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Oatmeal is great. It is one of the suggested breakfast foods on most Australian plans and it helps to lower your cholesterol and keep your heart healthy.

I have lost 14kg (30.8lb).The only person who knows I am banded is my DH.Oh plus my surgeon, support group etc. I have one friend that I see every week and she started commenting way back at the beginning. I have another friend that I see fairly regularly and every time she sees me she asks how much weight I have lost. Then I have a group of friends that i don't see as often. They haven't commented at all and you would think that as I don't see them that often the loss would be more noticeable! My daughter came home from uni last week and asked if I was still on my diet! I was quite dissappointed as I would have thought she would have noticed how much I have lost. So it seems everyone is different.

Ses, where do you live?

I am amazed that you didn't sort this out before the surgery.From what I have read on this site a lot of US doctors don't like taking patients that they have not operated on themselves. I would have wanted all my ducks in a row. Good luck , hope you manage to find someone.

Numbness around an incision is fairly common. I remember that after my Caesars it took ages before normal feeling returned.

I have had 3 fills but am still only at approx 3ml so I can understand why you don't feel at this stage you need any more. Everybody is different and so are their doctors. If you are losing well and can still eat then there is no reason for you to have to get more Fluid put in.

Surely there should always be someone in the practice that is available to do unfills in case of emergency. To not have someone is crazy!

I am not sure about the not drinking before - I still haven't figured that one out. Not drinking after is so that the food can remain in the pouch for longer so that you stay full for longer.

Sorry to hear about the accident, glad that you weren't seriously hurt. Also glad that your surgeon was on the ball and sorted the problem out really quickly.

Just had the yummiest lunch and it was really quick. Stirfried some lean beef strips and had it in a l/f wholemeal wrap with lots of tabbouleh(I love the stuff) and a dollop of tzatziki. YUM. Breakfast I normally have a poached egg on toast sometimes with a slice of smoked salmon.Today i had l/f cottage cheese and tomato on wholemeal toast plus a slice of ham. no snacks so far today and have no idea what i am going to cook tonight.

I'm trying to remember what colour English cheddar cheese is - I haven't lived there for a while.I have a feeling that it is more orange than it is here. They also have a number of other cheeses that have a distinct orange colour e.g Red Leicester. I think with a lot of these foods its not the colour but the fact that the texture has changed to something which has a consistency similar to plastic. I bought some grated mozzarella recently, it was under the grill for more than 20 minutes and still hadn't melted. YUCK. We also found a lot of differences in foods when we first moved from the UK to South Africa. All the fruit and veggies in South Africa were much bigger but had no flavour. e.g tomatoes,cucumbers,apples. Bigger is not always better. Here they have giant strawberries and most of the time they are pretty tasteless. As for Vegemite it's not quite as good as proper English Marmite but it's almost as good. You just have to know how to eat it properly. Spread it thinly. It's really good with melted cheese and it's very nutritious - full of B Vitamins.Most English kids are brought up on the stuff. I know as a kid we used to have toast soldiers with marmite and PB was almost unheard of so PB is not something that I eat very often. They have just brought out a new variety of vegemite which is apparently a lot milder and smoother but I haven't tasted that yet.

Last night I woke up and was amazed at the loud gurgling noises my stomach was making. It was so loud I swear my neighbours could have heard it and I live on 5 acres so they are quite a distance away! Its definitely in the lower part of my stomach and doesn't really seem to be causing any problems.I don't have reflux or anything like that. I assume that its just because my stomach is empty and objecting to the fact. Good job my husband is a heavy sleeper!

Erin you seem to be struggling a lot either with having the band or possibly the knowledge that you have the band.You seem to be convinced that either something is seriously wrong or that something is going to go wrong. I think you need to make an appointment with your surgeon urgently to check that everything is OK and put your mind at rest. Once you have seen him/her then perhaps you need to find a counsellor that you can talk to about your concerns. Or alternatively is there a support group with other people that have been banded that you can go to? Meeting other bandsters in person is a great help. I am concerned that you are very young and either you weren't fully prepared or you don't have the support systems that you require. Hope you are OK and that you can sort things out so that you can relax. Good luck.

Maybe it's designed for hikers? Lighter to carry than traditional peanut butter?

I think most of us are guilty of that. i may have had liquid meals when i was younger but those days are long past. LOL

Yes but if it was just a case of being overfilled then it would have been easy to fix. Being overfilled is said to be a cause of slippage. I have read that sometimes they can fix slips by completely unfilling you for a while. Best not to jump the gun. rather make an appointment to see your Doc ASAP. It might be nothing or something that is simple to sort out. I will keep my fingers crossed for you.

It seems pretty obvious that you should have seen your Doc earlier. It may be slippage - it could be something as simple as just been overfilled. The fact that you have left it so long has probably made it worse. I cannot understand why anyone would have symptoms like these and not go back to their Doc as soon as possible!

I quite like this weight calculator. Instead of using the one method it gives 4 different methods.Based on my height of 153cm and my age 46 it tells me I could weigh anything between 44 and 59kg. I don't think i could ever get to 44 - I struggled with that even when I was young. The people's choice weight of 53kg is the one I think I would probably be happiest with. I was around that weight for a short period about 5 years ago and felt pretty happy.I am currently 59.9 which is close to the range that I can be in but I am not comfortable, I still have a large stomach and weight carried around the middle is the unhealthiest kind. I think we should set a goal, see how we feel once we get there and then reassess. It is possible that we may set a new goal or we may decide we are happy. Better Ideal Weight Body Calculations

There is no normal. Everyone is different.

I didn't either and I'm sure most banded people don't. Unfortunately because its such a big learning curve its easier to do than you think. Since my last fill I have got stuck/PB'd a couple of times. It can happen because the bite that was small enough the day before isn't quite small enough today, or you didn't chew quite as well as you thought or maybe for some reason food that went down fine yesterday for some reason won't go down today! So here's hoping you are lucky and never have to experience it but if you do then don't beat yourself up over it!

Hi Erynn. Another Victorian here but not Mildura - I am just outside Ballarat. Welcome to the group.

Can't help you but wanted to congratulate you on your success.

Thought I should go back and check my book to see what the rules are:- 1.Eat 3 or less small meals per day. - I break this all the time but my surgeon when I asked him said that it was OK to have a snack as it can be really hard to go for 6 hrs or more without food. 2.Do not eat anything between meals - seems to be a repeat of number 1! 3.Eat slowly and stop when no longer hungry. 4. Focus on nutritious foods. 5.Avoid calorie - containing liquids 6.exercise for at least 30 minutes every day - still working on that one! 7.Be active throughout each day 8.Always keep in contact with us. Just checked and this book was written by Prof Paul O Brien in 2007. Not my surgeon (Jachut's). So no I am not breaking any rules! I actually just ate a slice of sourdough raisin toast and had a cup of tea at the same time.Shock, horror LOL. Not normally what I would do but I got home from a long day at work thirsty and hungry.Yes the food won't stay in the pouch for as long but it will still get to the other part of my stomach and I am sure that will still help. As some people have already mentioned this is not a diet its a lifestyle change.I firmly believe that what you do 90% of the time is what is most important. If foods are banned then you are more likely to crave them. If all foods are allowed then you are more likely to only consume them in moderation.

One of the guys in my support group is on a cruise at the moment - his second since being banded. Apparently the first time he actually lost weight. He said it was great - at Breakfast for example he would decide what he wanted e.g a fresh cooked egg on toast and order that , ignoring the huge buffet. I think one way of looking at it is that there is lots of great food but you don't have to try everything in one go.Order what you fancy the one day and then try something different the second. Hope you have a wonderful time.

I had the same thing happen and I was concerned. I was told not to be as they do not draw everything out.The Dr explained it as being an adjusted fill total - I got very confused but I assume that it is not a problem.