Jachut

thankfully here our medical system is such that if that happens, the band will be replaced and insurance will cover the cost. My surgeon made clear to me the fact that although you wouldnt expect this to happen for a long time, in the region of 20 years or so bands ARE going to fail and have to be replaced.

I'd be very cautious. My mushies stage was broken up - I could only have well cooked fish towards the end of it - tuna too. To be honest, I found tuna quite hard - it had to be tuna in oil, something about the "sticky" texture of tuna and salmon really got to me. But those flavoured tuna packs, I had those with chickpeas, avocado and skinned cucumber and tomato - that went down well. I wasnt allowed any chicken or meat until full solids.

I'm sure its like a band and that once you're entirely healed and back to normal, you can push it a *tiny* bit more than normal on special occasions but you'll have a point which you just cant go past. Over time, the desire to push that point does evaporate a lot becuase you just dont want to feel the way it makes you feel - it may not be that you are actually sick, but nobody really wants to go around all the time feeling like they just at a huge Christmas dinner! And over time, then you connect that its actually about the social occasion, not the food. I mean, I am always baffled when people post about "how do I handle going out to eat" or "its such a waste of money". Well, its simple. You go out, you order something you fancy, you eat till you're satisfied. Going out with family or friends is NOT about getting your money's worth with a stomachful or rich food! If you look at it like it costs you $20 to go out, have a drink, a bite and catch up with friends, who the heck CARES if there's food left over. Here, we dont get to take doggybags, its against health regulations and I honestly couldnt give a fat rats a** about leaving food behind that I paid for. You do get there, truly. And its very liberating when you do.

Stacey, it will cheer you to know that I asked that same question - whether being banded would be like being pregnant and for me, it IS. My first two pregnancies, I could eat fine, I'm tall and have lots of room for an 8lb baby in there. I never got breathless, full on small amounts of food etc. My pregnancies never encroached on my lung and stomach space. But the third one, phew. Little monster was completely breech the entire time, and I had no bump at all until about 30 weeks - she was so far inside me and up into my abdomen for some reason - I barely even showed at full term. That pregnancy, I would only get hungry when I really needed to eat for energy, I'd get the hunger pangs, eat about a cup of food and be stuffed and it would sit with me for ages. I went home from hospital after having her almost 30lb lighter than when I'd conceived and she was a good 8lb baby. I'd thought at the time, if only I could be like this all the time, and now I am! However, head hunger, cravings and the desire to eat just because still come into it! But I can never eat very much at one sitting, although what is really not very much to someone else is now entirely normal to me and I'd say I eat a lot! But people say how can you not be starving on such a small lunch!

I too am not sure what you mean by ruptured. the way you say you could feel something different but do not say you were sick, in pain or any sort of emergency makes me think the balloon has ruptured or similar? My surgeon who is one of the band's pioneers warns his patients to expect that this will occur some time in the future, that the band WONT last forever in our bodies, but 2 years isnt very long, he's meaning more like 20 years. During my time on here, I've heard of various leaks and similar, and a couple of cases of the band coming undone. Nobody wants extra surgery, what a nuisance for you but I guess you can be thankful its not erosion or actual damage to your body.

Firstly, 65lb in a year is not failing! Where do people get this idea that WLS magically makes your body lose 200lb in 3 months? 65lb a year is MORE than a pound a week which is well within the average figures that you read absolutely everywhere. You've done great. Secondly, if you're unable to eat till 1 or 2 pm, you most probably do NOT need a fill - I'd be unfilling if I couldnt eat at all till that time of day. All that achieves is to set you up to be entirely depleted and unable to stop eating or make good choices when you finally open up enough to let solid food in. Breakfast is THE most important meal of the day!!! Skimp on it, choose poor foods and you are a thousand times more likely to eat badly later on. Food choices are down to us, its hard, it really sucks that there's no magic pill to end all our weight woes, but we simply absolutely have to make good choices and exercise. And thirdly, if you have a doctor who's silly enough to overfill you THAT much and flip your port in the process then I'd be finding another one. Anyone can end up overfilled, it happens, our bodies take time to feel the restriction, you can be fine in the surgery and then in trouble by that night etc. But to get back in your car unable to even swallow saliva that quickly, thats way too big and aggressive a fill, and your surgeon should have more care, EVEN if you demanded it. That's quite a misjudgement!

Well, as you've probably noticed, your doctor hasnt told you this, because its not generally the way they encourage you to do it in Australia, so dont worry too much about it. Here, I have to stress that its not the complete opposite, not a "low Protein diet" its just that all food groups are considered important and there's justs not the belief that loads of protein offers any real advantage, and that there's more benefit in eating a larger portion of your diet as fresh fruit and vegies. However, a bit more protein and a bit less carbs is a good thing when you're trying to lose and I dont think you'll find any surgeon arguing if you replace your white carbs (white bread, Cookies, cakes, white rice and pasta) with protein foods! Just as long as you're not sacrificing your fruit and veg for protein. There's protein in almost anything, but animal foods are a major source - meat, eggs and dairy. However, protein comes nicely packaged with a LOT of saturated fat, so a high protein diet can be extremely artery clogging too - you have to choose lean meats and low fat dairy. Stay far away from lunch/deli meats - salami, ham, processed foods like hot dogs and sausage are just plain no good for you, there's really nothing good about them. cheese, well, its so delicious, sigh, especially good cheeses, but its not good in large amounts, unless you're eating cottage cheese, and well, I'd rather the package it comes in, lol. If you have a couple of cups worth of skim milk per day - on Cereal, in tea and coffee and you include a dedicated protein source with each meal - like tuna with your lunchtime salad and some sort of meat, fish, poultry for dinner, you'll get enough protein. Beans and legumes like chick peas, lentils and such are a great source too and its a really great idea to include a couple of vegetarian meals like this a week to up your vegetable intake and keep your meat intake down. Most people unless they eat really tiny amounts will get enough protein without even trying. Read all the labels in your pantry and fridge and you'll see there's protein everywhere. You really dont need to worry about Protein shakes, but you can of course, if you like them.

There isnt anything I really "cant" eat but certain things got more difficult after about a year - which I think was four or five fills for me. However, I'd lost well over half my excess wieght by then.

I find it helpful to differentiate cravings and urges. I get the urge to eat something bad, oh, about 400 times a day. Those I ignore. A real craving or desire to eat something, I usually indulge that. I dont see why not. I dont get a real craving all that often, and when I have one, there is no substituting. I just have whatever it is that I really fancy. I view this is a lifestyle, not a diet, and that worked for me. Although i would say I had a sweet tooth, I find that I get many urges for sweet foods but rarely cravings. However, every now and then I will REALLY want something salty, like hot chips. .

I was told 4 weeks, but I'd be less cautious about the ocean than a pool. Public pools, ick. I get sick every time I go in one anyway. But salt water is great for healing, but I'd want my incisions to be at least a couple of weeks old at least.

On weekends, I make and freeze small meals - things like pea and ham or zucchini and leek Soup in single serve containers. Those are simple to take, I add an apple for a snack (I keep a peeler in my bag as i have to peel and cut up apples to eat them). I also freeze dinner leftovers in single containers. Early on I invested in a whole lot of small pyrex lidded containers. Um, what else.... I make small salads and take a single serve tin of tuna. I also buy a lot of precut vegies - in Safeway here, they sell great little kids packs containing celery and carrot sticks and cherry tomatoes - with a good gourmet hummus dip those are a great lunch, I can leave the dip in the fridge at work but you can always spoon some into a small container to take. Yogurts - i love the gourmet yogurts with a layer of fruit in them - the thick greek stuff, its really filling. And occasionally I take the makings for a salad sandwich - lettuce, tomato, cheese, grated carrot, cucumber and some wholegrain bread.

Sigh, nothing's easy is it? So even with a sleeve, there's margin for user error? If you overeat by any more than what's already happened would you vomit? Would it be a like a pb, where its not acidy, nauseous vomiting, just regurgitation? When is someone going to create a weight loss surgery that requires patients to do absolutely nothing, lol? Forgive all the questions - my oldest son, I'm sure we'll be looking into WLS for him within a couple of years time. I'm sure the sleeve will be a lot more common here in that sort of time frame, and I suspect for a teenager, it'd be an easier surgery to manage than a band, which requires a lot of responsibility and eating modifcation. I'm also pretty sure that if you choose a band for a teenager, you're pretty much guaranteeing one or two MORE band surgeries in his lifetime.

Cheri, good for you for recognizing so early on the role you have to play in this process. I can promise you further on down the track you will not be able to do these things. To a large extent, it will take care of itself. The ONLY reason you can drink while you're eating now and get ot eat more, or why you can eat for longer and get to eat more is that you dont have optimum restriction. Try the drinking thing a year or two down the track when you've had a few fills and you'll vomit - NOTHING guarantees meeting your dinner again like shoving liquid on top of it, liquid that has nowhere to go. And you wont be able to eat for a solid half hour either. The food will stay in your pouch and not start to empty out like it does now. the good thing about the band and fills is that its incremental and you get used to your restrictions bit by bit. the bad thing about the band and fills is that its incremental, lol, and you panic at first that it hasnt worked.

I think its a wonderful environment for people who dont like the gym and I think its a great start for unfit people, and certainly a good exercise program to keep you healthy, help you lose weight and stay out of the cardiac ward. If you want some serious results from your exercise in terms of really excellent strength and fitness, you're better off in a mainstream gym. Its perfect for women like my mum, who's 67, is pretty darn fit and active, likes to keep in shape and keep her figure but doesnt want to run marathons, build huge biceps or get to 10% body fat. For someone like me, who runs regularly, wants to stay really fit and in GREAT shape, well, I do a Curves workout and its merely what I'd call a warm up. They say you cant get too fit for it, you jsut go faster and harder. Well, that's not true. Those hydraulic machines have a return phase that you must wait for, there is only so fast you can push them before you start to lose form and not do the exercise properly and many people get too fit for that. My main beef with them is that claim (that you cant get too fit) and their outdated exercise information. I got a job with them which in all conscience I couldnt take because their information is SO out of date (like the fat burning heart rate rubbish) and their training for their instructors really so poor (they know the machines, but know zilch about human anatomy and what you're really doing) that I just couldnt shut my mouth about how wrong they were, lol. Being a franchise, you have to present it how they want you to and I wouldnt have been able to do it. But that said - those are negative things - but basically, its good circuit exercise for the more moderately fit/overweight/older people that will challenge them and not everyone wants to be a super athelete so its all many people will ever need. Its fantastic for that - and if you supplement it with some cardio, even better. In and of itself, 3 times a week for 30 minutes really wouldnt be optimal for weight loss, but add a couple of hour long power walks and you'd be on a great thing! I'd just say that if you're comfortable pushing harder, and you find your heart rate is above their ridiculous range, then lie. Dont let them tell you you're not burning fat by working that hard. the harder you work the better your results will be and anyone that tells you any different is misinformed.

They say that about the lapband too and I really dont get it. YOu could just as easily sabotage weight loss with salami and cheeses or chips and nuts as you could with sweet things! We all had WLS because we werent succesful fighting our eating issues without help! I think the only thing that would really worry me with surgery and it being effective is truly disordered eating - like true binge eating and bulimia etc. Things that even physical discomfort wont fix because they're not really physical problems. Excessive appetite for foods that arent the most healthy - that's part body, part head. Any surgery will help the body part of that equation. And with any surgery, you have to do the head part yourself.

2000 is a bit much, honestly, if you're around 1200 to 1500 that's a safe sensible level for most women to lose weight and many women have to go more like 1000 or below. I *should* be able to eat about 2800 calories to maintain at my height and activity level. There's no damn way I could get away with that - eating that much made me obese! Protein Snacks - well, I often hard boil a few eggs at a time and leave those in the fridge. You can just eat a cold hard boiled egg or spread it on some crackers. A piece of low fat cheese. A small handful of nuts Peanut Butter spread on apple slices - suprisingly yummy a yogurt You've probably noticed we're not encouraged to focus on the protein quite so much in Australia and wholegrain carbs arent banned, but you're right, you will be hungry if you're not eating enough protein.

If you're satisfied and not getting hungry, then your restriction is right. You shouldnt be looking for a hard stop like a pb! Its tiresome, but we just have to stop when we've had enough, not when we're full. 116lb in that time, you're incredible!!! But rely on yourself, not the hard stop of actually vomiting to do it or you do run the risk of doing damage. i'd keep an eye on the discomfort. If its real pain, definitely follow up on it.

No amount of situps will really get rid of your stomach flab. You need to burn it off with cardio, good eating and weight training. Did he mean he's not a fan of weight training - I find that hard to believe, and I'd seriously doubt his knowledge if he discouraged it! Or did he just mean sit ups and crunches? Because those arent really effective. There's 2 things with most women who have problem stomach - flab (fixed by cardio and eating) and muscle separation from pregnancy (and that can NOT be fixed without surgery, in fact sit ups can make it worse). Most women, even if they do have slight muscle separation have better tummies under there than they imagine they do but you must get rid of the fat to do it. Also, things like spinning and running use your core and will strengthen and flatten your stomach considerably. Unless you're really trying to sculpt specific muscles, you're wasting your time doing "stomach exercises".

I asked this exact question myself. C-section is harder than the lapband, afterall, you're cut right open. But a c-section didnt slow me down for longer than a week and I barey noticed I'd had surgery after the lapband, by the next morning, I was completely mobile and fine.

My 4cc band worked fine for me! Also, you wont have as many fills probably - because you dont need as many. It can be a bit easier to find restriction BUT it can also be a bit of experimenting becuase you dont have as LARGE fills. I had 1 cc, 0.5cc, 0.5cc and then all my fills were 0.1cc from that point on. Tiny. But I got restrictrion from the very get go. In fact every fill gave me a sweet spot for the time being, until I lost more weight and loosened off again.

I dont have real 'favourite' meals but I notice a lot of meals that I dont want to eat as much. any dinner that consists of a piece of meat and vegetables is much less appealing to me. I used to love lamb loin chops, and we ate those a lot, and a piece of steak on the barbecue. I just look at that now and cant be bothered eating it, too hard, too dry, just not enjoyable any more. Even a roast dinner with all the trimmings, meh, cant really be bothered. Stir fries, ugh, dont want them. I'm much more partial to my meat and veges being cooked together in some sort of curry, casserole or stew and served on something nice and moist like mashed sweet potato. Unfortunately pasta goes down really well, the creamier the sauce the yummier, lol, but I do eat that sort of thing in strict moderation. I love soup too, I can spend entire afternoons making lovely soups. My fave is a moroccan lamb shank soup that's flavoured with cinnamon, and has loads of vegies, lentils, chick peas in it. You serve it with a dollop of natural yogurt and a squeeze of lemon juice - divine!

Only after I got over the kidney stones!

I honestly dont know how people stay sane without exercise. It certainly didnt come immediately but I really look forward to that time when I head out for my run every evening. I take my ipod and there's music on, but I'm conscious of it for only the first km or two, gradually I get in the zone, and once there, I download the stress of the day. I run through everything in my mind, I sort things out, I make plans and I've even written more than one or two brilliant essays for uni, lol. It really is a detox for the mind, and I dont like to have to function without it. I'm always on at DH, he has such a stressful job and I tell him he just needs that personal space and quite time that running gives me to download his stuff, sort it through, rebalance his day. But he never listens. He watches TV and drinks beer instead - even though he has a lapband and has lost tons of weight. keep it up - you SHOULD feel proud - and once it does become true habit, its just so rewarding.

Yes, that's exactly how I lost weight. My diet before surgery was obviously not right as I got fat. But I have 3 kids and am cooking for a family so the basic bones of my diet - my Breakfast, lunch and dinner were healthy. We'd eat fast food about once a month as a family, I cook from scratch with fresh ingredients and was always educated on the evils of processed foods - sugary cereals, chips, convenience meals, canned Soups etc. I knew how to stay away from too much salt, saturated fat, and additives in our family diet. The trouble with me was that I ate large meals, but on top of that, I'd drop the kids at school and hit the shops for a big cappucino with a huge muffin, I'd nibble on Cookies all day, I saw nothing wrong with the ENORMOUS slabs of cake on the display after a meal out, I liked a glass of wine etc. With a band, I'm satisfied enough with my meals to avoid those foods for the most part, and they're hard foods to eat, thank goodness my vices werent ice cream and chocolate. Also, for me, those foods go hand in hand with coffee and trying to drink coffee and eat a donut OUCH. It can be done but its not pleasurable. I love my coffee, so I avoid the donut, lol. I dont WANT a donut if it doesnt come with coffee. I've never counted a calorie, I didnt cut out any foods, I dont journal, I dont fuss about Protein, I just eat 3 sensible meals a day and if I'm hungry, I have a small snack - and sometimes that IS a cookie or something.

I think she's already had that - of the verbal variety.