Jachut

At one of the info nights I attended, the question of alcohol came up. Whislt alcohol is empty calories, my surgeon said that overall, moderate wine consumers tend to lose better than total non drinkers. Moderate means 3 or 4 standard drinks a week. Maybe its a whole set of characteristics - if you drink wine moderately (it does have recognised health benefits) perhaps you also have other healthy practices and perhaps you are also good at practicing moderation in all things. I dont think he was suggesting that the wine itself is magic. But cocktails etc ugh, stay far away.

7lb since January sounds pretty good to me. I'd say there's a lot of cases of plateaus that are really cases of unrealistic expectations. The weight does not just fall off, it can be quite slow and you dont want it to fall off anyway. No matter HOW much Protein you eat, if you're losing 4lb a week, you're losing muscle.

Actually, the band has demonstrably better results for lower BMI patients too, it tends to be less successful for the super morbidly obese. Also, consider the fact that your eating habits and exercise habits tend to worsen the heavier you become, you dont get to a BMI of 60 generally on the same calories in/out equation that got you to 30 however many years ago. There's a lot to be said for doing it when you've still got some sort of hope of overcoming the habits and changing your lifestyle. Not that that cant be done at higher BMI's of course

If you've already got stretch marks that skin wont recover. It will go that crepey sort of texture. The skin is already ruined. If you dont have lots, then you might be OK, but there's no way to tell. I was very very lucky, I had 3 babies and I have one stretch mark on my tummy. My stomach is fine, tiny bit of crepiness below the bikini line, my only real problem is a tiny residual fat pocket on the upper abdomen, which given my overall body fat is so low is a blessing because my port would look absolutely awful, its already very visible. My breasts grew literally overnight. I went to bed a flat chested fourteen year old and woke up with a pair of DD's. Stretch marks galore. That skin now is utterly revolting, you can pinch it and it stays pinched, it kind of just puddles up, I find my *cleavage* very difficult to manage, as the skin just kind of falls out of everything and I'm rejoicing now that they've shrunk to C's because now, even a triangle bikini top covers them entirely. I can promise, there's NOTHING you can do if there's stretch marks like that. But otherwise, whatever preventative you can take, its not going to do any harm.

I've been part of a monthly girls night with the same group for over 20 years now a few days after surgery is probably pushing it a bit, I think I'd sit it out too. but dont worry, you'll be back to enjoying it in your new, moderate manner very soon.

Oh, I dont know, swimming is just one of those things that if you cant get your rhythm and breathing right, you're going to continue to struggle. It might be just a matter of technique. And some people are just naturally good swimmers. Also, I know that from training as a swimming teacher, some people, boys in particular are just sinkers, due to thier body composition. They will always struggle becuase not only do then need to move through the Water, the need to work to stay afloat. Puddin, would he consider a few adult swimming lessons? it really might help him to get his rhythm and allow him to do what he's probably capable of doing.

Ugh donuts! Krispy Kreme opened here, my god the smell that place puts out across the shopping centre carpark is vile. KK is possibly the most disgusting food ever to be invented and NOBODY is buying them, they're going broke here. Same as Hershey's, lol, that failed too. We went in when it first opened, they had to have the police out to manage the traffic, there was so much anticipation,and news helicopters etc. They have it set up so you can see the production line and man, when they slop the glaze over those donuts and it gets sucked back up the tube and slopped out again, it makes me want to chuck. I have to admit, that I dont desire foods like that, but what disturbs me is how judgemental I have become. I watch people eating in the food court and they disgust me. Shoving their gobs full of fatty, greasy, deadly food, its not a fat discrimination thing because its fat people AND thin people. But I find myself HIGHLY judgemental of people who dont look after their bodies. Like perfectly nice middle aged ladies who have a bit of that spread going on, I think, "just get off that ass and do something about it, stop being so lazy and pathetic". Eek, I'm awful, I know.

I think we have a big problem with defining healthy and normal these days. One the one end of the scale we have models/acresses/celebs providing unrealistic goals and franky, not healthy weights in many cases. On the other, we have several western nations of massively obese proprotions. Our views are skewed by it. What we call skinny, is healthy and normal and what we call normal is actually often a BMI of between 26 and 30 - overweight. We're used to seeing people with plenty of fat cover and we've also made huge efforts to accept our bodies as they are, to shun that media image an in so doing, I think we've gone a bit far the other way. There's nothing wrong with loving yourself at any weight of course, but convincing yourself you dont need to lose weight when your bmi is 29 is what people have done, and while from some standpoints that's a healthy attitude (who needs to be weight obsessed!) its skewed people's views a bit. They look at someone obese and see only slightly overweight. 200 lb for me even at 5ft 10 was quite substantially over my healthy weight range! It was overweight by any chart you consult. 245 when I actually got banded was "seriously obese".

Last time I felt like that I was pregnant, lol. But yeah, your tastes definitely change.

I had lots of fills to sneak up to 2.7 cc in mine, and I think from memory, I got to 2 before I could say I was eating like a bandster. Even then I've had the ability to eat things like bread all along 2.7 is great maintenance level for me, but I have to work hard to lose. I think its just a function of the size of your stomach more than anything. And how much fat is around it - which can be influenced by how and where you carry y our weight. I always sat on mine, it wasnt on my stomach and less around my organs than someone who is pot bellied, and my doc said my stomach was quite small too. (Could have fooled me, I could certainly pack a lot into it). If you put the 4cc band in a big strapping broach shouldered 300 lb man, he'd have a totally different experience to a bottom heavy woman with smaller organs..

The diuretic effect of coffee actually reduces by about 80% when your body gets used to caffeine. Regular coffee and tea drinkers are not dehydrating to the extent that we are led to believe. There's no real need to go chugging Water you really truly dont want - you know, when you get to the stage you can barely swallow it? Um, the human body was not designed to get thirsty AFTER you've dehydrated, its ridiculous to claim that by the time you're thirsty its too late. Next someone will be claiming that by the time we need to go to the toilet, its too late! By all means, drink before you're thirsty, but if you're not thirsty and dont want to drink, dont stress about it.

Wow, you've had a bad run havent you? That's a horrific set of injuries. I think you need to be thinking of the surgery first and foremost as a great preventative measure to help someone like you avoid getting dangerously obese. If you cant increase your energy output to ideal levels, then you have to decrease the input and the band will help you do that. So, pool exercises it is. There's options: swimming laps, Water aerobics, deep water running, you can get special weights and things to use in water, depending on what you can handle. And with increasing strength may come the ability to do more of course, hopefully that will be the case. Its really not a case in a situation like yours of having to do a certain amount of exercise for the surgery to be worthwhile, its a case of redefining success, and thinking about what you need to achieve. I'd imagine at this stage you want to be healthy again, wearing a string bikini probably not a high priority. But people can and do lose a lot of weight without exercising, so dont write yourself off just yet. and of course, decreasing weight will make standing, walking and sitting easier for you. Very best of luck, I hope if you decide to go ahead the surgery works to have you feeling much healthier and more able within a short period of time.

Normally some sort of Cereal for Breakfast - rolled oats or organic muesli, maybe poached eggs, maybe a piece of toast and vegemite. Try to eat some fruit too. lunch is often a salad of some kind - i tend to make big salads at the weekend that last through a few days, fancier things like broccoli, feta and hazelnut, asian noodle slaw, stuff like that. I can eat bread, so sometimes I'll have half of a tuna and salad sandwich, occasionally on the weekend I'll enjoy a pie and sauce! I do dinner leftovers too. dinner is the family meal - basic meat and 3 veg fare usually.

I would highly recommend The Centre for Bariatric Surgery in The Avenue, Prahran. There's several surgeons there, they all operate at The Avenue Private - the number is 9520 9520. I had Gary Crosthwaite, he was great, there's Paul O'Brien - who was one of the band's original inventors in its current form, um, Wendy Brown if you want a female surgeon, and several others. More importantly there's a great group of doctors to access for your aftercare and fills. Its a fairly convenient location if you're on that side of the city. There's also other surgeons at The Valley Private, and Peninsula Private if those areas suit better, and I read in the local paper that its now being done at St John Of God in Berwick too. Costs for me were $3,500 3 years ago, DH paid $4,000 last June, its pretty similar everywhere - the arrangement usually being that private health insurance/medicare covers it all except for that one fee, which once you've paid it, all your fills, aftercare and (god forbid) any revision surgery will be totally bulk billed, so there will be no cost for you in the future. Hope that helps!

I drank and it caused no problem and absolutely did not make me hungry much sooner, not for me. But once I got to the point where I needed more restriction to lose, it went out the window. I couldnt do it anymore, it became hellishly uncomfortable and likely to cause a pb. Well.... i could always sip wine with dinner or coffe with my toast in the morning - sip it, a teeny quantity. But finish a piece of toast and down a cuppa - no way. And I once tried to bring on a pb that just wouldnt happen by gulping some Water. I will only ever do that once. i thought I was going to choke to death. And up came the water and still not the mouthful of spaghetti bolognaise. I've loosened off again now, with continued weight loss and just time, and I dont need to refill as my weight is holding steady. I can drink properly about 20 minutes after eating these days. And again, I notice absolutely no difference in hunger, if I do it or wait, so if I want to drink, I just do. My doc is fine with it, afterall, I'm not trying to lose weight anymore.

Another Australian here, my doc scoffs at the pouch stretching thing too, he just says its one of those things that is uncomfortable for some, not for others. But I agree, I'd tend to take note of what the band manufacturer says. I can handle carbonation fine to a point - but I dont drink many carbonated drinks - less than one a month probably. I couldnt drink an entire can of coke. Diet soft drinks are complete poison for you, everyone would do well to give them up anyway. But less carbonated things like a spritzer - where you mix wine and soda Water, that amount of bubbles is OK for me. But beer and champagne - those are healthy right?

This was hard for me to get my head around too - you're thinking starvation portions and it just isnt like that. I dont eat a lot, but I can eat enough to feel satisfied, to enjoy what I've had, to not stand out as weird. Its more than just a few bites. But I had to accept that that's how it might be. Because the reality is, lapband or not, if you ever want to get the weight off and keep it off, you can NEVER EVER eat the way you do now again. That's all there is to it, something's got to give. You can do it with support and help of the lapband or you can do it with Iron will, but either way, you have to do it. You can never make a habit of going out and eating full restaurant serves again. If that panics him and he thinks he can just use willpower, but allow that safety net, that pass out (which is how I was trying to think) then he's probably not ready, not until he's prepared to admit he has to give it up. And being depressed over that is far from unusual. But believe me, when you start seeing and feeling the results, your entire relationship with food will more often than not change. Its not depressing to have to put down your fork, its EMPOWERING. It gives you a feeling of control most fat people have never had over their eating. Indio said it better, my style is a lot more in your face, tell it like it is brutal, lol.

This is such a hard one to nut out, I've struggled with it too, but what I've learned is that you MUST guage your restriction by what healthy food you can eat. But you've answered your own question - if you're wider open at night, what happens if you eat a moderate sized meal - forget the half cup stuff, if you're eating a serve and it doesnt make you overfull, the you're not stretching anything out. So a good 400 calorie dinner of lean meat, vegies and perhaps a starch - how does that go down? Because you want to be able to eat in the morning too, you'll lose weight better and manage hunger better with a good Breakfast every day. Forget the junk food, there is NO level of fill that will prevent you eating some form of rubbish. But get too tight and you will come to rely on it. What are your serving sizes when you do this? If they're a cup or more, then there's probably room for a fill, if they're half a cup and you're full, well you'd want to think about whether you really want a fill. Why not make a pact to yourself to really stick with it for 2 weeks (healthy choices, but eating however much it takes to fill you up, meals AND snacks) and judge a) how hard you find it and whether you lose weight. If its taking tons of willpower and the weight loss is disappointing then have another fill. But only YOU can stop yourself making poor food choices.

I went to the pool again today and swam 40 laps - but I broke it into 2 lots of 20 with a long time laying in the sun, lol. I didnt push hard either. I'm doing a circuit tonight, that will be my main exercise for the day. I'll put more effort into that. I know I'm going to regret it, I know I'll look 60 by the time I"m 50, and i know I have typical caucasian skin that tans but also has loads of moles and freckles, so lying in the sun could be deadly but I just cant help myself. I grew up in the 80's what can I say. Brown looks better. But here in Australia, you'd have to be an idiot to deliberately seek out the sun, let alone use a sunbed. At least I'll be a muscular corpse.

Excellent point about real life support Pete. I agree completely. I dont want AA style (or WW style, lol) meetings, but I couldnt have done this without my family behind me.

I agree completely with you Sarah on the more moderate amounts of Protein, that leaves room for other valuable nutrients too. Better to get 50 grams of protein in a day and your nearly your complete requirement of say, Calcium too, or as much Vitamin C as you need than get 100 grams of protein and get osteoporosis or have your teeth fall out from scurvey kind of thing. As bandsters, we ARE going to fall somewhat short of ideal nutrition, its unavoidable. I just dont get that one nutrient matters more than another. And you cant make it up with pills, science KNOWS that. The complex chemistry between the chemicals in foods cannot be replicated. But be careful when you say its 4 calories per gram of protein. To get 100 grams of protein out of any food, there are other calories packed in there. To get 100 grams of protein from cheese, you'd eat more than 400 calories!. That's my point. Choose your protein sources wisely otherwise you get a gobload of fat, salt and preservatives, and you cant bury your head in the sand and say "this is healthy coz its high protein" and then tsk tsk becuase someone owns up to eating a slice of wholegrain bread.

I'd suggest wearing a heart rate monitor thats set with your stats, not relying on the machines. Ellipticals in particular are inaccurate because you're not moving forward and it never fails to amaze me how many people proudly report they've burned 600 calories in half an hour, completely ignoring the fact that they're not falling down exhausted and dripping in sweat, irrefutable proof that they did NOT just burn that much, lol. And I'm sorry to bust yoru bubble, but there is no way you burn 600 calories walking 3 miles, it just isnt so. You'd be more likely to burn 600 calories running 10K. YOu dont need to get off the treadmill if you dont want to - the way forward from here is with intensity and honesty with yourself about how hard you're working. You want sweating, you want breathlessness, you want the burn in your legs. 65% workouts are a waste of time in the long run. When you're very overweight, they get you started. You have to start with what's doable, and walking on a treadmill is possible for most people. But the prime excuse people give for not exercising is lack of time and then they go and choose an exercise that they'd have to spend an hour and a half, two hours doing? It makes no sense. This slower for longer thing, it has pros and cons - yes you burn more of a percentage from fat but you burn way less calories (and fat overall). the only relevance it has is for people just starting out who would fall of the treadmill unconscious after running for five minutes. In that case, its way better to walk for half an hour. But you have to be prepared to ramp it up over time becuase it is not effective in the long run - above average effort will always produce above average results. Never hold onto the treadmill either, it negates half the workout. Find your 75% base level and add intervals of higher intensity activity that gets you to 85% or over - you can vary this from workout to workout, and the cardio coach volumes are GREAT for it (www.cardiocoach.com) some workouts you can do many short intervals, others you can do longer ones, ones that build in intensity, whatever. You're doing intervals, just up the intensity. Slower with incline or faster with flat - doesnt make tons of difference as long as you get your heart rate up. But high inclines are great for toning your butt and the back of your legs. And running/walking flat on a treadmill is the equivalent of walking downhill outside, always have about 2% on there anyway, simply to make the exercise more like what it would be on real ground. And add some weight training - it will never bulk you up, it will make you sexy and shapely, only dont do it the traditional way with sets and rests - you need to do compound exercises like squats, pushups, lunges that use lots of different muscles and you do say squats and without a break move to pushups so your legs can rest. You'll TORCH calories this way and build a really good body. And becuase you dont stop, it will be aerobic and add to the fat burning. Stay far away from the single muscle machines like the inner/outer thigh, the preacher curl machine, the pec dec etc. Waste of time for those of us looking to burn off that fat and lose weight, usefullonly if your goal is to just make single muscles big - which for a woman is not likely to be your goal andp robably wont work anyway. Hope that helps. It sounds a bit brutal I know but getting half your weight off is done with relatively mild changes, getting it ALL off and then some, that takes real guts and determination and you obviously want it or you wouldnt be asking. Much lighter and healthier, but still kinda chunky and flabby - keep doing slow cardio. HOT HOT HOT - high intensity cardio and strength training.

That's how I did it and what I still do. I got a band so I would never have to diet again. But truthfully, I'd have to say losing the last stubborn pounds DOES take a diet. But apart from that, never again! I eat all foods in moderation. I dont focus on one nutrient over another, they're kind of catching onto the lower carb thing here now, you hear more and more experts advising not to eat so much bread and Pasta and rice, but the focus here is more on fruits and vegetables, rather than Protein. Of course, my doctor advises me to get enough protein, but more to eat a bit of EVERYTHING on my plate, becuase if I fill up on the fish and eat little veges, it really isnt a very balanced meal. I eat healthy about 90% of the time, I allow myself to go off the rails occasionally and if I feel like popcorn at the movies, I have it! I like a glass of wine on occasion too. I dont cook differently for my family. I put more effort into shopping and cooking now though. I'll do things like make up a really nice salad - not fond of lettuce based salads, so I made these awesome ones on the weekend - an asian noodle slaw and a broccoli, feta and hazlenut one, and that'll cover a dinner or two and lunches for Doug and I maybe 2 days of the week. I preplan a lot more. I dont eat very many packaged foods - liek frozen dinner and prepared meals, but I never did. I dont do low fat or artificially sweetened either (apart from skim milk, hate full cream milk), if a food is high in fat or sugar, its not one to have too much of, I exercise moderation rather than sacrifice taste. Good quality, small quantity is my motto. Things like lite whipped cream in a can, ugh, to me whipped cream must be made from scratch and its best eaten like once a YEAR. If you have to turn it into something artificial like that, then its a food best not eaten.

Ug, TQ, last week was five days all about 43 degrees c (that's about 110 to you guys). It was utterly stinking. YOu dont want to come here at the moment. We have no freaking Water. We're on super duper strict water restrictions, after 12 years of drought, all our gardens are dead, we've got about 20% in our water storage dams, so we're down to the crud at the bottom, and we've got crud for a state government too - rather than build a new dam in East Gippsland where we had serious floods a year or two back that would have filled said dam, we're getting a desalination plant to suck water out of a power grid that cant even cope with a heat wave (half of Melbourne was without power last week). On top of that, the same stupid idiot government bought trains from a french manufacture, ignoring local producers, trains that cant cope with anything about 32 degrees c because their brakes fail - so hundreds of thousands of people stranded in the city in that heat with no public transport to get them home. But hey, lets let in a couple of hundred thou more immigrants to put even more pressure on our overstretched infrastructure! Vent over, lol.

I had a lot of sciatic issues, not caused by running, but definitely aggravated by it. To be honest, I just ran in some degree of pain for the first year - I figured I could have less pain (but not no pain) and be fat, or I could have some pain and be fit as well. Same deal with my heel, I just put up with the pain. Eventually I ended up seeing an acupuncturist, very sceptically I might add. He really worked miracles, but i had to set my half marathon goals aside for a while as I just couldnt seem to run more than about 10k without setting off another flare up of sciatica. At about that time, I started a new semester at uni, and having completed about half of a physiotherapy degree 20 years ago I have a pretty good anatomical and functional knowledge of the body, so even though I'm doing a teaching degree, I did Functional Human Anatomy as an elective. It got me thinking as we covered lots of stuff about how weak hip muscles can cause feet and knee problems, how complex the shoulder joint is and one small problem can have a whole chain of events etc. Anyway, I really started refreshing my knowledge and decided I needed to strengthen my core a lot more to run injury free. I have done a ton of work on my core, and in particular my glutes (the most problematic hip muscle usually) and a TON of stretching for the piriformis muscle - which is commonly a culprit with unexplained sciatic pain (I have no disc bulges or problems). Over the course of about 18 months I have become incredibly strong, I can do abdominal tricks that make everyone gasp, lol. My increased glute strength is noticeable as well and lo and behond, my running has improved out of sight. No sign of sciatic pain, my heel (which was a four year long problem and the main reason I got banded) is completely better, it is really surprising how a weak core can affect your body. To be a good runner, and to be injury free you need your abdominal, lower back and buttock muscles to be very strong and flexible. For women, pregnancy wreaks absolute havoc on this part of your body and most women who have had babies are in serious need of rehabilitation after pregnancy, but we dont push our bodies in general enough to even know we have problems. That's how I run injury free! And you can do it fat too, but most obese people are also in terrible shape, which is why they get injured. The weight itself is not the whole problem.