Hey i tho i would post up a thread for us all to talk in.....hope this is ok :confused:

So start chatting away everyone...as for the herald sun here is a link to read

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21059191-661,00.html

Hi, Just wondering what diets we have all done in the past? We all know that diets don't work, but I have done Atkins, Weight Watchers, Pritikin, Gloria Marshall, Herbalife, etc etc.

Cam what kind of mints can you suck to avoid bad breath? The thought of having someone smell bad breath from me is horrifying to me.

I am scared I would swallow a mint whole and it would get stuck once you have been filled. Is there a natural remedy for this?

Loretta your time will come, and we will all be cheering you on!

Susannah

Susannah.... how much weight did you lose on OPTIFAST??

Ive tried every diet..... herbalife, weight watches, lite n easy, xantrx, xenical, duromine, reductil and many many more

Hi Bronnie, I lost 6 kilos on Optifast. It may have been more because I think my scales at home are cactus. I have lost 3 kilos in the two weeks post op.

I am going back to work on monday. I will just pace myself, and not do any heavy lifting.

I wanted to ask you about nursing. Is it a good career? What are its high and low points? Would you recommend it as a career? I am thinking of a career change. I am not sure if I could physically cope with nursing though given my health. My mother has been a nurse for 40 years.

What other career could I do?

Susannah

Ive been a nurse for over 15 years and love it. Im very lucky because the nurses on my ward all are aware that i have MS so will help me if needed. It really depends if you want to go to uni or tafe. Just search the net for careers.

Hey Meredith, Where do I sign up to be a lazy public servant?!!!!!!:biggrin1:

I wonder how much expense and time, a career change would entail? Is it too late for me to start over doing something else? Susannah

Hi All,

What diet have I treid I guess the question should be what haven't I tried... here we go, CSIRO, Weight Watchers (approx 10 times), every diet pill more than a couple of times each duromine, tenuate dospan, addifax, reductil, xenical (sure there are more), all the "healthy" diet pills chitosan, fat blaster, epherdrine etc, Jenny Craig was a "present" for my 18th birthday, lite n easy, some other delivery one, Sure Slim, I think the only think I haven't tried is Gloria Marshall . I did lose weight b4 I got married in 04 through Personal Trainer and cutting out wheat & sugar, but got pregnant with my daughter straight away and was sick from Day 1 all I could hold down was Bread SOoooo naturally I gained all my weight back and more!!! Yeah for me... I wanted to do band 12mths ago but my husband wasn't for it eventually in Oct this year I told him I can't do this anymore emotinally or physically I am going to see the Doc and off we went, he has been really great & supportive now.

Cam - What industry are you in, you know alot about the ins and outs of all this stuff?

Bronnie - Keep on going I am really proud of you. And be proud of yourself.

Thanks for the ongoing encouragement............Im not enjoying this OPTIFAST one little bit!!! ive still got 20 days to go :faint:

Its never too late for a career change! I went back to uni at 36 to to a Bachelor of Primary Education, I'm half way through now. I'll be 42 when I finish, and the way I see it, I probably have 15 to 20 years of work ahead of me at that point, so I may as well do something I want to be doing.

Also, life is rather annoying in that when your kids go back to school, its just not as easy as people think to return to work. You still have to worry about before and after school, and holidays. Teaching is so family friendly!

I'm loving uni life. It aint hard that's for sure! I've been on holidays since November, lol, not going back till the end of Feb. I wanted to do teaching when I finished school but there was no teaching work in Victoria in the mid 80's.

Hi All, I am up early because my sister is putting on a birthday party for the twins today, and I want to be up and out of the house before the million kiddies start descending on the house!:biggrin1: I work with children, but this is too much for me at the moment. I am going to go and see a movie at the old movie house here.

I am going back to my litle flat in Melbourne today. I am sad to be leaving in a way. It has been wonderful recovering from the surgery up in the peaceful backdrop of the country.

Hope you are all well and happy.

Susannah

Morning all.... day 4 of OPTIFAST about to commence and 2kg down.

Ive been having trouble sleeping and im not sure if its because its hot or because of the OPTIFAST. Interested in knowing how others felt during the OPTIFAST stage. As for me:

Day 1.... just a bit hungry

Day 2... very hungry, headache, toilet breath

Day 2.... Hungry and a bit week

Hey Bron, 2 kgs down is worth all the pain. I was thinking I would try those little breath mint strips you can get at the supermarket. They just disolve I think. I would be mortified to think I had bad breath.

Susannah

My teeth have never been so clean.... im cleaning them every hour or so as my toilet breath is killing me.Hope toothpaste doesnt have too many calories . They tell me its a good thing when your breath smells due to burning fat ........ if thats the case im willing to put up with it.

Bronnie, the way you are feeling is pretty standard. About day 3-5 (depends on each person) the hunger will fade, and then for me it was just breaking the habit of going to the cupboard to graze, because I wasn't actually hungry anymore. I know I felt pretty lethargic while I was on optifast but thats probably because I went form consuming 5000 or 6000 calories a day (more some days!) to consuming, what is it, like 1500 or 1000 on optifast. You body takes a little while to realise that it has fat reserves to start burning as fuel. Just take it easy and enjoy the weight loss, its only down down down from here!

Ahh Susannah, home sweet home for you today! I must say I'm a bit jealous of the first little while of recovery you have had - your sister is a gem! Soon enough life will be back to normal and the kilos will be droppng off!!! What sort of exercise are you thinking of getting into when you are ready? Or is chasing those kids around at work each day exercise enough??

When they say... its a whole new life change... it really is!!! and that even pre-banding. Im feeling okay today currently sitting here drinking my chocolate shake. I find the chocolate desserts make me feel rather ill. Soup im going to try later today. I really hope this motivation level lasts... This is basically the longest ive lasted on any diet without cheating. Couldnt do it without all of you!!!

Hi All, Bronnie it is totally weird but my nephews had their birthday party this morning, and I was surrounded by food. I had absolutely no desire to eat!:biggrin1: The band has really put a clamp on my appetite. I was perfectly content to just sit there eating a tub of yoghurt while everybody else was eating and eating all kinds of junk and healthy food. I did not feel deprived at all! I am down 4 kilos post op now.

I think I love my band!:biggrin1:

Susannah