Jachut

I didnt think I needed them - have always believed that a healthy diet provides what you need. However i failed to account for how much less than normal bandsters eat. I lasted six years before falling pray to Iron deficiency - my ferritin levels were zero- although circulating iron was low/normal - which means that I had totally and utterly used up my body's stored iron. My oncologist went on to check my B12 - bottomed out which again means that I had been literally years with too little. I also had a bone density scan after I broke a rib simply adjusting the knob on a spin bike so my calcium/magnesium/D levels have also been too low. Now so as not to alarm anyone, I also had chemotherapy, an ileostomy and an early radiation induced menopause so my hormone levels were out of whack also and there were other factors at play there, but the point being all my body STORES were used up too which means I'd been deficient since before cancer. Needless to say, there are supplements in my bathroom now, but I *STILL* fail to remember to take them! Just a note on iron - its very irritating to banded stomachs - I got a stomach ulcer from the pills sitting in my pouch - so now I have to have IV infusions - I'd gotten my levels back to normal and then over the past six months without supplementation they've dropped again.

The scary thing is that I learned a lesson about what maintaining an unrealistic weight is like - and its not happy, easy or healthy - I know that I am in a better place now but every single day I still think about dieting hard to get back there. So instead of eating a sensible, weight maintenance diet - which need not be devoid of any pleasures - I follow a cycle of undereating and compensatory eating - I hesitate to say overeating because I am still pretty thin and not gaining and my band keeps overeating in check, but its a binge purge cycle in all other characteristics. Recently I've been sooooooooo good at eating sanely and enough every day and my mood levels out remarkably when I do. I dont want to frighten people that an eating disorder lies at the end of every weight loss journey - in some sense, I ahve always been a disordered eater (I think most of us are) but it took really life changing illness and the loss of control that cancer brings upon you to push me over the brink into that anorexic type behaviour. It wont happen to everyone.

My DH is banded too - but it was three years after me, I'd already lost all of my weight. I'm positive his thinking was "well it was magic for my wife, so it'll be magic for me". Uh, no. He lost about 30kg which was enough to take him well out the danger zone health wise but unfortunately, it didnt do jack for his blood pressure, which remained high. He's regained 10kg of that over the past year, because truly, he's freaking hopeless. He's never exercised (truly doesnt have the time, he works so hard) and he eats whatever, whenever, and his band is too loose so his quantities are too big. But being a guy, I dont think he cares much. He's not so into the looks thing as I am and isnt motivated by looking great, whereas I agonise over a miniscule muffin top and hit the gym for two hours a day. Its never come between us, but nor were we ever really support for each other it aht sense, our styles are too different. I do know that i annoy him a bit - I am also gluten free, low fodmap (so no onions, no garlic, limited fermentable carbohydrates, low fructose) and I just wont go out, let me hair down, eat a heap and drink a few wines these days because the price I pay with belly pain is too high. He wanted to eat every curry in sight in Thailand and I was forced to stick to Water and a bowl of hot chips most of the time, I only dared branch out once or twice. I wouldnt have huge fattening cocktails at happy hour every day - he wanted me to so he could justify three beers I think. but all in all, we coexist, much more compatible in other areas than our food and exercise habits.

I was one that went right past goal, by a good 30lb - because I wanted to. But sheesh, it was hard hard work and took a good 2 years to get the last 15 off. And even that required a spot of major illness. Really, its far more likely you'll stop 15lb shy of your goal and be unable to quite get there. Statistcally, lapbanders dont tend to get quite down to a low BMI. But I was a 35 BMI too and I wonder if that makes a difference.

It just has never sat with me to use a substitute for anything - sugar or fat. the thing is, if you eat these things reasonably in healthy quantities, then you dont need a substite for them! If you are ingesting bucketloads of equal a day then you are filling yourself with WAY too many foods that are not healthy and natural and that's the habit you need to change, the ingestion of sweetener will take care of itself. Real butter - its not evil you know. We all need fat and a natural product like butter has its place, as long as you dont eat too much of it. Stevia is natural, but if you check the ingredient on your can, its nearly always mixed with xylitol to make it edible, otherwise its incredibly bitter. Xylitol is not such a problem unless you happen to react to it - it can give you diarrhoea and cramps.

That's very much what I got from running. Satisfied me or a looooong time - but I'm realizing if I want to look like this when I'm 55 in ten years time, running alone aint going to cut it.

I've really struggled with this to the point where I took myself off to counseling. I unfortunately got rectal cancer some years father being banded and during treatment got extremely thin. Now ive always been a perfectionist and at 45 I expect nothing less than to look like a 20 year old. I was soooo thin and thought I looked great and I'd not take kindly to being urged to gain a bit my doctors. I was also using food and exercise as a control, running obsessively in the heat with an ileostomy, during chemo and just ten days after major surgery. It occupied my every thought and I was so miserable trying not to gain (my BMi was 18). Eventually as health returned I did gain and I was franic. That's when I knew I needed one help. I've never shared how bad I was even with my hubby. I hid it well. As sick people do. I still struggle. My BMi us 21 and I think I'm enormous. But I do know happiness diesnt lie down that road and I also got quite a fright over the health implications - my bone density and kidneys are somewhat damaged. It really is better to learn to accept yourself in that healthy BMi 20 to 25 territory. Now I actually count calores - to make sure I get 1800. And I have forced myself to run less and o strength training instead, hich just about makes me hyperventilate with anxiety. Running an hour a day is my security blanket.

Definitely - after a hard workout. I can go for a light run and eat immediately after but a tough strength training session or inteval training? No way.

I'd say that's average - I probably wouldnt go more than 4 to 5 times a day.

I'm the same - unless I lose enough inches to really notice it, like a whole size.

I can, but I find it way more pleasurable to include flax seeds, chia seeds, nuts, fish and good oils in my diet instead. Or just swallow a tablespoon of flax oil.

There really is no way of knowing, its a leap of faith.

Since when? You can still have food in your system for even a full week. And then your body I'll continue to produce digestive juices and bile and I'll still have to digest the protein shakes - the role of your colon is to reabsorb water (digestion takes place in the smll intestine mainly) so e the waste from a liquid diet can still be semi solid. But it might be reduced from your usual volume and maybe not every day. Or you might have a bit of diarrhoea.

No to mention I had to unfill my band for a big surgery and it has never been the same since. I never got back the same restriction even at max capacity. It's much harder to maintain now and the only reason I can was that I faced the lifestyle chance/you need to work the band element very early on and have just sucked up the blunt truth that to be normal weight, you can't let your hair down at every social function. It's just food. It's no big deal if you don't eat it. It's certainly not worth even your time for an unfill, just for a few mouthfuls of something. This oes become habit as you realize once the moment passes, you don't regret not eating something.

Believe it or not I'm seven years banded and never drink them (not even post op). I'm here, I'm fit and I lost 120% of my excess weight.

I've had to do it three times for surgeries - one of which was six weeks. And lthough I always take my running shoes and run on holidays, I just got back from Thailand where it just wasn't really possible, paradise but the beach was one of those steep ones you can't run on and the streets, packed with tourists, chaotic traffic, and very very narrow - just impossible. So again, no exercise for two weeks. Believe it or not, it oes you good. Your body gets stronger in the ff droid. I lst no fitness in six weeks, you'll be fine for one.

What a great feeling. I remember looking down at my hands one day and thinking WTF? Whose hands are on the ends of my arms?

Barely noticeable, one thin white line, the littler ones are gone. I did need to move port and reduce te profile though, that was like a walnut under my skin.

I know that I have tended towards undereating for my needs since being banded (and that's without doing a sub 1000 calorie day, ever) and my body is seven years later showing signs of malnutrition (kidneys, Iron stores, energy and hormone levels, scary huh?) but sheesh, eating like a "normal" person is not an option either! I've been logging my days in an effort to eat more, not less! 1500 calories a day of healthy food (no shakes, all solid) is darn hard work! Its the end of Term 3 for primary schools here in Victoria, Australia and Thursdays are our staff morning tea (two people put it on every week). Tonight we have a staff dinner to Celebrate end of term and are all going out to a pizza/italian restaurant tonigh So I've planned out and logged my day - it adds up to 1000 calories for breakie, morning tea, lunch and an afternoon snack - generally my dinner would be sub 500 calories and I need to pad out with a soy latte and something else to reach my dietician set target of 1600 to 1800 (and amazingly I have gained NO weight from upping my intake, but feel loads better). So I've planned 1000 calories and thought that a glass of wine and a slice or two of pizza will be great, my day will probably end up at 1800 or so. I've just sat in the staffroom and watched people eat with reckless abandon - cakes, Cookies, fruit, meat pies and sausage rolls, crackers and dip and a cheese platter - all knowing they're going out tonight as well! I would never ever ever do that now! It is instinctive that I make allowances today for tonight! Am I the sick one or are they? These are by and large normal sized people - bigger than me, as I have lost perspective a bit and have gotten very thin and think I eat heaps! They dont exercise like I do either. So how on EARTH do they a) fit it in and not get as fat as a house? Every now and then you realise just how much the lapband changes your lifestyle and your choices!

Its so true, the whole topic of diet is fascinating. I think my mum didnt speak to me for about a month after one conversation when I was considering the band. Funny how everyone encourages you to have other elective surgeries but freak out about lapband surgery - anyway, she said to me "why dont you do weight watchers (again) - it works for me every time I've done it". when I pointed out that if it worked so bloody well, she would only have needed to do it once, she got that face mothers get and started banging stuff in the kitchen, lol. then there's other people's crackpot diets - one girl at work is on the Flat Belly diet - some garbage about eating whatever you like as long as there is a monounsaturated fat included in the meal - she's living on lean cuisines followed by dark chocolate. And she made a crack about lapbands (not knowing I have one) when speaking about it the other day. I sat there thinking, all you need to do is eat LESS. That's as simple as it is. And lapbands help you to do that, end of story.

There have been times in the past seven years when I didnt eat breakfast - at various times I was tight enough that it was difficult - and I would have a smoothie - vanilla Optifast, banana, Peanut Butter or coffee and walnuts (mmmmm), but generally I have been able to eat breakfast - and want to. I am not "hungry" in the morning and can easily go without and last till 11 am or so but guaranteed - every time I do it - I end up pigging out on carbs in the afternoon, the craving just appears out of nowhere at around 3 pm and I dont even make it home from work without stopping off for Cookies, muffins, or whatever. My day starts at 5.30 am and I dont get a break from teaching till 11 am recess time, so that's an awfully long time to not eat, what with a run or spin class, getting myself and kids ready for school, getting the house in order and getting to work and teaching for the morning. I do so, so much better when i eat a good breafast, morning snack and Protein containing lunch - three meals by 2pm and then taper off with a very small dinner.

Take it as a complement and that you are looking heaps healthier and now very "normal"! But realistically, your BMI is 30, you arent too thin! Nonetheless, its very easy to lose sight of where you're at and become obsessed. I got annoyed and secretive about my weight when my doctors began expressing concern and my mother kept worrying and worrying. I thought I looked great a BMI of 19! But I see photos now and I look pretty sick - which I was. I've fought the desire to go back there, I just want to see that number on the scale again, but I look and feel much better now. Believe me, you can tell the difference from the jealousy "you're too thin" that you tend to get around normal weight and the real alarm when you're scary skinny. I like thin though - and many people might think I'd look better a bit heavier and curvier - but I really dont care what anyone thinks. I know any weight goes right to my thighs and I get saddlebags, not breasts! And I never ever hve wanted big boobs anyway! I please myself and nobody else - not even my husband, who will whinge about what the groceries cost but would fork out $15,000 for a big pair of plastic boobs in the blink of an eye!

Obviously to lose weight you must eat less than you need, but hard exercise places extra demands. I always did it so I could eat more and still lose but I have gotten my body into a fairly risky state by not eating enough more. It's probably the reason why each of my half marathons took me two or three months to recover from. I just thought it was coz I was over 40 and marveled at the veterans out there,

Nuts and whole grains have reasonable protein, and a soy latte has 9 grams for a small (well, our small a US one is probably way bigger)

I eat brown rice on an almost daily basis - I like to mix it with exotic rices like black rice, wild rice and Himalayan red rice. They are full of valuable antioxidents, soluble fibre and complex carbs - I only eat a quarter of a cup at a time, not big amounts. I have no trouble with rice, it never gets stuck.