Jachut

if youv'e got reflux, vomiting or pain when you eat then you're probably a bit too tight BUT that doesnt neccessarily mean you may not be able to sneak up on that restriction again in smaller increments (having a 4cc older band, they can fill in increments as small as 0.1cc). if you dont have those classic symptoms of overtightness you may still suffer vague symptoms that take a while to realise - a tendency to choose slider foods as your body drives you to get calories in somehow, grazing rather than eating meals, eating but feeling unsatisifed if not physically hungry, even feeling weak and tired due to lack of calories, things like that. Restriction really isnt something that brings you to a halt eating wise, it simply makes it easier to stop when satisifed and to resist inappopriate eating becuase you're not physically hungry.If you can "feel" a physical block there, then you're probably too tight. It doesnt limit you to 1000 calories a day or anything like that. I think every single one of us approaches it that way with the hope that there'll be no possibility of straying from the straight and narrow, I know I do as well, but really, that has to come from us and trying to find a level of restriction that makes that process automatic will usually end in being too tight.

I focuss on running, bootcamp and fitness. They are great pastimes that I enjoy and can always set new goals for. I also returned to full time work with my first teaching position so really, I have a very different life now.

I'll have to try this! I'm no low carber, but I love zucchini in place of Pasta for bolognaise - its a great way to get in vegetables. Its not a hardship at all for me to substitute. I've tried the cauliflower mashed potatoes - sorry, but no dice, lol. Yuck. I like my cauliflower raw with hummus and when I want mashed potatoes, I want mashed potatoes.

I have no fill anymore, so I'm back on normal sorts of portions of bread, cereals and such. But I found with restriction (which was never that tight for me) I really truly needed some carbs in my day to bulk up what I ate and give me lasting satiation. I loved a salad with Protein lunch, for sure. But it didnt last past 2 hours for me before I felt peckish. Put that salad and protein on a piece of wholegrain bread and I was right till dinner time. That's only if you can eat bread and if you choose to eat bread though. if you're low carbing, that advice isnt going to help. In that case, small protein Snacks regularly seems to be the general advice, but I always find I'll keep prowling until I eat more balance and include the carby foods,. I've been slightly too tight once in five years and what I found was that I could only eat a little but was constantly starving because I couldnt eat enough at a time to sustain me for more than an hour or two. YOu dont have to be vomiting up your own saliva to be too tight. however, you've just had that fill, give it a while to settle, a bit of weight loss perhaps and you might find this problem disappears.

Whilst I was losing, i counted nothing. Oh, roughly calories in my head, after 20 years of dieting, I know the calorie count of absolutely everything! I chose healthy foods for 99% of time - but to me that doesnt mean cutting carbs. With a lapband, I found I cut the carb content of my diet naturally, I would only eat a piece of bread once or twice a week, for example, but I included cereals, Pasta, rice, Protein, fruits, vegies etc. With the portion control provided by the band, I found it easy to stay at around 1500 a day and I lost all of my weight easily at that level - with an hour or running or bootcamp most days of the week. I had to be unfilled two months ago for another surgery and since then I have actually logged calories. I am slowly gaining confidence that my appetite is now appropriate for my body size and that I wont balloon but I felt so exposed and so vulnerable that I had to impose this restriction on myself. I looked up maintenance levels for my weight - which is about 1800 a day if no exercixe is involved and I stick to that - I do a lot of exercise so I have an extra 500 or 600 a day which I simply take to mean I can do the normal things - an unplanned coffee or cookie, a nibble of this, and a bigger meal out once or twice a week. But I'm back up to 2 or 3 slices of bread a day (I simply cant exist without some bulky foods like that to fill me now I have no restriction) and bigger serves of Cereal and pasta and I have found it's made absolutely no difference to my weight - in fact I feel better than ever, my running is going really well with the fuel on board, and I really truly will not ever fill my band again unless my weight gets out of control. Two things come to mind from my experience - it is absolutely an individual thing - cutting carbs and doing high protein/low carb is not necessarily the bees knees, anyone will lose, yes, but not everyone needs to do it to lose and also that at the end of the day, it really is about calories in calories out and how you achieve that balance is probably not that important. Weight loss will occur anyway, its up to you to figure out which sort of program is best for you health wise.

Life is so ironic. I got to a BMI of 21 and could wear most of what I wanted, but still had a slight muffin top that frustrated me. I'm pretty obsessive about things like that - I wont wear anything that shows VPL or a braline or any fat showing at all. Well, thanks to chemo and radiation, I finally get down to a BMI of 19 only now I have a temporary stoma so I have a bag on my stomach and the surgeon fashioned a loop of my intestine over the stoma (but under the skin) so i have this bulge there,. So skin tight stretchy dresses - yeah, I'm at the weight and in the kind of shape that I could wear them and look fantastic - except now I have to dress loose around the middle, lol! So lately, I'm wearing high heels and short skirts - something I rarely do because I'm already 5ft 10 - to show off my legs, which are looking pretty hot if I do say so myself. on a more serious note, its sooooooo good to just shop in regular stores and I've found being thin even makes stores like Kmart and Target more attractive, you can find great stuff that looks good on you when you're not all bulges and rolls. Its the best reward of weight loss to my way of thinking! But all of us have figure flaws and I never found I could wear absolutely anything I wanted. I dont do maxi dresses for example - ick, I hate them and they look awful on me. All skinny bony shoulders and arms, and then this enormous swathe of fabric. I need my legs to show to balance it out.

The brutal truth is that you will probably be able to eat half a darn cake again when you're all healed up and that initital motivation that keeps you on the straight and narrow for a few months has gone. I certainly found I could. What I found was that I had to graze to do it and if I did that (or a packet of Cookies or whatever) I then couldnt eat my dinner. So I didnt gain weight from the occasinal pig out, but yeah, you can do it for sure. I have also never liked ice cream or even chocolate that much before banding but after, I will eat it more willingly because its an easy way to get a sugar hit. Your tastes change to accommodate foods you can eat. So even if you're lucky and cant eat cake, you might start to like something else. Sadly, being banded is all about allowing it to control your portions of solid foods and staying away from foods you shouldnt eat. It really is easier than it sounds when your'e just not hungry. I think the comments above about indulging in a treat versus binging are excellent ones though, and its a great way to look at it. I certainly have a treat now and again and when I had fill in my band, I didnt even worry about allocating calories for it - but now I'm unfilled I do the same thing, count my calories, budget for a treat and do some extra exercise if I find I'm going to go over my calorie allowance.

What worked for me was following a very normal, but portion controlled diet - that's foods from all food groups - Protein, carbs, fruit, vegies. Three healthy meals a day exactly as I would have done when trying to lose pre band. Limited Snacks and treats, but sure, occasionally you can have a treat. Limit alcohol, fatty foods and sugar. So I might eat Cereal and fruit for Breakfast, a salad with protein for lunch and more protein and salad for dinner, with the occasional Pasta or rice dish. I worked up to it, but pretty much run for 40 minutes five days a week and go to a couple of bootcamp sessions (which are pretty brutal). I lost easily but slowly (if you consider 100lb in 2 years slow, I dont) and maintained effortlessly ever since, EVEN with an unfilled band. My band was a tool. It meant I stuck with my plans through the endless challenges such as meals out, holidays, parties and just bad weeks but it made me satisfied with much smaller portions. It never stopped me wanting bad foods, it didnt even stop me overeating, since when I had a mind to I could graze on chocolate and Cookies all day. I worked on that bad habit. Looking back, i think the band worked on my mind as well as my body. I really did finally say 'grow up and accept what you have to do" and I just got on with it. I find people nowadays just gratify their every whim and I've really become a person who thinks before she acts in terms of not only eating, but spending money too!

Afraid of gaining it back! I lost it all but it took a long time. Most of my weight was gone and I was down to a normal BMI within 2 years, but it took another two to get to my real goal, one pound every now and then. However, I've been unfilled for two months as I had to have a major surgery. Let me tell you, fear of unfilling my band caused me WAY more anxiety than having cancer did, and that's the truth. I'm not sure if I've got my priorities mixed but I always felt I'd recover from cancer, but getting fat again was a far more frightening prospect. However, so far, so good. I've actually lost quite a bit of weight through the effects of surgery and just being a bit TOO careful diet and exercise wise. I pushed myself to run 10 days after a bowel resection due to fear of what would happen if I didnt exercise for a few weeks. Thank god I was fit, strong and able to cope with that physical demand, becuase I really wasnt doing that with the blessing of my surgeon. What I've come to realise is that I'm very proud of the work I put in to really change my lifestyle, and glad that I never had a tight band but always made myself do the right thing with the help of the band, rather than rely on the band to stop me eating with vomiting or discomfort. Obviously I need to eat more now to feel satisfied, but I broke the hold that sweet foods and junk food had over me and I've been easily able to fill that gap with fruit, vegies and wholegrains so that overall my calorie intake has not risen at all. I'm slowly gaining confidence that I have mastery over this becuase I really would like to not fill my band again but a big part of me really wants that security of fill that means when I go out to eat, when there's a party or special occasion or just a particularly yummy meal, I have no choice, I cant overeat - because at the moment, I could. I fear that willpower will not hold out over time, but as my doctor said, if the weight starts to go on too much, she'll fill me again (she refuses at the moment becuase my BMI's only 19). The last few years has shown me that moderate fill in a band and regular exercise means you dont even have to think about maintaining, it just happens. Take heart, you gain that confidence over time and dont feel so vulnerable.

I think everyone's different and at a few weeks out, I really wouldnt worry at all about how few calories you're eating in a day, you're still healing, you'll have post surgical restriction due to swelling that will go away eventually, etc. Judge it more in a couple of months time. Personally, I do think very low calories will result in a lowered metabolism and that you can lose weight just as well on 1000 or 1200 a day, but then you know your own body and there's plenty of people on here who have found they DO have to eat barely anything to lose weight. Your body has plenty of energy stores to get you through that, that's the whole point of it, to burn up your fat. But the one concern I would have is that long term, I simply cant believe anybody will be properly nourished eating 600 a day. supplements absolutely do not make up for lack of nutrients in the diet, they're insurance but not a replacement. Nobody would convince me to do that to my body over time.

I agree with many of the comments above. Having had my band unfilled for two months now due to another surgery I had, I've had a real opportunity to reflect on how I used the band and how I plan to manage it in the future. i've never been an advocate of tight fills and making it so that you simply CAN'T eat. Look, you never know what's around the corner, as i've found out and you never know when you may need to be unfilled or god forbid, even lose your band. If you dont work to create a new lifestyle and new habits that are not band dependent, you're in real trouble. That means good food choices, learning to eat only until you're satisfied, not feeling really full and learning to simply say no at times. There's some foods that simply do not go with a healthy lifestyle that you need to say no to more often than not and if you dont exercise at reasonable intensity most days, you're going to struggle to stay thin long term. But of course, all of that is easier with the restriction of the band. But the band is meant to create satiety, not to choke you off so you cant eat more than a few spoonsful and it will NEVER work so that you simply dont crave certain foods or want to eat even though you've had enough - and that is coming directly from the mouth of Prof. Paul O'Brien, who is one of the band's pioneers. So, if you can eat a reasonable portion - not necessarily that magic half cup that so many doctors seem to think is vital - and you're not actually physically hungry for three to five hours, you're getting the best of what the band can offer. That doesnt mean you wont want to eat, but only that you dont strictly need.to. Once you're sure you're doing everything right, eating well, exercising, keeping portions reasonable to satisfy you but not looking for hard stops from the band, and if your weight is still staying the same and you're not losing, then its probably fill time. Like Indio, five years out, I still practice the little things like eating off small plates, waiting 20 minutes before I have a bit more of something, I run for an hour a day, its work and it will always be work I need to do. I'd love to get some fill back in to make it a bit easier, but unfortunately, they wont let me whilst my BMI is only 19 and truth be told, I've learned how to control my eating now with the help of the band - that's what you want to achieve, not to stay thin because you cant eat anything. But like you, I want the band to physically stop me from eating coz that's easier than working on lifestyle and habits, I could throw a tantrum in the doctor's office and she would probably relent but I know that with more chemo to go through and with the need to stay strong and healthy, it is my job to concentrate on providing my body with plenty of healthy but low fat and low calorie foods in order to continue recovery and not the right thing to start starving it of what it needs right now. So......... a bit of honest appraisal at how you're going and you'll know whether or not a fill is right for you. You shouldnt "feel" restriction in a properly adjusted band, but we all sure as hell needed some of it to achieve lasting weight loss.

Yes, but my haemoglobin level was waaaay lower, down to 4 - it was 10 five years ago when banded. But that was a combination of reasons, not just beign banded. Iron levels take months and months to come up again on supplements, its taken me since last August to get back up to normal levels and that's with supplements AND with my band being totally unfilled AND going into early menopause due to radiation and chemotherapy, so no more periods to lose iron.. But you cant take a supplement just for a couple of months and you have to address the reasons why its low. Iron can be a problem with bandsters due to the difficulty of eating read meat and leafy greens, anyway, but add in periods etc and it can be a struggle for many women to keep levels up. Also, you need to be careful that you're not following dietary practices that make iron absorption difficult - coffee or tea with meals for example. i have to say, I never *felt* low in iron but the difference now - my hair has stopped shedding (i thought it was just me, Iv'e shed hair for years) and I look soooo much better - better colour and no dark undereye circles. I also find my runs much more pleasant, no feeling of lead legs.

Its an odd situation isnt it? (sorry to hijack the thread but it may be useful info). What I am enjoying about being unfilled is how nutritiously I can eat - I mean its a miracle to me to eat a kiwifruit or strawberries comfortably - a big salad every day, part of the reason I'm not gaining is I've gone mad on those low joule fat free fibrous fruits and vegies that were much harder to eat with fill. Unfortunatly, I have a stoma at the moment and all that fibre with an ileostomy - lol, it makes for very loud noises at inopportune moments. However, I've been given sheets from my stoma therapist about how to gain in the face of chemo and such and its all butter, oil, etc. I'm also being encouraged to include a lot of white bread, rice and Pasta to thicken stomal output. But I figure, and this stands for anyone whose a bit on the thin side - I may need some weight on, but I am NOT immune from heart disease and diabetes and loads of butter and full cream milk is still unhealthy or loads of refined flour is still unhealthy for anyone - fat or thin. To the original poster - are you exercising? I know in my heart of hearts that the amount of running I do is giving me this stringy marathoner's body (not that I run entire marathons!). I really COULD cut down on the daily runs to maybe every other day without losing the good benefits of exercise but without burning so many calories. Trouble is, I really love running and I dont have the willpower to stop! Denoument, I find I have gained great lifestyle skills that will keep this weight off in that I know how and what to eat and how to execise effectively. I believe i need just a *touch* of fill just to take that edge off. I am eating properly and in a controlled manner, but I'm back to finishing a meal and wanting seconds, or just a little bit more. I dont need fill to restrict calories, just a slight increase in satiety. I believe I could gain healthily and in a controlled manneer with some fill in my band.

Its all relative. If you're losing weight whilst eating that, then you dont need a fill! It really is a misuse of what the band is meant to do, aiming to fill and fill and fill until you cant eat more than half a cup or cant eat a certain food. The band is actually meant to decrease your appetite and increase satiety - YOU have to do all the rest of it yourself. Which means avoiding bread if you dont want to eat it, not making yourself so tight that you cant eat it. However, it is common not to be able to eat bread. Look at it this way - I currently have no fill and can easily eat an entire two bread sandwhich full of salad fillings. I could also eat several Cookies after that - but I most of the time I choose not to. I have not gained any weight in 2 months unfilled and am currenly at a BMI of only 19. Do I need a fill? If you're losing weight on ten pieces of bread a day then dont sweat it. Weight loss is what matters, not choking yourself off until you cant eat. However if your loss is very slow, or has stopped and you're doing everything else right but not feeling that satiety where a meal lasts you a good couple of hours, then its fill time. But dont judge it on what foods you can or cant eat. I could eat bread with my band 3/4 fill, with no problem at all - but yogurt, ugh. Impossible. Its different for everyone.

I dont really believe Protein and only protein is the answer. I didnt noticeably lose hair but I've always been a shedder, I always leave hair all over the bathroom and plug up the shower drain, my brushes are always full of it, its amazing I have any but it never ever thins. However I do have a problem with frizz because I've always got little regrowing hairs sticking up everywhere. Anyhow, I've always been lowish on Iron and last year was diagnosed with bowel cancer, a bleeding tumour had absolutely decimated my iron levels. Then I had chemotherapy which didnt help. Long story short, band was unfilled for the surgery to remove the tumour (I'm all better, pathology all clear) and I have been eating much much better than I was able to with my band for the past five years. Way more salad, fruit, vegies, bigger servings of protein foods (which importantly include iron). Radiation therapy put me into menopause, no more periods. My iron levels have skyrocketed back to well within normal levels. And my hair? Its freaking glorious, lol. No more shedding, its a miracle. So I think hair loss and shedding is probably due to generalised lack of nutrition, and I'm not sure it can be replaced with pills. My hair was never bad, it never actually thinned but the difference after eight weeks of normal eating is quite incredible. I still dont eat a high protein diet, I havent really increased protein but have greatly increased fruit, vegies and complex carbohydrates - bread is now a part of every day again. You need to mix and the interaction of natural wholesome foods to give you really good health, not a Vitamin pill or a Protein shake. You can still do that with a band of course, but maybe not with a very tight one.

Oh, it definitely does! By nature, I'm an eat what I want when I want kinda person and with a band to control portions that's worked for me. I lost about 120lb without ever counting calories. I exercise a lot too but again, I do what I want, dont follow any plan. but I had to have all my fill removed back in November for a big surgery and it cant go back in until the second surgery is over and done with in maybe six weeks but possibly 3 or 4 months. So I've been EXTREMELY careful not to gain and that's involved tracking calories. Wow, its an eye opener. Firstly I've discovered I have a very normal, healthy metabolism and I can indeed eat 2000 calories a day to maintain my 135lbs. In fact with the exercise I can do I can eat about 2300. Tracking has given me permission to "eat" without stressing over what is going to happen - the math is right there, obey it, make it balance and you wont have a problem. But its a real eye opener how many little nibbles add up - took my daughter and her friend to the movies this morning. Two small handfuls from the popcorn box, seven small jelly snakes, a latte and there's 371 calories - WOW! I would have had calorie amnesia over that one - its in the dark, nobody saw me eat it, so it doesnt count, right? Makes me marvel I lost the weight I did becuase I would have done exactly the same with fill in my band too. Its also amazing just how much portion size matters - because now I'm eating more normal sized meals - normal sized for a 135lb woman that is, not huge - its very darn easy to eat an 800 calorie dinner. All those little savings - fill up on salad, cut out the butter, low fat this or that which I didnt have to worry about with fill because portions were tiny, I now do. But I am proud to say I have LOST weight with my band unfilled and have not regained any.

Lucky you - that doesnt work for me. My breast tissue is so soft and floppy that if you push em up and together with a push up bra, they just kind of spill flabbily out the top and it looks hideous. I cant buy a lot of sexy bras despite now having my dream size - a c cup (never ever wanted huge boobs). I usually buy tshirt full coverage bras and you can get these great ones here that have extra padding in the TOP, which fills out that empty cup thing nicely. But on the bright side, I finally CAN wear teeny tiny string thongs that dont disappear into the folds of my skin!

Dont discount the fact that it may not be "running out of fuel", it may simply be that that's the level of fitness you're at. I've run up to half marathon distance since being banded and have never found that I needed Protein supplements, huge amounts of food or unusual amounts of Water to do it. I would run out of energy at about the 20 minute mark when I started running, then trained up to where I could run for an hour before boredom really got to me, and I keep my runs to about 45 minutes now. I've done less running, more bootcamp over the past year and whilst I'm stronger and have more tolerance to bursts of very hard cardio, my endurance has decreased a bit as a result of the change and 40 minutes or so of running sees me tired. If i went back to just running, that would change again. It just takes time for your body to adapt and become proficient with metabolising and providing the fuel for exercise, that's part of true fitness, its not at all just about your heart and lungs. That comes with time and consistency. But that said, i've never done a low carb diet for any more than a week or two at a time, cutting out carbs completely makes me feel like crap and I definitely cannot exercise well on a low carb intake. I do eat bread, oatmeal, lots of fruit and vegies and Pasta and rice. In moderate quantities! As to amino acid supplements, I have tried Hornet juice before a run as its cheap and easy to get here in Australia and, yes, I do believe it does help slightly with keeping up energy, Those programs too, I've found they're just too quick in progression for me, it took me two and half years of running to get to half marathon stage. Everyone's different but I'm not sure that its that easy to follow such a plan as an overweight person. As you lose weight you can do more and more and you really will find it hard to believe just how much extra work that weight on your body causes you. Take it at YOUR pace.

I'm currently maintaining with no fill - had it out for a surgery and hopefully can put some back soon. Sad to say, there is no secret. I live my life "on a diet". I say no to treats, Desserts and second helpings most of the time. Every now and again I will indulge, but only very occasionally. I continue to run an hour or so a day or go to boot camp. Now, the truth is since having my fill out, my portion sizes have doubled. I eat much more normal quantities of food. I make sure te bulk comes from low calorie foods like salad. When I had my fill and was maintaining (which I have done for almost 3 years) I was able to indulge in the treats more often, when I cut all those out, I still actually lost weight. However, looking back i was too tight, the level of fill I had was too much for me to eat enough calories of HEALTHY food to maintain, I had to bulk it out with sweet treats and a glass of wine at night kind of thing. I wont go back to that level but I also dont want to live the way I'm having to right now without fill. What I can say is that with no fill and without thinking about it, I would probably gain about 30lb or so but I really truly dont think I'd go back to previous levels of obesity. My habits have changed too much.

Cant help with the cost issue but commiserate on being too thin. I'm 5ft 10 and currently 135lb and I look a bit awful at the moment. I have loose skin I didnt have 10lb ago and I look a bit like a 90 year old undressed. I've started dressing to hide my bones. But it is NOT easy to allow yourself to gain weight. Currently I have no fill becuase I had bowel cancer and have just been through a huge surgery, so that's what took that last bit of weight off for me, but its taken 8 weeks of no fill for my appetite to wake up. I've gained about 8 much needed pounds after intiitally losing quite a bit after the unfill through the surgical process but its darn scary how fast and easy those pounds have gone on in the last week or so. What I'd suggest is a slight unfill and work your way down until you hit a happy medium, I'm about to begin the same process from the other end, I am happy to gain another 10lb or so but I want to control it and I dont want to gain 20 or 30! My "secret" goal was always 140, at the bottom of my healthy range, but really, it doesnt look so flash. Yeah, my muffin top and thighs are gone, but so are my boobs, all my ribs show and I definitely look older. The main thing to remember is needing to gain should really be a controlled process, not an unfill and a free for all pig out session. Hope you can manage to work in the necessary appointments to perhaps take your fill down a bit. You cant just "stop dieting" etiher because if you look at other people, its only tiny differences in habits - butter on sandwiches, full fat this or that, that odd biscuit with a cuppa or perhaps no exercise - that makes the 50lb difference between your weight and theirs. Gaining healthy pounds whilst maintaining healthy eating and exercise habits is a rather difficult feat and I've had many arguments with mn surgeon and stoma therapist who dont understand why i wont just head to McDonalds for a pig out.

I spoke at a lapband info night last week just to give my experience as someone who's been successful with it. Before i got up, my surgeon spoke for about 40 minutes and he made a big deal about how the lapband provides satiety and lack of hunger and that is how it is supposed to work primarily - more so than restricting what you eat. I thought "wow, that hasnt been my experience". Early on, I had that. For about six months. I lost interest in food, I mean, I enjoyed what I ate, but I wasnt hungry, didnt have head hunger, never felt physical hunger. That didbnt last for me. I have a normal appetite, normal hunger levels and a fair degree of head hunger these days, I've just learned to deal with them. So yes, i do get hungry and i very often just want to eat for no particular reason. Perhaps more fill would solve it, but I'm at a healthy weight and dont need to lose, so I havent sought that out. I'm about to get unfilled in about an hour becuase I'm having another surgery next week. Part of me so doesnt want to do that, I'm terrified of rebound hunger and weight gain but a part of me is also VERY interested as to how much hunger/restriction/control this band is providing me. I'll report back!

Its lifelong - most people still need Fluid in their band too to maintain their loss. Whatever you do to lose weight, you have to do forever to keep the weight off. You'd think you'd learn new habits and be able to go it alone past a certain point, but statistically that hasnt proven to be the case.

And that's simply personal decision and depends on how much skin you have. Age is a factor too I guess. I mean, for me, at 43, I look great dressed and I always have the option not to wear a bikini - problem solved, nobody would EVER see my stomach. I wouldnt feel that way if I'd lost all this weight when I was like, 28.

I went for a 3km walk the day after surgery, slow but a reasonable distance. Within two weeks I was able to walk 6kms or so at a fast clip. Three weeks and I was back on the gym doing a fairly full on elliptical workout (40 minutes or so). At about 3 months I started running. I didnt really do any strenght training for months, not becuase I couldnt but becuase I was enjoying running so much.