Jachut

It does help - a lot for me. I like to make a "meal" of it, although we all eat at different times. I feed the kids earlier because DH never gets home until about 7.30 and i find they just snack snack snack if they're not fed. I tend to eat earlier too, I'm a bit the same. So weeknights are generally not family meals for us and I cant convince DH or kids to sit at a table, since our table is in a separate dining room away from the TV, lol. But I do! I also find during the day now that I'm at home again at the moment and not working, I must absolutely avoid any downtime on the couch. The minute I sit to noodle on the computer or watch a movie or read, I get the munchies, so I just go out, potter, do bits and pieces, anything to avoid sitting down. If I stay busy, its like a workday and I dont have a problem going from one meal to the next without snacking. You need to create routines that are conducive to good eating habits, its a sensible approach. I am a firm believer in meal times being set times and I dont really believe in the grazing, five meals a day philosophy.

Everyone is different - for me what's worked brilliantly and is a comfortable way to live forever is simply a 3 meal a day nothing in between plan incorporating foods from ALL food groups - basically eat what I want but avoid junk kind of thing, and lots and lots and lots of cardio. I only do enough strength training - in the form of bodyweight stuff incorporated into circuit training (so basically cardio) to preserve and tone my muscle rather than grow lots of it and I mainly run most days. its pretty low tech and old fashioned, but it really works. Anything does if you do it 100%. its a matter of finding a comfortable fit for you and not being swayed by popular opinion, which lets face it, turns out to be "wrong" every decade when something new becomes the latest fad.

That sucks, what terrible luck, but its great that you are healthy and still here! If its any consolation, after five years I'm not bandless but completely unfilled and its beginning to look like I wont be refilled at all, at the very least it will be 12 months. I've had no fill for 4 months now, due to cancer treatment and now I've got a lot of special dietery requirements that jut cant really be worked around the band at the moment, because chemo is really messing with my digestive system and its motility. I have not had a problem at all keeping the weight off - and that's with a normal appetite, I'm not nauseous or sick in that way at all. I've just gone one rule that I follow - three meals a day and nothing else. And of course I've continued to exercise. Maintenance is much much easier than losing. Good luck to you!

I'd hate to come on here and say well, I'm unfilled and I havent gained so you can do it too, its patronising and not helpful. But perhaps I can share my take on it and you can take or leave my opinion, but if it helps you at all then I'm glad. I've been unfilled for a couple of months now because I had rectal cancer, and had to have chemo, radiation and a major surgery, which involved creating an ileostomy so I have a bag for now. I'm now having more chemo and will have the ileostomy reversed sometime in the next few months. Chemo hasnt made me the type of sick that means i dont want to eat so my appetite is quite normal. I was so devastated/angry/frustrated/terrified of being unfilled, I'd been so successful with my band. But I had no freaking choice. So I sat myself down and said to myself "you're a grown up and you know you have to face the consequences of your actions". I was also feeling so out of control with the whole disease that is cancer, my life was just taken out of my hands and I had a new schedule for the coming 12 months, my job, our travel plans, even our plans for a new house, I've just had to let them all go, so I was absolutely adamant that it would not take over my weight and self image too! I have continued to exercise like always, I run daily, I do bootcamp, I circuit train with my son - exercise is your prime weapon, it is just so important. Do lots and lots of cardio. I follow what I call my no bullshit diet, but amazingly, the other day I found someone has put it up on the web, lol - google the NOS diet or the no "s" diet. No sweets, no seconds, no Snacks is all it is basically. I eat three meals a day - healthy meals, meals that satisfy - I dont even try to stick to bandster portions, because only bandsters can do that! I've been logging calories, weighing and measuring but I stopped, because I felt that despite not gaining, I was losing all I'd worked so hard for and starting to become obsessed with food and dieting again - so yeah, 3 healthy meals, no snacks. That's only a couple of rules. No agonising over can I eat this, how much Protein does that have, how many calories do I have left for the day. I can eat enjoyable food, but not junk. Its really really worked for me, my weight has stayed pretty stable. Now I've had a slight advantage in that I had a big surgery in there and lost a couple of kilos that I was able to gain back, and unfortunately my 3 healthy meals included LOTS of salad to fill the gaps. Salads and ostomates and chemotherapy dont mix - I've just come home from hospital following a bowel obstruction (painful, you dont want one!) and I am simply going to have to cave in and follow the recommended diet of lots of white bread, potato, rice and not too many fruits and vegies - and especially no skins. It freaks me out - all those white carbs - but I really believe with the no bullshit approach, I still wont gain weight! You are the one in control of this, it is only you and you must make your choices. It is as plain as that. I wish there were a secret but there simply isnt. You're only human and you still might gain weight, statistically most unfilled or de-banded people do. But you dont have to absolutely pile it back on at lightening speed. You need to protect your self esteem, your sense of achievement and if you can contain the weight gain, you'll feel better than if you simply give up. Best of luck to you.

That's true too - I had major stuck the other day! I ate a salad roll - ham and salad on a big bread roll - and followed up with a couple of swigs of icy cold Water. WHOA - sliming and pain for about 20 minutes

I think loosening it for an overseas trip, where care may not be available is a valid option, but not one you should be doing thinking that you can eat heaps on the trip and really enjoy yourself - that is the kind of dysfunctional thinking that made us fat in the first place. You can actually indulge in unusual or out of the ordinary foods on holidays without loosening your band, and you can enjoy it thoroughly. I think yo'[d find most doctors are willing to unfill for travel becuase it ensures band safety. To think you can unfill for one special occasion, that's not a very healthy way of thinking of life with the band. You need to be committed to a lifestyle change and that means your life no longer revolves around food - the whole point of a holiday or a wedding is not how much you can eat. And with a properly adjusted band, you can eat sensibly and enjoy special meals anyway- if you cant, you're too tight. When you get to goal, you can unfill. I never did, I stayed the same weight for years with the same fill, but recently, I had to be completely unfilled for cancer treatment. Amazingly it has not caused weight gain, over time on maintenance, you do learn to eat your caloric needs one way or another - and in hindsight, I was doing a fair bit of eating around my band - sweet treats, alcohol, Snacks, they made up the gap between the caloric values of the size meals I was able to eat and what my body needed, and they were the "extras' that I wasnt eating during the losing phase. When I was unfilled, i got straight onto tracking calories and have moved onto a three meals but bigger meals and healthier foods (all the fruit, vegies and salad I couldnt eat in real quantity while restricted) and I've actually lost about 20lb more (that I really didnt need to lose). I'm finding my balance over time, but am amazed that I need well over 2000 calories a day to maintain my 135lb - so my metabolism, given all the running and circuit training I do, is definitely not shot, its actually very healthy. But I exercised vigorously all the way through my loss and never dipped below 1500 calories, I think very low calorie diets are going to set you up for having quite a deal of trouble in the longer term maintaining your weight loss. Like the poster above me, I monitor my weight, and adjust if it goes up a little - had a big weekend away with a once in a lifetime gourmet dinner with wines matched to each course for our 20th anniversary. Ate breakfast, lunch and dinner in restaurants and cafes - yeah, got home with 3 extra pounds. So its back to 1400 calroies a day and right back on the exercise regime for the next week or so to shift it. If you remain aware, know what you're eating and are sensible, it is indeed possible to live unfilld once you've lost.

Yes, but the trap is that they list calorie counts per serving, and often what they give you is more than one serving. Have you ever noticed that on say, a yogurt? You eat the small container, thinking its only 100 calories and then you notice that each individual tub is actually 2.3 servings or something insane like that.

I'm a go all the way kinda girl, lol. I wouldnt stop there. Interestingly, althugh my goal was lowish anyway, I did lose a fair bit of unintended weight due to cancer treatment and got right down to the very very bottom of my healthy weight range. I always "secretly" wanted to get there anyway. Truth be told, its too skinny for me and I look better a little heavier. I'm actually glad this happened because its cured my obsession with being as light as possible. I'm no happier, healthier, whatever than I was six kilograms heavier. I'm gradually gaining again, but that's really really hard to allow to happen, although I dont want to be too light, gaining weight is not easy for someone who's been obese, as I'm sure everyone would understand. Anyhow, the point is, you're never going to know how you'll feel at a certain weight unless you try it on for size! I certainly wouldnt aim for a weight that's above a BMI of 25, but again, that's probably just me, and the fact that I've never actually been morbidly obese (BMI of 36 when banded) makes that more doable and imaginable to me.

It is no mystery why you see everyone that walks around sucking on smoothies in public has a huge muffin top! Its one thing to do what you did, and have it for a meal, I agree, 420 calories isnt a disaster, but its very annoying when you get caught out by the serving size thing - I mean FFS, who on earth drinks half of their smoothie? But certainly amongst the younger crowd (god, I sound old, lol) smoothies have taken off and its very obvious what they do to waistlines and behinds when they're consumed as Snacks on a regular basis! I make my own sometimes for Breakfast, but personally, I dont find smoothies or shakes satisfying, they're not a good food choice for me, becuase I'll still want to eat half an hour later.

Oh, how I love cashews, but even movie popcorn would have less salt and fat than a cup of them! I cant eat the at all - because I cant stop!

For me its not about rewards, I buy things I want all the time anyway, lol. I really get off on the idea of being an athlete. I think of myself as strong, tough, fit, committed etc, that kind of mental play gets me out running, gets me through that spin class, gets me up that tough hill, I never ever quit. I value that quality in myself and I work for it. The body I see every day, which is not only thin, but looks strong and fit, is more reward than any "thing" could ever be to be. When I focus on athleticism like that, eating is secondary. I really dont want bad food. However, I'm not good at being hungry and exercise means I can pretty much eat whatever I want, in reasonable quantity.

My doc said he could now place it under the muscle. Mine is a bit to the left and up from my belly button and it has been visible all along, but at a BMI of 19, you can now even see it through clothes. I dont think there's anwhere you can put it where you wont show if you want to get down to a low BMI. If your goal weight is higher you may not have a problem. It also depends on where you carry weight, I have always had a relatively flat stomach so on me, its going to show. If it were on my ass on the other hand....

Perceived exertion - sweating, red in the face, gasping for breath and not able to do one more minute of the workout by the end - perfect. Big calorie burner, probably in the region of 500 or 600 for a 45 minute workout. Able to talk (especially whilst working out), comfortable, recovered pretty much instantly and only a light perspirration - not so much. Probably a 300 calories in 45 minutes workout. Then again, I did Body Pump yesterday for somethign different and although it absolutely kicked my butt, there's no way it burned lots of calories - you need full on aerobic activity for that and Body Pump is not very aerobic. I felt the need for half an hour of treadmill workk afterwards even though my legs were quivering, in order to feel I'd "exercised". The trouble with online calculators is that they cant take into account how hard you've worked. Heart rate monitors are better, because they worrk it out based on your heart rate, a body bugg or such, even more so. I'd absolutely LOVE one of those, but cant really justify it as its only for curiosity sake, obviously the calorie equation is right since I no longer have a weight problem.

I think I agree, but there comes a point where it burns too much fat, when you're a normal weight. Like you need plenty of cardio, of course, but for me now, running seven days a week is toooo much. I have just gotten way too skinny and need to perhaps do a little less running and quite a bit more weight training. Its always good to mix things up too - I'm very fit and quite strong - I mean I can do plenty of man style push ups and even a chin up or two but I did a Body Pump class today and it kicked my butt! I even had a nana nap at 4pm, lol. When you're just starting out though, I reckon cardio cardio cardio with a minor emphasis on weight training.

If you eat the right things, there just is no reason to stick to 1/4 cup of food - and being tight enough to do that without hunger means you wont even be able to swallow your own spit. Fill out your meals with salads and vegies, choose low fat and low calorie foods - protein and a salad for dinner is never going to make you fat unless its a 400 gram steak fried in butter. Prepare it lean, keep portion sizes reasonable rather than insanely tiny and allow your band to dictate what it takes to fill you. Fill in the chinks with free foods like fruit and vegies, exercise with reasonable intensity and just dig in, find your willpower and ignore mild in between meal hunger. If you're truly starviing then a low GI snack like cottage cheese on a wholegrain crispbread or something similar.

You'll lose it, you know rationally that there's no way you can gain 15lb of fat in that time frame. Dont they just go overboard on the fluids though? I had a huge op 8 weeks ago and they filled me sooooo full of saline, I thought I would burst. OK, so I had what was known on the ward as the "rampaging stoma" meaning, to put it delicately, that I was producing about 5litres of sh*t a day, but still. I am pretty thin now and I couldnt see any of the tendons in my hands and feet, heck, I couldnt even see my knuckles! I had cankles and could barely get one thigh round the other and STILL they kept pumping me fuill. My normally 108 or so on something less than 60 blood pressure was 130/80! And I had to keep dragging the stupid IV in and out of the bathroom to pee six times an hour after having had a major abdominal surgery. I was ready to kill someone by the end of it. I got home to find I'd gained none, lost none (they say with the op I had 5kg is the average loss) but over the following week I dropped aboout 4kgs and looked a bit more like a human being than a puffer fish.

I'm so sorry you're having to face this for a second time. Its such a huge emotional hurdle to get over the first time, and my fear was always living with the shadow of cancer for the rest of my life. I havent had breast cancer but last August was diagnosed with rectal cancer. It seems nuts, but my hugest fears were to do with losing control of my healthy lifestyle - my eating and my running and exercise. I thought I was going to lose all I had worked so hard for. As it turned out, my excellent fitness has made a surgery possible that the next person would not be able to have. I was able to have my entire rectum and about 1/3 of my colon removed - laparascopically if you can believe it!! - with a few teeny scars, my caesar scar was the main access and I already had that. I've got a stoma for now so there'll be a scar there when that's reversed. The surgery was easy, thorough and with good margins because I have not got a pelvis full of fat. There was absolutely NO live cells left at surgery after the chemo and radiation I had and the radiation oncologist told me again, its a much easier job to target the tumour exactly in a thin person. Because of that, I didnt have the side effects normally seen with pelvic radiation - diarrhoea and skin issues - but it did put an end to my childbearing days. As it turned out, I first went for a run a mere 10 days after a super low anterior resection, so I have pretty much maintained my fitness regime seamlessly. I've butted heads with the stoma nurse and nutrionist regarding the appropriate diet for an ostomate, I refuse point blank to eat a stodgy white carb diet liek they want me to so I pretty much live with constant diarrhoea and this may have to changhe if I want any success with the rve4rsal, something that is making me extremely anxious. I was devastated at 6the thought of wearing a bag, but you know, if this was for life, it wouldnt phase me now, I dont even think about it, until I fart loudly in public - something I cant control because it now comes out of an opening with no muscles! Chemo for me has been 5FU which does not cause weight gain, so I've got the problem of having lost a lot of weight i never needed to lose. That avatar pic of me up there, that's now a "fat" picture. I'm extremely glad I've got a band that could be unfilled, so I can eventually gain some back and truth be told, I'm having so little trouble sticking to a healthy lifestyle that I dont know that I wever WILL fill it again. Why live that resdtricted lifestyle if you dont need to? My nutrition is way better and I need that for now. I've just started chemo again, 20 weeks of it as a mop up, ust in case and this time I feel like crap. But I am still running! I knw how you feel about going back to square one, but although its taken courage an determination, and not a little willpower on my worst days, I have maintained what I worked so hard for - my healthy lifestyle. Everyone, surgeon, oncolo9gist, friends, family, tell me to take it easy but keeping up with my routines makes me feel normal andl ike this horrible disease will not get one second more of my life that it has had. I believe that whilst we cannot control cancer, we do have some say in what it does to our lives. I wish you the very best.

I've been doing this treadmill bootcamp a bit lately too - check it out http://www.stevepfiester.com/treadmill-workout.html

There's two ways of looking at this - one is for long term, forever after success and the other is what tips and tricks we all have for weight loss. For weight loss what works for me: three meals a day NO Snacks, balanced meals from all food groups, moderate amounts of treats - something yummy once or twice a week say - and remembering that its basically calories in/calories out (which does not meant that I necessarily have to log everythign, just choose low calorie filling foods). I ate carbs all the way through and didnt particularly focus on Protein. Exercise is absolutely vital and walking is a great place to start. Morbidly obese people are in such bad shape and its so much work to move their bodies that walking will torch calories. But be prepared - as you lose, you will have to work harder than that. To me, it was simply a matter of cardio (I run daily) and moderate bodyweight strength training. For the forever after success stuff I think its important to remember this is not a diet, its a new way of life. To me, strict regimes which cut out food groups and/or require constant calculations and logging dont qualify as lifetyle changers, they're diets, but meh, each to their own I guess. However, five years down the track I've had to be comletely unfilled for cancer treatment and I am ever so glad I worked not on a diet but on making lifestyle changes - I've had absolutely no trouble maintaining my loss, in fact i wont fill it again unless it becomes necessary further down the track. But look at how different we all are! To me, I'm soft on the diet side of it and very hard core on the exercise part, but you do have to find your own balance.

Lol, I love plain greek yogurt - but I have also been known to eat sour cream straight from the carton! Last time I sampled anythign at costco, I bought the $800 blender it was made in! We have only one Costco in Melbourne, its the BEST.

Processed food is no good for you. Learning to cook appropriately - and healthy cooking can be simple, quick and cheap - is a vital skill if you're going to keep weight off forever. I mean, how difficult is it to grill a steak and make a small salad? If you are organised with your shopping and have the food to hand then it takes no longer than a lean cuisine takes in the microwave anyhow. And if you need freezer food, which everyone does, then you could cook in batches and freeze in appropriate portions. But I think everyone has a few Lean Cuisines in their freezer, I know I do, and it wont hurt you in moderation. But they're not an everyday food - too high in salt and additives. The portion control and ease of knowing calories is attractive, but you'll feel better if you eat fresh.

I couldnt agree more. I think a lot of people's eating regimes are not lifestyle changes, they're very strict (and to me, wacky) diets that cut out an entire food group. I also dont believe that nutritionistsare entirel on the ball either in a lot of cases - they are not medical professionals, they are not fully qualified dieticians and like personal trainers, they simply offer currently fashionable thinking about diet - which right now hppens to be low carb high Protein. You makie an excellent point about it being a sustainable lifestyle. I worked very hard to give up dieting forever, and I did like you are doing - a healthy, balanced and moderate diet. five years down the track, not only havbe I had great success with teh band, but I have had to have my band unfilled for another surgery and it will remain unfilled for the foreseeable future. I have not gained an ounce, and it has not been even the tiniest bit difficult to keep my weight stable and maintain my loss - I believe this is totally because I worked on a permanent, sustained lifestyle chane. i exercise rather intensely, but even that is moderate in that I do what I enjoy doing and I resist falling prety to every bit of exercise advice that is currently being given - I run despite the fact that the experts say it will wast my muscles - why - because I like it and I will never believe that outdoor vigorous activity is not beneficial. Sure, i could get different or even better results with other combinations of exercise, but again, I am not jumping on any bandwagon, I'm doing what is sustainable for me. Anything else I believe means people must have tight bands to maintain tehir lifestyle and most people are just too darned tight, without even realising it. The band is not meant to prevent eating, its meant to help you eat properly.

Very high Protein diets can leach calcium from your bones, which can result in the formation of calcium based kidney stones. that's not to say high protein/low carb isnt excellent for weight loss, perhaps even the only way to lose weight for many people. But what's best for weight loss and what's best for overall health are not necessarily the same thing for all people. The only real reason I wouldnt do one personally is that I love my carbs! But if I was prone to kidney stones, I dont think I'd risk it. It sucks, currently I have an ileostomy (which is only temporary) and the best way to manage one is with a low residue diet. That means lots of white bread, white rice, white Pasta, low fibre, not a lot of fruit and veg, no nuts or seeds. I may be a carb eater, but I'm a wholegrain carb, high fruit and vegies, love my salads carb eater. I started out refusing to eat a diet of white sh*t, but a few bouts of diarrhoea and exoriated skin on my stomach as a result and I might just have to bow to the wisdom of the dietician on this one. I feel for you being asked ot eat in a way you're not really comfortable with - you MUST consider your own wants, needs and knowledge about your body whilst taking the advice of the nutritionist. And even seek other proper medical advice (nutritionists are not dieticians, nor are they doctors).

Its all been said above. Kids need the same thing as adults, maybe a bit less but when it comes to teenagers, maybe a bit more. My DH and I are both banded and the kids get what we eat. Its summer here now, so we might put some steaks on the BBQ, make a big tossed salad, if anything, I'd bake some potatoes for the kids. We dont low carb or anything, we eat normal balanced diets in smaller quantities, so there has never been any need to do anything different for the kids.

The first time I put on a bikini, I felt like I was on the beach naked, it was excruciating. I feel self conscious about my body though - my size is perfect, exactly what I wanted, I am tall and slim and I dont need to worry about a fat bum on display or huge boobs hanging out of a bikini top, everything tucks in nicely. I dont have a hanging stomach. BUT - bit but, I do look a bit loose and I guess I look my age. I cant compete with a 20 year old in a bathing suit and i guess I'm a prime example of less being more in terms of women in their 40's and bikinis. For starters I would never wear a tiny bikini, I spend up big on very high quality suits, with undewire, and coverage and such. My shape is such that I actually look better in two pieces, it elongates my body a bit and makes me look less scrawny up top and less hippy below. But this season I have a stoma due to having bowel cancer, and for the time being until that is reversed I'm obviously not goign to wear a bikini with an ileostomy bag on display! I've bought two one pieces and a tankini and thank goodness they're back in this year becuase i felt like I was wearing my grandmother's bathing suit at the start, but in truth, I feel more comfortable more covered up. But my experience is this - if you pick up a bathing suit and its $250 and you go "no way, i could get this in target for $39", try it on. No matter WHAT shape you're in, a really high quality suit is going to look loads better on you than a cheap one.