Jachut

Its a horrible feeling isnt it? I ran a lot in my teens/early 20's but I was so embarrassed to be seen, I used to go very very early in the morning or late at night. As an older adult, I've shaken that fear off now. I just MADE myself go out in public and run and eventually, I became less self conscious doing it. Nobody cares. You're not half as important to other people as you think you are and if they think something nasty, its jsut that, a thought and gone. If you make yourself do it, you will get more comfortable with it. And many people will be thinking positive thoughts for you if they even take enough time from watching/thinking about themselves to notice you at all.

Same here, it was just where I sort of landed with the right restriction for me. Mind you, I was a relatively "slow" loser, it was always about a pound a week. I didnt have spectacularly fast weight loss, but from this point of view, 3 years down the track, I dont really care, lol. Its gone for good now, however fast it came off.

For me it was probably 75% a cosmetic decision, I'd wasted years and was sick to death of being fat, frumpy and ugly. But it wasnt until I felt my health start to suffer that I considered something as serious as surgery. I was 38 and although I had no real comorbidities that were serious (I had a chronic ankle injury that was pretty darn bad though) I was starting to feel so old. I was tired, I needed afternoon naps, I just plain didnt feel good and approaching 40, it scared the wits out of me that I was going to become one of those hugely obese in middle age. So I decided to nip it in the bud there and then, before I got to that stage. Now I am one of those incredibly fit people everyone hates at the gym, roflmao! I cannot believe what my 41 year old bod can do. And how great and young you can look in your 40's!

I've given this lots of thought over the last few years and you're 100% right. It wasnt my band that got me up at 6 am this morning. It wasnt my band that tackled the kitchen and family room that needed thorough cleaning at 6.45 am. It wasnt my band that got me on the treadmill and pushed me through a 45 minute circuit workout and it CERTAINLY wasnt my band that made me work at 150% effort instead of just going through the motions. It wasnt my band that directed me to eat yogurt and a banana when the ginger nut biscuits were calling me from the cupboard. Yep, I wanted them for breakfast! And I agree with the amount thing. I eat about as much, many times less (calorie wise) than my five year old daughter. I dont know why but my body, despite how hard I work it, requires much less than many people's to stay at a healthy weight. It takes more than willpower to basically starve yourself for the rest of your life. But I'm quite comfortable with the fact that *I* know what I've achieved. I get a bit shitty when my mum says stuff like "this isnt teaching you any real lessons though". But overall, I'm happy with what I've achieved and that's what counts. People really are quite stupid though, arent they?

I find my band doesnt prevent hunger, in fact I get hungrier than before. That sounds alarming but its really only because before a meal may have been 750 calories and that woudl stick for quite a while, and I also wasnt doing anything much but pottering round the house, a bit of shopping, etc. Nowadays I might fit in 200 or 300 calories for a meal and I've normally run 10kms and been very active during my day. So I need fuel and its not surprising that my body tells me so. So even though early on I was like others and had to remind myself to eat, as I've gotten more restriction and eat less at a time, I tend to get physically hungry every 3 or 4 hours or so during the day, so I eat breakfast, lunch and 2 Snacks. At about 5 pm my appetite switches OFF. I could care less about eating dinner most nights, and I dont feel the urge to snack at night - but I was NEVER a night time eater, my pattern has always been to eat a lot in the earlier part of the day and then stop. I dont see a problem - I eat when I'm hungry, just a little, until I'm not hungry anymore and then I dont think about food again until I am hungry again. Its way better than stuffing food down my gob all day anyway, hungry or not. the band is a huge help in that once i eat, I'm satisfied, I dont have that feeling that I'd like just a little bit of this or that etc. I stop, I dont do all the mindless eating.

I have quite deep ones, and my undereye dark circles are also worse since losing weight. But I'm 41. I just dont worry about it, we're all going to get old sometime and I dont like the look of faces too "done". I really cant see the point in things like fillers, as they dont last. I dont have the budget for it either, I'm far more interested in educating my children, and the money goes to school fees. I'm not much of a make up wearer either, but I do wear foundation every day now, it definitely helps. Overall, I definitely look better and younger than I did so I'm sticking with that. I think there's a bit of a danger time with losing a lot of weight when you become absolutely obsessed with every physical detail of yourself, and I think its also easy to transfer a bit of your weight angst to other parts of your body. But I think its best to allow yourself time to get over it and THEN decide if there's things you want to do. I know I'll definitely get a boob job but I've definitely gotten over the face issues, and am used to my new face. That's not to say I dont think there's things that will need a bit of attentin by the time I"m 50 but there was a time there where I might have turned myself into Donatella Versace!

I saw it! Well done.

Sunday 6km walk Monday: 45 minute full body circuit today: Cardio Coach vol 6 outside - 50 minutes, 8kms total This afternoon - big snooze on the couch!

I dont have any knowledge or insight into your relationship at all, so what is said above may be spot on, I dont know. But by the same token, dont expect that people around you are going to change for your sake. You need to take responsibility for this yourself. You cant just ban all Cookies and ice cream from the house and consider it problem solved. We have to live with husbands, boyfriends, kids, whatever and they do not necessarily need or want to change just coz you do. You need to learn to deal with cookies in the house and how to just say "no thanks" when you're offered ice cream. He may or may not be trying to sabotage you, I dont know, so perhaps the strength of your reaction is totally warranted. But if he just offered you ice cream, you need to realise this is your journey, not his. Support would be nice and I would definitely say something, but its still down to you.

Most people, althought not everyone, have to do a pre op liquid diet like Optifast - primarily to shrink the liver. Normally I'm not a low carb advocate, but when it comes to shrinking the liver, you do have to cut carbs. When is your surgery? If its only a couple of weeks away (like 2 or 3) I'd go and get some Optifast and get going on that. If you have longer - like six or weight weeks - and havent been told to do the Optifast diet then I wouldnt put myself through the misery of it. I'd start a more moderate lower carb, higher Protein plan including plenty of fruit and veges and start some regular moderate aerobic exercise - pretty much your standard non magic weight loss formula that works if only you could darn well stick to it. Just do your best from now until then.

When I told my doctor that I'd found this great online community, he rolled his eyes and told me not to believe everything I read. Yet it seems like 9/10 of what we learn is found out in this sort of manner. My doc has never told me MOST of what I know about the lapband. It is possible that your doctor believes that if you handle solid food OK, then it is OK to eat it (I seriously hope not thought). But this really should have been made much more clear to you, its very poor service to not tell you WHY you have to undertake such a strict post op diet. I would definitely bring this up with him.

I think its more that lettuce is one of the more common foods that get stuck easily. I can eat salads without a problem but I definitely feel a little uncomfortable when I eat the fancier lettuce mixes - you know the ones that combine rocket and arugula and spinach etc, all the different coloured leaves. Plain old unfashionable ice berg lettuce is WAY better for me. And my kids like that too, so that's what we use generally.

Oh boy. I cant believe doctors dont make clear the REASONS for these rules. Stop eating solid foods and get back to where you should be on your program right now. You may feel OK but the damage may show months down the track, you're predisposing yourselves to complications like slippage. You may be lucky too of course and there'll be nothing to show for you advancing your program of your own volition. But if I were you I'd go back to doing what you are supposed to be doing right away. Even if you didnt undrstand why you had the regime, WHY would you knowingly break what your doctor told you to do?

OMG I do this too. I cant figure why my poor kids are bugging me for some breakfast at 10 am! I get annoyed because they're begging for food at 4pm. I dont cook dinner till 8pm coz I'm not hungry, lol. I forget that they arent banded and they're growing (pre-adolescent boys and a five year old girl).

I think you'll find when people gain weight, a lot of the time its from slider foods. For example, I can eat as many Cookies as I did preband, easily (dont ask me how I know that). I can eat a large popcorn at the movies easily (dont ask me how I know that either). Frothy confectionary coffees, ice cream, etc it all goes down easily and is fattening. But that's not always the case, if the pouch is stretched out, it can happen with the best of intentions, and sometimes not from deliberate overeating. You can eat way too many solid foods if you eat often too. Sometimes people's bands just plain dont give restriction the way they're expected to. Some people are compulsive overeaters and even the deterrant of vomiting is not enough to keep them from doing it.

Its horrendous isnt it? I mean, I cant even *imagine* eating something called The Baconater even pre band. I was a pretty restrained fast food eater pre band - didnt do it often, always got the small sizes, etc., never drank coke. But even so, it adds up very very quickly. It certainly feels good to be able to eat fast food and keep it under 400 calories.

You can restore your pouch by going on liquids for a while and being unfilled can work too. Now, as to gaining weight. To do that, you really must be failing to listen to what your stomach is telling you. Try to recentre yourself, but I know that once youv'e fallen off the wagon, its very very hard to get back on. do you exercise? Several times in my life, I've had reason to learn that one of the MAJOR benefits of exercise is not so much weight loss but it really really really gives you a lot of leeway when it comes to gain. If you're really exercising vigorously most days of the week, its very difficult to gain significant weight. I find these days, I can get away weeks of poor eating before a pound will show up. Exercise for me is not related to being "good" in that I do it no matter what. If I've eaten badly, I dont quit exercising too.

The only times I"ve suffered low energy are during times of very tough training in race season. When i'm trying to do 15kms run I find it really hard to replace the energy I've spent - I eat carbs but I really cant carbo load or have a lot of carbs after a huge run like an unbanded person could. chocolate is very useful for that :tounge_smile: I've never felt better and I felt better within the very first weeks. I also dont find I've gone without ANYTHING, nothing at all. I eat what I want but the fact that I can eat it in small quantities only gives me great JOY, not misery.

I'm going to sound like a complete lunatic but I sometimes do "aerobic housework". Lol, when I'm really short on time but want my exercise, I do a weights circuit with my barbell and dumbells but instead of having aerobic intervals on the treadmill, I do really vigorous stuff like wash windows, scrub the kitchen floor by hand, scrub out a shower, or crazy manic vacuum cleaning. So I might do squats and lunges, wash 2 windows, deadlifts and bent over rows, scrub a floor, pushups and tricep dips, scrub the shower, abdominal work, vacuum the entire house really really fast. it sounds nuts, I know, but it gets 2 birds killed with one stone and it IS quite active and gets the heart rate up. Of course, if you have stairs as you would in an aparment, you could mix stair climbing with weights to do a circuit.

Congratulations! That is a fantastic achievement. By the way, you certainly dont look like you have a BMI of 30 in that photo, you're positively sylph like!

My Water bottle is ususally on the kitchen bench because there's dumbells in the cupholders in my treadmill, lol. What I love about mine: fans in the console. They keep you SO much cooler. Great programs. There's still some programs on mine that I havent been able to master yet and I've been running 3 years now. It has some bells and whistles - like you can plug a stereo or telly directly into the console - I've never used that, just wear my ipod. YOu can also control the treadmill via the computer as you can plug it in and you could download endless programs from itrain, as its no longer the current model Nordic Track I'm dont think you can do that any more. I've never used those features. good wide deck - the treadmill is gym quality. Cheap treadmills just arent worth it.

I'm so much less tired than I used to be which means I'm way more efficient. The house is cleaner, the ironing is done, the bills are paid, there's food int he fridge, all tht stuff that I used to let slide out of laziness. What I havent done, that surprises me actually, is start buying really expensive clothes, lol. I still just think designer stuff is a huge waste of money when half the time you can find the exact same outfits in Target. DH is pleased about that one. I've got a funky haircut! I was always too insecure to cut my hair short or layered or do ANYTHING with it, now I've got this really funky short at the back, long at the front sharply angled do. It was slightly longer yesterday, and I cut it really short in the back and I've not even spent four hours in front of the mirror obsessing and crying about it like I did last time I had short hair back in my teens. I've never really had a "hobby" like my running before either and I've really enjoyed having a long term thing like that to keep working on.

I find most wholegrain and natural carb foods - oatmeal, stoneground wholegrain bread, veges, fruit, are VERY filling. Its not that they expand in the pouch so much as they are bulky in the first place because they contain a lot of fibre and/or Water. In actual fact, for me personally, these foods work WAY better than Protein foods in my band - small amounts, I'm FULL and it lasts for hours. I have absolutely no problem with protein foods but they are relatively easy for me and slip through quicker than good bread does. Fluffy white refined carbs, thank goodness they cause me a fair deal of discomfort becuase I was absolutely addicted to foods like that - I always ate decent bread and cereals of the organic wholegrain variety but Cookies, cake, muffins, I lived on that stuff. I agree that it is important to get enough protein but for me, I tend to balance it out with carbs as well. I dont eat a lot of bread - I can go days without eating any - but I find I need a good serve of high fibre Cereal each morning. I get a lot more of my carbs from fruit and vegies now.

Like you're dong, I built up to it and i started before surgery by doing 40 minutes or so 4 times a week on the elliptical. Once I had surgery, I was walking the day I got home from hospital - about 3 months out, I cautiously tried a short jog. from that point I jogged 3 x per week for another couple of months, and then once I started competing in fun runs, my running improved and increased very fast, by the end of that year I had a five times per week running schedule of between 4 and 10kms a time. I continued mainly with running for the following year, and even ran as far as 15kms at times. Now, at 3 years out, I do two hour long circuit training sessions with quite heavy weights, an interval training session (40 minues, about 8kms, working at HIGH intensities) and two longer slower runs of about 10kms each week. I take 2 rest days but on those days I might walk 10kms or so with DH. For me, aerobic exercise only was plenty to get the fat off and I did build muscle and get firmer. Now I've been at goal for 18 onths, I have other goals than weight loss, but I'm doing more strength and hard training to get rid of the last of the fat, get stronger and become a better runner. I think that my "secret" was that I never bought into that fat burning zone guff. Low intensity exercise will bring pretty low intensity results over time, I've always worked a bit harder than that at more like 80% of max heart rate - every workout is pretty exhausing, but as you get fit, you recover very fast too.

SEVEN ml in one fill? Did I read that right? 7 ml?:huh2::eek::cursing::eek::frown: Holy cow, I have never heard of such a huge fill. I am assuming (praying) you have a 14ml band. It is no freaking wonder you ran into trouble. Please tell me it was 0.7ml? Glad you got fixed up though. I am vomitphobic too. I dont do it. I havent chucked for about four years and before that it was about 20. But I dont find PBing anything like vomiting, I'm not the least afraid of PBing (well, I try not to do it obviously) but I'd still cry like a baby and panic if I were about to vomit. Its horrid - acidy and painful and copious and you never know if the other end is going to let go or not as well, lol.