Jachut

I know they run them at Peninsula Private (Dr Geoff Draper) and also at The Valley Private - dont know which surgeons operate there though, ring the hospital, they'll tell you.

Lol, my parents had a book of Pam Ayres poems when I was a child, way back in the 70's. That poem is a blast from the past, I remember it well!

Have you had a prostate check?

Well, we know who's not going to be getting any for a few weeks, dont we? I second kneecapping him. Firstly, I did a 10K fun run yesterday and finally cracked an hour for 10K. I cannot believe that it is ME doing that! If I can do it anyone can. But when you enter your race, have a good look around you. YOu see all sizes and shapes of people and ALL ages. There's always 70 year old women, who beat me by the way! There is absolutely NO reason why you cant do it with training and whatever weight you happen to be now is actually irrelevant. Running is all about consistency. That's all it takes. If you train, you will do it. I was blown away when I went to the gold coast recently for a race, with my sister's running group. I havent done a half yet, I keep chickening out, afraid of injury etc. Two ladies of 72 and 75 did the half in the group! And did really decent times too. Anyone can run if they train.

Oh, yes, I had five pairs of birks at last count! You know what really helps me heaps - Earth Shoes. They have a negative heel, so your foot is slightly uphill in the shoe, I have running shoes. They're not good running shoes, way too heavy but whenever I do my race or a long run, I wear these afterwards. They stretch out the heel and really prevent the post run soreness setting in.

I was back on the elliptical for 40 minute sessions by about 3 weeks. Its fairly low impact, that's how I got fit enough to start running.

Makes me glad I had a small unfill recently. My fill tightened considerably after about a month too. I just found I wasnt enjoying anything I ate, it was all hard work and somewhat uncomfortable, although I didnt have sliming or Pbing. But I went away with some friends and I realised just how little I was eating compared to a normal person. I lost no weight either, eating nothing doesnt tend to make you lose int he shorter term does it? Anyway, I realised I dont need that at this stage of the game as I'm already a healthy weight. So I had .2ml taken out again and I'm MUCH happier and no heavier, in fact I've lost a little. Its so hard for you guys. I paid a $3,000 out of pocket fee to my doctor and my fills and follow up care are free forever. Well, they're bulk billed to Medicare but I pay absolutely nothing. That's more standard in Australia.

Yep. It drives me absolutely crazy. I have something wrong with my heel, it *was* diagnosed as chronic bursitis, and was really the reason why I got banded. It was very inflamed and swollen and painful and I couldnt exercise. A cortisone shot and weight loss helped it. But its never gone away completely, only about six months of acupuncture has moved the discomfort from the outside back of my heel to the inside of my foot. So I suspect its more to do with the plantar fascia (we had ruled out any Achilles involvement). Everymorning when I get up, I hobble for about twenty minutes, its very tight and pulls. I run regularly and if I stop running, that doesnt fix it anyway, so I just do it because I love it and I'd rather be thin and in pain than fat and in pain. It goes away during the day. But the entire foot overpronates so I often have a sore knee and my back on that side is really bad, but that may have some gynaecological involvement (currently looking into it). I have had sciatic pain for three years now, and its usually just "there", not bad, manageable and I dont take pain relief but how I would love to go out and run without any pain at all. Some days it is hard to sleep on that side and I'm all achey and sore when I get up. Basically, my left side and right side feel entirely different. My right side is stuffed, and the leg feels really heavy whereas my left feels so normal. Recently I had a month where I had NO back pain and it was heaven, I'd really forgotten what it feels like to feel that good. So I can sympathise. I'm only 40, I actually get a bit worried thinking what this might be like in 10 years time. Every medical expert tells me to keep running because lack of activity helps nothing, but I do wonder whether I'm bringing on more problems in the future.

Why not go and get a wax the day before surgery, that will at least get you through a fortnight or three weeks? Even if its just from the knee down.

Well, you always have to account for calories in one way or another but there's a lot worse habits you can have than a glass of wine at night. Red wine particularly is very heart healthy, and white has benefits too. As long as you dont judge an enormous fish bowl wine glass as a standard drink! There has also been studies done in Australia that show that moderate wine drinkers lose weight better than non drinkers. I like a glass of wine at night myself, I have one probably five nights out of seven. It never hurt my weightloss.

Seed that small dont bother me. I also eat quite a lot of nuts. They're an "eat carefully" food for me, as if I eat them fast or several in one mouthful, I will feel a bit of discomfort, but if chewed well I can eat them.

I eat whatever protein I consume. They dont tell you to do protein first here in Australia, so I rarely think about protein. I obviously get enough as I'm healthy. Usually I'd eat one meat based meal a day - that's dinner and would include fish, chicken or red meat. Lunch will usually include something like cheese, tuna or yogurt and breakfast is normally cereal for me.

a year ago I got brave enough to cut off my hair, I have an inverted bob which is just nape length and quite short above and almost collarbone length at the front, graduting at a sharp angle, like Rhianna's hair used to be before she cut it really short. Its a really cool dark brown. I really love it, its funky and young but still feminine and probably my best feature is my neck, shoulders and collarbones and it really shows those off. Its the best of both short and long hair and its easy to do as I have really frizzy, almost curly hair that has to be straightened when its been washed. So its a matter of blowing it roughly dry and then running the straightening Iron through it for silky soft, poker straight hair. Unfortunately its absolutely disastrous at the beach or in the rain but my hair always has been. To run I wear a hat, lol. I wont change it for ages and ages and I dont think I'll go back to boring long hair.

I certainly thought about it, I had a BMI of 36 and I thought it would have to be 40, I didnt realise that all the info I was finding online was specific to the USA and you can be banded much more easily here in Australia. I wouldnt have hesitated to gain 2 or 3kg had I needed to but we were talking 10 or 12 and i really dont think I would/could have done that to myself, much as I wanted the surgery.

Yes, a thousand times so! I know I was only a BMI of 36, nowhere near as deeply in trouble weight wise as a lot of people here. But it was the fattest I had EVER been, and I dont come from a fat family. It bugged me that everyone was worried about me. I felt utterly disgusting and ugly. I loathed the way I looked and was embarrassed to leave the house some days and I dreaded running into people I'd known years ago so I even stopped leaving the suburb and venturing into areas where I might run into old school friends or work colleagues. I knew I wasnt morbidly obese yet but I felt like I was standing on the edge of an abyss, and that there was no way I could stop myself from falling in. Real morbid obesity was only round the corner and I was heading there fast. I feel like I'm 20 again now. I love clothes, I love socialising, I've kicked career goals, I've got so much more confidence etc. I never let my weight stop me doing anything before but it was so much less enjoyable.

I must have been very lucky because every fill along the way put me in that place. I had good restriction after surgery, when it started to wane, I had a small fill. That held me for another six weeks, then I had another. Over time, the fills held much longer until I had one for an entire year. I got a tiny fill and just recently had that tiny fill out as I realised I really didnt need it, that I was tighter than I'd been all the way through my journey, which is a bit unnecessary when you're maintaining, not losing. I was never looking for that cant eat bread/can only eat 1/2 a cup tightness though. I was just looking for a bit of help with keeping meal sizes reasonable and not being too hungry between meals. I was happy to rely on my own willpower to not eat chocolate, pizza, McDonalds and to run lots to burn calories.

You really need to get this investigated right away. And my guess is that you really need to be unfilled a bit, you're too tight. Being too tight doesnt always result in obvious symptoms like PBing all the time, it can be a bit more subtle. Please go and see your doctor, dont let this go. Start by taking out some fill immediately and organising the necessary tests.

I eat more like a cup at a sitting and now I've finished losing that's about 1800 calories a day with a snack or two, and milk for coffee, a glass of wine at night etc. When I was losing I ate about 1500 a day.

I was wondering the same thing, I have to have a laparoscopy later this year and forgot to ask my doc recently. I have a feeling that if I"m going to be pumped full of gas again, I will be very tight without an unfill.

I eat carbs. I eat a balanced diet from all the food groups, I eat moderate Protein, but I dont load it, I dont do protein first and I dont low carb. I focus on healthy wholegrain carbs as the most important base food of my diet. That gives me plenty of energy to run for over an hour. I take an isotonic drink with me (I use Endura, not gatorade/powerade/pretend sports drinks like that) and I usually take a gel with me too. That's for my long run of the week which is now at 14kms. For anything under 10, I just take Water. Simple as that. Toast for Breakfast or wholegrain cereal, sandwiches for lunch, rice/pasta or potato with dinner. Lots of fruit and vegies, moderate protein and the right fats. I keep my band a bit looser to allow me to eat enough too. I lost well on 1500 a day and am still loosing very very very slowly on 1800 to 2000 for maintenance.

If breastfeeding is important to you (it was to me), I wouldnt muck around with low carbing whilst breastfeeding personally. It creates ketones in the body. I will argue till I'm blue in the face that being in ketosis is not desirable for us, and many will disagree with me. But it sure isnt desirable to feed out infants our ketones. This is so hard to tackle when the advice given between one doctor and another is so different and here in Australia, we're not always put on a liquid pre op diet at all (I wasnt) and we're certainly not told to low carb it or even do Protein first. You can indeed be safely banded without having done two weeks of Optifast hell and you can indeed lose weight with a lapband whilst eating bread, rice and Pasta as part of your balanced diet. So I would play it that way. I would eat a balanced diet from all the food groups for now. I think having lower calories is less of a problem (you have fat stores afterall) than having a very high protein intake. Just my take on it.

Sadly not all cases of high blood pressure are fixed by weight loss. Some peple *do* have high blood pressure simply because their hearts are struggling to pump the blood through their bodies, but many have high blood pressure becuase they just do. For many there are genetic and physiological causes that are not related to their weight and cannot be fixed by changing their weight. Many thin people have high blood pressure and require medication to control it. The same goes for our cholesterol levels. Some people will always have high cholesterol and need to be medicated for it. So if you need to medicate to keep it at normal levels, then do so. It sucks to have to be on blood pressure meds, but it often cant be fixed simply by weight loss. Look on the bright side. If you have to live with one risk factor (the high bp) at least you will have eliminated another (the obesity). You can still be way healthier and lower risk for heart disease than a lot of other people! It might also be completely transitory and will clear up, fingers crossed for you that this is the case.

If its only 15 calories YOU swallow it, lol.

Any good B supplement will give you some B12

Moderate wine consumption - like one standard unit perhaps five days out of seven is good for your health, that's mainly red wine. White is not quite as good, although it still does have benefits. Its protective of your heart, although that's balanced off against the bad things about alcohol which is why small quantities is a good idea. Its definitely not empty calories though, we've all been told by mum's cardiologist to keep up the habit! Drinking wine "like crazy" is not a good idea! At my information session, Prof. O'Brien stated that my clinic's patients who drink moderately and regularly have better weight loss results than non drinkers, but they dont know exactly why. Personally, I'd have a glass of wine with dinner four or five days a week.