How Bout New Zealand

[amourette 5]

HI guys and welcome to the newbies.......my band is going pretty ok at the moment, I am not really hungry much and have managed to lose around 6 kgs in two months, am pretty excited about that as now I am further along in my journey, weight doens't always fall off as easily as it did straight after the op. I could probably go tighter and lose quicker but I like where I'm at, and I can eat little amounts when out..........been doing some exercise everyday and hit the gym again, it is making me feel so good......

How are you going Laura?

Oh and met one of the lovely ladies on here Aldesa, we are quite similar in our stories so it was great to bounce ideas off her and share problems we encounter. Many of my friends don't know about my procedure and I hide it a lot, so it was nice to be able to open up. Our little boys got to meet too which was really great!!!

[amourette 5]

I have also decided to only weigh myself when my boy turns another month old, so on the 14th of each month I am going to go into Dr Fris office for a weigh in, otherwise I will obsess.

[PaleoKris 0]

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...

[laura5127 1]

hi

feels like ages since i've posted. im going kinda ok atm, i have my second fill appt 2morro and i definately think i need one. im still eating to much. im also a bit worried cos i dont have troubble with any foods, bread, Pasta, rice, meat maybe its just cos the bands not full enough. my weight loss has slowed down a lot in the last 3 weeks i've only lost like 1kg i confess i havent done as much exercise as i should be and my diet has been not very good.

[amourette 5]

Its ok, it's early days for you, I wouldn't stress too much, you may take a little while to find your 'sweet spot'....took me ages, if at all.....I would go very tight, and lose weight but then admit to myself finally that I wasn't eating well and needed to loosen to get some fruit and veg in me......it certainly won't happen overnight and it is only a tool remember.........but thinking of you.......let us know how you go after your second fill tomorrow.....xx

[laura5127 1]

Thanxz amourette. i sure will let you guys know how it goes tomorrow

[PaleoKris 0]

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.

[amourette 5]

Yeah it does take time aye, even for this turn around I am losing slowly, the scales barely budged at first and I lost faith a couple of times, but knew I was down about my weight and by eating again that wouldn't achieve anything either........ but now 6 kg down it is very very exciting 'cos I could never in my 'previous life' really lose any kilos at all, I am so excited to be nearly back at pre preganancy weight, that would not have been possible without this tool, I wouldn't have had the staying power........

[laura5127 1]

thanx for the advice. i went to my appt with heather today and she put another cc in, so im up to 4cc in a 7cc band. i felt a difference in the waiting room, i had a glass of Water and felt more full. i also went to lunch with my mum and dad like an hour and a half hours ago and i really really felt the difference so hopefully the weight will go down a bit faster in the next two weeks till my next appt. oh and im down to 102kg (-2 from the last appt 3weeks ago) so like -10.8kg in 11 weeks so im kinda happy atm, im gonna cut the carbs from this moment until my next appt and see how much of a difference it makes. protien and vegies for me YAY.

[amourette 5]

I'm just a little curious as to why you are only kinda happy, you have lost a heap in a small amount of time, were you expecting more? What you have done is amazing and would you have achieved that if you didn't have the band. Remember to Celebrate all you have lost, it's really important. Cut out carbs if you want but just be real careful, the slower you lose it the slower it will go back on........I think it is a great loss. Must admit I just ate some cheezels which is really unlike me, I did go to gym this morning so a bit annoyed at myself......oh well, always tomorrow! x

[laura5127 1]

yea i did expect a bit more and im dissapointed in myself that i havent been eating as well as i could have. im still excited that its coming off and no, i can guarentee that i would not have lost this much without the band, i most likely would have put it on. and eating the cheezels, you just gotta get back on the wagon

[amourette 5]

Oh good, I thought you were beating yourself up more........not worried about 'the great cheezel breakout' as it is unusual for that to happen.......

[laura5127 1]

yup, anything in moderation right.

[PaleoKris 0]

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...

[laura5127 1]

yea i was thinking about it last night and decided that maybe tryin to cut out carbs might not work so im going to try and eat a balanced diet lol how long did it take me to figure that out aye (tooooo long). i will cut down on the carbs and sugar though. today for lunch i had chicken, coleslaw (dont know if thats spelt right but oh well) and a bread roll with a bit of mayo and butter. i think thats kinda ok right probli didnt need the butter and mayo but i only had a bit so i think its ok. i didnt have time for BF though so im a bit annoyed about that, its a bad habbit of mine. now i got class till 9pm so not to sure what ill be having for tea.