Is there anyone out there that is from New Zealand. I have just joined this website - thanks to another friend who told me about it. I was just wondering if there were any other kiwi's out there. I have just had my banding op on the 8th March 07, so it all rather new for me. Just gone on to the mushy food stage and excited about that. Some normal food that I don't have to drink - YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!

The magic bullet should be your best friend through the mushy food stage. I use it for avocados with tomato garlic and lemon juice with some fat free french dressing or similar - it makes a very soft guacamole with goes down well, ver nutricious and easily digestable.

I also use it for hard boiled eggs with a teaspoon of lite dressing and some curry powder = curried eggs mush which is easy to eat with a teaspoon.

the trick is to make it wet .

smoothies are also good with frozen berries or fruit.

my 1st fll will beon the 22nd of Jan- not no much looking forward to that but am looking forward to the reduced capacity.

Went for a bike ride last night with my daughter, seing as how I can't go to the gym so easily as can't take kids there and I have no one to look after her.

Hi, I'm in Wellington and I'm having my surgery on April 18th so I'm a bit behind you guys. I'm due to start my pre-op diet in 2 days and I'm getting quite excited about it all.

Anyway, this is my first day on the site and I'm glad to see there are some Kiwi's here. :eek:

Hi, I"m in Aussie but remain a kiwi at heart, I was just wandering thru the posts and saw this one. I'm on day 9 of optifast and I"ve been doing pretty good as well as cutting out the fags...I haven't been bad around food or others eating...until now.

I've been in Aussie for over 20 years, and now here I am overweight and on optifast waiting to be banded and suddenly what do I see...pinky bar!! omg..nothing personal but I haven't had one of those in soooooooooooo very long and after seeing your nic here, I can taste it!!

lol think I better go now before someone thinks I am a little peverted but just wanted to say thank you, from someone who can't eat right now, for that taste of home.:whoo::faint:

Ki Ora Kiwi's,

Hubby and I are in Edmonton for 3-4 years, then back home to Mangawhai. I am having my band procedure in Mexico on the 26th of February.

This whole site has been great and very informative. But nice to have our own little spot, too! I have joined in the Feb 2008 bandster group as well as the Canadian one.

Look forward to keeping in touch with everyone's progress!

Dana

HI

Had my first fill today. Got over filled and couln't keep anything down not evena sip of water. went back at lucnh time and had 1 ml removed... so much better.

Have noticed a huge difference. I was worried before as I seemed to still be able to eat quite a bit with no issues.

Now how ever I feel that heavy feeling in my chest after a very small amount so hopeully that will spark a huge drop. Although I have been averaging a kilo a week and my surgeon if very happy with the progress, Have to admit I had hoped to keep having he 3-4 kg losses that I had straight after surgery.

Hope everyone else is doing well

welcome Dana

HI

Had my first fill today. Got over filled and couln't keep anything down not evena sip of Water. went back at lucnh time and had 1 ml removed... so much better.

Have noticed a huge difference. I was worried before as I seemed to still be able to eat quite a bit with no issues.

Now how ever I feel that heavy feeling in my chest after a very small amount so hopeully that will spark a huge drop. Although I have been averaging a kilo a week and my surgeon if very happy with the progress, Have to admit I had hoped to keep having he 3-4 kg losses that I had straight after surgery.

Hope everyone else is doing well

welcome Dana

i had my first fill too on the same day. mine felt too tight to begin with also, however it has settled now, but like you i can certainly feel a difference. i ate somethig yesterday, just a small amount and i obviously didn't chew quite enough, though it didn't get stuck i felt it going ALL the way down. near bought tears to my eyes! it was my first experience of getting anything close to stuck ... probably not my last ... but certainly has been being very careful now.

All good though!

Hey wouldn't it have been nice to keep up the initial post surgery weight loss rate!!

I had my first two fills with no drama, the third however ... did not go so well ... not sure what happened but there was a whole world of pain. In the end i decided to flag the fill and go back next month.

To be fair, i do have good restriction and am losing weight albeit slow.

Slow is good

Hey there Kiwis,

Well it must be time for an update with you all - I haven't been on here for ages and was wondering how we are all going. I have hit the 35kgs off now - which is about the 77lbs and feeling great. How bout the rest of you - would be great to hear how you are all going?

Oh and by the way anybody that had surgery in ChCh - are you going to the evening at St Georges on Wednesday night? I am really looking forward to going and it sounds like there will be a few of us there.

Keep in touch

Regards

Dale

Hi all,

Update from me too - nearly a year - 26 April is my bandday - and 35 kgs gone forever. Fantastic - I am so stoked. I don't think I really believed that it would work, but there is no denying it now. Size 16 jeans WOOHOO!!

My ticker (if it is still there) is wrong but i cant remember how to update it.

Cheers

Hi Dale and Flax,

you both are an inspiration ... i hope in another 8 months i can be writing about how i have lost 35kg too!

i had the surgery 4 months ago now and i have lost 16.5kg so far. The last bit has felt slow, i am averaging 3 kg a month, which ... as we all do, wish is was faster, but when we add it up it is like 36kg in a year .... so that doesn't sound so bad huh.

i have been ok with my food intake, i have had a few problems with over eating ... some days i can eat an amount i would expect to eat ... like a sandwich or something like that ... then the next day i will try to eat the same thing in the same manner ... slow, chew chew chew, little bites ... and it gets stuck or i get full ... whatever it is, it hurts!

i have been working out most days too ... i hav so much more energy, which is awesome ... infact i think i am going to learn to ski this year, though i suspect i will break a bone and get carried off the ski field! Best i lose a little more before then, to save the paramedics backs.

i do love hearing about peoples progress ... it makes it seem like it might actually work out for me and that i might get all this excess weight off ... i would just be happy being overweight ... not obese or even worse ... as i am now ... morbidly obese.

Hi everyone, and well done! Just had my first fill on the 17th in Calgary. The surgeons in Edmonton will not do a fill if they have not done the surgery. I hope I won't have that issue when I get home to New Zealand! Anyway, the fill went ok and I do have some restriction. I am already booked for the next fill next month as I think I will need it. Only head hunger, but it is powerful! I, too, can't wait till I have lost a bit more!

Well i am sitting just so close to 20kg lost ... less than a week i will have passed that little goal.

i have had to buy soooo many new clothes ... what a shame ... lol. i have been watching out for sales and doing it that way ... i don't want to spend a fortune ... but i don't want to wander around in clothes far too big for me.

How is everyones eating going? how many calories would you consume daily? How much can you actually eat? i can't eat much at all, some days are better than others, but generally speaking i am eatin very little. Cuppa-Soup and up-and-go are my new best friends. if i eat too much i just feel like crap all day so i tend to take it very slow.

One thing i have found i have no problems eating ... chocolate. Not that i eat it very often ... perhaps once every couple of weeks. One of my very few pleasures i have left when it comes to eating.

Hi everyone,

Hope you don't mind me popping in and posting on this site. I have been living in Oz now for the past 14 years but a more passionate kiwi you couldn't get. I miss NZ sooooo much. Just been back in April and came back this time with a silver fern tattooed on my wrist much to the dismay of my Australian partner.

I am relatively new to this site and have been posting on the Australian site but started reading through this one as well and having just been home (Bulls is my hometown) and telling some of my friends all about it I thought I would see what some fellow kiwis have to say about the whole experience. From what my friends were saying none of them had even heard of the procedure.

I have my date 26.06.08 with Dr Michael Cox at Napean Private (Penrith). I cant wait but am still a bit anxious - went to the seminar in October so it seems to have taken forever for the time to arrive but not long now - start the Optifast next week (mmmm really looking forward to that). I am looking forward to being a happier healthier more energetic person. I am so sick of feeling like a lethargic blob with no interest in doing anything. Hopefully it will illiminate the use of my c-pap machine for sleep apnoea (no fun travelling across the ditch lugging that bloody awful thing around) my blood pressure should improve and my insulin levels I am told will also improve. I have a hiatus hernia as well but the doc said if he gets in there and it is bad he will fix that at the same time.

There is some really good information that everyone else shares - certainly is worth reading through some of the threads.

Some of the before and after photos are truly inspirational.

Deb

Hi Debz,

How exciting, i can remember when i got my date, it feels like it is forever until that day comes.

i am now 6 months down the track ... the time seems to have flown by ... but i tell you what, the Optifast period felt like it would never end, i do not envy you.

i still have good and bad days with food. i am evidently a slow learner on how to eat, slow and small bites sometimes seems to be an impossible task.

However it has been worth it! i went shopping today, purchased a pair of size 14 jeans and a size 14 dress - which looks amazing on.

Good luck with your journey ... and keep us posted!!

from one kiwi girl to another!

Hey Deb, How did it go? Hope you are feeling well and looking forward to the exciting part - watching the weight fall off. Let us know how you are doing.

i have had a few issues this week with my band, i had a gastric bug and my poor little tummy got inflamed and i was unable to swallow for a period of time. Had a little sleep over at the hospital to get rehydrated ... i then proceeded to drive 4 hours to the lovely lovely offices of David Schroeder in Hamilton to get deflated.

Andrea and David there were a god send in my hours of need.

:thumbup: Big Thumbs up to them both!!

It was an immediate relief!