Fanny Adams

I think even given the unscientific manner of collecting these stats, the results are still thought-provoking - of the 48 people who have answered the poll, only 9 were 13 or older.

I haven't had the problem in several years but I used to suffer from it often. Some things that helped me: Put a cup of vinegar into a warm bath and soak for a while. If you're really sore and inflamed, it might sting a bit getting in but it soothes the itch enormously and brings the inflamation down. The other trick is slathering plain natural yoghurt on yourself before you go to bed - wear a pair of old undies that you don't mind staining, then shower thoroughly in the morning - no soap!! Avoid using soap down there - lots and lots of flushing with water does the job just as well. The aim of all of these is to change your pH levels - fungus likes an alkaline environment, you need to change it to slightly acidic to kill off the growth.

See that bold bit - *sighs* me too

They make posts out of cheese now?

Bah!! I rested on my laurels for the month of June...boo me! On 1st June, I was at 47lb down and all excited because the weight was starting to move quickly, so what did I do? Promptly stopped going to the gym every night and slacked off entirely! The result? Here I am on 1 July and only 4lb down in the whole month, GRR!!! Serves me damn right - I going back to the gym tonight!!!

Yeah, the wedge-tail is one of the biggest eagles in the world. That one is only young though, and hasn't gotten her full wingspan yet :redface: They get darker as they get older and lose that gorgeous colouring to become more uniform dark brown. PS: Sorry about the pic size - I resized them in Photobucket but it doesn't seem to have taken effect. It could be just my cache, but I've tried clearing that and I'm still getting the ginormous pics :smile:

I think you've got a great chance at the job - it looks like they wrote their criteria with you in mind! I can relate to your love of crocs and snakes, etc. I work in the Kimberleys, which is the far northern part of Western Australia, and prior to that was working in the Northern Territory, in some of the most remote land on earth. I don't work with animals or birds at all, but I take every opportunity I can to see what's out here - salt Water crocodiles, snakes and lots of different eagles and kites. You might enjoy these pics I took of the Wedge-tailed Eagles in one of the National Parks in the NT a couple of years back: And an Osprey: Ooooh and some croc pics from NT too:

Excellent job! I like the way you have addressed their points, stated what benefits you can bring to their organisation and listed your qualifications in reference to their needs. I would agree with vegwannabe, in that you could make it a little stronger by changing the "I will"s to "I do". The only other suggestion I would add is changing the "I was supported with a graduate teaching assistantship" line to "I supported myself with a ...". The way you have it now, it sounds like the university supported you by giving you the job as some form of charity. Good luck with your application - the job sounds like a real blast (lousy money, but VERY interesting and a lot of fun!)

I stopped using all those specialised eye creams more than twenty years ago, when I discovered (from my theatre studies as an English/Drama teacher) that plain old cold cream worked better than anything and was much better for my skin. For the last 20 odd years, I have used Nivea's Coenzyme Q10 Day Cream to remove eye makeup. It's cheap, it doesn't take much, and it works better than any of the various "cleaners" I've tried on occasions throughout the years. I just put a small dab under my eye, rub it around the entire eye socket, then take the excess off with a tissue - moisturiser and cleanser, all in one and look Ma, no wrinkles (I'm 45)! :redface:

Quote: Originally Posted by susan4794 Thanks for the support guys. Her stepmom is about 37 years old. Before she started sleeping with my ex, we were actually best friends! After she had an affair with my husband while we were still married, she couldn't understand why our friendship couldn't continue. Yes, she is truly an idiot. It's amazing how clueless some "best friends" can be. After I caught my best friend lying on my loungeroom floor with my husband's little white bum going up and down between her legs, while I was HOME!!, she didn't get why I didn't want to be friends with her any more. I guess chasing her out of the house with a broom wasn't a big enough clue. What was even funnier is that after my husband and I split and they got together, she used to ring me up and try to complain about his violence, emotional blackmail and manipulative controlling ways - and this was after watching how he had treated me for the previous several years, and even helping me talk him into staying at their house after parties because I was too scared to go home with him, knowing that he'd drunk enough that the "evil switch" in his head had been triggered. My revenge was watching her disintegrate as a person, just by living with him :rolleyes2:. She was always an emotionally fragile woman and I couldn't understand how she could ever imagine that she could handle that life. After only a year with him, she ended up in a mental hospital with a complete nervous breakdown... so sad :rolleyes2::tongue2:.

Australia Now the Fattest Nation Oh dear. *sighs*

LOL - I think if someone called me "fluffy", I'd smack em right in the face and say "so how fluffy was THAT, eh?? EH??" PS for Blue Eyed Girl - I like "cuddly" :rolleyes2:. I'm definitely cuddly!!

Damn!! I WANT some of those!! Did the article come with a link? :confused_smile::drool:

Okay, I've come across this word in a couple of threads now and I've figured out that it is some kind of euphemism for fat, but what the ??? FLUFFY? You guys are kidding me, right? Some people actually think it is a kinder way of referring to themselves? :drool: I don't think I could think of a more silly, demeaning and undignified way to term myself, if I sat and thought about it for a week! I've heard people rant against categorising yourself as a BBW, where were they when the fluffy word was coined. Fluffy is a name for a pet rabbit, not a person! ARGH!!!

LOL! I like your style! :smile2: I know how you feel about not wanting to reach out for support - I LOATHE support groups and all that touchy-feely stuff, but like you, I've come to realise that I need this place to help me with questions and to relate to people who truly understand where I'm coming from in terms of weight issues. I'm sure you'll find it helpful too. To answer your questions: You won't go mad but you might wish you did . Stick to it closely as this is the all-important healing phase and if you charge ahead of schedule, you can have complications later down the track even if it all "feels fine" at the time. Try to get some alternative liquids in. You say "full liquids", rather than "clears", but I'm not sure if that is just being unfamiliar with the terminology or if your doctor really has you on full liquids immediately after surgery. It is more common to see 4-7 days of clears first, then full liquids thereafter. In case you didn't know the difference, chicken stock or broth is a "clear", cream of chicken & corn soup is a "full". There are some recipes listed in here that might help you stave off madness through boredom. Everyone is different but I found day 4 to be about the most painful, with things gradually getting better after that. I would expect it to be sore (not painful), especially if you do anything that tugs on the stomach muscles, for at least 2 weeks. Can't help you there, coz I'm currently without partner, so didn't get the chance to test it. At a guess, I think I would have been up for gentle stuff after about a week, more strenuous fun after 2 weeks and swinging from the ceilings by about 4 weeks post-op. See my comments re sex above :smile: Hmmm... could it be caffeine withdrawals? I didn't have headaches, but then again, my doctor didn't ban caffeine so I didn't have a withdrawal problem. If not that, dunno... maybe others have had the same? Yakking SHOULD be your greatest fear. The absolute last thing you want to do right now is upchuck - it can really damage the healing process. My doc was so adamant that I DO NOT allow myself to yak in those first fiew weeks that he gave me two types of medicine to deal with it. One was a general anti-nausea pill to be taken 4 times a day, the other was a wafer to be put under my tongue in emergencies if I felt the yak was "coming ready or not". I was lucky and didn't need the second at all, and stopped taking the first after 2-3 days as I wasn't nauseous. If you are feeling really nauseous and haven't got medication to deal with it, call your doctor and see what he can do for you. Good luck on your journey!

Mmmm... BBQ at work for dinner tonight. I had a BBQ'd marinated chicken kabab, BBQ'd vegetable kabab, 3 large prawns in shell and a spoonful of caesar salad - YUMMY!! OOH - and 2 glasses of red wine *grins*

This makes me sad, Nancy :thumbs_up: I tried to send you this PM but you've turned them off. I don't know if you'll be back to read this, but I hope so, so I'll repeat it here: Hi Brandy, It sucks how that thread has turned out but I wish you wouldn't leave. If you do decide to go, I'd like to stay in touch. You can email me on Fanny_Adams99@hotmail.com, if you'd like to chat more. Good luck on your journey! *hugs* Fanny

Elenation, my sincere apologies. I got your posts mixed up with Realtorhonda's and thought it was you that made the "angry" comments and demands for explanations. I should have paid attention to the "change" in tone and gone back to check. Sorry about that.

You know guys, this is turning into a bit of a bash session and I don't think that helps anyone in the long run. Just as the band itself is adjustable, there are many different ways to approach living with it and many paths to success in losing weight with it. Jachut's approach has been to keep restriction light, eat well and throw herself into exercise to compensate for the higher calorie intake. Wasa's approach has been to keep restriction tight, eat 600 cal a day and exercise too. Both have done well and have lost weight successfully, but that's not the only possible approach. There's no doubt that fewer calories + more exercise = fast weight loss, but some of us prefer to take our time and get to our goals in a little more leisurely fashion. While Jachut is my personal band-hero and I admire Wasa's success, I'm not following either of them faithfully on every point. Personally, I can't see myself ever running a marathon, whether it was for pleasure or hating every minute of it but doing it for the benefits. I couldn't bear to live on 600 cal a day and I chose the band BECAUSE I didn't want to spend the rest of my life dieting or on an extremely restricted calorie regime. I try not to "diet" but focus on healthy eating, exercise sporadically but am finding I can increase it as I get more fit. I'm not going to win any speed races in losing the most weight in the shortest space of time. I plan to take at least 18 months to get to goal and at my current pace, I'm right on target for that. That doesn't mean that Jachut's or Wasa's or my approach is the right one for everyone. Each of us needs to work out for ourselves how this band works best for us. Now Brandy had an unfortunate start to her bandlife. For whatever reason, she was unaware that the band wouldn't help her limit her intake of slider foods and and struggled to find the right balance for her between restriction, food choices and exercise. She knows better now and is trying to find a pace that suits her. She knows her own mind and has stated that focussing directly upon diet and exercise causes her to become obssessed and then rebellious and she defeats her own efforts with that approach. Fine, I can relate - say the word "diet" to me and my immediate reaction is "Oh my god, where's the chocolate!!" If she feels that she will get better results by NOT triggering those reactive emotions in herself, then good luck to her. My advice to you, Brandy (and remember it is only advice, take it or leave it as you will), is to chill out a little and stop stressing about calories, diet or "focussing" on anything. Keep restriction light, aim to eat good healthy food, and let the band do it's job in helping you to not feel hungry all the time. Don't forbid yourself anything, because you know that will only make you crave it all the more, but keep in mind that it was the junk that got you to where you are now. A little treat now and then is good for the soul; icecream, chips and chocolate every day is not going to get you to goal. When you are not hungry, because you've been filling up on good quality food, it's easier to make good choices and limit the treats to the occasional small one instead of binging. Exercise when you can - look for easy ways to start this, rather than throw yourself into a strenuous routine that you can't sustain. Use little tricks like taking the furtherest carpark space at the shopping centre, instead of the closest, using the stairs instead of the elevator when it's only 1 or 2 flights up. As you get fitter, increase this at a pace that suits you. You won't see the pounds melt away with this approach. Accept that and embrace it. They WILL drift away slowly, a pound here and there, and that will add up over time. As you see it start to go, you might find that you become more motivated and want to put more effort into dropping the weight faster - you can do that too! It's all up to you and your choice. Take the examples of everyone in here and find the bits that fit with your own personality. Work out what works for you and change it to suit your needs, when it feels right for you. Good luck with your journey!

I can understand why people are reluctant to tell others, if they have been receiving such negative feedback and lack of support. I guess I am very lucky in that I have had nothing but positive feedback from my family and even comments like "Well done for doing something to make a change!" from co-workers, etc. I wish all of us could experience that level of support *sighs* Still, I have to say that I would be disappointed to learn that a public figure (I have no idea who Fern is), would cover up her methods and make public statements that "it was all diet and exercise" until she was threatened with "outing". Every time someone says that, other people hear it and think "See? So-and-so was successful with only diet and exercise, what's wrong with YOU??" It reinforces the idea that we fatties are just lazy and self-indulgent. A public figure has a wonderful opportunity to educate others about the band, letting people know that it ISN'T the "lazy way out". If the public gets enough education on this, and on the incredibly low success rate of "diet and exercise", maybe the rest of us would meet with less prejudice and misapprehensions. I know it's easy for me to say, because I haven't yet had much negativity when I've told my story, but I take every opportunity to explain how I've achieved what I've done so far (and plan to continue doing!) There has been a couple of times when a co-worker has asked "what are you doing to lose so much weight?" and I've not had the time to go into it and have just quickly said "eating less!" and I have felt really guilty about that - it felt like lying. Mostly, I'll stop in the corridor and start raving about the benefits of the band, given even a sniff of a chance to do so :smile2:

WHOOHOOO!!! Good for you!!! That must feel bloody FANTASTIC! I can't wait till I can say the same :behindsofa:

Hmmm... you won't try to explain your beliefs but when I didn't reply with my explanation of my beliefs quickly enough to respond to your demand, it was because I'm "angry"? I think it is more that you CAN'T explain your beliefs. They're inexplicable. I can provide logical and rational reasons for my beliefs all day, whereas the "arguments" on the other side come down to "it feels right to me" - pure emotion.

Thanks for posting this, Annie!

Great story and a great summary at the end! I too have found that the only time I get stuck or have problems is when I'm talking with friends while eating. It doesn't matter what the food is, and I normally have no trouble with any kind of food, if I'm yapping while I'm eating, I don't pay enough attention until BAM the band reminds me that it's there. I'm working on it though. Don't give up on pork chops though - just don't pick that option when you're out to dinner with friends! :thumbup: PS: What about elephants named Bob? Do you think those ones would be ok?

I just want to reinforce everything MacMadame said. 10lb in 8 weeks is great, especially in the post-op healing phase - you don't suck at all! Just think - that could turn into 20lb in 16 weeks, 30lb in 24 weeks, 60+lb in a year! I think you'll find that it will speed up too, now that the healing is over and as you get more fills. I don't eat 0.5 of a cup at meals and I wouldn't want to restrict myself to that! I eat around 1.0 - 1.5 for a total of 1200 - 1400 cal a day, sometimes a little under that, sometimes a little over. I kept getting disappointed at first at what I thought was my "slow" progress, but I kept telling myself that this was the game plan I had decided upon and I should give it a chance. Six months later and I am right where I planned to be - nearly 50lb gone and on my way to 100lb in a year. I'm betting the next fill will be the one that rings the bell for you - I know the third one was the charm for me and until then, I didn't think it was working much at all! Once you find that spot, the momentum picks up and the numbers start to add up to real progress. Just don't expect to never be hungry - we are SUPPOSED to get hungry!! The trick is to only be hungry at meal times and in between times the band takes the edge off enough that we can control our urges, while we re-train our eating habits.