Jachut

Isnt it funny, its all how you look at it. I can see your point and therefore I have to commend her for being an inspiration to people. Personally, she gets right up my nose, I am utterly sick of her bleating about how this time she's found THE secret when we all know she's just on another round of dieting followed by regain. It annoys the crap out of me and I wish she'd just shut up. Not being an American, perhaps I just dont get the Oprah love? I'm also more of a just get on with it person, not an examine everythign in minute detail and have a big group love session person, so perhaps Oprah and I would never get on in real life. Lol, that's just my own nasty and negative viewpoint, I cant help it, she annoys me. But it takes all kinds to make the world go round and my approach is certainly not for everyone, so if Oprah inspires and uplifts you then that's fantastic. I'm certain that's what she intends to do, help people! Actually, I have a little psychoanalysis of my own when it comes to Oprah's attitude to WLS. I think Oprah's entire persona is built on overcoming adversity. She's overcome poverty, abuse etc in the most spectacular of ways. But if she overcame her obesity, what would be left? I think she purposely avoids WLS because she depends upon being seen as a person who strugges to overcome. I wonder what that Dr Phil would say about that, lol (sigh, I cant stand him either)

100 calories for a snack is good, but if its packaged food, its not. You'd be better off eating a piece of cheese and an apple, some raw veges and hummus, some greek yogurt, some wholegrain crackers and Peanut Butter, etc. But if they keep you on the straight and narrow for the rest of the day then they're surving an important purpose. Just try to sometimes eat fresh healthy food instead.

My hair has never thinned out, but I shed incredible amounts of it - it blocks our drains, its everywhere in both bathrooms and it fills the vacuum bags as its all over the house. Its awful. Eliza (my 5 year old is the same) and both our hair is dry and delicate too. I also have pretty brittle nails that wont grow and I tend towards dry skin. My sister is hypothyroid. I've tested *normal* but I know that standard testing often doesnt show it up. I've often wondered if I'm not hypothyroid but definitely lower than normal levels. I think there's enough people here that have lost plenty of hair whilst guzzling huge amounts of Protein to show definitively that protein is NOT the answer to weight loss related hair loss, its probably more general malnutrition. Go and read the "what did you eat today thread" and its no suprise in the least that people are losing hair - lots of people are eating very little in the way of fresh fruit and vegies for example. But hair loss going on in maintenance, I'd check that out. I would assume it was some other problem not related at all to having lost weight. Your body should have adjusted to that.

Tell me about it. I just accept that I will always have this sweet tooth and I have to deny it 90% of the time.

I felt like that after surgery, I couldnt ahve broken the liquid diet even had I wanted to! I had tight restriction for about eight weeks, tight enough to keep me on 1/2 cup servings and mushy foods and I lost tons of weight. Work it while you've got it. By the way, they dont even mention Protein shakes in Australia and I never drank a single one and I didnt die. Have half a Protein shake and a bit of Water instead of trying to have a whole one. I wouldnt buy Gatorade, its crap for you. Nothing but sugar water. Plain water is a much better bet.

I cant believe you'd be having such large fills with that much in your band already. My band has 2.7cc since yesterday, and I had 0.1cc put in, made a BIG difference. Putting over a cc in a band already that full is asking for trouble, especially if he's taken it up to nearly 5cc. And obviously he's missed the port or something because you should be so tight you cant swallow at that level! Did he take all the Fluid out to check it was there and then miss putting it back in? Or did he do somethink like take it out to check, discard it and only put 1.5cc back in? I'd ring his office.

As far as I'm aware its not a dangerous thing - but there is a risk of pouch stretching if you overload constantly. Its more that it can hinder weight loss by making you hungrier, through the effect of washing the food through. I simply never found it did at lower levels of restriction, and now with more restriction it does feel as if I'm overloading so I dont do it. I think the thing is, there seems to a big difference between the way doctors approach banded life. In Australia it *seems* (by my perception) to be much more lifestyle focussed with no real rules. That is, we tend to approach it as you need to work out your own relationship with the band through a combination of learning how it works and reading your own body. You decide what fuels your body runs best on, there's no Protein pushing. You drink if its comfortable, but one reason not to is to avoid washing food through. You eat five small meals a day if that suits you, three larger ones if you're more comfortable with that. I really think thats how you find a balance you can live with. But on here, everyone seems to have been given a set of non breakable RULES that to my mind makes this just like any other diet with the main difference that several of those rules, if broken, will result in pain, vomiting or even damage to the band.

Good bras are a must. Nobody would know the disaster I am hiding, lol.

Couch to 5k definitely - you can do it on a treadmill or outside - and definitely slow down. Run at half what feels natural - when I started running, it was really just a bouncy walk as i was trying to keep it very low impact. Slowing down will make the biggest difference to you - for an overweight and unfit person, normal "jogging" speed is way too exhausting.

Dont ask me how I know this, but I can still eat an entire LARGE popcorn at the movies by myself. And I can eat it fast. I have absolutely zero popcorn restriction. It goes down just like nothing, its the one thing I can eat like an unbnaded person. PS: I think our large is smaller than yours in America, lol, but its a fair amount. Like 7 or 8 cups worth at least. Dont guage your retriction by popcorn. Gauge it by solid food that's not mostly air.

I've honestly NEVER found it made me hungrier and I did it for a good long while. For me a sign of good restriction though is not being able to eat and drink together. I simply cant do it. A few sips of wine with a dinner out at the very most, but I definitely have to wait half an hour or so for my after dinner coffee. I avoid it because of discomfort but until I reached that level of restriction I did it and my doc said that although its a fairly standard rule if I honestly felt it made no difference then it wasnt going to do any harm. Well - in moderation, I wouldnt try drinking a litre of Water with my dinner.

If its about vanity for you like it was for me, there is no way you'll be happy at 195. That is still overweight for a 5ft 10 person. I just dont know what these doctors are trying to achieve, why even get banded if you're going to stay overweight? It makes no sense to me. And it drives me nuts that 165 is thought to be skeletal for a 5ft 10 person too - its well within the healthy range and nowhere near the bottom. I'm currenly 154 and I look perfectly NORMAL - even including the roll of flesh round the the middle that I can still pinch. To say I'm skeletal is a joke! Stick to your guns, you'll look fantastic at 165! Especially at your age!

Sorry, but not they didnt, they are like empty deflated balloons. Breasts probably fare the worse of any part of the body to be honest - the skin is delicate, they're mostly fat and for many women, they've been inflated and deflated a couple of times with pregnancy and lactation. Mine are utterly ruined, surgery is the only thing that will fix them and I only went from an E to a C I feel negative saying that, but there's no point telling you anything other than my experience. Yours *might* be different, afterall my stomach has bounced back fine. You've got youth on yoru side and I am 41 and have fed 3 babies for about six years.

I cope with stuff SO much better now than I did and my self esteem makes everything rosier. We've always been very materialistic, DH and I. We always wanted to have the *best*, live in the *best* suburb, drive the *best* car. Life, whilst very comfortable, didnt work out that way for us. We tried too hard to show off and our sensible friends all surpassed us whilst we sort of peaked early. It used to REALLY worry me, it was my all day everyday downer, same for DH. Our whole life was focussed on "one day" and we werent enjoying life and what we have. Since losing weight, I have that pride I was searching for. It doesnt come with things, it comes with yourself. I feel SO much better about everything and realise that just because I'm not a millionaire, I have lots to be thankful for, I mean we have a 6 figure salary, private schooling for our kids, its revolting to think how greedy we were. Weight loss has changed my views on that and my appreciation so much that I really encouraged DH to go for it too, hoping he'll find the same, because he's still a bit too focussed on all that stuff since he's faced with a bunch of rich tossers at work every day. And at exec level he feels ridiculous for living where we do etc. And you know, as he loses, he says he IS feeling better about everything. That's just an example. I was also a complete mess, disorganised, messy, late etc. Now I cant sit down for five minutes, I have too much energy so everything is in order. That makes me LOTS happier. I have almost finished a degree I dont think I'd have gotten through fat because it takes a lot of organisation to combine 3 kids and full time study. I could go on for ever. Weight loss doesnt solve every problem but changing your outlook on things means a lot of things you think are problems really arent.

When I was starting out, it was a 4-6 week period between fills, I'm sure I could have gone earlier if I'd watned to but that was just the general recommendation. However, with DH they're encouraging him to go in much quicker - 2 weeks - not sure if its anything to do with different bands or whatever. I'd give it at least a week to make sure it doesnt suddenly tighten up but early on I dont see a problem with fills close together. If you can get in before Christmas great!

Also, dont forget on the surface we may feel very excited and optimistic at the prospect of losing weight, but we are in reality saying goodbye to our old selves. Even if we havent had fancy therapy to tell us why we overeat, we're saying goodbye to those comforts and coping mechanisms too. Its a HUGE change and a very emotional one.

Aaaw, chin up! You'll get to feeling better soon. Having a good ol bawl is VERY normal after any anaesthetic, Doug new to batten down the hatches on about Day 3, which is usually when it strikes me. Re the backache - any stomach pain can commonly be felt through the back but I've also found that after any midsection trauma - after all of my 3 babies and my lapband surgery - your core muscles take a REAL beating and are not doing a great job of holding your body together. You get a lot of fatigue in them, and that can be felt as backpain too - I always got mid thoracic level back pain and an awful stitch in my side. Just keep up with your pain meds. Hope you feel better after spewing forth your post anaesthetic misery, its a necessary part of the process.

Good luck - glad to be of help! I really was very lucky to have the time to have to put into exercise, and it led me to success. But my hubby is banded too and he works, long days. He simply doenst have the time to do what I did, so I undertstand what a problem that is for people. Short and sharp if its HARD work is absolutely fine - and its working for him! Good luck with your couch to 5K, there is NOTHING like the accomplishment of running 5k for the first time.

Prunes work well too if you cant tolerate dried apricots, being a bit moister, they're a bit easier for bandsters to eat. I cant eat dried apricots because of the preservative in them, gives me asthma. Great source of Iron and other Vitamins too!

It was a friend I knew from a mothers forum getting banded. In the back of my head I knew about it but only vaguely and had never known anyone who'd had WLS. I'd had vague fantasies - like I wish I was fat enough to get my stomach stapled kind of thing, that's all. Anyway, it was a light bulb moment when she posted that she was getting banded. I suddenly thought - well she's not massively obese - in my head WLS was for people who weighed 700lb - and you know I am NEARLY as fat as her. Why dont I think about this? I honestly never placed myself in the category of being obese. I had my head int he sand. I knew I didnt lookt he way I want to, I knew I was starting to feel crappy, and the scale TOLD me there was at least 30kg more than beofre I started having babies. But it just didnt sink in until this moment. I'd given up on dieting, I knew that wasnt going to work.

I love in Melbourne too lol - but on the other side of the world! I dont get what right a doc really has to get "mad" at you.They're there (or should be) to support you, not be a drill sargeant. You're doing the right things, moving in the right direction and generally, we're managing if not quite an illness certainly a condition, and backsliding and pleateauing is going to happen no matter what. I think your diet sounds healthy and sane - building a normal relationship with food is important, more important I think than living on some super strict pleasureless regime. Where you have a problem is exercise. Its simply vital. If you dont have much time, spend it on really high intensity interval cardio and a little bit of weights or bodyweight stuff like squats and lunges, you can get enough exercise to really make a difference to your body in 3 to 4 sessions of 40 minutes or so. Those of us that choose to go out and run for an hour and a half at a time are doing so because we want to, not becuase its what you MUST do to lose weight.

I'd have to say, being a home exerciser has been my secret. I have a really good gym quality treadmill at home and basic weights/stability ball/yoga mat so I can do a really hard circuit indoors consisting of weights and interval cardio. If I'm going to just run, I prefer outside but I always have the treadmill for bad weather - particularly really HOT weather, I dont handle running in the heat very well. It really is key, I'm never stuck for something to do. But I'd really recommend gym quality equipment, you simply wont use anything that is rickety, crappy or noisy.

Erg, everyone's PB's are different. I've never pb'd liquid, only solid food, including the offending bite of whatever it was. I usually get a sharp pain at my belly button, a cold sweat and pain in the stomach - an ache - but it still doesnt feel ANYTHING like what I'd call nauseous, which is far yuckier. Its just simply a physical reaction, something needs to come up, up it comes and that's it. The only bad part of it is if it wont come immediately and i have to spend 45 minutes hanging round the bathroom spitting saliva.

I wish I cured my sweet tooth! But I dont think that'll EVER happen.

Cardio haters, have you checked out cardio coach (www.cardiocoach.com) or this one I've just found and ordered the strength and conditioning program for runners MP3 Fitness Training - Download Workouts to iPod: Total Wellness Consulting Toronto They're interval style programs, and they make the time on cardio equipment fly by. I just love zoning out to some music because slow running feels so easy to me now, its just a pleasant activity. You know, I know we've all heard the competing advice - slow long cardio burns more fat, slow long cardio is useless for fat loss and actually changes your body composition for the worse. I think it took me a good 2 years to really plateau out with running, to stop improving and stop noticing positive changes to my body. Its changed it for the better for sure, but these days I really need INTENSITY to further progress. I'm full of new enthusiasm, I have a great program mapped out and today I did a blistering circuit composed of hard cardio intervals and circuit style multi directional running specific weight training (focussing on core, hip stabilisers, etc). I was STUFFED when I finished but a glass of milk and a shower and I was right to go with the rest of my day. And since I decided to cut back on the long runs and do harder cardio and strength training, the pesky few pounds i had as a result of my small unfill have gone and my clothes feel better again. Thats after months of no change or progress. I really believe now i can get the last of this weight off, I know I'm thin and have had good results but I want stupendously good ones!