Jachut

Running, theres nothing like it. Yes, in the long run you need some strength training, but to shift fat fast, run for forty minutes to an hour every day and you wont regret it.

omg, it bought tears to my eyes. I did cop a little bit of holier than thou judgement from several people, not least my usually lovely lapband surgeon, because i didnt have a big flappy tummy. The before pics i took were on my phone and dont really show clearly what a mess my belly was, but oh, my, has it been cleaned up!!! I feel like the evidence of my brush with cancer has been erased, gone are the hernias, the ileostomy scar, the misshapen almost hernia behind the ileostomy, the ruined bellybutton, the adsortment of at least a dozen scars and punctures, the weird curtain of skin on my upper belly. The flatness of my new tummy is a bonus, at present with swelling, im about the same measurement as i was before, so my midsection is going to be very slender, unfortunately my ass is still the same size, lol. But without going into detail why did nobody tell ne how much better my, ah, bits would look? DH's eyes nearly popped out of his head! And my inner thighs are so smooth! Wowzers. So...... Gone are all signs of one of the darkest periods of my life and in their place, one lovely smile on my tummy to remind me how lucky I am to be here and to be healthy. I didnt quite realise I would feel tjis way about it, and Ive been off the drugs for days, lol

You are sooooo right. Theres a couple of posts up today and have been manyover my six year involvement with this board about what you do when you ge to the point of maintenance. The answer is nothing. Because wht you do to lose, you need to do FOREVER. Simple as that.

For maintenance, my losing lifestyle is what i adopted forever, nothing changed from when I was losing. My weight loss just petered out over time, in fact i eat less now than i was able to eat when i first began losing although i think over the ast two or three years, goods have become easier to eat and i get more variety now. I run for an hour several times a week, do a couple if rpm classes and to or three body pump classes a week - much MORE exercise than I did during the first year of my journey. None of this feels hard or like a diet, its just my life. I am five feet ten, 140lb, burn 600 or so calories a day with exercise and work as a teacher, so am on my feet all day. I have three kids aged 16, 14 and 9, so my "leisure" time is active too. Yet i gain if I eat more than 1800 calories a day, most often I sit at 1500. I definitely need my band. I may need it less if I were happy to weigh 160, but Im not.

Ive just had a tummy tuck and i did one, but Im a special case. In the last eighteen months ive had a major bowel and rectal resection, an ileostomy and an ileostomy reversal. My altered bowel is still finding its new normal, and the way my body is at the moment, i absolutely knew i would be having days long episodes of feeling the urge to go and straining, plus the normal constipation that narcotics cause. So I made sure I was absolutely empty and I did a day of Clear liquids as well. Ive made it to day five before needing to go, at least some healing has had time to take place before i have to struggle again to do my thing. If your digestive system is normal theres no need unless your uncomfortable with needing assistance in the first day or two. I actually caused ome real concern because bowel preps do dehydrate you and although i was catheterised i produced very little urine the first night. And dont be alarmed that since youve had such a big clean follwed by very litte food, it could easily be five dys before you see action.

The thing is, youre not really correct in expecting weight loss you couldnt achieve reasonably on your own. It wont usually be any faster or more spe tacular. Youre averaging the expected 2lb per week. Where the band really helps is keeping that loss going ALL the way down to goal and keeping it off, rather than losing that 24lb, running out of steam and putting on 30! Tha band does not alter your body, cause malabsorption or make weight loss miraculous, it simply makes ordinary weight loss easier to achieve.

Ditto. Having spent nine months unfilled due to another illness, i really struggled to not regain, even having chemo! You like to think youve changed, but its easy to lose the sense of how much the band is helping. I need my band and an hour of running every day not to gain weight again.

I was unfilled for nine long months, and refilling was easy but the restriction was different. Its taken more fill for similar restriction and like Lellow, foods like bread are now easy for me to eat. I had a barium swallow to see what was going on and i have very minor pouch dilation, but my doc is not worried by it. I find the restriction IS there when I pay attention and I m maintaining easily enough. Am recovering from a tummy tuck just now and didnt unfill this time, my lapband surgeon didnt think I would need to (it was my colorectal guy who insisted i unfill for the bowel resection). Unfilling can cause issues but when you have to you have to. I'd hate to tjink how skeletal Id be if I hadnt been unfilled last year, and you'd hate to cause permanent damage to your band!

Band aside, i couldnt live without a food processor!

Lapband surgery does not keep you off your feet for long, less than a few hours and they made me get up and walk. Ive since had three very major abdominal surgeries and i always get compression stockings and those things that pump your kegs, clexhane injections and they maje you walk. Personally, unless i had a history of clots i wouldnt get the filter.

Its probably cleaner than many things - your kitchen sink, the dish cloth you wipe the benches with, handrails in the shopping centre,etc. Its just the thought, lol

Running is awesome! I am on day 2 after a tummy tuck right now but cant wait to get back to it, ive been a runner for six years now, since very soon after I got banded. Youll get knockers who tell you cardio is a waste of time and you should be lifting but running helped me lose 130% of mh excess weight and keep it off for years now.

They took my pain pump, waaah, lol. Just on paracetamol now and have been up to shower, no catheter either. Talk of removing one of the drains tomorrow. Feeling pretty good, the only reason i querybreturning to work in three (well, itll be two weeks five days) is im a teacher, which is surprisingly a lot more physical than a desk job, also itll be a real pain for all involved if i go for a day and then decide i need more days off, better for them to just get someone in for the week. Being a hero is what led me to need this one in the first place, lol.

I had great restriction that lasted about eight weeks, but i was banded on 2005 and have the old 4cc band, they were much easier to find restriction with

I love thai, but confess that coconut milk and peanut sauce are what i usually go for. Chicken larb is really good and doesnt involve those two evils. I love love love tom yum soup too.

My full feeling is exactly the same as before, it just happens way sooner. Two things - when i feel that just swallowed a large pill feeling, ive overeaten! And i agree waiting till youre really hungry to eat can make eating difficult - you eat fast and are likely to get stuck, and hunger causes me to get acidy and a bit refluxy and then food hurts and burns on the way down. My band also seems a lot more sensitive if im really hu gry, almost like it clamps down on whatever i swallow, which causes discomfort if not vomiting

My throat gurgles, the way the band works is a bit likea blocked plug, liquid kind of chugs up and down it, it doesnt smoothly move though

Im sitting in hospital day 2 (i get a four night stay) and can tell already Im goi g to be frustrated. Im a teacher too, school holidays start here today so i go back week 3 if i feel ok. I also had repair of tWo fairly major inguinal hernias which o some extent i have caused myself by NOT taking it easy, like running ten days after a six hour long bowel resection, o this time i am going to focus on walking and nothing else! It oesnt hurt as much as i expected, but i can do less than i expected if that mkes sense. Even adjusting the pillow is hard! Im also more than ready to lose the catheter and pumpy stocking things.

Mine is very visible. At a bmi of 20 its like a walnut under my skin. It doesnt really bother me, however im in hospital right now after a tummy tuck and its been replaced with a low profile one, i cant see anything yet as its all bandaged up.

I cant see anything, my whole tummy is dressed, or id take ome pics. My Ps said he got the scar as low as possible, but tht i was very tight, i really didnt have a lot of skin to work with and most of my laxity was in the upper belly. He said bikini worthy still, which is a relief, im thinking probably not ultra low string bikini, given Im nerly 45 I think the general public may appreciate that, lol.

Nearly seven years for me with no major problems - my pouch has stretched out a very little bit which my doctor says is a fairly natural adaptation over time, but that if i respect my band it will serve me gor a long time to come. The scars do fade well but my port has always been visible. I had my band unfilled for most of last year and it was hrd work maintaining my weight. I dont think i would become obese again (with work) but maintaining a bmi of 20 wouldnt be easy. I have no plans to unfill -but i dont need to be tight to maintain either. I run about an hour a day and thats key. Personally, i wouldnt swap a bmi of 20 to settle for 32 or even 25, i love having gotten truly "thin"

All done! Feeling pretty fine, pain pumps are wonderful things, lol. Worst part is just having to lie still on my back.

Ok, im literally terrified of the pain, sigh. On a more practical note, what the hell do you wear after a TT? Having been below goal weight for four years now, i have a wardrobe full of nice clothes. Am i going to have to wear sweats to work in three weeks time? Can i take my nice nighties to hospital or should I take the grungy pj's? im completely waxed, nails are done, hair cut and coloured and tan topped up, lol. Gotta get your priorities right! Just doing all the housework i havent done in the last six months as its suddenly incredibly important that it be done right now, have to go and buy easter eggs for the kids, book for hospital, cook inner for the kids tonight, get thedog and three cats vaccinated and do a grocery shop and then itll be time to go to the hospital Phew. See you on the other sude!

I think theres not enough recognition given that every person with. Bmi of 45 once had one of 27. You describe All the struggles of an obese person. Better to lose a small amount now than a large amount in future years. All Lellows points are very true though, aftercare is important, theres someone else on this board fro Dubai but i cant remember who, hopefully she sees this.

I know, that breastbone position seems so odd to me - I am so bony there, there's a scant fraction of a millimetre thickness of skin and no fat at all on my breastbone, cant see how in the world my port wouldnt look like an alien baby there- its obvious enough on my stomach. My TT is on Tuesday, I'm getting REALLY nervous. I'm having bilateral inguinal hernia repair and some reconstruction around where my ileostomy was and my docs were so nice to me - figured i'd been through so much in the last two years - that between them, they've cooked up a full tummy tuck nearly completely covered by our public health system (not that I have an awful lot to tuck) just so i end up with all my surgery scars gone, and lose the sad frowny belly button. I"m very excited - but equally about fixing those hernias which have been giving me all sorts of trouble. For me, my tummy looks very flat anyway, its just a bit 'loose' so it wont be a major shape changing sort of thing to me, but will make me feel really great in a bathing suit and eliminate that annoying little roll over the top of my jeans.