Jachut

I know of two people who had trouble with the tubing because to a large degree it is free in there, and can migrate. Its trimmed to the appropriate length, but one I know of had the tubing touching/rubbing her diaphragm after a couple of years and had to have a small op to have it shortened, it was causing her alarming pain. That was someone on here five or six years ago. Another friend in real life has had the same problem. Its easily fixed, but it is surgical unfortunately. But its obviously not a common occurrence at all.

Even though I've been fat myself, have been a chronic overeater and am definitely NOT passing judgement here, I've never thought of food in terms of getting a bargain with a massive plateful. I guess i have to admit that although I did it (and still do, lets face it, sometimes) overeating was a shameful secret, not somethign done in public EVER. I have always felt disgusted by watching people scarf down huge platefuls, eat fast etc. So parmas as big as plate have never been something I would order in public, I'd eat a salad and pack in the calories with a few glasses of wine and maybe dessert. We have a chain here called Max Brenners that specialise in hot chocolates and you see all these people, big and small, sitting there drinking what is literally melted chocolate and cream and its just freaking NUTS. How can we condone doing that to ourselves? I have never been able to indulge like that without major guilt and embarrassment. I'm a snacking, grazing overeater, not a big volume at once type - and yet banding has still suited me extremely well. My hubby is banded and I cant believe how much he eats either (and he has gained weight lately). I made his Breakfast this morning as we were going in to do Run Melbourne and I made my serving size, he was starving an hour later before the run! Quarter of a cup of oatmeal, quarter of a cup of milk, a half a banana chopped up, a few nuts and a little drizzle more of milk. I thought it was a big hearty breakfast for before a 10K!

It makes a lot of sense, although you can be surprised by your body shape. I always wanted to be an Australian size 10 (which is probably too skinny at 5ft 10, an American 6). Well, to get there, I would have to be significantly underweight. And the other problem is the variation in sizes. I actually do have some size 10 things. I can easily get into a 10 on top. But at a size 12 (which is a US 8) which is my normal size, I have quite significant ribs showing in my chest, collarbones etc, so I just have a largish frame. I never would have thought that, thinking that a 12 was a fairly largish size.

I have had a deep and unrequited yearning for a really good toasted cheese sandwich for the entire seven years I've been banded. I dream about them. I've made many, taken a bite and its just failed to live up to expectation, I think its that toasted bread, any bread, although i can eat it, really makes me feel nauseous - I think its the yeasty taste. Today I tried making toasted cheese (good vintage cheddar), spinach, tomato and ham on rice cakes! And it was DIVINE! I just put it into the sandwich press like a sandwich. The outer was crispy and warm but didnt take over the flavour of the filling. They're small, so your sandwich is small, and they've got hardly any calories. Even on maintenance, I balk at the calories of a sandwich for a meal - it nearly always comes out at 400 or more, which I just wouldnt eat in one sitting for lunch.

Its insane! You know what else makes me so mad, the way when you go to the movies they force you to upgrade To bigger sizes of popcorn because its cheaper to get more. And once i had to buy a family combo because the kids wanted one each but i only wanted three popcorns and three drinks. They MADE me take the fourth (even though i said fine Ill pay for it but only give m three) i had to bin it right by the candy counter.

Theres several foods which strangely disgust me now much as i want to like them. And weirdest of all, they tasted GREAT while i was unfilled for. Couple of months, and instantly became revolting again when i had restriction back. Pizza, bread, and sort of melting, cooked cheese, chinese food ugh. Even the smell makes m gag.

I wish i hadnt unfilled it for a surgety, its neve been the same since

Yes, i noticed at one point tgat i would cough whenever i ate something and there would be a little mucous. Eventually i got soe night reflux. A slight unfill fixed it. Ive now had two small unfills ( apart fom a complete unfill for urgery) and i never gained weight after either, so dont fear, just go do it.

Ive just had to give up wheat ( even trace amounts) as ive found out im gluten intolerant. Ive been maintaining for years but wowzers, ive lost 3 kg in just a week. That's 7 lb. I didnt even think i had any Water retention! So maybe a bit of a detox? Wheat free, nothing out of a packet, can or box? I certainly havent been low carbing as Im also instructed to beef up my soluble fibre intake so ive had lots of oatmeal, brown rice, quinoa. Bbecause i also cant eat onions or garlic, that means no to most processed foods, so im probable eating a lot less salt too.

Im a fanatic snd i run very long distances now or i do a body pump and spin class back to back. At that kevel, i truly need a day or two rest per week, if i dont, i cant keep going. I just go for a walk on tose days off ( i dont consider walking exercise any more, lol) or even do nothing. But im maintaining and that pattern of a huuuuge run followed by a recovery day works ok for that. My focus is on performance not weight loss. If i need to lose now and again, i definitely do the following: More running, five days a week, less spinning, one or two days Lower intensity, longer duration Only one days rest If youre really struggling but want to keep up the days, make some days more easy and gentle on your body. You shouldny be in pain and you do need recovery.

Im not a low carber, because i e never really felt it necessary to cut them completely, and i lost a lot if weight very successfully. I start my day with a bowl of oatmeal, or muesli. lunch does tend to be lower carb, Soup or a salad. dinner is sometimes Pasta or includes potato or rice.

I think i get you. Thanks to cancer and chemo i am now gluten and lactose intolerant and cant eat certain high fructan items - onions and garlic for example. I feel SO much better off wheat, dairy and certain poroduce that i am willing to put up with a lot of inconvenience to remain on this low fodmp diet, just like i am willing to tolerate the day to day discomforts of a lapband! But i would rather not have to.

Magnesium citrat should work as its on of tthe bowel preps for before colonoscopy and surgery - you can buy it over the counter here but have to ask for it, its not on the shelves.

I think the most obvious and overlooked one is malnutrition. Seven years on, the issues of a long tem low calorie diet are rearing thrir heads for me. I eat well, from all food groups, and i know that mild calorie restriction is belueved to lead to a longer life but the fact is, because i have been monitored so closely de to cancer my body is showing some signs of long term undereating - notably bone loss, anion imbalances in the blood and mild kidney dysfunction. Nothing i could feel, i mean i feel great! But really, you cant run eight or ten kms a day for years on end on only 1200 calories without something giving. Im still learning seven years on! Lso, restriction and your experience of the band does change over time and your body adapts. It was soooo easy early on. I was never hungry , i got full so quickly but didnt need yo be tight. As you go on, you lose a bit of that and need to rely on new habits and learned behaviours to keep going because if you go ever tighter seeking that same feeling, you end up with problems.

My cravings are fairly normal from pre band, so are my hunger levels. It just takes less to satisfy both. Mind you Im not someone ho was "always hungry" or "couldnt get full" prior to surgery.

The befores and afters comparisons are one thing but you look so HEALTHY!!!! You look like you could burst out of your skin with energy - and yes, you can see that in a photo.

Biscuits, puddings, cakes, muffins - but i hate bread, weird huh? Its that cakey combo of sugar and fat mmmmmmm. I obce had a 4 litre tub of ic cream in the freezer for three whole years until we moved - obviously Im not an ice cream fiend. Nuts though, salty or sweet (omg honey roasted cashews). I keep u salted nuts around, i can eat those in moderation.

I have to say it, although i know i shouldnt, obesity is not "curves" . That is not what a norml, healthy woman is meant to be. Curves and healthy weight are not mutually exclusive. So...i get tat a man might b physically drawn to women with more breast and hip than a tall, thin woman might have, but being so drawn to large amounts of flab to the point where a relationship is affected by its lost, thats not being attracted to curves, thats fulfilling other selfish needs. I mean, jeez, my hubby stuck by me, never wavered whilst i spent nine months with an ileostomy. We got jiggy regularly with a bag of poo hanging off my belly. If i were brned or disfigured or lost a breast, he would still love me and i can say the same for myself were it him. What he or i look like and whether we are each others ideal type ceased to matter within weeks of the relationsip. So yo say that something as superficial as excess flab could matter that much, well if he loves you, youre probably selling him short and just letting your (very natural) fear and insecurity over the big changes youre facing take over, and if it ould truly make a difference, well, theres problems there. Thats not To say that men cant be childish, petulant, jealous of your success or insecure about your confidence. But only to a point is that tolerable.

Congratulations! its great to be cancer free. I'm a rectal cancer survivor, been clear 2 years now, since my surgery. Yeah, life doesnt get much lower than looking in the mirror at your ravaged cancer body, does it? For me, diagnosis came long after I'd reached a BMI of 23, so I was staring back at a scrawny, hollow eyed desperate person with a bag of poo hanging off her belly, ribs showing all through my back etc. Chemoradiation was tough. Having an ileostomy was tough. But a year after finishing chemo, I'm getting there. I've learned that nutrition and being gentle on your body is very important - I learned the hard way. I breezed through surgery and chemo and kept running every day, kept positive, only to crash when it all finished - exhaused, malnourished etc and with very irritible bowls once the ileostomy was reversed. Now I've just found out that I have extensive intestinal damage - hello gluten free, lactose free, low fodmap diet! Sigh, guess I wont have much trouble keeping the weight off. But we're alive! With regard to the band - mine was OK during the experience but had to be unfilled. I think you're coming to this at a good time with your health stabilised and treatment behind you. Its time to do something for yourself and affirm your commitment to living a long and healthy life!

If you leave chia seeds in Water, they expand and form a gel. But its not a huge expansion. I certainly wouldnt worry about that - if you do the same with metamucil or psyllium, that expands a lot more. Besides you dont eat spoonsfulls at a time. They're very tiny.

Why is it so hard to make the choice to be healthy (weight wise?). Without going into too much detail, following rectal cancer, radiation, chemo and two surgeries, I have found out that due to extensive intestinal damage from treatment I am now gluten intolerant, lactose intolerant, and sensitive to fodmaps (various short chain carbs such as lactose, fructose, fructans, oligosaccharides). I have to do a very strict eight week elimination diet. Yet it is not daunting at all. I am soooo looking forward to being freed from my gut woes (or at least having it reduced). I am a slave to the bathroom, constantly anxious about being near one, it really affects my quality of life. My body embarrasses me on a regular basis, I am completely laxative dependent, yet cant trust a fart, and unable to really live my life the way I want to. Not to mention anxiety, depression and brain fog. So this diet does not phase me at all. Giving up wheat forever - no problem. Living low lactose (not dairy free), easy peasy. Steering clear of certain fruits and vegies with more fructose than glucose- whatever. Avoiding onions and garlic -eeek, not so easy, how to cook or eat out without those? But overall, I am just looking forward to a reduction in my IBS symptoms. Weight loss has SO many more benefits even than that! So many far reaching psychological, physical and social benefits, such a huge increase to your quality of life - so why is it so damned hard to walk away from the donuts? How can anyone want a donut more than that? I wish I knew the answer, I'd be very wealthy. I'm going to try to think this way next time I feel the desire to overeat or eat inappropriately. Even within my limitations. (edited to add, these changes are so much easier for me now, post lapband than they would have been seven years ago. I mean, I dont eat bread as it is. And there's gluten and dairy free alternatives for all the naughty stuff. I'm not fond of fruit either, so restricting it to bananas, pineapple and rhubarb is no biggie).

Oh, I cant not pipe up on this one! This forum is FULL of victims. You read it time and time again. I'm thinking of a recen one "I want to lose weight but I'm not, can you look at my diet". She proceeds to list a horrible, high fat, processed diet that meets the lapband requirements only in portion size, nothing else. I gently suggest that she replace this with that, do a few cookups and freeze, stop eating a lean cuisine every single day for lunch and that perhaps a Protein bar snack in the afternoon (those things are mammoth in calories and aritificial ingredients) might be replaced by a piece of fruit and a few nuts. I get a very hostile reply about how she SAID she didnt have time to cook and she SAID she cant afford healthy food! Uh, OK, so lean cuisines and Protein Bars ($3 or $4 each here!) are cheaper than a chicken breast, fresh salad ingredients and fruit. O - kaaaaaaay. I dont know what comes first, the victim mentality and excuse making or the obesity - but they are most definitely intertwined. The people who are successful in this weight loss game are the ones that wise up and face the fact that its THEIR choice to remain fat and unhealth. Or not. It really is that simple. But there's no telling some people.

I dont think this one ever goes away. I had to see a dietician yesterday (other issues non lapband related) and she looked over my food diary and clucked at the low calories and described me as "slight" (sheesh, I'm five ten, a giant, lol). I'm thinking "are you kidding, look at these love handles". I had a tummy tuck three months ago and now have washboard abs, but I see the love handles, the thighs, the old lady buttocks. I have barely looked at my new stomach. It wasnt bad in the first place, I had the TT for reconstructive purposes following other surgeries. My BMI is 20. However, it was 19 this time last year. I was very sick. And I hate hate hate that I've put on weight again. I feel like a fat piggie. It really is totally stupid. But its just part of being female I think. I can look at my body and feel satisfied sometimes. But I dont think there's a woman alive that really feels this way consistently. And there's always someone who I think looks better, is more petite, slimmer than me and I feel like an ox again.....

I would do it ithout hesitation

im seven years into this caper nd really, i have no idea how much i eat volume wise, at a sitting. I just serve myself small portions and stop when ive had enough