I am in a quiet room with one other person, or whenever there's a quiet spot in a movie - I fart. It is excruciatingly embarrassing and I absolutely cannnot wait to be done with this thing. But lapband tummy rumbles - fact of life I'm afraid.

I'm a wine drinkier and have had no problems with that - but its occasional, I'm not an every day drinker like my parents. they open a bottle every night. I find I get very fat very quickly if I do that. Occasionally I'll have a beer and it causes me no discomfort or problems. I dont drink sweet cocktails/mixed drinks and such, ever. I've never really liked them and they're huuuuuuuge calories.

I'm a wine drinkier and have had no problems with that - but its occasional, I'm not an every day drinker like my parents. they open a bottle every night. I find I get very fat very quickly if I do that. Occasionally I'll have a beer and it causes me no discomfort or problems. I dont drink sweet cocktails/mixed drinks and such, ever. I've never really liked them and they're huuuuuuuge calories. 've

I agree, it might sound harsh but your nutritionist is right. The way you say "when I heard that I just gave up" gives the impression that you're really not facing up to the work this takes. It might just be an (incorrect) impression but the way you say it sounds like you really do need to reset your attitude a little. For me, it has taken running an hour a day, using willpower to stay away from sugar, etc. Believe me, I can still well and truly overeat when I want to, I can down fattening drinks, eat as many cakes, pastries and Cookies as I like, yet ironically take an hour to eat an apple. That doesnt mean I do it! You do need restriction but it doesnt do the whole job, most of it comes from you. This is dieting and exercising old school style, discouraging as that may sound. The band does nothing more than give you a reasonable chance of success at it. You havent done that badly you know. 50lb or so in a year is great - steady healthy loss and you've kept it off. You're probably 3/4 of the way there already, just tighten up your habits, resolve to work at the exercise and I bet you can lose more.