Jachut

I havent needed to have fill removed. There's a couple of reasons for that. The main one is as I continued to lose ever so slowly from my final fill, the band got looser as is normal. It just happened over a much longer time period than it did at the start. Eventually the weight loss kind of petered out, so I never hit "goal" with a bang, I just kind of trickled into a situation where I thought "well, this is obviously where its going to stay". Luckily that was at a low enough BMI to make me happy. The second reason, and this is important to remember, is that I think the biggest problem with the band is that it tends to make you over time prefer less healthy foods. The effort taken to eat fibrous wholesome foods (like a wholegrain salad sandwich for instance) just makes those foods not seem quite so appealing. I know that I pack more calories in with slider foods these days, even in preference to meals when I'm busy. So the calories have crept up a little even without lessening my restriction.

certainly sounds like an allergic reaction! Hope you're feeling better.

My personal view is that following the after surgery liquid to mushies to solids regime is VERY important. All the rules about soda and caffeine and Protein and stuff, well this may not be popular but I think they're rubbish. Every surgeon differs, and I personally wouldnt drink soda anyway, but I certainly drink coffee, moderate alcohol and I havent and will never ban healthy carbs, and I've had a great band experience. I havent "broken" any rules because those things were NEVER rules for me, my surgeon simply says to eat sensibly from all food groups, dont overeat to the point of feeling very full and dont have fills you dont need. I guess i've followed those ones religiously so I do value rules and can be compliant, but not with ones that have no real basis in any logic. To me weight loss is NOTHING more than calories in v calories out, so if you want to occasional alcoholic drink, then bearing in mind your overall nutrition and where you get your calories from, I see no problem with that at all.

Q1- Can anyone that has had the ideal surgery and success give me an overview of what to expect? It is possible to have an ideal experience. I recovered from surgery within a day, had small but regular fills and lost steadily - it was fast and very gratifying for six monmths, steadied out to a pound or two a week for the rest of the first year, a pound a week for the second year and then over time, I graudally lost about 10 to 15 more pounds, for a total of 100 lost. I started with a BMI of 36, so with a 100lb loss I have lost well into low BMI territory, and am now "thin" not just less fat. I ran regularly and now also do boxing and bootcamp, but I never felt I worked THAT hard on my eating, the portion control was all I really needed. Q2- What are the rules? What will I never be able to eat? What will I never be able to do? Well, I've found I can eat anything if I want to (some foods are harder than others but that varies wildly between individuals, however bread, rice, Pasta and fresh fruit are common). I cant truly "pig out" but you can certainly enjoy a special meal and feel like you've had a treat. If I do something a bit naughty like eat crap int he mid afternoon, I simply cant eat dinner. That takes care of weight gain from small indulgences, but you have to use your stomach space wisely so its not good to fill up on sugar and then not eat your healthy meal. We just dont have "rules" in Australia like you guys do, its just a matter of eating sensibly and eating smaller portions. Q3- Do you have any regrets? Absolutely none. Q4- What is the financial impact after the surgery? Groceries, supplements, etc.? I dont do supplements - I always took a basic multi Vitamin which i still do. I dont do Protein shakes and bars, ever, so there's no added cost there. I eat fresh food and cook from scratch like I always did. However, since I had my surgery five years ago, my family has grown, my kids have become teenagers etc so I truly havent noticed any savings on food, but I do throw more out from my plate. I never spent a lot of money on take away food either, didnt have a drive thru habit and didnt eat a lot of junk foods like McDonalds. I notice that meals that the recipe book says "serves four" does five of us for two meals, but my kids also complain that I give them tiny dinners and starve them, since my perception of "normal" is now a bit skewed.

I had a 2 and half year old, we all know about 2 year old tantrums, lol. I was still picking her up and carrying her around a reasonable amount. My surgery was on a Friday so I had DH home for 2 days, then for the next couple after that, he dropped our daughter over at my mum's house for the day and picked her up on his way home. So I got almost a week with no need to care for a young child on my own, after that, she was old enough to encourage her to climb onto me rather than me lift her.

if that's seriously all you eat then there's something really not adding up, I agree, because your portions would have to be simply enormous to cause weight gain and a weight problem. Do you never eat butter, cheese, any dairy, any other food than that? Is it all no fat/steamed and no carb? is that fish and chicken simply plain, a fillet steamed or grilled? Or are you really eating processed foods of a much wider variety and whilst not obviously overeating or pigging out taking in more than your body uses? To weigh 340, your body would require significant calories to not lose weight and I cant fathom how you could possibly take in that many on such a tiny variety of low fat food. I'd be insisting that it be checked out. Keep a journal for a few weeks perhaps?

Unfortunately I think the no pain, no gain thing is true. when you've unfit and very overweight, any exercise will work for you at first. So start out gently with walking and such. But to really shift 100% of your weight, keep weight loss going after an extended period of losing and to get really toned and fit looking, exercise has to be brutal. You really do have to do some very intense stuff. The good thing is once you're ready for that, you will probably ENJOY it. I love working myself into a quivering mass, lol. It feels great, you get a high from it and the difference between being able to walk 5 miles and being REALLY fit is massive, you'll never want to give it up once you've experienced it. So the pain is very worth it.

Its like anything, there's plenty of health benefits of coffee too, such as reduction in the incidence of diabetes. Its about moderation. I dont drink coffee in moderation, lol, but like I said, I'm an instant coffee drinker coz instant coffee is pretty darn good in Australia. So I'd be under the recommended 500 mg of caffeine a day. There's some not so great things about coffee too, but like someone said above - I eat well, I'm not overweight, I dont smoke and never have, I only drink wine and that's in moderation (2 or 3 drinks a week) so I'm not about to give up my one vice (and joy) in life!

Preferably neither, but if I had to choose, I'd choose low fat. I just dont think there's enough evidence around yet to entice me into eating a diet based on animal products. And I dont fancy a diet based on manufactured foods like Protein shakes either. I think too many high protein diets are overloaded with saturated fat. I dont think high carb is any better though. I try for a diet that's low white carbs, and has moderate amounts of the right fats. Saturated fat we dont need a lot of and trans fats we dont need at all.

Oh, dont get me wrong, I do agree with you. I was more just musing aloud. this is the kind of crap that rattles around in my brain constantly, bit of a worry hey? I think a lot of thin people who judge fat ones dont realise they have never tried as hard at ANYTHING in their entire lives as most of us have tried to lose weight. I'm thinking of my BIL who likes to poke fun at DH for his small tummy, whilst also boasting how he cooked and ate an entire twelve sausages for Breakfast that morning!

I'd agree, that's questionable advice. I'd love to find a crossfit group around here, that sort of thing just suits my exercise style, I'm loving my bootcamp. The more ridiculously stupidly difficult and exhausting it is, the more I like it, like running up dry sand dunes, lol. it would be a great thing for you to get back into - nowadays because of bootcamp/boxing/running, I can quite literally eat anything I darn well like without gaining weight.

Well, it sounds like we live a similar lifestyle when it comes to running children around. I worked very hard since my WLS to NOT diet every again. I didnt (and dont) count anything. I just make good food choices. I dont eat a lot at a sitting, like being afraid to stretch a sleeve, I want to take very good care of my band (and pouch). I make exercise a priority.Its MY thing. Its the best stress relief and over the years I've come to love getting away from household responsibility for a while. I put on my shoes and head out the door. But for me, I feel it was really key not to have anymore eating rules ever again. It puts the pressure on, simply swaps one bad way of eating for another (in my humble opinion) when you need to be learning to listen to your body and just get on with being "normal". Organisation is key however, I find I really really need to have shopped well and thought about dinners and such for the coming week. I always have stuff cooked and in the freezer for the couple of nights a week when i just cant cook from scratch. We eat frozen vegies, even frozen potato and such to make mashed potato, I take every HEALTHY shortcut I can - I wouldnt feed my family pre prepared meals full of salt and additives, but why peel and chop potatoes if you dont have to? Why cut up vegies, when you throw a steam pouch in the microwave. It really is very quick and simple to eat healthy.

Do you think it will help at all that you've recognised it? I know DH was REALLY hard to live with for a while there, stressed out beyond belief, and I'm thinking "what on earth are you so stressed about". I mean, he has a good job, we're doing OK, life was ticking along and he seemed to have this death wish by insisting it would all go wrong. Then he started having chest pains and weird shaky episodes, we're assuming heart trouble as he was about 70lb overweight at the time. We had a fair few fights over it because I"m probably the most infuriatingly optimistic and practical person around, I have very little tolerance for things like anxiety and much as I know its wrong, I'm the kind likely to tell a depressed person to pull their socks up and snap out of it. Much of that stemmed from ignorance and the sheer luck of never having experienced it myself, I'm a little more understanding these days. It suddenly struck me one day whilst googling that DH was having anxiety attacks. I sent him an email, because it was a hard thing to say to him. It was quite miraculous but once could assign a "condition" it disappeared (so I obviously hit the nail ont he head). I mean he had his anxieties still, the root cause of the issue didnt change but he didnt get so darn panicked every time he felt a flutter, he could self calm once he knew how. Do you think you might benefit now knowing that that's what happens and be able to talk yourself out of it to some degree?

Fair, fat, forty and flatulent is the usual profile for gallstones, lol. not only do you form them from a high fat diet, but losing weight releases cholesterol into the bloodstream which can form cholesterol based stones. In addition, a high Protein low carb diet can in some cases be influential in the formation of Calcium based stones. most folks on a western diet have some gallstones, its a matter of how big, and how problematic, they become. I know I've got a bit of a problem, I get pain every now and then, but not nearly as severe as what gallstone pain can be and at more like six monthly intervals, which to me is not a reason just yet to consider surgery.

I was taking a big breath in preparation for a lecture, but then I got honest with myself. The truth is, I had my lapband at 37 years old, when my two boys were 9 and 7 and my daughter was almost 3. I was over that uber busy running round after them ALL day stuff - well the diapers and feeding and spit and snot wiping and mess cleaning - I just play taxi driver and hand out dollar bills now. I was also at university, not working. So really, my morally superior dedication to running every single day was not so morally superiod in hindsight. I just had time to do it. I well remember what you're talking about and truth is, that time of life is how I got to my fattest. I absolutely PILED on the weight over this time, I ran round like a mad thing and fuelled with endless coffee and sugar. If you can set a target for SOME formal exercise it would be great - you're doing plenty of incidental stuff, but you need some stuff that gets your heart rate up and lifting a baby is not strength training - pushups are strength training. Five times during every day you could drop and do twenty pushups, or twenty situps or twenty lunges. You really could. And twenty minutes on the treadmill at a higher intensity that makes you sweat - you'll come to love the stress relief it provides a couple of times a week. I reckon that would be a big achievement now, stuff what anybody professional or not says about 40 minutes five times a week, formal, involving cardio and strength blah blah blah. Just do what you can - as you get fitter it gets easier - I can guarantee if I had another baby now, I'd be that incredible woman running at 7 months pregnant or running with triplets in a tripple jogger, lol. I would because I love it and I would want to.

I actually didnt have to do one either. My doc said at BMI 35 it wasnt necessary.

I'd combine a lot of cardio with heavy weight low rep stuff. I wouldnt bother with light weight high rep. Circuit training where you do your cardio and strength all together - even better. Burns mega calories.

My main problem with coffee is that I no longer balance it out with food - coffee for lunch, coffee for breakfast, even coffee for dinner on occasion. I've always been a coffee drinker, thankfully, we havent enjoyed quite the same boom in confectionary coffees here in Australia (oh, they're there, but people still drink real coffee, not huge paper cups of syrup and cream). And we have really good instant coffee here, so for me, coffee is a lesser evil - no calories and not TOO much caffeine.

You can often eat the strangest things. I can eat pizza BUT what I have found is that any thick, bready type of thing like this now nauseates me, its the smell, texture etc. NOT that I cant get it down. The thought of eating McDonalds makes me want to puke, it seems utterly disgusting, I dont like pizza anymore (I'd rather starve than eat it) and even fish and chips (which was probably my fave take away meal) - bleugh. the thing with pizza is the cheese, I cannot eat cheese grilled anymore, it just seems hideous. So you may find your tastes change, which is not a bad thing! But you will probably be able to continue to have a little of what you like. And if you really cant get pizza down, you really do come to not like the idea of eating it.

I think you know you're ready not when you dont ahve these fears (everyone felt that way) but when you care more getting healthy and happy, so that you're ready to face life on the other side and just deal with these things when they arise. Having the fears themselves is not a sign of not being ready. Believe it or not, most of these fears will prove completely without foundation. And you wont believe the trade off when you actually see results for your efforts.

I'd change before I went too.

You know, THIS is why I have worked so hard to not "diet" in any way, shape or form since being banded. We've had so many debates on here about "eating what you want" but I will go to my grave declaring that if you live your life journalling, avoiding food groups, counting grams of this and that and toting up minutes of exercise at x pulse rate you are just never going to be "normal". I may be wrong, afterall, its as impossible to know someone else's experience in this regard as is for your sisters to understand why its so hard to eat just one cupcake. But for me, it was my major goal -ditch the food obsessions. Sure, I may worry if I eat nothign but sugar for six days straight (I never have by the way) but really, if its what I want for one meal, its what I have. I dont care that there's so much crapola out there about running wasting away your muscles, I dont want to do some scientific mumbo jumbo exercise program worked out to the exact pulse rate, rep and weight, I just wnat to move for the joy of it. I love to run, so I do. It was very hard to avoid all that dieting behaviour and yes, it took me 2 years to lose 100lb. But I feel very normal now. I think about where I've come from, so I guess I probably still think about food more than the average person, but I'm not afraid to eat what I want, when I want. It doesnt make you fat if you dont OVEReat. I'm sure someone will point out that thin isnt necessarily healthy, but strangely, when you really listen to your body, you want healthy food a lot of the time. But you know, normal people still have fat days, thin days, hate how their ass wobbles, obsess about the size of their breasts - I dont think there's any escaping that if you're a female.

You probably WILL regain some, but it was not true fat loss in the first place. It is also very common to have slight rebound gains when you go from liquids to mushies and mushies to solids. The purpose of the high Protein low carb diet is to shrink your liver, the truth is, its a precaution and the majority of us do not have livers of such size to be a problem anyway. It truly is your own decision whether to risk this, you will find people on these boards who have been opened up and the closed up again without a band because their livers were too big, so it is possible, but without knowing statistics, I'd say its pretty unlikely.

I find exercise the best weapon to avoid regain. I got asked at bootcamp the other night why I needed to work out so hard (we were chatting, and I was saying I run 4 times a week, 4 to 6 miles, and do two bootcamp sessions). The point being why would I need to do that much when I'm already skinny. Duh! That's how I STAY skinny. I have a band, its rather loose these days, havent had a fill for 2 years. Do the bad habits creep back in? Yep, they do. I could get filled to get on top of all that but I dont want to live life forever on restricted food intake either, I enjoy eating now. But I run and I work out and i burn LOTS of energy and I've been at goal weight for 2 and a half years and never gained a gram.

Pay attention to when you get it. Some foods upset me now that never did - wine, yes, on occasion and weirdly potato chips, cant TOUCH those anymore. But heartburn for me is a sure sign of hunger. Rather than get the tummy rumbles all the time like I used to, I get acidy and uncomfortable.