Jachut

I got serious once I saw my surgeon and planned to go ahead - about 2 months before the surgery. Like you, I didnt try to lose weight, I had a BMI of 35 and although in Australia, I wouldnt have been disqualified even if I'd lost significant weight, I wanted to use that two months to really look after myself, get my head into gear and start getting fit. So whilst I didnt diet, I avoided that last meal mentality. Nothing would have made me feel more disgusted in myself than to book weight loss surgery and then indulge in a two months long binge. I had made the decision and my life was changing NOW. So I reverted to what had worked for me in the past - stopped dieting! I ate normally, healthy choices, some treats but enough to maintain weight. I made sure I got plenty of nutrients in. And I started back at the gym with half an hour on the elliptical five days a week or so. I felt good about my choices, good about my behaviour and I didnt have to do a pre op diet so I just continued that until surgery. This was a life change for me and it needed to start right now - no stuffing my face with the security of weight loss surgery down the track to take off any gains - this was mental and emotional for me more so than just physical weight loss.

Its an odd movement, one that takes some getting used to. It feels strange at first, but it'll come quickly. Dont be discouraged, you need to build up to it. I started out using an elliptical because I had a heel problem, I started about a month before banding, and I used cardio coach (www.cardiocoach.com). It is an interval training program, and you can adjust it to your level, but it makes you push yourself really hard for brief spurts and then you can settle into an easier level for rests. Its really the best way to advance your fitness, if you just get on and plug away at a moderate pace, you will get fitter but it'll take way longer. Those bursts of intensity really pay off. I was able to start running very soon after my lapband surgery. If people can text or read while they're doing it, they're not working hard enough! You really should be quite breathless and sweating when you do your cardio.

Six years later and i'm still working on this! This morning I bought a piece of carrot cake to go with my coffee, had a bite and realised I didnt really want it, i'd ordered it purely on impulse. So I left the rest, but its so hard to always stop and think first!

You can do it with the band, absolutely. The main advantages I see with the sleeve are more around the lack of a physical thing around your stomach - especially from a medical sense. I got my band unfilled for my big bowel resection, but I've started filling again. I wonder, for example, what would have happened whilst I was in hopsital several times with bowel obstructions had I needed my stomach drained and decompressed - they sure as eggs wouldnt have been worried about disturbing my band, but what if I'd had Fluid in it? I wonder what's going to happen in the future - I'm having genetic testing for Lynch syndrome and if its positive, I'll have yearly gastroscopies - how do you do that with a band? It'll have to be unfilled every single time and because I'm on the light side of normal weight (and I like it that way!) my doctor is going to be difficult about filling it again - ridiculous, they are the ones that tell you that you NEED restriction to keep the weight off! I dont want to ahve that fight once a year! At this point in time, I'd love to have a sleeve that cant be undone, cant be taken out becuase its in the way of medical treatment. Then again, I got so skinny that I truly needed my band unfilled for a while there, I would have become skeletal without that safety valve. But weight loss wise, the band works just fine if you work it well, like any surgery. Sleeves result in fast initial weight loss but like anything, that peters out over time and you can outeat it if you are determined to.

I cant either, six years on. Really cold stuff sets off painful cramps for me. I dont eat ice cream either and if I fancy a yogurt, I get it out of the fridge and leave it sit for half an hour to warm up. If I eat canned fruit that's been in the fridge, I nuke it for a few seconds to warm it up a bit. Cold stuff and my lapband do not get along, its something you adjust to. I never liked ice cream much anyhow, so its no big deal to me.

And I agree with this entirely, well said! I always tell people that I've got a lapband becuase I'd hate anyone to think that I'm some superwoman with amazing willpower whilst they're miserable failures. There IS an answer to obesity and I dont want to hide it or keep it secret, I want to share my experience and my journey to help others. If you want to keep it private, that's your choice, but why make stupid jokes about it? How can you know when you say that to someone whether cancer has touched their lives?

Ah, having struggled for months to regain extreme weight loss due to cancer and chemotherapy, I'm not laughing much either. See that teeny pic of me? I was over 25lb heavier than I am now in that pic.

You're not going to do damage walking, it will help you to heal. Your body needs to move, it will reduce pain, get rid of gas and get the blood flowing. It will also help you to feel positive that you're already making changes in your life. Get out there and enjoy it. I walked the day after surgery.

Well.... the best revenge would be success, right? And no, there's nothing wrong with you with regard to how much you can eat right now. It takes fills to get restriction. But you really do need to hold off on the binging, I wasnt even on solid food at all by week 3, you could do some major damage. Its really important to take it slowly.

I had the opposite problem, and I was unfilled too. After a big surgery late last year, I had to take this year off work. Full time work makes it super easy for me to eat three meals a day adn that's all - especially as I'm a teacher and in Australia we dont have school meals and vending machines in our schools or any of that stuff, heck int he public system we even ahve to buy our own tea and coffee for the staffroom. So there is no food to eat at school that I dont bring and as a teacher, you dont really leave the school at lunch time. At home I just revert to my old habits of constantly grazing all day - so what I found was that I had to change my habits to avoid downtime. I literally do not allow myself to sit down all darn day, I must always be doing SOMETHING - that usually isnt on the computer (coz I eat then). I must say the benefit is double edged - I get through the afternoon without eating and my house is pretty organised. As soon as I was well enough, I was looking for casual work even though i cant go back to my full time job this year. Anything to fill in my days. I ended up with a brilliantly physical job teaching gymnastics! On the days when I slack and sit down for any length of time, I always always always end up eating things I didnt want to eat. So my advice would be to identify when and why you eat badly and change the habits that lead to that also, rather than just relying purely on willpower to resist.

This really is so true. You just cant expect others to change, and I know you realise that, but you need to be in a place where you're not affected by what others choose for themselves. As long as they dont try to coax or cajole you into it, making a big song and dance about eating chocolate for example, you really do have to get to a state where you can identify whether you truly want something or are just reacting to the sight of it. We will be bombarded with food everywhere we go for our entire lives, not just at home with our families, so its an essential skill to develop. For me its about being able to have ANYTHING I want if I truly want it - knowing that, and having the years of experience behind me now to know that I can eat the occasional treat and not gain weight - means that I'm able to say no if I dont really want something just now, because I know I can have it anytime I truly want. Developing this skill has freed me from the diet merrygoround and is why I really dont believe in "dieting" as such. But I still get frustrated with those weeks where you have a zillion obligations on and they all involve eating and drinking! That drives me nuts, I think dont we have ANY social situations or celebrations in our society which arent focussed on alcohol and bad food?

Of course it depends entirely on what you're used to eating - what your energy needs are. If you're 500lb and live on 6000 calories a day you can lose weight darn fast still eating what I'd call a lot of food. But for me personally to shift 20lb in a month - a Protein shake diet is the only way I can think of to do that - 1000 calories a day or less, lots of cardio and just put up with being starving hungry. Now, I'm at a low weight, so no doubt you fit somewhere in the middle there. Its certainly doable, not pleasant, but doable. However, there's no magic in Protein shakes. If you can stick to 1000 calories or less a day on real food you'll lose weight just the same. But presurgery, high protein low carb is important - it shrinks your liver and much as I dont believe in low carb diets, its the best way to lose a lot of weight fast.

Nothing makes me angrier than doctors dissing a perfectly reasonable and healthy goal! 140 would be great, and personally i'd even aim for 130. I can tell you at five foot ten, I consider myself decidedly porky at 160! You can achieve anything you want!

I can easily do without breakfast, so it wouldnt worry me to just have a nice coffee (or two) whilst the others ate. When I say that, i dont mean whipped cream and syrup type coffee! And given that I'd go out for breakfast once in a blue moon, I probably would indulge my carb tooth, lol, with a nice muffin or somethiing to go with my coffee and just not eat all of it. But if I wanted to avoid that sort of food I just wouldnt eat. I wont eat bacon and stuff like that, I always viewed it as unhealthjy and my oncologist has pointed me to studies that it has recently been definitively linked with bowel cancer and current recommendations are to not eat processed meats, ever. If I liked them, I'd go for moderation rather than never eat them, but I dont like them anyway.

I have a few back up easy plans for days when I feel like this - everyone does occasionally, even those of us who are dedicated exercises. First and foremost though, you do have to realise when you really ARE just very tired, run down etc and could do with a day off. I've had trouble accepting this since having chemo, I ran right throughout my cancer treatment, surgery and all, even with an ileostomy bag, but after six months of chemo, I have still lost fitness and have to accept that I cant run 10k five days in a row like I could six months ago. My joints hurt, I get more tired etc. So, on those days when I really just dont want to run, I might just walk. Or I get on my treadmill and just walk (which is a significantly easier exercise than outdoor running). I put on a bit of an incline and pump some handweights and watch a bit of TV. On really lazy days I allow myself to hang onto the handrails! Or I go to Water aerobics, no bouncing, jumping, no impact. Both of those activities are easy enough at my level of fitness than on an ordinary energy day I would feel very guilty that that's all I'd done. See if you can think of a few things that are exercise but much easier than your normal level of exertion - if you're not an insane runner like I am, even housework might fit the bill, or walking round the shops for an hour or two, a stroll on the beach, whatever. And do recognise when you really DO need a day off. We all need rest and recovery.

See to me, that smacks of it being an unsustainable lifestyle - if you "blow everything" because a certain type of food is not available. I get that that's just my view and opinion on it though and that the South Beach diet is generally respected by the experts. Truly, how can you blow a lifestyle in just one weekend ? Such studies of this only reinforce to me that you must do what you personally believe suits you best. Because just like there's a zillion studies supporting a low carb way of eating, so obviously there is just as many pointing out the possible dangers. I think anyone who truly things that their way of eating is absolutely and utterly RIGHT is a bit nuts, anyone rational will admit that its a balance and leaning one way or another might make a difference to your health but that its completely a matter of swings and roundabouts - just like vegetarians are healthier than meat eaters in some respects but less healthy in others - they may get too little Iron, they may eat too much high fat cheese and too many eggs, or if they're vegan they might not be managing to combine plant Proteins properly etc etc. If you're healthy and happy on a low carb diet and your diabetes is controlled, then I wouldnt pay any attention to this study at all.

I wouldnt use packet oatmeal either - its too highly processed and added to, makes it no better than most of the other crap cereals in the Cereal aisle. We dont call it steel cut here, we call it rolled oats, but the unprocessed oats are best - all I do is decide the night before I want oats for breakfast, measure out about 1/3 of a cup, pour some milk on and stick it in a sealed container in the fridge overnight. In the morning, just microwave for 1 minute - its creamy and soft and no 20 minutes of simmering on the stove. I like a bit of brown sugar (just a level teaspoon full) and some more skim milk on top - oh and I always add a very tiny pinch of salt to it the night before too. Personally, with things like coffee, oatemeal etc, I think your best bet is to learn to like it plain, and wean off the habit of always trying to sweeten or flavour things, retrain your palate. None of those syrups, artificial sweeteners etc are good for you and they just prolong the problem of your mouth always looking for something sweet.

I can identify to a degree, I recently finished a six month course of 5 FU for rectal cancer. I have begun refilling because six weeks out hunger has picked up enormously. My.fill doc was reluctant because I lost a fair bit of weight through surgery, radiation and chemo but I yelled and screamed a bit - I am aftetall in the normal weight range, it is my body and my business how much I wish to weigh and she herself said everyone gains when unfilled! Coming back to this now I'm on my computer and not my phone, I'll add this: I did find everything tasted disgusting, but for me, that led to me not wanting to eat rather than eating and eating trying to find something normal tasting. I was also so conscious of being unfilled that I was extremely careful and actually lost TOO much weight. I really became quite afraid of food for a while there. I was pretty nauseous too so that had an effect. I think you've done pretty well, weight gain on breast cancer chemo treatments is well documented and can be pretty significant and very hard to shift, so you've contained it pretty damn well. the bad taste went away for me immediately chemo finished, wish I could say the same for the aching sore knees, shoulders and hips - I feel like I'm about 80 these days. I've started refilling my band as I mentioned, but it doesnt feel anything like the same as it did the first time round, I've got way less restriction than I had. I'm not too concerned, since I did a pretty good job of keepign the weight off whilst being unfilled for 8 months and I have to leave it anyway because I'm having another surgery next week and I dont really want to be tight at that point, but its what I feared - once you start mucking round with your band filling and unfilling, it can be hard to get back to where you were. Cancer sucks, its not fair and you shouldnt have to face these problems but we do and have to just accept that and do the best that you can in the circumstances. And dont be hard on yourself over a small weight gain.

I didnt have nausea at your stage, but since being banded long term, I now get sea sick, car sick, plane sick, cant go on amusement park rides anymore, and suffered terribly from nausea during chemotherapy where previously I was one of those people who NEVER felt nauseas. I had a cast iron stomach but not any longer.

Great news, i'm going to go myself. My joints are so painful since my chemo, I need something gentler a few days a week.

I would be if there was a convenient group a.d I wasnt about to have a surgery! Crossfit is my kind of thing.

Five and a half years, 120 lb loss which was about 120 percent of excess meaning I got down to a bmi of 19. Now maintaining easily, not effortlessly but definitely easily.

I get pain in my belly button when I pb. It sounds band related to me, but of course, hope you checked with your doc. I've had two small bowel obstructions this year and those are nothing like band related pain. Its deeper, cramping and it moves in waves from the left to right side of the abomen, with a huge build up of pressure behind it - I have a stoma and the pressure would feel like it was going to pass gas, only so strong that I felt like it was going to pop off and shoot across the room. Gradually these waves of pressure got more and more intense until you will be fairly ready to head into the hospital. Bowel obstructions are pretty unmistakeable, you'll know that when you feel it.

Real eggs all the way. Cant figure why anyone would use something like egg beaters for anything other than an emergency. Real and unprocessed is always going to be better, healthier and tastier. Yours are about as real as food gets, I wouldnt eat a packaged alternative!

If you're going to lose weight, even while training, then you have to take in less calories than you're burning. But you do need enough to fuel what you're doing too. I havent run a marathon, only a half but what I find with being a runner is that I need to eat carbs. I cant run on a Protein shake diet! It just doesnt fuel you properly, you need to instant energy that wholegrains provide AS WELL AS adequate protein. As long as I include foods like good bread and cereals in my daily plan, I didnt find even with half marathon distances that I needed specific sports nutrition - I firmly believe that sort of thing (the pre workout/post workout shake routine, gatorade etc) only adds calories and makes it harder to lose. I've done two halfs and at 43, my knees, hips and backs are not up to this sort of distance as a regular thing, so mainly I stick with 10K's and for that, obviously, my daily 1500 calires including carbs is perfectly adequate. I guess it depends why you're asking - are you jsut generally curious or did you really have trouble with the marathons you've done? Obviously it *might* be necessary to unfill to eat more.