Jachut

I get my eyebrows waxed and I dont think it hurts. I want to punch the woman when she plucks though, I HATE that bit. My upper lip - cant stand it. Hurts too much. Have a red moustache mark for days. Dont have much hair there anyway, only if I wear dark make up and I barely ever wear make up, so I dont care. Brazillian - no thanks.

I agree, I think the info is important, but I also agree that sometimes you can know too much. I totally disagree with fluoro as a filling tool for example. It makes the doctor think HE knows best what the right fill is, it makes the doctor thinks HE knows when you're overfilled, it leads to overly agressive fills that 'work' whilst you're there in the office drinking Water but then tighten up way too much over the coming days. Ditto to drawing out fill to check the level before filling - my doctor's surgery has a policy NOT to do this because it leads to way more overfill/swelling/overtightness problems that just adding a tiny bit of fill to the top of it. I personally believe its best just to go slowly and cautiously rather than thinking all this information means its OK to put in a big fill.

I think its pretty much genetically determinend where you store weight. If you have a rounded behind, you probably always will. On the other hand, I have a typical caucasion wide flat butt, which got even flatter. It just kind of dropped to the back of my knees. I just wish I had some different blood than bog standard irish somewhere in my history - a bit of Thai or mediterranean blood perhaps?. I'd like a better butt and I'd really rather fancy being darker skinned with brown eyes, than white, freckly and green eyed.

Fatty livers do contain fat, that needs to go, but the pre op liver shrinking diet is all about depleting the liver of glycogen. You cant lose fat specifically from your liver by going on a special diet, same as you cant choose to lose it off your thighs. In the pre op diet, you will lose a LOT of glycogen (your body's sugar energy source), since you deplete your body entirely of carbs. Since carbs are always stored with a couple of molecules of Water you shed water like crazy, and that's where the large weight loss comes from. You dont lose an awful lot of fat in those two weeks on the diet, you do lose a lot of water, a bit of fat and a bit of lean body tissue and your liver tends to shrink from glycogen depletion.

No, it doesnt hurt. The reason carbs make you hungry if you eat them on their own is that are fairly high up on the glycaemic index, meaning they cause a significant insulin reaction in your body - with white bread, rice etc being even HIGHER than plain sugar! So whilst everyone things that the answer is to cut out carbs many medical experts (particularly in Australia) are more interested in a low GI diet instead - meaning you eat lower GI carbs - wholegrains, fruit and vegetables and that you include a bit more Protein - and that ina meal, you might have white rice and beef curry, well the beef curry being basically protein is very low GI and that balanced out the high GI of the rice and you get a more moderate, slowly digesting meal that doesnt give you the massive insulin rush. So really, there's good evidence that there's no need to low carb it, just low GI it instead, and that way you dont miss out on your banana, which is so good for you, as long as you also eat, say a piece of cheese at the same time.

I decided myself. I saw my GP and told him just that I wanted a referral to a lapband surgeon.

I think even the haters are laughing. That was really VERY funny.

I do. I fade away very quickly without carbs. I dont think a low carb diet suits everyone. But I agree, 60 grams a day of Protein is necessary I get that quite easily. And I stay away from white carbs - I get my energy from fruit and veg and wholegrains. But logically, protein first is not a low carb way of eating, its simply making sure you get enough protein. To really go low on the carbs you have to do Atkins or similar. Most people ARE eating carbs, just not necessarily in grain form - and even those of us that eat a more carb based diet (the whole world doesnt do protein first, its an American thing) are eating less carbs (and certainly less white carbs) than we did. The balance of my diet has certainly changed and I cant say I notice a big difference. My body doesnt miss the rubbish I used to feed it.

Entirely normal. I see sawed up and down the whole time (but never went back up to previous highs). I'd go 207, 209, 207, 208, 206, 208, 207, 206, 207, 205, 207, 206, 204, kind of thing. The low points would get lower and lower. But I never went back up by more than a pound or two. its like you'd see a low weight and think OOH, exciting! But you knew it wouldnt stick - just yet. It would take a few almosts before you really got there. Mentally, the hardest ones (i think in kilograms) were the decades, breaking 100kgs, 90kgs, 80kgs. It'd be gut wrenching to go back up into the next decade.

Well, of course you cant just start out that way! What you are doing sounds like a GREAT plan to ease yourself back into fitness. All you need to do is make sure you're honest with the effort you put into it - it should hurt just a little bit. It shouldnt be easy. You want red faced, sweating and pounding heart but you dont want to be ridiculous about it. If you can get your heart rate consistently around the 140 bpm level without dying - that should be fairly OK for most woment between 30 and 50 going by the standard 220 - age formula, that will be fairly hard, harder than the old fashioned debunked fat burning zone stuff, but not so hard you wont be able to work out for 7 days. First off, work on getting used to that, then increasing your time, just 15 extra minutes to 45 will make a really big difference. Then work on intensity a bit - as you get fit, your heart rate will drop, make sure you keep it up there, and some days do harder sessions, and some days do recovery sessions. It does work over time. A recovery session for me now is a jog rather than a run, i really enjoy going out to jog for 10kms, its not hard and it doesnt tire me out. But it took me probably 2 years to get there. And a day where I do nothing, I might actually walk 8kms, that doesnt even register on my scale as exercise any more lol. Dont let others' achievements intimidate you, everyone has to start somewhere and ALL it takes, honestly, is commitment and consistency.

Maybe I'm just full of sh*t? Lol.

Sounds like you need an unfill, it shoudlnt be like that. You're just too tight.

I think its ridiculous to be honst, I've always eaten more than that. I can eat about a cup, and I also eat more often than I used to since I need the energy. I still need up to 2000 calories a day to maintain my weight at 150lb. So half a cup just wouldnt do it for me, and its why I'm thankful for a band, which can be adjusted, rather than a non adjustable surgery. I'd starve to death on such tiny portions.

I base my diet on fruit, vegetables and wholegrain carbs rather than Protein and that keeps me very regular. Obviously with less food going in, there'll be less coming out. I noticed that, for sure. But with plenty of fibre rich foods, enough fluids and daily exercise, I never have a problem with constipation.

Definitely an unfill, what you are doing is counterproductive in that it doesnt set you up for healthy chocies. I find that like most bandsters, I really dont feel like eating in the morning and can easily go to lunchtime without Breakfast. But to eat a good breakfast really makes a difference to how well and how much I eat the rest of the day. It prevents the afternoon munchies. Personally, my appetite has ALWAYS shut down at about 5 pm band or no band. I've never ever had a night time eating issue, I know its very common, and I have a son who does this - literally doesnt eat ALL day at school and then eats solidly from 4pm to bed. You know, I personally believe its crap that you'll get fatter if you eat those calories at night v in the morning, your body uses and stores continuously throughout a 24 hour period so when you store it up as fat at night, you'll burn it up when you dont eat the following day. But you'd FEEL so much better, eat so much more senisbly and have so much more energy if you ate regularly, so I'd unfill.

If you dont have any fever or otherwise feel unwell, I'd say 3 glasses of wine on your tender stomach, into a digestive system that's not been fed solid food for weeks would be enough to give you diarrhoea, and vomiting too if you tend towards that.

For me, the band worked JUST like you are imagining.

I can eat everything, but some things are more likely to cause me problems than others. Fruit doesnt cause me indigestion, but its hard to eat. Bread in small quantities is OK.

I agree, my daughter was nearly 3 and at 6 and a bit she is sitting on me right this minute. It wasnt that bad, it honestly isnt a bad or painful surgery. Its not like she cant even lean on you or you couldnt hold a child on your lap as long as the elbows and knees are kept in control

I'm following your thought process keithf. That's what I'd do too. All the tricks I used to get fruit and veg into my kids, I use on myself. I mash potato, pumpkin and several other vegies together. I blend fruit into things. I'd never ever make chilli or bolognaise without zucchinim carrot, mushrooms finely chopped and processed in the food processer and used to replace some of the meat. The kids never even notice! Now, as to the logic behind pureeing things. I struggle with fruit. I thought no problem, I'll eat tinned fruit instead, that's cooked and soft. Still doesnt work. One of the hardest things to eat of all is the little tubs of pureeed fruit - I used to feed that to my babies. I often get stuck on yogurt too. As it happens, I have no trouble with asparagus (or grape skins). But it simply does not follow that if you DO have trouble with it, that you can puree it. It probably still wont work. I drink a glass of juice in the mornings, that gets a serve of fruit in for me with no problems. Most people CAN eat steamed vegies though, they just dont.

My sister is hypothyroid and I shared a whole lot of the same symptoms - the dry fragile hair, dry skin, and at times of my life, extreme tiredness. The thing is her condition killed her appetite and she never ate a thing, she was skinny as skinny all her life and since being diagnosed and treated, she's normal weight. Me thinking it was the answer to 30 extra kilos was wishful thinking. As my paternal grandmother and HER grandmother and daughter were/are hypothyroid too, I was tested, ever so slightly high TSH levels and I've also done that temperature test and my basal temperature was always low enough to be a concern. Its never been considered necessary that I be treated though. But the answer for me was a lapband, diet and exercise. I had not the slightest difficulty losing weight. I might do the temperature thing again to check. These days my hair is lustrous and thick like it has NEVER been in my life before, I have strong fingernails and am never ever tired. I dont have any menstrual irregularities either, whereas my sister was severely afflicted by endometriosis. I doubt I'd be at all abnormal these days.

Makes heaps of sense! I find the term "emotional eating" a very annoying overused excuse for people not taking responsibility for their own behaviours - which as you rightly point out means identifying learned eating patterns that are not helpful. Tying it up neatly to "I saw my dog get run over wehn I was 10 so I cant help but eat to squash my anger and misery" is just too easy. Admitting "this is a behaviour that I can control" is not so easy. But people dont seem to realise that controlling it by degree is an achievement too! We dont have to totally obliterate every bad eating behaviour, we just have to try to make enough difference to our intake and enough difference to our output to reach a new balance. Its not an all or nothing thing. How disappointing about the newborn analogy though. A bottle? Tsk tsk. What's wrong with a breast? Sorry, lifelong member of the milk mafia here.

I eat a carb based diet, I dont count how many grams a day it would be but it would be over 150. I eat wholegrain bread, cereals, brown rice and pasta, fresh fruit and vegetables, and then of course there is carbs in stuff like milk, yogurt, etc.

Well, I suspect like here, things like that are mainly made with lips and assholes! You just drown it all in sauce anyway (tomato sauce = ketchup). A sausage roll is made from sausage mince and onion and vegies (if you make them at home) all mixed into a pasty sort of mess, and you make it into big sausages and roll it in savoury pastry and bake. I'm partial to party pies and sausage rolls - mini versions. I find anything like a pie which is normally about 3/4 of the size of a saucer (you dont take a slice out of it like for a family size pie, you eat the whole thing) is difficult becuase if you eat it out of a paper bag like you do if you buy one for lunch at the football or the kids' basketball or wherever, it tends to fall apart, so its the kind of thing you eat very fast in huge gulps before all the hot filling falls on your hands. Instant PB there! I struggle with sushi and rice paper rolls and stuff for the same reason. If I can buy them, take them home and eat with a knife and fork, fine, but to try to eat them out of the bag with my hands, ouch.

I agree entirely! I dont think it was all a huge con when they told us to eat high carb, low fat back in the 80's and 90's. I think its what all evidence pointed to as being correct at the time. I also think it went off the rails becuase people tend to eat HIGH carb, HIGH sugar and HIGH fat, they dont follow the healthy food pyramid AT ALL. Now there's lots of evidence that a Protein based diet is it and a bit and so we're leaning that way. I think in time we'll see the flaws in that as well. I personally feel most comfortable eating everything in moderation and eating what makes me feel good and function well. But there's a different focus in controlling diabetes and indeed, I can see the sense in eating the same things becuase you know that they help you control the condition.