Hi everyone,

I'm Jeunesse....dutch and I live in Holland.

I'm 36,married and we have 4 kids.I have asthma,high bloodpressure and a bloodclotting disease called Factor V Leiden.

Till 9 years ago I was never overweight.My weight used to be around 130 pounds(I'm 5ft6).Then I got severe asthma and had to take a lot of steroids and started to gain a lot of weight.And since I gained weight I also started to eat cause I didn't care anymore.I know...pretty stupid but it's the truth.

When I reached the weight of 269 last year I knew I had to do something and started to find information on the lapband.Here in Holland they prefer the lapband over the gastric bypass/duodenal switch and any other WLS.In april I had tests done like lungfunctions,ecg's,bloodwork etc.They wanted me to loose a bit of weight too.I went from 269 to 249 and had my surgery on august 1st about 4 1/2 weeks ago.

I have lost 33 pounds after my surgery.I weigh 216 now and I feel great!!!.Last week I started going to the gym 3 times a week to workout and to boost my energy.I love it!!! The only things I have trouble with are drinking milk and eating white bread and lean meats.

But I tend to eat a lot of fish and veggies now and that goes very well.Still in the mashmode though.

Anyway....that was my introduction...a long one...I know;)

Jeunesse

hoi jeunesse, hoe gaat het met je??

I lived in holland since i was like 8 and went to school in hilversum till i graduated highschool.

I used to speak and write fluent dutch but it's all blurred away after spending nearly 15 years here is the usa.

Good luck with your weightloss!!

Hoi Leo,

Het gaat erg goed met mij!!

Your Dutch is perfect.....and it's very weird to find someone here who has actually lived in Holland.Hilversum is about an hours drive away from Heemskerk where I live.Heemskerk is next to Beverwijk where the "zwarte markt " is.

Saw your website too and your pics.It really shows that you have lost weight too.Your face is getting thinner:)

I'm so happy with my lapband....the only thing I can't take is a glass of milk.And you know how much milk we tend to drink here.

Jeunesse

Jeunesse, Leo

Hello!

I saw you posting on obesityhelp as well. Hoe gaat het met jou?

As I mentioned, I also lived in Holland for 10 years 89-99. My husband is a Nederlander and I lived in Amstelveen and Amsterdam most of the time I was there. I worked in production, television and live shows. Some of the people I worked with are Carlo Stijk, Jacqueline Aaronson, Joop van de Ende, RTL 4, Tros, SOny etc... I really enjoyed my time there. My oldest son was born in the Amstelveense Ziekenhuis. Let s stay in touch. Congratulations on your success with the band!!!

By the way, I have lots of Dutch friend here in TX. We are part of a Dutch club in Dallas and still Celebrate Sinter Klaas here and Zwarte Piet.

Actually my parents still live in Holland, wow bb you have seen a lot of famous stars in nederland, i think you might have visited hilversum then. Because there are lots of tv studios in hilversum.

Jeunesse, I know what you mean with milk. You know what I miss the most a patatje oorlog and a kroket ( forget the spelling lols)

yummy heheheh...

Hi Babs and Leo,

Babs I responded to your post on obesityhelp.com.

It's so funny to meet more people who actually been in Holland here.The 3 of us really should keep in touch.This is gonna be fun.

Leo...your parents still live in Holland?....don't you miss them?

And yeah....I have been craving a patatje oorlog too......and a kroket,frikandel,slaatje and all of those other things we can't have.Although I must confess that I took a bite of my son's patatje just for the taste of it.LOL:D

But I miss drinking milk the most.I love milk and hot choc.I used to dip a speculaascookie in my hot choc....no more.....oh well...maybe in the future I can have at least one speculaas.

But I know I'm gonna eat my chocolade letter when it's sinterklaas though;)

Jeunesse

Jeunesse, Leo

My husbands parents now live in FLA in St. Augustine. THey retired there a few years ago, but they are from Den Haag. My husbands brother lives in Maine near the Canadian border. I met my husband in the American Hotel in Amsterdam in the Leidseplein. We were the only two people having a Heineken and started talking to eachother. My husband worked for IBM both in Uithoorn and also in the US. He now works at Motorola. I miss gevulde koekjes and oude kaas. I also miss sate, but I do make my own version of it here in the US. My husband misses dubbel Zout licorice. Yuccchhhh! I notice from your diary that you eat very little!!!! YOu definitely eat less than I do. I exercise about three times a week at the gym, but not as long as you do. Go girl!!!!

Hi Babs,

I haven't added my dinner yet though.

Still have to update that.But all in all I still eat a little and drink lotsa Water,tea and juice.

My tummy already seems to be like Jello and I have been doing research to find out as much as possible about a tummy tuck next year.I also want my teeth to be laserbleached.I have pretty white teeth but I want them as white as paper....LOL:D

About the food....yes I love gevulde koekjes too but I don't like oude kaas nor dubbelzoute drop.My hubby John loves it though:)

I have a very good recipe for indonesian sate sauce I will look it up for you a post it if you want.I found a couple of good english websites with dutch recipes.Yeah...even for gevulde koek...LOL:D

http://www.godutch.com/windmill/recipes.asp?id=6

http://www.pellatuliptime.com/recipes.html

Leo it even has a recipe for kroket.

But don't eat too much...we're lapbanders now.

(((hugs)))

Jeunesse

Hi Jeunesse!

Can I too be a member of the honorary Dutch club? My husband is Belgian (Flemish) from Ostend - which is almost Dutch! Also, we have friends in the US who lived in Hilversum for 2 years - they worked for Lucent (oh, well.....) and we visited there last Summber before they returned from the US.

One thing I noticed in Holland (or should I say, The Netherlands) is how disciplined the drivers are. First, they keep to the speed limit (which is low) and then they always pull in after overtaking - both these disciplines are unknown to French drivers!

I was thinking about the sunny, bright and sparkely things on this thread. With your name, meaning 'youth', I guess you also have to be young, sunny, bright and sparkely here!

Anyway, I think we're almost surgery twins - I had my band fitted on 5 August, though I'm not losing as fast as you. I discovered on Monday that my band is open (even though the surgeon said he put 4ml in it) and I can eat anything. Of course, up until Monday I didn't know this so although I've been hungry I was too scared to eat anything with major lumps in for fear of throwing up! Of course, now that I know that won't happen.........

Yikes! I'd better get down to the gym! I see you're already doing that so I'd better do what I promised myself I'd do and sign up today!

Good luck with the weight loss!

Sarah

(not sparkely by name or young by any means, but definitely a wanabee)!

Hi Sarah:)

Nice to meet you.

Yes my name means youth in french;) My mom loved the word and gave it to me as a name.A lot of people ask me how to pronounce it...something which is very hard to explain in english...LOL:D

Your hubby is from Oostende,Belgium.Never been there but we do go to Belgium a lot by car.The fries and chocolates are way better then ours.Ofcourse no fires and chocs for me now.

We love to hire a cabin in the Ardennen.It's beautifull there.

About the band...mine hasn't had a fill either.Here in Holland they don't fill during surgery.You get your first fill about 2-3 months after surgery and only if you're not losing around 2-4 lbs a week.They don't want you to loose weight to fast.Ofcourse I'm still loosing weight at a steady rate so I think I can forget a fill for awhile.

I still eat and chew carefully and haven't thrown up either.Twice I had pain after I drank some milk and once when I turned quickly the port hurt.Which ofcourse gave me the creeps;)

Today I saw a bunch of friends in town when John and I were shopping and they were shocked how much weight I lost.

Such a great way to shock people huh?

One day I hope they don't even recognize me....LOL:D

(((hugs)))

Jeunesse

Hi Jeunesse!

Great to meet you - yep, add to the chocs and chips, the beer, of course!

Just looked at your fitday journal - very impressed! Great weight loss!

I proved to myself I can eat more or less anything at the moment - cold roast chicken 100 g, grated carrots 50 g, 5 cm baguette (oh, the French bread is so wonderful!!!) 50 g (?) and a natural yoghourt 100g. Trouble is, my surgeon told me to eat only a 100 g per meal..........

I'm seeing him tomorrow and I'm going to beg him for a fill. I get really hungry and, though I'm eating much less and much healthier than before, I'm scared I'm going to let go.......

I think I'd better get on to fitday - seems like a great idea!

TTFN,

Sarah

Can I join too? Haven't been to Holland but have been host mom for 2 foreign exchange students from Holland, also another one from Sweden who is living in Amsterdam now and is marrying a "Hollandic".

We hosted them back 10 years ago, but they have been back 2x and we talk every other month. What a wonderful experience - while our own kids were little! I can't wait for them to come back this time. The band has been a wonder thing!

Dee