PaleoKris

Laura - Maybe try and mix things up a bit with exercise and food? In the first couple of years I had my band I had an awesome personal trainer at the gym in Dunedin (she knew what I'd had done) and she was making sure I wasn't doing the same thing too often so my body got used to it... Good luck with the job hunting and the weight loss. Speaking of your mum getting banded - how's she handling it? - my dad got the gastric sleeve, I think (not actually 100% sure what he got done, oops.) late last year... Interesting seeing another family member going through what you went through and knowing that despite all the advice you can give they still have to figure it out for themselves... Looking forward to being back home soon for a visit (less than 2 weeks now!!!) to have an indepth discussion with him about food. That and I'm SO looking forward to being in NZ again. Even if it is only for a fortnight. Sigh. ChangingMyLife - Hi! Welcome! As I've been explaining to my dad recently (and as Dr Fris, my surgeon, said to me ... 7 years ago...), listen to what your body is telling you with regards to how your stomach feels. It's a big mental mess because your mind will tell you one thing and your body will just be like "Nope, not gonna happen" with food. Oh, and try every food carefully after the op when you first have it... I found out the hard way that dried fruit is very difficult for me... And 1 chocolate covered coffee bean apparently makes eating impossible for hours. (I haven't dared to retest that theory since....). And yeah, my port is really easy to feel, it's just under the skin. I think it may have been slightly less easy to feel when I'd just had the surgery, but I can't remember (I'm down at my goal weight). For what it's worth, the band does restrict food intake, and things do get a bit sensitive once you're at your goal weight, but the fun thing I've found is, since getting to my goal weight, when I exercise more I'm able to eat a fair bit more than when I'm sitting around doing nothing (3x more, this evening) - the band is surprisingly adaptive, which is good.

Hi guys, Just thought I'd pass on a bit of info I'd learnt... I can't remember how many of you go to Dr Fris (other than Laura...), but turns out he's retiring from bariatric surgery because there are so many people doing it in Auckland now... My mum had been in contact with his office because my dad is considering it and that's what they told her, anyway. I emailed Dr Fris about it (well, more to get contact details for people he recommends over here in case I have problems) and he said Heather will continue to look after patients. I'm guessing that's existing ones. Hope you guys are having a nice start to spring back home.

Oh, is that that doctor who was in the news a while back? I saw an article on Stuff about a doctor in Christchurch who had a 'new cure for diabetes' in the form of bariatric surgery (not sure how new it is as I'm sure I was told that it would reverse any side effects of obesity when I got my surgery - and I was in the 'don't have diabetes YET' stage)... But it's good he was in the news and managed to help make a bit of a start/give a heads up about things. It seems to be a lot easier to get the surgery over here where I'm working now (the Netherlands). I get the feeling insurance here makes things a fair bit easier (it should, you pay for the roof for it (at least I do anyway, heh) and it's obligatory), and the idea of bariatric surgery is a lot more open here than at home, but then if it becomes too easy to get then that creates it's own problems. I work with a girl who claims her sister a gastric bypass on a whim just because she was lazy and doesn't eat properly now either so is always deficient in Vitamins and such, but on the other hand, this is a girl who's got her own weight problems and is taking it out on her sister, so I take what she says about her sister with a whole load of salt. Anyway, you're right about attitudes needing to change, but definitely public as well as government. I've told more people over here than I have at home (though I've had to to stop the indigestion caused by stress of no one knowing - of all things!), and more people know about it so it has a bit less of a stigma. Though so saying, even here there was a news thing about bariatric surgery which led to a hilarious conversation between three guys I work with where they misunderstood everything - I was about to start correcting them, but they left while I was trying to keep myself from cracking up... (Only two people I work with know, but several people in a European project I'm in know - meetings for that tend to get stressful and when I'm stressed my ability to eat much goes out the door).

Hey kiwijo! I think (not entirely sure) you might be the first person posting here who's had it funded? (If I've missed someone else, my bad!). That's one thing I never understood when I got mine (self-funded) is that insurance was against paying for it because I wasn't dying or something, but then the costs of care later on would be ridiculous compared to the cost of surgery now... As you say above. Just out of curiousity, what is the selection criteria? All I know is that they denied me back when I got my surgery, they just said my case was preventative, not dealing with problems of weight after the fact, so they wouldn't pay for it (insurance, that is... Nevermind public funding). Congrats on the losses so far and hope the surgery recovery goes smoothly.

As AAAJJJ said, no worries about it - it's easy to mis-read some well-intentioned text sometimes. Or to write something and have it not come across the way you intend... Text can be tricky that way. Especially if you get in rant mode and people don't realise (I definitely support ranting, but I have had a friend once claim I was angry at THEM when I was just wanting to talk about how annoying something else was for a while. Go figure.) I thought that might have been why they made you wait. They had him on tv and everything - I know it's case by case basis (I didn't go nuts with alcohol when I was 18 and I remember you telling me you wouldn't when they had us emailing each other back then) but I suppose there's no way to prove you WON'T do something like that until after the fact, if that makes sense? I got the feeling that they were being a bit wary with me being on the young side and I'd just turned 20. That's what made me think of the teaching and some med scholarships (radiography at least) though. It's like you get the help because it's something that's needed (or will be a benefit to more people down the line, or whatever), but if you skip out on your bond early (ie don't follow the rules) then you need to pay it all back. Of course I think I'd still keep the requirements for getting it done publicly super strict anyway, but either way. I think too many people still consider it an easy way out and if people who think that way get it done publicly it'll take it away from people who would do better with it, so you'd still have to be careful. And because this is super exciting for me, I just got back from my Saturday running training group and I just had my first pain free run since October last year! Yay! Left knee is finally quitting complaining and letting me run (carefully/slower than normal) again without limping!

Hi guys, Can I just say IT bands (SUCK. And I need more discipline to fix mine in my left leg. That aside...) I can't resist adding my two cents here... (And for the record it isn't my intention to cause offense to anyone, just thinking aloud a bit...) I can definitely see both sides of the story - with the disclaimer that none of us know Laura's mum of course. As mentioned earlier, my dad is also considering this at the moment (he's working overseas right now, making up his mind when the contract overseas is up). For him it would be to cure the problems that have come about from being overweight - he's pre-diabetes, strain on joints, etc, etc. (For me it was preventative.) It would be great if he could go public with it, but I have a feeling it would go the same way as for Laura's mum... More difficult money wise, but he'll probably end up going through Dr Fris as well. On the other hand I have heard a few stories of people who refuse to make the lifestyle changes (neighbour's friend who drank melted chocolate when she was on the post-op liquid diet and managed to put on even more weight, for example). So I can see why funding is restricted for public ops... I don't know if any of you remember a doco of a boy (think he was like... 15 or something) who went to Dr Fris - heard he put all the weight back on after a while as well. Not sure if it was publicly funded because of the doco or what. Anyway, what if they did something like the scholarships for teaching and radiography students in NZ? They pay the students' way, then the student is bonded to NZ for a certain amount of time - if they leave NZ before their bond is up they have to pay all the scholarship back (it turns into a student loan, essentially). What if there was a way where a fund paid for public surgeries then tracked the people afterwards - I remember Dr Fris drawing a graph of my predicted weight loss rate - if they didn't stick to the surgeon's weight loss rate (within a reasonable margin) and show commitment to the lifestyle changes required, then they have to pay it all back as if they'd gone privately? Just an idea, probably wouldn't end up being implemented, but I reckon that might solve the worry people would have about taxpayers' money being squandered. And then it would be a bit less of a free ride, as well - they still have the incentive to work at it because the surgery won't be free if they slack off. Of course, something would have to be sorted out for people who have legitimate problems/complications, but the surgeons would know the difference between those and someone slacking and could make a case for the patient. I do sometimes wonder..... For those of us who had the surgery as a preventative measure, how much do we save the taxpayer for NOT getting the various problems that being overweight can produce down the line? Just a thought.

Laura - Yay cycling! I have to get my bike out again - wanted to go cycling while back in NZ, but didn't get to... Living in Holland = lots of cycling, but I haven't managed any longer bike rides yet... Should do some this summer. Auckland to Wellington could be epic. Yeah, as I said my goal weight was supposed to be 55, but I look quite skinny when I get down to 57 (lightest I've been), so 55 I'd look like a stick... I think if you're close to a healthy weight and you're happy it's all good. Pockets - sounds like you're in the same situation as me - insurance wouldn't cover it because I wasn't dying of anything and my BMI was ... I think one point too low? My gp had told me I was close to pre-diabetes (freaked me out), so here we are. Funny though, I think doing it now would be cheaper than doing it when I had doubled the weight again and had diabetes, heart conditions, etc, etc, etc, but I suppose it's a way to keep every man and his dog from having it because it appears to be 'the easy way out'. (My sister was about 92kg at her heaviest and got down to 60kg all by herself - she claims I took the easy way out, even after seeing some of the difficulties with eating. However Dr Fris met my dad and said it looks like it's genetic as my dad is quite active and still can't lose weight (and is now too heavy to be very active anymore because his joints are protesting), so either way.) I went to Northridge Surgery and have done everything through them (that's Dr Fris and that lot) - so that was all private. I think someone (can't remember who and can't be bothered going through all the pages of posts, heh) had issues with them, but I've had a really good experience and have found them really helpful (except when they just shrugged off the indigestion, but that's pretty minor). I've found them quite supportive, both while loosing the weight and since getting to my goal weight. I imagine that whatever private place you choose to go to should be equally supportive, etc, and that you can just ring up to find out details and make an appointment... I'd say making an initial appointment at where you'd want to go to and meeting/talking to the surgeon could be a good next step. Then they'll tell you what you need to do next if you decide to go ahead with it (and help you set up all the subsequent appointments with nutritionist, psychologist, etc if you need to do all that, which I guess you still have to do before they approve the surgery).

Happy new year people! So I was totally going to see if anyone wanted to do coffee (think that was mentioned a couple of months ago by someone, heh) when I was back in NZ but it was super busy for the three weeks I was back, so... yeah. Hi Pockets! I've had my band for 7 years as of last December (I'm 26, I got the band when I was 20), and it's worked really well for me. One thing that I thought was rather major that they DIDN'T tell me about when I got it was the potential for indigestion/heartburn when you get to your goal weight (or rather, just past the sweet spot on the band). I don't know about anyone else here, but I had never had indigestion before I got to my goal weight a few years ago, and every time I've had it since it has hurt a hell of a lot - not sure if this is because it gets aggravated by the band or not, but either way. Heather (at Dr Fris' office on the North Shore) just sort of shrugged it off and we agreed that having the band tight enough to help me stay at around 56-57 kg (just above my 'ideal' weight, think my 'ideal' is 55kg...) was too much, so now I just aim to stay around 58. I've also noticed that it tends to be triggered by stress half the time - I moved to Europe, no one here knew, I got indigestion several times; I told a friend at work, no indigestion since. Go figure. There are, of course, other complications like slippage, etc, but like Laura said, I found the benefits have far outweight the risks. Actually, Dr Fris told me that a patient of his had moved to London, the band slipped, and he flew all the way back to NZ to go to Dr Fris rather than get it fixed in Europe. That suggests to me that any problems caused by that are manageable on the short term at least! Oh, like Laura and AJ said about the band not working/changing habits, I remember discussing the band with a neighbour who told me a friend of hers got the band, then while still on the liquid diet was melting chocolate so she could drink it... Needless to say she never lost any weight... People who don't know much about it (or don't want to know...) tend to think it's the easy way out, but it is just a tool you can use, like listing everything in the weight watchers book or calorie counting or some such. Like AJ said, you can sabotage it (like with the chocolate drink mentioned above)... On the flip side though, it is a rather strict tool as if you forget about it and take a big bite of a sandwich or eat too much too quickly you will definitely know about it (more so the further along you get). Changing your eating habits takes a bit of getting used to - I still find that I have to pay attention when I visit my family as I wasn't living at home when I got it so they never slowed down their eating along with me (my ex-bf did, really appreciated that! Funny thing is he still eats slower now - when he has time to, anyway, heh) - old habits die hard I suppose. Other little things I've noticed are that I've turned into a bit of a light weight on the alcohol front (I used to be able to handle it really well, my tolerance has halved I think - I don't drink very often, but when I do, anyway. Mind you, the nutritionist at Dr Fris' office also told me to drink a glass of wine a day...)... I've also noticed that flying long haul can really mess up my eating patterns now - flying from NZ to Europe or vice versa generally has me surviving on one or two meals a day for a few days, compared to three plus Snacks... Just little things, but it's interesting when you start noticing the non-weight related changes. I really like that if anything happens the band can be adjusted or, if needed, removed. I like that there is the option if needed, though considering how much my abs/stomach hurt after the surgery to get the band in there I think it'd have to be something pretty serious for me to get it removed, heh. Ok, I've rambled on for ages... Ahem. On the other front, I went to Dr Fris' office when I was back in NZ (the same day I flew in, no less!) and got a top up - I hadn't gained as much weight as I thought, thank goodness (scales at a specialists office here said I was 65...! Dr Fris' scales said 60... Argh.). Had half a mill of solution added - tiny tiny amount, but talk about feeling it... Fortunately I could use the long haul travel excuse when visiting friends... This is the first time I've had to totally rely on Heather for advice as usually my intuition regarding the band is really good, but I just haven't been feeling it lately. It felt loose and I was hungry a lot of the time, but then I went to Bremerhaven on a work trip two weeks before coming home and I was barely able to eat for the entire weekend (epic stress = no food apparently!). It took a little while to settle as well, as usually I'm back to normal within a couple of days (I've never had to do the liquids after inflation thing), but I was feeling a bit restricted all the way up till Christmas... Guess this was a fine line inflation, really, but it's feeling pretty good right now. My grandparents did a full roast meal for my family the night I left NZ and I managed my usual serving of that fine, so that was good. Now I just need to get the running sorted out again and try and get my knees to stop screwing up and I'll be good to go (or rather, stay at the same weight, or perhaps fit into my favourite pair of jeans again - I fit them at 58kg or less, lol) again. Heh. Actually, on a more light-hearted note - I'm familiar with the problem of not being able to fit some clothes because they weren't a large enough size (some - I was size 18 at my heaviest, 96kg - this was mostly preventative surgery because the pattern was 'gain weight no matter what I do' and the only way appeared to be 'up'... But I did have a couple of instances of not being able to buy stuff I liked cos it didn't go to size 18...)... Now I've discovered that if I'm not careful and, say, get to my goal weight (which I'm not planning on, I decided a couple of years ago that 58 is where I'd rather be), I will be too small to fit clothes from Kathmandu and Bivouac, which is where most of my clothes are from... Oops. Aldesa - I'm with Laura on this one, that sucks! Are they able to do anything about it? Laura - go you! You can do it! What's your goal weight again? And how far away is your 21st? Hmm. I'm making a nice big pot of Soup and I can't remember how long it's been boiling for. Oops again. Forcing myself to eat something before I pass out again. Yay jet lag!

Maybe try the 'take the stairs instead of the lift' or 'get of the bus a stop before' type stuff? If you don't have time to go to the gym with exams, then doing those sorts of things will be better than nothing. (That and I had the 'stressed because of exams' excuse in undergrad... My personal trainer at les mills told me off, I still went to her, and I actually felt better. ) You can also read your notes on the treadmill and the bike... I know, I've done both, hehe. Good luck for the rest of your exams. Being in the northern hemisphere is messing me up, I didn't realise it was that late in the year already.... My dad has also gone to see Dr Fris about a band... He's at risk of diabetes I think, but doesn't have it yet, which is a small wonder. He's got a number of other health problems though, as well as injuries, so even though he's got a relatively active lifestyle... Problem is my dad is really wary because I spent most of my time in Dunedin when I had the band, and when I came home my family still ate really fast, I'd stop concentrating on eating slow, and then they'd see the epic down sides of the band... I'm better with it now, but at first it was hard visiting my family and having meals with them. That and I was at my parents when I first ever had heartburn and it was really bad. My mum was on the verge of calling an ambulance because we didn't know what was going on, heh. With those kinds of things to consider it's probably no wonder my dad's a bit wary of it, heh. Good luck to your mum - I hope the money goes through. Wonder what my dad's going to decide... Actually - do you find it odd to be going through something like this then a family member to start looking into it as well? Anywho...

Congrats Laura Like the others were saying... It really is a case of one thing at a time and one small step at a time... I've been thinking about this again recently as a friend at work constantly complains about her weight, and then has bread with margarine and some thick spread... Just take away the margarine or butter, halve the spread, and you're taking a step in the right direction. Either way. Good on you for getting closer to 90, Laura, and there is nothing wrong with going to Rainbow's end, haha. My sister went a little while ago, and she's over 20 (think some friends my age (26) went recently as well). On the subject of too much too fast, I went into new running shoes to fast and now have the luxury of 'IT band problems' (aka really sore knee while running) - something I never thought I'd have because I never thought I would ever run! While training for the half marathon I also started putting weight back on again and have realised I've put on 5kg since last December. This is the annoying side of getting to your goal weight.... When you get there, you don't get fills anymore really, but the band does slowly leak a bit (or something like that)... So after a while (2 years, apparently, for me) I start putting the weight back on, get back into the same 'eat too much, can't fit jeans, blame myself' mentality. Fortunately my mum told me off about that and reminded me that this is what happened in 2009, so the band just needs to be topped off... But when you're doing running training, climbing, and getting back into indoor hockey and you STILL put on weight... (please excuse me while I try to refrain from banging my head against the wall). I mentioned the IT band thing because I had a small freak out that I wouldn't be able to do any more exercise this year (and I want to look at least a little decent and not in winter-hibernation-mode when I come back to NZ in a few weeks), but turns out this is an easy problem to fix, so yay. Going to step up the exercise a bit and see if I can keep on top of this a bit, but think I'll be back in Dr Fris' office in december - just in time for Christmas, go figure! It just seems a bit of a hard call as the band is purely a tool, we can't rely on it at all, it can't lose the weight for us, so this really puts me back into the same mentality of when I was unsuccessfully loosing weight before surgery - ie. 'it's all my fault it's going wrong', that type of thing. It doesn't help that just after discussing this with my mum and realising I needed a top up I mentioned this to two friends here (one is VERY skinny, the other is the one I mentioned earlier) and they said obviously I just need to do more exercise. .. ... ... Should've known better than to mention it to them. (Was my birthday as well! Hehe.) Anyway, hope it's all going well for everyone else. Think I might go abuse my knee some more.

Mm, that's a good point to remind us on Neelloc (hi, by the way ). I'm at the other end of the timeline as you've probably read (at goal weight - well, sort of, when I'm not slacking off), but as far as maintenance goes I know I can be quite hard on myself, and I think it's something we're probably all guilty of. How does the Cheddar cheese ad go? Good things come to those who wait? Take it slow and you'll appreciate the results a lot more. Push yourself too hard and it backfires so then you get discouraged (like how we were discussing gym work earlier, Laura... ) 21 day challenges are a good way to go about it. Keep up the breakfast - I consider that even more important now than before my surgery. In fact, every little thing you do is (or will be) much more noticeable now, be it miss a meal, eat one bite too many, or drink a glass of wine. And now I shall go and harass the weather until it decides to stay like this for the rest of the afternoon. (ie overcast with some sun rather than thunderstorms. Heh).

Nice about the weight losses AAAJJJ. I know the feeling about thinking it hasn't been going well.... I went to see Dr Fris last year when I was home for Christmas. Thought I would've put on at least a few kgs because despite getting into a mad amount of sports (running, climbing and floorball/unihoc/indoor hockey (whatever you feel like calling it, haha)), my eating had kinda gone down the drain. I thought I was eating more than I should be, I wasn't eating as well as I should be, etc... Turns out I hadn't maintained my weight after all (I don't have scales over here, haven't gotten around to buying any new ones). I'd lost maintained it and lost another 2kg on top of that. It was the lightest I'd ever been since the age of... what... 10?, and was a bit of a surprise. When I was discussing it with Heather, Dr Fris' assistant, later I explained what I expected - no scales to weigh myself, doing lots of exercise but not really watching what I ate. Her reaction: Congratulations, you're normal. Hehe. So that was 4 years down the line and my lifestyle finally clicked. I need to do a lot of sport to be able to not worry about what I'm eating, but it's enjoyable, and I can do it now. Had a crappy few months over here lately but thankfully only put on a few kg that I'm sure will come off when I start playing floorball again next week (if I don't kill myself in the process by overdoing it. Hmm.), fortunately just in time to come back for NZ summer, haha. Wow, nice that Obesity Surgery Wellington has covered your next two years! Had to keep paying through the place I went to. Gah. It's so much money... Either way, it's worth it (though sometimes I still wish I could've got by without it). Keep up the good work

Nice about the weight losses AAAJJJ. I know the feeling about thinking it hasn't been going well.... I went to see Dr Fris last year when I was home for Christmas. Thought I would've put on at least a few kgs because despite getting into a mad amount of sports (running, climbing and floorball/unihoc/indoor hockey (whatever you feel like calling it, haha)), my eating had kinda gone down the drain. I thought I was eating more than I should be, I wasn't eating as well as I should be, etc... Turns out I hadn't maintained my weight after all (I don't have scales over here, haven't gotten around to buying any new ones). I'd lost maintained it and lost another 2kg on top of that. It was the lightest I'd ever been since the age of... what... 10?, and was a bit of a surprise. When I was discussing it with Heather, Dr Fris' assistant, later I explained what I expected - no scales to weigh myself, doing lots of exercise but not really watching what I ate. Her reaction: Congratulations, you're normal. Hehe. So that was 4 years down the line and my lifestyle finally clicked. I need to do a lot of sport to be able to not worry about what I'm eating, but it's enjoyable, and I can do it now. Had a crappy few months over here lately but thankfully only put on a few kg that I'm sure will come off when I start playing floorball again next week (if I don't kill myself in the process by overdoing it. Hmm.), fortunately just in time to come back for NZ summer, haha. Wow, nice that Obesity Surgery Wellington has covered your next two years! Had to keep paying through the place I went to. Gah. It's so much money... Either way, it's worth it (though sometimes I still wish I could've got by without it). Keep up the good work

Ah yup, a bit taller than me (I'm 5'2"/158cm). Woo! Go you Laura I actually got around to going for a run too, haha. It was so hot and muggy though that instead of making my 10.6km goal I only managed 8.3km. Woe. Oh well, as I said (and I should listen to my own advice!), small steps, hehe. Legs hurt enough though! And same with me - day off today, got to make sure I go for a little run tomorrow... When there's a storm warning here. Oops. Wonder if a couple of hours in the climbing hall can equal 5kms of climbing... Heh.

Slow weight loss is definitely better than fast weight loss, it's more likely to stay off as your body has adapted, as you said. I think with this surgery it's also better as it means your body can adapt to being more energy efficient as you allow it less food... How tall are you Laura? (Just curious). Heh, funny that you mention being happy about your weight before you reach your ideal weight. My ideal weight is between 50 - 55 kg. I got to 58 and Heather and I agreed that that was fine and I was happy.... Last year at Christmas when I was home (after 8 months with no scales and three different sports) I was 56... And my mum was telling me to eat more. I realised when I got to 58 that if I got down to 55 or below I'd look like a stick and that 'ideal' weight is really to be taken with a grain of salt. Literally as well as figuratively. Planning on joining a run this morning around the Amstel River (didn't go yesterday, didn't finish my breakfast quick enough to go! Oops...) and they have a set of scales there so you can see how much water you need to replace. That should be interesting... If I can find the place anyway. Haven't seen a set of scales since I've been home...

Laura - Woo! Under 100 Don't know if it would help but with 'hitting the gym hard' that sounds a bit like me and my foray into running.. I try and do too much, get overwhelmed by uni/how hard running is/whatever and don't do anything... Little steps first, leading up to big steps... Or something is better than nothing? Having the stress of knowing how much the surgery costs and what you went through for it makes sabotaging yourself feel even worse, I know... Sometimes I'd take papers to read at the gym on the bike or stuff like that, then it actually turned into good relaxation time for me - I was working with a personal trainer most of the time after the surgery and she was really good to talk to about uni, surgery, whatever. Having a trainer also forced me to actually go to the gym which kind of helped... Personally I have a dislike of gyms now days (my personal trainer left the gym to work on her own, I followed her and developed a liking for doing gym work outside) - having a swiss ball and a couple of weights at home can still give you some good options and it's not as expensive as a treadmill or bike... so saying my parents also bought a bike for just that purpose of doing training at home. Which reminds me, I need to get my swiss ball over here to Europe and buy some weights... Sbear - I can totally understand your frustration - your situation sounds similar to what I was going through as well. I had a great week once where I lost 5kg in between two nutritionist appointments... That was the biggest weight loss I ever had and that weight back on within a month. That was a couple of years before the surgery which, as I said, for me was preventative. I'd say take up their offer to keep talking to the dietician and keep in touch with them - if you're still trying to loose weight and it's still not working then they might reassess. I know Laura got reassessed after a couple of years, so 'no' isn't 'no forever, don't come back'. As to what AAAJJJ said about it not being as effective, Dr Fris mentioned that the heavier you are, the more obvious the results straight away (given that I was under 100kg when I had it done I was in the 'less obvious results' category I suppose). So with a BMI of 33 if you did have the surgery you wouldn't have the 15kg in a month. For me it was more like 5 - 10kg at the start... Trying to remember what my weight loss rate was, but I can't, oops. All I know is that it still took about a year and a half for me to get to my ideal weight (and that was just with loosing about 40kg...). Mind you Dr Fris drew a graph that showed what he thought my healthy weight loss should be and I was just a bit slower than the chart, pretty close though. Hopefully the dietician helps. Have a good weekend people!

Aaah, life is busy. Anyone got a time machine I can pinch? :S Amourette - since talking to my friend I think her sister has added issues like severe nutrient deficiencies (I've got low B12 but I've had that since before getting banded; seems her sister is on all sorts of vitamin regimes, both pills and shots) and also doesn't eat 'well', apparently. My friend doesn't have a good view of bariatric surgery, however, so I think she's quite biased. (She was having a go at me recently, saying that everyone can lose weight naturally, etc, I almost lost it and told her to stop eating and lose weight herself in that case... It took a lot of self control not to say that... A LOT of self control....).. On the flip side, I mentioned it to my mum who said that miscarriages are actually quite common and that it likely wasn't even related to the surgery - like how you were told you didn't need to let your band out, I imagine. Though I have to say I like the fact we can control the band if we need to, compared to permanent stomach surgery.... AAAJJJ - nice updates! I totally can't eat takeaways anymore... The greasier, the worse they are... One chicken nugget will have me having that 'stuck' feeling for the next hour... I can't say I mind, though it is annoying when you're with people who insist on eating takeaways, heh. I found the same thing as you about the comments as well. A lot of people I didn't see very often would comment on my weight loss, but when I told one of my close friends (three years after getting it done) she thought about it for a moment, said that that made a weird sort of sense, then apologised for not noticing the weight loss, haha. Sbear - Hi! BMI of 33... I calculated it out as well and when my BMI was around there I was still intent on loosing weight on my own. I think if my BMI had stayed around there with my own efforts I wouldn't have gone with the surgery at all to be honest. I ended up having to self-pay (because it wasn't 'curing' anything, insurance wouldn't pay for 'preventative' things, rargh.), and I don't regret having it at the stage I did or anything like that, but if you can lose weight by yourself then it is still better. No food getting stuck, or possible side effects (indigestion, yay (sarcasm!), possible band slippage, god knows what else), whatever else... And there's less stress related to food/going out for dinner/stuff like that. If I could've lost weight myself I wouldn't have had the surgery, but despite diets/gym/sports I never managed to lose any weight that wasn't put straight back on within a couple of weeks, so... Yeah. I think I was a bit borderline for Dr Fris' office in a way - my BMI was 38 and I was 20 when I had the surgery... It came down to me and my sister both getting to the same weight (I was a bit heavier, and also shorter), we both worked hard to lose it, it came off her and it kept increasing on me. To be honest I'm surprised they let me have the surgery, but I think Dr Fris made the right decision to let me have it, and I made the right decision to go ahead with it, even if it is a pain in the backside sometimes (like when eating a croissant on a train in France on the weekend argh.). I've been told that over here in Europe where I'm now working they kind of hand out bariatric surgery like lollies (according to my above-mentioned friend, who's sister had a gastric bypass), but I like to think that in NZ they have your best interests in mind and won't agree to give you the surgery unless they think you're out of other non-invasive options... Been chugging along with the phd over here and been super busy. Also realised that I've been a bit too slack on the eating front and not onto it enough with the exercise front so think I've put on a leeetle too much weight. I've stopped trying to fit into my jeans (feels too restrictive sitting down and eating lunch while wearing them, which is probably psychological, but still). Need to work on that - going to give the Amsterdam half marathon a go in a couple of months (if the running group I've joined for that doesn't kill me first), so hopefully that will help. After the first half of the year being a total dud (between homesickness, illness and phd-related stuff), I'm finally getting the exercise up and running again, yay! Kind of ironic, but that means that I'll get fitter coming into Europe's winter so coming back to NZ summer for Christmas won't be a mad rush for a beach-appropriate figure (ha, as if I've ever had that...). Got to love playing winter sports... Yet to decide if I'm going to pop in and see Dr Fris or Heather when I'm back. On the one hand maybe I should to have a checkup as it'll be my first time home in a year, and I likely won't be home again for another two, but on the other hand ... there are no problems (other than my own lack of concentration in the food department recently...). Hmm. Anyway. The main thing from me at the moment is the above-mentioned friend and her total anti-everything-stomach-surgery-related attitude. It shouldn't annoy me, as everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I was hoping that being a friend she would be there for me if I had problems. She's very blunt (the Dutch are known for being blunt (so I've been told), but she takes it to extremes), so if I DO have a problem she'll probably tell me to live with it cos I chose to have it in the first place, or something equally helpful. Fortunately I haven't had problems, but her ranting to me about how gastric surgery is stupid, unneeded, and everyone can lose weight naturally has REALLY been rubbing the wrong way recently. I got that enough from my sister (especially when I got a couple of sizes smaller than her, haha), I don't need that from someone who is just upset because their sister had something done and lost weight so she decides to take it out on a friend at work. Ok, rant over, time to sleep so I can keep up with the killer running trainer tomorrow. Hope all's well!

I do use facebook but while I'm more open about this than I used to be I still prefer to know who I'm telling before I tell them - I think whatever I write on a facebook page turns up on my wall page which means any of the people on my friends list would be able to see it. I'd rather if anyone found out about the surgery I had they found out from me in person because I want/need them to know rather than stumbling across it by accident (and there are some people who I'd prefer didn't know, if I'm entirely honest... hehe). Well, I just have to say there are some definite advantages to moving countries a few years after having the surgery. I'm well known at work for eating very small amounts, which made the recent two weeks of conferences quite easy and relaxing. Helped that a person at each conference knew that I'd had the surgery, that always makes me less stressed when I'm with someone who knows, and less stress = easier eating. You'd almost think I didn't have the band last week actually, had three nights of three course meals (AMAZING restaurants in Krakow... Seriously.... Michelin recommended... Yum.) and I think I ate more than I eat in a week. OK, that's really bad of me, but... I don't do that very often. And doing things like sharing a starter then having a starter as a main seems to work. On the flip side I had a good friend visiting this week and tried to go running with him - something that would NEVER happen a few years ago, and can barely happen now (he runs very fast!). I've been running for almost 10 months now but this was the fastest paced run I've ever done. Quite pleased with myself, even if I had to stop a couple of times. Oh, and on another travel related note... I prefer to use my macpac tramping back when I'm travelling... And one thought keeps popping into my head: me + macpac = still not as heavy as I was before surgery. ... ... ... Erm. It's a very interesting thought, especially if you start to think your bag is heavy while walking around for a while with it on your back! Anyway, enough random thoughts from me.... AAAJJJ - well done I can't remember what the shoulder pain is called, something to do with transference, your body makes your shoulder hurt even though your stomach/diaphragm is actually what's hurting so you can keep breathing. Always thought the body was quite smart when I heard or read about that... Hehe. Laura - Mmm, bread products are annoying sometimes. I was craving crumpets recently (bought some in Cardiff a couple of weeks ago, yay!) but they take me ages to eat. Though pita is probably better than normal bread, think it depends how you're (and your stomach) are feeling at the time... Oh, random note, heard recently that a friend's sister had a miscarriage at 6 weeks or something - she had a gastric bypass a while back and wasn't eating enough food or getting enough nutrition or something... Apparently it was nutrition related. Reminded me that I'm so glad we get the option to deflate our bands if we need to for whatever reason, related to kids or not! :S

Wow, 12kg Gordana, good one! And good luck AAAJJJ! I definitely agree with the feeling weird thing about checking into the hospital. Aldesa, sounds like a real rough patch. And yeah, I've also found that chocolate and stuff like that goes down real easy most of the time (much to my past boyfriend's amusement! He had a theory that it was because there wasn't as much good nutrition in them...). Fruit is really slow for me as well. It's annoying, because you need to eat the fruit but it takes forever to finish. Are you managing to do a bit of exercise? It might be that the exercise needs to increase rather than the food decrease... Or perhaps get an appointment with them and see if they can give you advice. It sounds like you're at a similar stage of the amount of food you're able to eat where Dr Fris pointed out the band couldn't do it for me and that it was just a tool. That I had to do the work...

Good luck Gordana! And wow, well done AAAJJJ, that's a lot. Good luck with the work trip, too! Laura, welcome to having a tighter band... That's the main reason I always say try every food as if its brand new - the consequences of it getting stuck aren't particularly pretty. It forces you to be strict about eating slowly - it took me a long time to learn it, but if you eat slower you can always eat more. If you eat to fast you risk running to find a bathroom (or to 'fix your contact lenses' or to 'blow your nose' if it's more than once when you're out... Gah.) I've had moments when I've been on a car trip and I've had to pretend I'm car sick when I'm actually just reacting badly to eating one chip or half a scone or something ridiculous. A few things I've learnt: eat slow and in very small amounts! if you do take too big a bite or something and find you regret it standing up and/or walking around can help. Drinking water doesn't half the time, it actually makes the problem worse for me. Sometimes finding a bathroom and just getting rid of the stuck food makes everything a bit easier. I've actually found that it's a lot more painful to try and wait it out, and it isn't very often when the stuck food gives me the opportunity to wait it out, often it just appears back on it's own. Annoying that. Not exactly the most graceful side effect of having this surgery, but either way. Amourette, that is definitely a good thing about having a small child, haha. I remember girls on my bus from school eating baby food (apparently it was cool at the time, god knows what got them started on it), but could never bring myself to eat it for some reason... (Kinda skipped that part of the food post-op... Just mashed soft food up a bit more...). Had a girls' night with two girls from work. They both know about my op (we've had nights before with dinner/drinks together) so it definitely wasn't a stressful situation, but was the slowest eating night for me in AGES. Don't know what was up... We had homemade pizza, which isn't easy for me to eat anyway, but compared to last time I had pizza this was ridiculous. I don't know what's up, apparently my band has tightened itself? Or maybe it's protesting the lack of running - I was able to eat a fair bit rather easily last year when I was doing a lot of running. Definitely think that should be enough motivation to get the exercise regime back in order. Only up side was that desert of chocolate-dipped walnut-filled dates actually was really easy to eat after the pizza-stuck feeling went away. Dried fruit have always been an issue for me post-op (used to enjoy dried apricots, these day one can have me feeling full for an hour). But these dates actually went down really easily. So that's something at least! Actually, other upside is I have three-quarters of a pizza as leftovers for the next couple of days. But still, slow eating days with an uncle visiting next week, a workshop in two weeks and a conference in three? When trying to pretend to eat semi-normally? Hmm.

Yeah, a balanced diet is always a good idea. You could do things like not have the butter and mayo, or only have one, and if its butter, swap it for a low fat margarine... It's kinda like when I used to have toast, I really like peanut butter, and when I was really little it used to be toast, margarine, and peanut butter. Then when I was trying to lose weight the margarine got kicked out and the peanut butter became a thin smear. I'm still in the habit of not having margarine with peanut butter, though I did have it for the first time in about 10 years when I was home at Christmas... hehe. Also, you may want to get into the habit of having breakfast. Not sure if anyone else has had the experience here or not (everyone's different after all!), but I know that if I skip breakfast I mess up my eating for the rest of the day and can only eat about a third of what I usually eat. This might not be a bad thing, but it could kick the body into starvation mode I suppose which means you won't lose any fat as your body wants to hold onto it 'just in case'. Having breakfast also gets the metabolism going I think, so you'll metabolise everything else faster anyway. 5km run! Woo! And don't feel too sore today either. Back in the zone! Willpower 1, microscope induced snacks 0. Until later today anyway. Though wasn't very onto it last night and didn't have dinner straight away afterwards, bad me.

Including moderation. One thing with cutting carbs out is something I heard about the Atkins diet - if you cut out a certain type of food like carbs to lose weight, as soon as you eat it again you start putting it back on. Not sure how true that is as I never cut a whole food group out of my diet... So saying I think if you don't use all the energy from carbs then it's not so great either, so not eating too much would help... Hmm. But yeah, I totally agree with Amourette, 11 kg in 11 week is really good. I've unfortunately fallen into the habits of my Masters degree - I spend a lot of my time at my desk looking down a microscope and this has turned into 'reach into the draw... pull out a handfull of pretzels (good) or a cookie (bad), munch munch munch...'. Oops. Found when chatting to a friend of mine (also a MSc student) that our diets got worse the more time we spent at our desks writing or looking down microscopes. Hmm. So saying, time to go for a run and run off the microscope-induced snacks...

Yeah, as Amourette said, it doesn't happen overnight - like the Mainland cheese ads, good things take time. From memory I only really had one 'REALLY can't eat rice' moment in the first few months when I first got it done - the first time I had sushi (and a friend of mine came to the conclusion I was bulimic - she was REALLY glad when I told her I'd had surgery instead...). Carbs still went down quite easily for a while... But then so saying, according to what Heather told me I can still eat carbs anyway whereas some people actually can't at all. Your next fill might limit make carbs harder to eat, or the one after that, it kinda depends I think. And yeah, always good to remember this is a tool. Though it's easy me saying that, it's coming into summer for me and that gives a lot more motivation to get outside and do something active... As Dr Fris told me when I ended up getting the band overfilled (never ever again, argh): we can't rely on it to do the work, we have to do the work ourselves! So saying.. Did he draw you a graph in one of your first appointments of the weight loss rate you should have? I remember he did one for me, and he pulled it out a number of times to show that I was losing weight at a steady rate, even when it felt like I was plateauing a bit. This is a really long term thing - it took me two years to get within a reasonable distance of my goal weight, and a further two to really fine tune it, hit the sweet spot, and get to the stage I got last year of being able to not care what I ate because my habits were healthy enough (well, maybe not), and I did enough exercise out of fun, not requirements to lose weight. And that's probably a bit on the quick side, as I had no problems like complications or needing to let go of any solution. Good thing is though once you get there it's easier to keep it off (for me anyway) as the band helps control the weight along with the food/exercise habits you've gotten into... That's what I've found anyway. Anywho, good luck with your next fill! I'm sure everything will sort itself out soon - as a phd student kept saying to me through my masters, keep the faith.

Can I just say moving house sucks and why am I doing something which means I will be moving house on average of once every one or two years for the next 10? Or countries every three or four years? Argh. Didn't want to go on here at work and internet took AGES to get set up at my new apartment. Swear it never took two or three weeks back in NZ. Ahem. Hi new people! Actually, Laura, your mention of family history is interesting for me as well - you can take control of a lot of things in your life but you can't play with genetics unfortunately. My family has a history of weight problems as well, more on one side than the other, but I think my sister (without surgical help) and I (with the band) have managed to overcome genetics for the moment. And I agree with you AAAJJJ about the band - I've had it for five years now and it's worked wonders for me, but I wouldn't go back and do an irreversible surgery at all (bypass for example). I like the fact that this is adjustable and reversible, even though I'll probably never reverse it short of complications happening some time down the line. Gordana, one piece of advice that I STILL have to remind myself of: Try every food as if it's brand new and you don't know what the effect will be. I've found I can handle most foods fine, but I can hardly eat anything fried (fried rice, McDonalds, that kinda thing) as it doesn't digest easily at all. Not a bad thing but awkward if you end up in a situation where you don't have much choice on food (at someone's house for example). The only food that surprised me was a chocolate covered coffee bean. Had one since my surgery and I couldn't eat for two hours afterwards. Was really weird. Might have to test that one again at some stage.... Yay go you Amourette And I totally agree with you about not obsessing with the weight as well, I was the happiest I'd ever been when I realised last year that I'd gone eight months without stepping on a set of scales, haha. Heather decided to classify me as 'normal', then. Of course, I can tell when I put on weight because I can't fit into my favourite pair of jeans, but that's beside the point... Hmm, I should probably do something about going to work...

Argh, I tried to get onto here via my iphone today and it wouldn't work. Fail, iphone, fail. Anyway, go you guys! Woo! That's great for you both, Laura and Amourette! (C'mon Aldesa, you can do it too! ) Now I sound like an infomercial. Bwahah. Seriously though. I'm almost completely sure I've put on weight again. Oops. I don't have any scales here, but I can judge pretty well by my favourite pair of jeans (favourite, but don't wear all that often unless I'm the weight I'm supposed to be!). I've got a new goal: finish off all my easter treats that got posted over then get very serious about running training. Floorball season is almost over so that's one thing forcing me to do exercise which is coming to an end. Woe. Oh well. I want to get back into my jeans! (My ex (we're still friends) is also coming to visit and I have to admit I also want to show I can sort of keep up with him with running - ha! Just imagine a Tui billboard - yeah right...) ... Not that I'll need them this summer if the last week is anything to go by. 25C already here in Amsterdam. Hmm. So I'm going to Turkey this weekend (tomorrow morning). This involves two things: 1) the challenge of being around a whole heap of new foods which is stressful, but with a friend who knows, which lessens the stress... Though I just found out that she's actually not around half the time anyway, so stress potentially goes back up... Hopefully not!... and 2) realising that I just wasted about 30 euros worth of food when I had to chuck it out tonight - I'm moving next week as well and need to defrost my freezer... And after 5 or whatever years I STILL overestimate how much food I need save to eat for a week. Slightly frustrating. But! My new apartment has a big fridge with what looks like a good freezer and I'm staying there for two years, so now I can freeze heaps of stuff and be lazy and not bother cooking. Haha. Anywho, I had a dumbass moment and made my flight at 7am (yeah, I'm regretting that a bit) so gotta get up at 4am. Hope things continue to go well for you all!