18 Weeks After my Lap Band in Belgium

Thought I would just add it up. 18 weeks. WOW. I can't believe it was that long ago. I was 18 stone exactly on the day of the operation. That's 252 pounds. I am now 16 stone 6. That's 230 pounds.

22 pounds lighter.

I am not sure if that is actually that brilliant in 18 weeks. I guess its more than a pound a week, but I did think that it would be more than this by now, or am I just being greedy (No pun intended!)?

I am having another fill in just over a week with Dr. Dovey in Barnes. I am looking forward to meeting him. I would really like it if he could check to see if everything is OK with my band. However, I haven't gained any weight, so it must be doing something right!!

I had a good day today until dinner.. I didn't have breakfast as I wasn't hungry, and then for lunch I had a cucumber sandwich. For dinner we ordered a take away. The first one in a long long time, but a take away kebab nonetheless. It was yummy. Had a little sticky PB moment when I thought I was going to have to be sick, and then it all got better. So, bit of a bad tea, but there we go.

This is a bit boring, but I just sold loads of old junk on eBay. I am amazed. I got about £140 for it all. Its amazing really that I had that amount of stuff lying about the house.

We watched this programme about a couple who were really skint and were in loads of debt and stuff. They called it beat the bailiffs or some rubbish. Another one of those "Lets look at your sad life" kind of shows where they seem to help but probably don't in reality.

This family bought their kid a new toy every week as a treat, and it was like 5 years old or something. They spent at LEAST £40 on the item whatever it was. Basically the kid had shed loads of stuff it never played with ever. They also had loads of clothes, PC's camcorders, TV's and HiFi's and gadgets and stupid gimmicky things like massive floor to ceiling lava lamps and stuff still in the boxes it was bought in. The had all this rubbish in there house that they didn't use basically and they were asking them what on earth they bought it for. They had loads of reasons, but none held water.

So they gave the couple a wake up call. They came into their house one afternoon unexpected and took everything of value away to show them what it would be like if they didn't pay their bills and the bailiffs came around.

The woman said she was devastated and they had to live like it for a week or something. No telly, PC or anything like that you know? They said it was an awful experience. Then they took them to this MASSIVE warehouse with a small pile in the middle, which was their belongings. It looked so sad. This couple had sold their freedom for these few items and it did look really pathetic as I think we are all a little bit guilty of buying things for the sake of it and then repenting at leisure...

Anyway, they were stood over these items tat were the be all and end all of this couples lives and there was a house clearance man. They held up various items and asked him how much they would get for this and that. They held up the telly and he said £20 and they held up a brand new laptop and he said £50 things like that.

Now this is where I thought the show fell down, because you would never get such a crap amount for those items. This couple were like "Oh man, I paid £500 for that" and they were all upset and stuff at how their stuff would be sold like that if in fact the bailiffs did come around. Its just not right. Fair enough, I thought the whole psychology of putting you off debt and even getting you into a more "Lets sort this out" mode was good, but it fell down when they said you would only get like a couple of quid for stuff. Who in their right mind would let the bailiffs come and take away their telly without trying to flog it on eBay first and get the cash for themselves.

I mean, if it was me, I would have sold my stuff long before the bailiffs came knocking. Oh well, what do I know. Maybe its different when its for real. But I sold some SERIOUS rubbish on eBay today, and I got £140 for it. I sold a set of 24 ladybird books I used to teach my son to read, some contact lens cleaner, a pair of swimming arm bands, 3 little lead men for a railway set, a box of coffee and a shower attachment and a load of old karaoke discs. I really expected to get about £20 for the lot. I was WELL chuffed! I have some more crud that I am going to put on tomorrow and see what happens with that.

Its amazing how much spare "cash" you have just lying on your shelves. I am so thrilled with getting £140 for junk that I have the bug! I am looking at all the shelves thinking "Mmmm get rid of that, and that!" Well cool. I am also so annoyed with having such a messy house. How do these other people do it. It is TRULY impossible to have a clean and tidy house for more than 12 hours. I think they pay people to do it. I just turn around and its a pig sty again! So getting rid of some knick-knacks will be a good thing indeed! It just clutters up the place and collects dust. Since we moved the Piano after the remodelling of our lounge, I never put the photos and bits and bobs back. i am so glad. I can get my duster and 'sweep!' and its done. All shiny. It used to be a pigging nightmare!! I am really into to 'cash for clutter' club!

I will post a photo of the swimming pool tomorrow. Its going well. I have tiled the outside and levelled the floor off with concrete and filled all the gaps with sealant. I am going to paint the whole of the inside of the pool with roof sealer tomorrow before I put on the tiles just to make extra sure that the pool does not leak. It is wicked stuff. In our first house, we accidentally cracked the toilet cistern when we were about to move house. We couldn't get another one as it was one of those old manky avocado coloured ones, so we painted it with roof sealer a couple of times and it worked like a dream! So there we go. Slap it on nice and thick and then tile it all.

The grout annoyed me today because I had just grouted the whole outside when someone called me and I had to take the call. When I got back it had gone and sett lovely and hard for me. Not good. I had to scrape it all off painstakingly which took hours. I still have one other wall to scrape off!!

Anyway, off to bed now for an early start tomorrow in the garden!

Fiona Falkiner is Starting Over

Fiona Falkiner lost over 65 pounds as a contestant on The Biggest Loser in Australia last year. The Biggest Loser program involves an extreme exercise regiment that can't realistically be maintained in real life.

Over the past seven months Fiona has regained much of the weight she lost. She's going to try again. This time she is being paid to endorse Jenny Craig in Australia. She's become the cover model on their website. Now the plan is to lose the weight more slowly, but keep it off.

Quick Ways To Lose Weight | Tips To Help You Lose 50 Pounds Or More

Not Sure which diet is best for you? Check out our Diet ReviewsQuick Ways To Lose Weight Tips To Help You Lose 50 Pounds Or MoreBy Susan HeltonSetting Goals When DietingAs with most things in life, setting goals is very important when dieting. When you look at things truthfully and objectively you should notice that most of the things you've accomplished in life have been accomplished because

Weigh in day again

Well it was weigh in day again...

I used to be so excited for Monday to roll around again.

I trekked over to Tesco as they have this new fangled weigh in machine (seems wrong to call it a scale!) and analyzed myself.

I weigh 16 stone 6 pounds (230). My own scales say that, and its not changed for weeks.

However, I am 42% fat. That's like half of me!! Apparently about 7 stone of my body is simply fat. *shudders*

Anyway, as I am sure you can imagine, I am NOT happy that the scales haven't moved.

I am about to have my dinner, late again, as I have been in bed since about 6pm. I have also been having the most horrible dreams. They are nasty. They are either leaving DH and getting it together with someone else and realising it was a mistake, or similar kind of thing the other way around. Another of these strange dreams is when I dream about friends having the same thing happen to them, but weirdly they are always leaving their spouse to run off with someone of the same sex. Honestly... I don't know what its all about, but its really annoying me!!!!!

I don't think dreams are portentous at all. They never have been in my life anyway, but what they do do is aggravate me! I have no idea why I am dreaming so vividly or wildly and to be honest, I just want to sleep and wake up happy!! I normally do, but since getting back from Sri Lanka its just been weird city! Probably my body trying to balance itself out again or something, I will try ear plugs again and see if I get a deeper sleep so I don't remember these crazy dreams.

Looking forward to my fill on the 30th June! I really hope it starts my weight shifting. I wonder if its like a plateau during dieting... your body wising up to the fact that its being cheated into slimness and now holding on for dear life... Mmmm

Virtual Weight Loss in Motion

Here's a fun video showing weight loss progress. The virtual model shown here is 5'7". She starts out at 250 pounds and we see her reach her personal ideal weight and then go too far and get to a BMI of 18.

Cream crackered

Heres why!

Rain stopped play!

I cannot believe it, but on the day I decide to start building the swimming pool... it BUCKETS down. The sky's opened on and off all day. This was ok..ish. We managed to do a lot of the preparation. Then when it seemed to have eased and finished (?) DH and I started mixing up the first bag of cement. He had literally turned it over into a fat mix when the weather pulled it's final trick from its sleeve. A full on thunder and lightening storm and a flooded garden!!! Like I said - Unbelievable. You can see the wonderful flooded path and the covered cement mix. Oh and don't worry, the BBQ is moving! We wont be flipping burgers and taking a swim at the same time! It looks really small from DS's bedroom window. Its actually 3 metres square. You wouldn't believe it but until a few weeks ago we had a pots and tubs and an 8 seater dining table on it!!

I have come to the decision that I am actually mad. I don't know what possesses me to do these things but I know that we are the only family I know of who seem to do these weird things. Are there any other crazy dudes out there?

Band wise... cool. No problems and seemingly no flaming difference either!
breakfast I had 2 banana's and a coffee and for lunch I made pasta. I don't know what we are having for tea, but I think it will be curry and rice if I can persuade DH to make it. :o)