maren

Hey, What a great thread! I've always tried to avoid this question and whenever my weight got really out of control I've hidden away wearing only black clothing and not seeing my friends & family. I thought while I was like this I'd rather stop existing because I always felt that this was not the real Me. So why am I fat? (First time I've ever called myself that) I was a little bigger than the other kids in primary school when I grew up. Not much bigger at all, looking back now I think I was totally normal and would have grown out of it but it was enough for some stupid kids at school to invent names and bully me for 4 years. I don't think I ever got over that. My mum tried to help by telling me not to eat this or that but I think that just started my life of yoyo dieting. When I went to a different school in grade 5 I was so scared that the bullying would continue. It didn't but I was always worried about my weight even at times when I was what I would now call skinny. In my mind I was always fat and wore clothes to cover up. It took me until I was about 18 to get some self esteem and it helped that I always had quite a few guys interested in me so slowly I started to believe that I was actually quite attractive. But my life of yoyo dieting had been set in motion and I didn't know how to stop it. I lost my first 20lbs when I was about 14. At 21 I moved to Australia, away from any family and the uni and party lifestyle didn't help to keep the weight down. For the first time it got really out of control (240lbs) and I had 2-3 miserable years. Then I lost 72lbs before my wedding in 2004 and felt great and promised myself never to let things get that bad again. For one year I was myself again but after having 2 miscarriages, my parents divorce and loss of the entire family fortune after a bad investment and my father's thankfully failed suicide attempt (all in one year) I started to gain bit by bit back. At the end of 2005 we tried again for a baby and things went well this time but I went by what everyone seems to say that during pregnancy you can let go and eat what you want. I did and gained 120lbs in 38 weeks. A lot of it was Water but after the birth I was still left with a huge amount to lose. So since 2006 I've tried to become Me again losing about 110lbs in 21 months and then finally getting lap band surgery last month to never regain the weight that I've lost. Now I've had 2 weeks on Optifast and 1 week after surgery and I'm down to 209lbs. I can't wait to get down to 167lbs and finally Celebrate being me again.

I've borrowed my 2 year olds toddler bowls which probably fit about 1 cup and I fill them to about 3/4. Sometimes I can finish that portion and sometimes I leave about 1/2. I think as long as I stick to the toddler bowls I'm fine. I proper meal like that lasts me 4-6 hours. Sometimes less and then I have a tiny snack in between meals.

Hey, Cindy - Thanks for the recipe. Sounds like you're very determined to stay on track. Who would have thought you could drive for 20 min without finding a Mc Do in the states. renewedhope - Your new photos look great. What a huge change!! ladybird - I actually got jello as my first "real" meal in hospital. I'm still having it now while in the liquid stage. Maybe they treat it like liquid so you shouldn't have it right after a normal meal. Not sure. Bonnie - Thanks for the welcome. I think I'll have to get my Atkins book out again to try and remember how it all works. Here in Australia we've got the Bodytrim diet. It's low carb and for 3 days at the start you're only eating protein. It's all about keeping your metabolism working well so that you keep losing heaps of weight and don't reach plateaus. I think I'll follow that one after the liquid stage. For anyone who is interested: You have to eat at least 6 meals/snacks per day. Each is about 100g of protein and for the main meals low carb vegies can be added. At least 1 hour wait between each snack or meal but never leave it more than 3 hours. The idea is that your body constantly digests and that it keeps the metabolism going. I did it for a while before the band and it works well. Maren

Kizzie, Glad I could help a bit. Let us know how you go. I've heard of plenty of people who had to have the port moved or fixed so I don't think it's a major operation. Hopefully they'll cover the costs since they should have really thought of the problems that might occur in your case. After all your surgeon would have done this heaps of times but you've only had it done once. Good Luck!

So sorry to hear you're having trouble with the port position. I think your surgeon should really have discussed this with you before the op. I was banded 25th June and I'm sooo glad I asked "the port" questions before the op. I actually told my surgeon that I'd like to have a tummy tuck in a few years when I'm done with having kids and I wondered whether the port will cause any problems. He said he puts the port pretty high up (just below breast bone to the left) so that for a tummy tuck the skin can be liften and they don't even go near the port. That might be the reason why a lot of other surgeons put them higher up. So my port is around 4cm below my left boob but I'd say my bra line is 2cm above that so I'm ok. I hope you get some help.

Hi girls, I'm still at home recovering from surgery on the 25th and came across this forum and your thread. I hope you don't mind that I join in. I'm in the liquid stage for another 10 days and even though I'm not a huge no carbs fan all your posts about food sound delicious to me right now. I'll be sooo happy when I can mash up some tuna, eggs etc and when I finally stop dreaming about pizza. I've tried Atkins before and I'm very impatient so I like low carb diets because of the fast weighloss. I started my diet almost 2 years ago after gaining about 55kg (I think that's around 100 pounds) when pregnant. I then lost 20kg really quickly and was stuck with the rest. It has taken 21 months to get back down to just over 100kg, then I decided to get the surgery, did Optifast for 2 weeks and I'm now down to 96kg. I'm looking forward to chatting with you to help keep myself on track. Maren