Sunday 28th September 2008

Little frustrated this week, after keeping my calories under 1000 per day and restarting my usual program of exercising 4 days of 45 mins per day, in the pool and I have put on .2kg. Please explain! Only 5 days to go till I begin mushies. Got cooking yesterday and now I have a freezer full of little 1 cup size packages of Mongolian Lamb, Beef Stew, Turkey Casserole, Apricot Chicken and Tuna Mornay. Spent this week living on my daily breakfasts of Chocolate Protein shakes, lunches of V8 vegie juice and dinners of home made soups. Oh well! I hope this raise in weight is only temporary and not a sign of an upward trend. Will see next Sunday! Bye for now

Sunday 21.9.08

Well here we are again and its weigh in day! Lost 1kg this week making it a total of 7kg or almost 16lbs I am very pleased how things as going. My husband cooked himself lamb steaks the other day and they smelled divine so I took a piece off and sucked the juice out of it to get the flavour and did my usual trick of spitting it out again. I have also been sucking on cheese till it liquifies and goes down followed by a sip of water to help it along and Kraft light smooth peanut butter. I will begin work again tomorrow and that means up at 6am to do an hour in the pool. It will be interesting to see weight results after a week of using up calories in the pool. I will be playing it by ear to see how energetic I get depending on my physical state. Whether I am still weak or sore from surgery. Time will tell. Thats all for today, thanks for your support. Until next week.

Sunday Check-In 14th Sept 08

Well its been weigh-in day today, I'm going to be doing it every Sunday. I am pleased to report that I have another 2 kgs bringing total lost to 6kgs or 13.2lbs (for those who understand that language) since banding. Whoohoo! During this week I have had a tiny battle with hunger but that only lasted to days until I got my protein levels sorted out. In fact I have discovered a great taste sensation. Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein shakes. I get the regular Choc protein shake and chuck in a tbs Cocoa as I like the real Chocolate flavour and put in a tbs Kraft Light Smooth Peanut Butter. It is yum and filling.
I have been coping really well with not wanting or craving real crunchy food but alas last night I have been having a battle and needed (my head did anyway) bacon. So I thought I would cook up some bacon and give it to my husband to eat then just swish my baked bean soup around in the pan to get the flavour. Well tasted OK but it seemed not the flavour I was after but the crunch so I noticed Hubby hadnt yet eaten the bacon so I popped it in my mouth and chewed bits to get that lovely crunch and flavour and then spat it out so the lumpy bits didn't go down. Was I naughty, probably but it was sooooo good. By the way, Baked Bean soup is made from a tiny can of baked beans being whizzed up with some tomato soup. It has more protein and fibre than ordinary tomato soup and was a good change. I removed the dressings today from my wounds to see a very colourful sight. Bruising aroung the port site and a couple of the other holes but overall not too bad. I have left the sterie strips on the port woung for a bit longer but the rest are A-OK. I will wait for the sterie stripps to come off before I begin my exercise program in the pool. (I am lucky to have a heated indoor pool here at home). Thats all for today check in again next week. Thanks for your comments, keep them coming. I love to read them. By the way, Starrcan I am on liquids for 4 weeks before the mushies come along. My doc's rules are different than any I have heard of. Anyway I will be following the the best I can. Thanks for being a follower of my blog.

1 week out Post Op

Just checking in, 1 week out of surgery and I am fine, got the diet thing worked out getting in enough calories and protein a day to sustain myself ok. Through experimenting with the amount of protein I get I have got myself to a level where I don't feel hungry like I did a few days ago.

Before Pic

This is me before surgery weighing in @ 110kg


I will endeavour to keep these pics updated as time goes on.

Few days Post-Op

Three days out from Lapband surgery (it was the 4TH SEPT) and I am still very sore. Have been on a liquid diet consisting of soup, apple juice, milk, and water. Its important to remain hydrated but when your stomach is so swollen its difficult to get too much water in. Have been suffering gas pains and copping it in the left shoulder. Luckily I was already aware that this would be the case or I would have thought I was having a heart attack. Yesterday I walked for about 30 minutes around Salamanca Markets in Hobart. Will try to do more today although I have to go into my classroom and supervise my husband in moving the furniture so that the cleaners can come in and do the floors over the school holidays. LOST 4 kgs

Introduction - How did such a nice little girl become MORDBIDLY OBESE!

Well to introduce myself, I'm a 54 year old teacher (hippie chic at heart). Mother of 2 grown daughters and married to the best guy. Grandmother to Zoe. Been overweight since I was having my kids 35 years ago. Began with just a few pounds overweight but when dieting I'd lose a bit only to put on more later. That has been the story of my life. I have tried, Hypnotherapy, twice 35 years between sessions. Weight Watchers 3 times. And various other popular diets, the Atkins, the Liver Cleansing Etc. All were never sustainable. Especially when I had a phobia of vegetables (to the point of not being able to bring a vegetable to my lips) which stemmed from having a nutritional Nazi as a parent who force fed me vegetables as a child, to the point of vomiting. But that was the ways of the world during the 50's era and unfortunately I had a parent that took it to the last degree. 32 years later I undertook Emotional Freedom Therapy which got me over my vegetable phobia. I could now put vegetables to my lips but after a lifetime of not eating them my tastebuds could not get accustomed to the flavours or textures which I particularly had an aversion to. Well enough was enough I was getting scared for my health's sake having already high blood pressure, and my joints were suffering from arthritis and I also had developed an anti-immune system disease called Polymyalgia Rheumatica. Finally I approached my doctor and she readily agreed to refer me to my surgeon. One 5 minute visit, after 2 hours waiting in his rooms and I was organised to be banded. I had decided on Sept 4th 2008 as my date so I could recover in the school holidays (I'm a teacher of early childhood)