Jachut

Wednesday would be GREAT for me (that's the first isnt it?). Eliza will be in daycare as well and I wont have to bring ANY kids with me. Yay.

There is no way on those pre-op diets that you dont lose a lot of lean tissue. You simply cannot lose body fat that quickly and that's the truth. THe only reason that Optifast etc is worth doing is for the liver shrinking, in no other way is it beneficial to your health. In the case of this surgery, shrinking your liver if it is large and fatty is of prime importance and outweighs the downside of losing lean body mass. That's why these diets are never an answer to long term weight loss It's not that the actual amount of body fat you have is increasing its that the percentage of lean/fat mass is changing and also you're losing a LOT of Fluid (that's where the fast weight loss comes from). When I brought up with my doctor that after 3 days on Optifast I was fainting, he told me not to do it. He'd told me I didnt have to and I decided I would have a go anyway and he told me that it was pointless as my liver was neither large nor fatty and that it would be of absolutely no advantage to me to do Optifast for any other reason.

This is interesting, I have a few friends here who are having problems with leaks all from the same surgeon, and interestingly all of them have had fill problems too. One of my friends has had her port replaced twice, and all of them report him stabbing around in their stomachs trying to find their ports. For Pete's sake, surely it's not that difficult? When I went in for my fill, the surgeon had me lie on the table with a pillow under the small of my back, he felt for my port, located it and injected the saline, simple. If they cant feel it then they should do it under Xray, simple. I would not tolerate someone having several goes to inject and not being able to find my port each and every time and I certainly would not tolerate someone who thought punctured tubing was no big deal. I dont want another general anaesthetic if I can avoid it thank you very much.

Would it help to have a day a week when you can eat things you want to eat but generally shouldnt? I find I dont need to organise this as a regular event but last week when AF arrived, I suddenly got real cravings for sweet biscuits/cookies, the plain kind with sugar sprinkled on them that you dunk in your coffee. I figured, well I'd go with it. It's all I ate all day, and entire packet of Arnott's Nice biscuits. In the past I would have eaten them, AND lunch and Breakfast and I would have figured may as well have pizza for dinner as well. It was the right thing to do. Fine my weight went up a pound or two for a day or so, but the craving's gone and I just got right back on that wagon the next day. I find the minute you "cant" have something, you want it so I allow myself anything when I really want it. I still eat really well 99.9% of the time. Maybe you're being too hard on yourself and thinking of going back on the wagon with no slip ups at all is making it too hard to even do at all.

My dad was quietly supportive, my mum was very against it at first, just couldnt grasp that I didnt want to go down the diet path again, but she was motivated by concern for my wellbeing. Now you'd think it was her idea!

Easily chewed things - chick pea and tuna salads, peeled tomato and cucumber, mushy home made chicken burgers, fish, tinned fruit, oatmeal, yogurt, that type of thing.

I cry when I have to go. Gosh, how I loooooaaaaaathe grocery shopping. Awful Awful Awful job. That's half the reason I got fat, because I'd just put it off and put it off and we'd have no food in the house and end up buying takeway. And stopping at the Quix down the road for junk for Breakfast. And buying lunch out becuase there was nothing at home. I hate it! I hate lugging it in from the car, I hate having to clean the fridge out of all the liquifying veges that we didnt eat last week to make room for more. I hate duty cooking for a family too when I know they're all going to say they dont like it. The whole thing depresses me. It's the worst aspect of being a mother I can think of. Give me dirty nappies any day.

I do my hair properly - blow dry straight and use the straightening iron. Pretty girlie flippy hair makes me feel good - and perfume and lip gloss.

How fantastic!! As I measure in kilograms I'm dying to get to double figures. I'm only .8 of a kilo away!

I made and still do, lots of burgers and patties. Lentil burgers, ordinary hamburgers, tuna patties, tandoori chicken burgers etc. I find them a really easy way to eat meat, as is bolognaise sauce on anything. I hate Protein drinks and wont do them so I have to make sure I do eat well.

Gosh, I've still got six other sins to work on. Dont hate me because I've conquered one of them!

Every morning and usually at night too. I have a wardrobe full of new with tags clothing in various sizes that I often pull out and try on. There's plenty of things I'm now wearing.

Here is where I admit AF started for me too today and I've eaten nothing but sugar all day. Oh well, it's only one day of the month afterall. Try to allow yourself another go at all your favourites before surgery, there's nothing wrong with that. But try not to pig out.

Its a funny thing because we of all people should be understanding yet look how everyone jumps on the threads about this celebrity or that. Maybe its because we perceive they're not being truthful?

I disagree with that eating disorder comment too. This band has taught me that I always responded to my appetite in a completely normal way, its just that my appetite was too big for my energy needs. I've never eaten to bursting or physical pain, I've never made myself sick from eating too much, I stopped when I was satisfied before I got my band. That point just didnt come until I'd racked up too many calories was my only trouble.

Dont worry about your boobs, they've seen it all. I went in with a gown on which I'm sure they removed and put back on me, but they'd drape you all with sterile drapes so only the bit they're working on will be exposed. It's not like you're going to be lying stark naked on the table in front of everyone for an hour.

the only difference my first fill has made is that if I eat quickly I now get major pressure in the chest. I thought I was going to have my first PB yesterday, but it went down eventually. But I can still eat the same and still pretty much anything. Yet now I'm not hungry between meals anymore, so I've lost weight and am continuing to lose. I'm phobic about being really restricted so to me that means I'm going fine and if I were you I would wait too, I'd be scared it was going to kick in at some stage. V-e-r-y slowly is how I want to go with fills.

Yep, I"m the same. Once I've finished a meal I generally dont eat till the next one anyway, and I never eat after dinner at night. So if I want that coffee, I generally have it. If I find it makes me start eating I'll stop.

Most people have to do a pre op diet of varying degrees, but only some doctors require a particular amount of weight loss. That gets up my nose a bit actually, I think it's pretty judgemental to put a condition on surgery like that. How worthless would you end up feeling if you lost 17lb and were denied? Nevertheless my opinion on the matter doesnt really change anything, but nearly everyone has done the pre-op (not perfectly either) and survived it. I was hopeless. I didnt have to officially do it but thought I'd give it a try and honestly, I couldnt do it without the motivation of it being a condition of my surgery. Yet it hasnt affected my success afterwards any.

I get what you're saying, that's exactly what I"m like. I can and do eat when very stressed however overall I'm not an emotional eater. I just had a very big appetite. I also put on stacks and stacks (probably a good 3/4) of my excess weight whilst breastfeeding - it just put my entire system out of whack and without particularly eating more I was gaining a kilo a week at times. So I also never really ate enough to get to 40kg overweight. I also never had a real problem with particular foods. I was a bit of a carb addict, because I did particularly like muffins, cakes and biscuits but I love healthy foods, I love cooking healthy meals. Consequently (even though I'm not smug and am sympathetic to people with greater issues) banding has just fixed my problem entirely. To me, this is just so easy. I'm not hungry anymore therefore I dont eat. When I am hungry I do eat, just enough to satisfy. I have no compulsion to overeat, no problem with avoiding bad foods and choosing good ones most of the time and no problem with the occasional treat. The only thing I've found is that bread seems to make me ravenous so i just dont eat it. You would think that all this would mean I could have simply gone on a diet and lost the weight, but although I've always done maintenance very well I never go the hang of deprivation. My only periods of serious overeating have been after six or seven weeks of dieting. I know I'm one of the lucky ones. This has just normalised my appetite and consequently the weight is following suit.

There is another side to the equation of fills and weight loss and that is exercise. Enough of it and the right kinds can work absolute miracles. Get scientific about heart rates and interval training and putting more muscle on your body. Its hard time wise but I just think that if I was prepared to have surgery I'm prepared to make that a priority too. I want to do this with the least amount of fills possible because I enjoy my food. I dont want to overeat but I dont want to starve either. I think you're being a bit hard on yourself too. If I was given the opportunity to speak I'd love to share the joy and amazement that this journey so far has inspired in me and I'm only at the beginning! Of course you've been successful!

It's not a stupid question and it IS hard to put your finger exactly on what it is that tips you off. For me, I dont really wait for a physical full feeling, I just wait till the enjoyment of what I'm eating peters off, which is generally after about a cup. I just kind of "know", but I do sort of measure out what's appropriate too. And I've always found even pre banding that if I'm still a bit peckish after I've eaten it's gone away after about 20 minutes.

I find loads of exercise (HARD exercise) really controls this for me. It shifts my focus from "I can't eat" to kind of me becoming an "athlete" and I dont want to ruin my next performance. Believe me I'm far from an athlete but exercise does something to my head where I just feel so darn great. In fact I'm looking at this whole thing as me becoming fitter. I dont want to just get skinny, I want one of those really really fit bodies. In my mind's eye I dont see my final triumph as getting into a slinky dress or anything, I see full body push ups and being able to just go out my front door for a 40 minute run. That kind of achievement really makes me feel elated. Sorry that probably doesnt help much, probably just illustrates to everyone that I'm completely mental. But all the same, even if you dont go off into fantasies of the Olympics, a bit of hard exercise makes you way less peckish.

22/1 Breakfast: apricots and banana chopped up with vanilla yogurt and a sprinkling of muesli Lunch: 2 ryvitas with Hommus, tomato and cheese Afternoong: 2 teddybear biscuits with a cup of coffee Dinner: Zucchino bolognaise Exercise: Body Pump class - ouch I'm sore today!

Your band is nowhere near where they cut you for a caesarian. There's no way they'd accidentally cut the tube or anything.