Bring it on!!!

It's really great to get comments from people. I love reading that I am inspiring people on their own journey, or I am providing advice to people who are thinking of having surgery. I received my first negative comment today... from Anonymous (typical.... scared to leave your name or contact details???)
So the comment read like this:

Anonymous said...
i can't believe there is a Dr in Australia who would operate on you given you weren't even morbidly obese... i think it's quite telling that you still eat icecream and chocolate sauce and sausage rolls etc - 16.2 kgs in 8 months with lap band surgery, most patients lose that in 2 months... or then some...
October 30, 2007 3:41 PM

Ok Anonymous, I really don't give a flying fuck what you think... but I just want to clear up a few facts which you seem to (in my opinion) have wrong! They are as follows:

1. My BMI was 35 when I was banded. That makes me obese. That also makes me 10 x more like to suffer the effects of a stroke, heart attack or develop diabetes. I would consider it quite unethical for any Doctor NOT to operate on me. In fact, the fact that I wasn't Morbidly obese meant that I wasn't at high risk for complications during the surgery... hrmm, maybe I should have gained 20kg just to get into the morbidly obese category???

2. According to literature published on the success of the lapband, the band is meant to help you lose between 50-80% of your excess weight in 18months to 2 years . I had 40kg excess weight, and I've now lost 16.4kg of that in 8 months. Lets see... 40 divided by 24 is just under 2kg a month. According to the literature and studies done, I should be losing approx 2kg per month... which... let me do the maths here... 2 x 8 is... hang on.. it's 16!!! I'm 400g in front, buddy.

3. If you're losing 16kg in 2 months (8kg / month or 2kg / week) then you've got to have alot of weight to start with... I'm talking 200kg plus. I was 109kg when I was banded... you do the math here..

4. Losing 16kg in 2 months is unhealthy. Fucked if I want to see my hair fall out and develop anaemia from losing weight too quickly. I don't really fancy Vitamin B12 shots in my ass thanks very much.

5. I can't eat sausage rolls, but I do eat ice cream. I have 1 scoop, with calorie free chocolate sauce, and it goes down a treat.

6. I exercise. That builds muscle. Muscle weighs heavier than fat... sorry, is this getting too technical for you?


Most importantly, Anonymous, I am PERFECTLY HAPPY with my rate of weight loss. If I continue on my current weight loss, I will be at goal weight in 6 months.

I invite you to continue to follow my journey, but please... if you're going to post another comment like the one you left yesterday, grow some balls and leave your name.

My band has a mind of it's own..

I still get extremely frustrated with my band. It's like it is a fussy eater and can't make up it's mind. Like one day I'll be able to eat bread (ok, half a slice.. not much I know) and then the other day I'll spew up the first mouthful. Like tonight, I made pasta ravioli with lite sun-dried tomato sauce... only ate about 3 pieces of the pasta and I was done. Even an hour later, I can still feel a lump in my throat... like it hasn't gone through... yet, on the way back from NZ, I had pasta on the plane... ate it slowly and It was all good.. although I couldn't fit the bread roll or the salad in...
Today, I had half a croissant for breakky... didn't eat again until 4pm... just wasn't hungry. I ate the croissant over the space of around 1.5 hours cos I was in a training meeting and didn't want to have an accident... but just wasn't interested in food for the rest of the day. Normally, like clock-work) I'll feel hungry at lunch.. but I just kept working through, had a couple of meetings in the afternoon (Pepsi Max to drink) and then before I knew it, it was 4pm and I realised I hadn't eaten.

Anyhoo, what else? Oh yeah, during my trip to NZ I had a bit of a scare with my band. I went for a walk for dinner and picked up some Japanese take-away... They had soups and sushi and rice dishes... silly me forgot that she had a band and ordered the Pork Katsu curry dish- deep fried pork cutlet, onions, egg on rice.. hardly any sauce. I really should have gone for a ramen soup.. but no.. I thought I could handle it... Got back to my room.... ate a couple of mouthfuls and up it came... and up it came again.... and again... I managed to fill a whole teacup full of clear stuff that didn't even have bits in it. That's when I realised that something was obviously stuck. So, toddled off to the bathroom where I hacked my guts up, and yep... there was something blocking it. Instant relief once I got it out... and then my chest was sore and I could barely sip on water without wanting to gag... *sigh* there marks the end of my love for yummy Japanese rice dishes...

So I ordered a smoothie for breakfast while in NZ. Delicious, they were! Blueberry and honey, with protein powder and skim milk. Filled me up, and kept me going right up until lunch. it was perfect. So, on the second morning I was there, I waited patiently for my breakky arrive. The door bell to my room rang and I opened it, only to have a waitress present me with my smoothie... AND... some danishes. I told her I didn't order that... and she said that "they didn't think I had ordered enough food and so they bought this up" and that was followed quickly by "don't worry, it's complementary". I looked at her and said, yes... thank you ... but I don't want them. She looked at me as though I was speaking a foreign language... I then thought.. bugger this... and I said to her - I have a silicon band that is wrapped around my stomach, I physically will not be able to eat these. Please take them away - another blank stare. So I replied - I've had gastric banding surgery - I can't eat solids before lunch. Not saying anything, just nodding and smiling, she backed her trolley slowly away and I closed the door. Why did they feel the need to decide what I should and shouldn't have for breakfast? In the comments card I wrote something like "I am on a diet, so to be offered danishes when I clearly didn't order them was extremely annoying and frustrating"...

What else? Oh... yeah... I'm now only 1.5kg heaver than my other half. Considering at one stage I was closer to 20kg heaver than him, this truely is an important milestone for me. He's sitting on around 91kg at the moment, and I'm at 92.4kg... so not long to go until I'm lighter than my other half! What a great day that will be :)

Peace out xx

LBG xx

Loving my band..

I'm not sure if I've mentioned recently that I love my band. Well I do... it is the best thing I could have possibly done for myself. Sure, it hasn't been easy, and I still have to work at losing weight... but after all is said and done, I wouldn't have changed it for the world. I keep on thinking that I should be losing weight more quickly, and I am still disappointed in myself that in the 8.5 months I've had this band, I've lost almost 16kg.. Ok, Ok, I know... that's around 2kg a month... and considering I was out of action with my exercise for around 3 months because of my back AND I changed jobs twice... I have to keep telling myself that I'm doing pretty darn good!

Anyhoo, I weighed in at 92.9kg the other day. YAY! I'm in the 92's and looking straight down the barrel of the 80's... I thought I'd be excited when I got into the 90's, fuck, I don't know how I'm going to react when I see that sweet sweet number 8 replace "that's so 90's" number 9. I will cry... I am totally going to cry.

I had to reschedule my check up with my surgeon until 9th November just cos I can't make my 2nd November appointment anymore... and so that gives me 3.5 weeks to get into the 80's. I told my doctor that the next time he saw me I'd be in the 80's and dammit, that's what is going to happen!! 3.0kg to go.... bring it on!

LBG xx

So close I can taste it!

I'm 500g away from reaching 20% weight loss. That's right peoples, I have lost 1/5th of me. Truely amazing. I'm still stuck on the same weight I was last week (93.3kg). But happy none the less as I was eating at weird times while I was travelling last week and wasn't exercising at all. Planning to put in a bit more effort this week as I am at home and have a more regular routine.

Nothing much else to report. I'm kind of inbetween sizes at the moment. Some size 18 clothes fit me really well, some are too loose and some are too tight.. go figure eh?

Take care!

LBG xx

Travelling.. and the band

The 3 hour time change from Sydney to New Zealand has really fucked me up. I'm hungry at the weirdest times. I was up at 5am sydney time (8am local NZ time) and wasn't hungry, but got a smoothie from room service to tie me over. Meanwhile, "lunch" was at 9:30am sydney time (12:30 pm local time) had half of a small sausage role and puked it back up, yet it's now 4:30pm local time (1:25pm sydney time) and I'm STARVING!!

I'm happy with my weight loss at the moment. It's slowed down a little... 300g down in 5 days.. I'm looking forward to seeing the 80's on the scales soon! But I'm feeling good, have loads of energy and am loving the fact that my size 18 work skirt is comfortable to the point of being a tad loose! *go me!*

I'm not sure if I should visit the mini bar for a snack, or just wait the 1.5 hours until dinner.. cos if I eat something now, I won't be hungry come dinner, but if I wait until dinner, then I might eat too quickly and have a "mishap". Decisions, decisions..

LBG xx

15kg... GONE!

It's taken a while, but I've finally hit my 15kg weight loss mark. This is almost the halfway point for my weight loss goals. I would like to lose another 17-18kg... before I reasses. I'm STOKED!

I see my doctor on 2nd November, just under 1 month for a check-up and blood test. I promised him that I would be in the 80's by the time I saw him. So that's 3.7kg to lose in 4 weeks. Definitely doable...

I've realised that the head hunger will never disappear, I just have learnt to manage it better by eating foods that I know are going to make me full and not vomit. I've also learnt that if I'm not hungry, I don't have to eat... even if it is "time" to according to the clock. I'm also happy to have smaller portions where as before I would try to eat as much as I could and deal myself out a larger portion. 8 months on and I'm still learning things about my band ...

LBG xx

P.S I LOVE my band :)

Weight loss has picked up!

Down to 93.8kg this weigh in. Definitely comes down to the increased amount of exercise I am doing now that I'm fully recovered from my surgery.

I went out to dinner with my family last night. My family don't know about my band. All being very health conscious they were asking me what I was doing to lose the weight. "Smaller Portions and Exercising" is my usual reply. I'm not telling a lie, I'm just not mentioning that I have something that helps me along a little. I feel bad lying to them, especially when I am now 12kg lighter than my sister (I've always been the largest sister). But, I feel like this is my journey and I need to do this on my own. I will tell them eventually, but I don't feel ready at the moment. I think I still need to prove to myself that I can do it, lose the weight, get down to my goal weight and keep it off for a while.

But seeing my sister last night made my heart ache for her (she's gained 7kg since I last saw her in May!). Knowing that I could but won't give her the information and advice she desparately needs to help her lose weight was making me feel really guilty. I hate seeing her overweight and miserable, but I couldn't bring myself to confide in her about my lap band, because my family is so close I KNOW it will get out even if I ask her not to say anything to Mum and Dad.

One day I'll tell them... just not now :) and I'm OK with that.

200g to go until I've lost 15kg since the banding... bring on the 80's!!!

LBG xx

I LOVE my band

Sometimes I love my band, sometimes I hate my band... at the moment, I am totally loving my band, and if I could... I would open myself up and kiss my lovely piece of silicon that's wrapped around my stomach... Hrmm. Ok, maybe not...

I weighed in at 95.4kg today. I know, I'm becoming a little scales obsessed but I just can't help it. I love seeing the numbers drop every couple of days. When I don't lose weight, the scales are my enemy and I put them away and only weigh in once a week.. but when I'm going through a good drop, I can be known to weigh in 2-3 times a day..

Just to give you an idea of what I'm eating at the moment:
BF: nothing, or a protein shake. (always have a berocca performance, iron tablet and fish oil when I first wake up and then a cuppa tea when I first get to work)
MT: half an apple or half an orange
L: Can of tuna, half a tomato, few slices of avocado, cucumber and capsicum (normally don't get through it all) or one of those small healthy choice twin pack frozen meals or a toasted cheese sandwich (normally leave the crusts so probably eat around 3/4 of it)
MT: the other half of the piece of fruit I was eating, or a can of coke zero if I'm not particularly hungry, or a Le snack or a cup a soup
D: 1 cup of something. I have these small ramiken dishes that I put my meals into now... or on a bread and butter plate... sometimes my band won't like what I've eaten, so it's normally with extra sauce
S: Cup of tea with or without 2 chocolate chip bikkies or 1 scoop icecream with chocolate sauce.

Averaging 1000 cals/day and exercising 5 times during the week burning around 500 cals per session.

I feel like I've gotten control of the band a little bit now and am working it to my advantage. It also really helps that I have some awesome bandit friends who I can turn to for advice or a bit of a whinge.

Speaking of which, one of my bandit mates and gym buddies is going into hospital on Tuesday to have a TUMMY TUCK after losing over 40kg. GOOD LUCK HONEY!!!

Enough from me. Enjoy what's left of the weekend!

Will post soon.

LBG xx

Goodness gracious me!

What a month! My back totally fucked up at the end of August and I ended up having a partial discectomy to remove the piece of disc pressing on a nerve running down my leg. So, no exercise for this little chicken and consequently no weight loss either. I even had to cancel my fill appointment with Dr B as I was in hospital at the time.

4 weeks later and I'm back at the gym and feeling fantastic. NO MORE PAIN!! I'm even down to 96.1kg which is 100g off 20kg lost (since my heaviest).

I've been concentrating on foods that I know will make me feel fuller eating less of it, so chocolate is a no-no. Things like fruit and veges and lean protein (no surprises there!). Not PB'ing as much at the moment, only on the odd occasion when I get REALLY hungry and wolf something down and then think "Oh-Oh" as I know the inevitable is going to happen. Up it comes and I'm good again.

Will post more now that I'm back on the weight loss bandwagon again.

Cheers,

LBG xx

Biting the bullet...

I'm going back for another fill. I've plateaued since my last doctors appointment and I can't take it anymore! It's so weird, cos some days I'm tight as and can hardly get anything down, and some days I can eat quite a bit and it will hardly touch the sides. It's really frustrating. So, I booked in for another fill next Monday.

Other than that, everything is going OK. Have been PB'ing once every second day or so... normally cos I eat too fast and don't chew properly...Hopefully this fill will give me a bit of a boost for my weight lost because it's starting to be a bit depressing that I've undergone major surgery for weight loss and I'm not losing any weight...

LBG xx