Jachut

Its hard. I have lost the weight and kept it off for almost five years and for the past ix months ive been pushing down more food than my band really allows for, i just stopped listening to my body. Id had a complete unfill for nine months whilst i underwent cancer treatment. Now i have developed a pouch dilation, so minor my surgeon doesnt even want to fo anything about it but it scared me! I started listening again anf have effortlessly halved my intake. The hard part is cutting out the bikkies and nuts between meals, big coffees etc. I have gained but got so thin during treatment that its. Good thing Healthwise - my bmi is still only 21 but i know the gain has been due to overeating. Its just something you have to remain aware of, the health og your band depends on it. You need to listen hard to your body and stop before youre really full.

I wasnt required yo do it but thought i ould anyway. It was SO hard and by day three i kept fainting. My doc told me to stop, i didnt have an enlarged liver ( had had a liver ultrasound). Truth is, its NOT good for you, it is done to prevent worse problems such as not beibg able to have the surgery or something going wrong because your liver is in the way. Its tough but you gotta do what ou have to. liquids after surgery was easy peasy, i got full very quickly and had no appetite anyway. It was just getting hard by the end of three weeks which made mushies seem o good!

No longer just pencilled in, for 27 March! I cant believe I'm doing this. I have never been overly enthusiastic about cosmetic surgery, and I never thought I'd have the money to do it either. I had to go and see my lapband surgeon to enquire about whether he was happy for the PS to move and/or change the port. He didnt mind that, but he was less than enthusiastic about me having a tummy tuck at all, which was odd as generally he's a lovely guy. He thinks I have nothing to tuck - I didnt bother pointing out that he's only ever really looked at my tummy with me lying flat on my back. I think he thinks I'm being swindled - because I have bilateral inguinal hernias and he's a hernia surgeon, he felt compelled to point out that you dont need a full abdominoplasty to fix those, that its an overnight stay and laparascopic fix - but I've got a horrible twisted scar where my flat caesar scar once was, I look like I have testicles and I dont even have any foliage to hide it all as all my pubes fell out when I had radiation and never grew back properly! So that was a downer but I'm just focussing on the fact that I'm getting a super duper cheap tummy tuck as most of it is reconstructive - the PS has done me a huge favour as he said after the cancer and all the horrible recovery, the assault to my self image from having a poo bag on my stomach for a year and all of it, he thinks I deserve it! So do I! So, its now been locked in and is happening in four short weeks. And THIS time, I promise to actually take it easy - I have hernias because I didnt take it easy after my caesar eight years ago (when they first developed) and then I really didnt take it easy after the bowel resection 15 months ago - I went for a run after ten days - and that is when they grew to the size of a fairly respectable pair of testicles, lol. I've trawled the interent but unfortunately I cant find a stomach that looks quite like mine, they're all quite a bit worse, so I feel very lucky to have this done!

That's really true. Being fairly fine boned at 5ft 10 - so tall and willowy - and lightly muscled, I always thought I'd sit right at the bottom of the healthy weight range. But in truth, my problem bits - thighs and hips - remain problem bits, just a bit smaller, whilst I get skeletal in the chest, shoulders and face. You cant change your basic body type and there is a weight which is best for you. Sometimes we have to go past it to realise that, but its also a shame when people think they cant do it and settle for a higher weight which their doctor has told them is "realistic".

Oh and Im a one goal kinda gal, no mini goals for me. I like to set my eye on the big prize.

At Five feet ten i set my goal right in the middle of the normal range at 154. I got to about 130 whilst i was sick, for about six months - it really was a bit too thin, what happens is your problem areas remain poblem areas but the rest of you gets skeletal, now Im sitting at 145 or so which is pretty good for me.

Or better yet, use real oatmeal. Just buy the rolled oats, measure out, pour on milk and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, just microwave for a minute thirty, two minutes depending on your microwave, and then add your flavorings - I like it with just brown sugar and a bit of extra milk or peanut butter and maple syrup.

hmmm possible leak, possible dilated pouch (I've had the same issue for over 9 months after I unfilled my band totally for another surgery, when I refilled I just never got the restriction I expected, until a mega fill at the end that has taken my band to almost full). I had a barium swallow and have a slightly dilated pouch - but the doc doesn't believe its serious. In fact he said its to be expected after almost seven years banded and that we can shrink it down some by being careful. But lest you panic, I'd also say that adjustment to the band this quite normal, it just happens and it may very much be that you're just not "listening" anymore. I really have been surprised that now that I've really started to pay attention again, I am indeed just ignoring signals and eating past satisfied, eating when I'm not hungry and don't really have an appetite, etc.

Ive just discovered my pouch is a bit dilated - onky mildly. Its been symptomless for me but i have been able to overeat. However if i doa "real" dinner like i do when we entertain a Very small main meal, a glass of wine a taste of dessert, coffee and maybe one chocolate, i ave to sleep sitting up. A liquidy meal like that gives me night reflux. On the other hand a solid sans wine meal at 6 .30 or so never gives me issues. I do get multiple small discomforts and burning sensations from time to time, usually only momentary. My doc is happy to leave things s they are nd for it to remind me to treat my and with respect.

I love just olive oil, salt and pepper on my salads

Anything! I struggle with fresh fruit though, i never particularly liked it begore banding and now its extremely rare that i will eat it. Love the flavour, love having. Big healthy fruit bowl on my bench but just dont enjoy eating it and it blocks me up. I figure the vegies are tho most important nd i eat those, but i think with a band everyone falls short. Having had bowel cancer i relly want to get my fruit and veg i. So i tend to make a lt of green smoothies and soups. The smoothies i tend to make with vanilla optifast, of course you could use protein powder. Theres recipes all over the net.

And you cant really say something so judgemental and offensive and then act offensive when a similar assumption is made of you! Personally I think you're very lucky to have this opportunity as young as you are. When I was 23 and a huge 180, the only things available were Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers and Limits (remember those?)

Well, I find the attitude that lower BMI bandsters are less worthy of being banded downright offensive. What if I said to you that you it makes me mad that people are so lazy, self indulgent and stupid to let themselves get to BMI's of 38+ and should have the brains to get themselves banded before they get so fat? What if I said to you that my tax dollars should not pay for your healthcare because you have caused your own health problems (actually they dont because I live in Australia but you know what I mean)? Sheesh. But I do know that sometimes you just feel some way in particular and you know its not logical or right. For example, I'm sorry to offend any 5ft 10ers (my height) that have goal weights of 180 to 200 believing they would look "sick" at my measly 140, but I would be HORRIFIED to be that heavy again. I was desperate about my weight when I was in my 20's and weighed that much and I dieted myself right up to 240. In truth 180 at 5ft 10 is quite healthy, very attainable and maintainable and worlds better than 300 or more.

I didnt answer your main query - i eventually hit a permanent plateau after a couple of months long ones. The last ten pounds took me a year to lose, i wasnt a driven dieter with a weekly weight loss goal. My body just stopped at a bmi of around 21

The thing is if your band is tight enough to restrict you to soft foods you want to be extremely careful to only eat to satisfied, not full or you will end up stretching out your pouch. If youre keeping liquids down but not food, you need an unfill.

Id rather have a very fit and trim body and a few more face wrinkles. I admire truly curvy omen, but to me what most curvy women cll curves i see as rolls of fat. I actually do like that catwalk model look, probably because that actually is more my body type than curvaceous and shapely. As fr men, well, i like them cuddly, with the bulk that comes from muscle with enough fat on top to prevent that I spend all my time in the gym look. Im not into men who look to groomed or sculpted, and i love my hubbies small man boobs and beer belly! See - just ONE opinion, neither right or wrong. Personally, i think youve lost enough when your body pleases you, i wet way past the point where others told me to stop but im happy.

It cant all be fat, youd have needed to eat over 15000 extra calories for that. People who low carb may very well be losing the most effective and fast way but it DOES leave you prone to xtremely fast gainswhen you do eat carbs because carbs bind to water molecules in the body - dont eat carbs, shed a ton of water, eat them, gain it back. Somewhere in between those gratifying (or horrifying) weight changes is a more moderate fat loss or gain.

I did have times when I didnt look too flash,but then I found out I was anaemic, iron has cleared the pallor (even beneath a tan) and dark undereye circles. I got too thin for various reasons, but now i stay at a bmi of 21. My face definitely looks better if Im 20 lb heavier, its a trade off between getting your ass to an acceptable size v looking a bit gaunt, its why all the ceebs have fillers, botoxband so on, best of both worlds. If you like looking like a trout that is. Bottom line, good nutrition means youll look your best, protein to the xclusion of all else gives you that sickly look because a high protein very low carb diet bandster style doesnt generally include vast quantities of vegies duevto lack of stomach space. It can keep you chronically dehydrated no matter how much you drink and can see you short on nutrients.

Had soup for dinner, lol. Bought some Optifast when I went to pick up some prescriptions - asopposed to protein shakes i actually like Optifast and do make smoothies with it from time to time. Wine is a liquid, as is coffee. And afterall, this isnt about weight loss per se, no need to really starve. This wont be so bad....

Hey Lellow, would you believe that I've just gotten home from seeing my surgeon and I too have a small prolapse/pouch dilation. He wasnt too worried, but told me to take it VERY easy and we could probably baby the band along for a very long time that way. He said it was up to me if I want to go the whole hog and do liquids for a while. Personally I think I will. I'm still weighing less than I did when diagnosed with cancer, but 10lb more than I did a year ago and I'm not liking it much, methinks a liquid diet and a little weight loss would work wonders. Do you think you let go of those really stringent eating habits at all? I know I did. First nine months unfilled, I got used to eating what I liked and eating normally again and I never really went back to bandster habits. I just took a monster gulp of coffee, I drink while I"m eating all the time, I often eat past satisfied to full (even though that's not much food). anyway, I know we can both do it. Its not such a big deal. It only becomes a real problem if you let it. And if an unfill needs to happen for either one of us, then so be it, I know we can handle it.

See, I'm way too impatient. I got a Pandora bracelet for my 40th birthday four years ago. My birthday is in August. By Christmas the bracelet was full, lol. And Im pedantic, no random mix of beads for me, my bracelet has a definite theme!

Maybe things work differently over there, of course, but I've actually never called a surgeon or specialst doctor outside of an actual emergency. If I need to see them to discuss something I make an appointment and go in, and that's what would be expected here. They're not going to talk to you on the phone for free, that's not how they make money. It just seems to me to be a really strange thing to do, but like I said, that may be a cultural thing? Its certainly not the norm here. I guess if you rang with a medical question, you'd get a call back when they'd finished seeing patients that are paying $150 for their 15 minute consultation. The PA is another matter. All administrative enquiries you have every right to expect to be dealt with at their earliest convenience just as you expect all correspondence to be timely and accounts to be up to date.

Here in Melbourne, which I guess is a small city by world standards, I think its pretty well known who the good surgeons are - and some of them become quasi celebrities anyway. There's word of mouth which works well anywhere in the world. I asked for a referral a few years ago to a well known guy but never went ahead with any surgery. This time, since I was also looking to have inguinal hernias repaired, I asked my colorectal surgeon to refer me on for that and to revise the scar from my bowel resection. Given that my colorectal surgeon i very well respected and a leader in his field, I trust that his referral will be to a respectable, well qualified plastic surgeon. I met the guy and liked him and the word of my colorectal surgeon is good enough for me, so I went with it. Perhaps your lapband surgeon can recommend people who work with bariatric patients or you know other people who have had successful surgeries.

Personally i would starve to death as a raw foodie with a band, raw vegies and fruits are the hardest things for me.

Great news lellow. I was seeing Gary Crossthwaite at the Centre for Batiatric Surgery at Windsor and theyve moved now to Glen Iris Private. In Warrigal Rd, its a great clinic if youre looking on the south east side of town. elcee, thought of you when we were at Sovereign Hill fr school camp last week!