A Couple Sets Out to Lose Weight Together

This couple met ten years ago and started a family about five years ago. They now have three beautiful children but are determined to get their health and energy back. They want to feel like they did when they were at ideal weight They've just started their new plan. Help cheer them on.

Liquids.... Bleugh

I am on liquids today after my fill and I have not been hungry. Whenever I started to get peckish, I either had a yoghurt, or had a coffee or had juice. Worked well.
Today's food:
2 x black cherry yoghurts
4 x peach and apricot yoghurts
1/2 ltr pineapple juice
7 coffee's

Total cals: 532.

Did a tesco shop online today, so tomorrow I should have some more interesting yoghurts and also some more juice. I also bought a couple if those coffee flavour slimfasts because over ice they are like frapaccino. MMMmmmmm

I was rushing about all day today trying to sort out 100's of things, and then I went to work. Got a lot of kids going in for exams this session, so its a bit ARGHHHHH right now locating the dosh for that. I always forget to ask someone for their entrance fee and wonder why I am out of pocket. Hopefully this will be the first time in 12 years that I don't!

Spoke to bunk mate for over an hour this evening and she is looking forward (understatement!) to her fill on Thursday. I have decided that I wont be ridiculous and have one too, I will stick with WLSgroup and go back for my free one in 4 weeks. So fill #3 is on 10th Feb. YAY.

Weight today was 17 stone 4 pounds. This was a loss of 3 pounds this week. HURRAH!

Total loss to date 10 pounds (8 since re-operating)

Is Hoodia the Best Fat Burner ?

Still in search for the Fat Burning Pills I will touch on the highly hot topic of hoodia gordonii. . When losing weight it is important to lose fat not muscle. If you wan to be leaner and healthier then your concepts regarding should be set right.

It is without doubt that people are becoming more obsessed with losing some extra pounds, getting a more lean look etc.Like mentioned earlier, just look at the amount of searches done per day on various terms.

Best weight loss pill (over 75 searches per day)

Weight loss pill (over 650 searches per day)

Fat burning workouts (over 65 searches per day)

Best fat burner (over 110 searches per day)

Fat burning pills (over 100 searches per day)

Fat burner (over 800 searches per day)

Fat burning exercise (over 105 searches per day)

Fat burning exercises (over 155 searches per day)

Fat burning food (over 300 searches per day)

Fat Burning diets (over 35 searches per day)

Losing belly fat (over 95 searches per day)

Hoodia (pronounced HOO-dee-ah) is a cactus-like plant that grows primarily in the semi-deserts of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola. It was accidentally discovered in these regions where the locals reported of using it to suppress their appetites. Following that in the last few years, hoodia has been heavily marketed for weight loss and has therefore gained enormous popularity.

Despite its popularity, there are no published randomized controlled trials in humans to show hoodia is safe or effective in a pill form.

One study published in the September 2004 issue of Brain Research found that injections of p57 into the appetite center of rat brains resulted in altered levels of ATP, an energy molecule that may affect hunger. The animals receiving the P57 injections also ate less than rats that received placebo injections. However, this was an animal study and injections in the brain are different from oral consumption, so it cannot be used to show that oral hoodia can suppress appetite in humans.The manufacturer Phytopharm cites a clinical trial involving 18 human volunteers. This found that hoodia consumption reduced the food intake by about 1000 calories per day compared to a placebo group. Although intriguing the study was never published or subjected to a peer-review process, so the quality of the study cannot be evaluated and therefore not acceptable as yet.

There are possible sideefects including involving the Liver and therefore users should be cautious while using it.The demand for the next “best weight loss pills” never dies out. Although at the time there was a ban on the herb ephedra, the market was starving for a new diet pill which will do miracle.

The demand for weight loss pills will probably never die out and people will always look for the next “miracle” pill to come to their rescue. Only and only if one can understand the dynamics around weight loss, can one really succeed in the long term goals of permanent weight loss. Hoodia Gordonii does not have any scientific proof to back up its claims. If you do plan to commence this alternative medicine then please do consult your doctor before you do so. Until then we should still keep looking for the best weight loss pills in the maket

Introducing Celadon, Food Editor

It is my pleasure to introduce Celadon aka Barbara Gibbons as our LivingAfterWLS Food Editor. This fabulous female is burning the midnight oil editing our new cookbook and contributing recipes to our online recipe collection. She is smart about recipe makeovers and a gifted foodie who arrived in the weight loss surgery community July 31, 2007. Since that day she has worked her tool magnificently!

Feeling Depressed : A Portrait

I can relate to this image. It speaks perfectly of the dejected feeling most of us must have occasionally, maybe especially on Monday mornings.

Check out this creative artist's blog. His creations are incredible and almost always elicit some hidden emotion.

Its going to work this time

Went to see Wendy at the Weightloss Surgery Group today.

What an inspiration. The managing director, Michelle, has had a band and lost over 12 stone and another lady there who worked on the team had lost 13 stone. There are more too, but these are the ones I met. Wendy the nurse is lovely. She totally knows what she is doing and the treatment I received could definitely be called After Care.

I arrived a little early for my appointment and was shown in to see Michelle. It was in the lift up there, I met a lady who worked there (cant remember her name) who had lost 13 stone, and then I met Michelle. I talked me through my story, most of which we had already discussed on the phone, and then she gave me some details and reassured me that the band works. period. She discussed area where they would accept a patient, and where they would not, but above all it was my commitment to working with their advice that would eventually get me the results I crave.

Then Michelle introduced me to Wendy, a bariatric nurse, and she took some more information... things like what had happened with my band, when my re-surgery was done and how much fluid I thought there was in there first off. I told her that for the first month or so after my operation I was still trying to make the band confirm to MY eating habits rather than accept that i had to change, but that for the past 3 weeks I had been trying my utmost to toe the line and in the last 2 weeks I haven't been sick or had pain at all.

She looked over my food diary that I had kept for the last week and asked me why I was eating mostly soft foods...

I hadn't considered them to be so, but i can kind of see her point now. Anyway, the cals were fine and she was not bothered about anything untoward. She then asked me if she put a chicken and salad sandwich infront of me now, how much would I be able to eat. I said that if it was with 2 slices bread then half that because its dry. She wanted to know which foods made me have bad reactions etc. Then she asked if I had restriction. I told her yes, I did have, but it doesn't really show as long as I chew my food well and its wet-ish. She also asked me if I could eat more after I had finished, and I said that 95% time I finish whats on my plate and stop there because there IS no more, not because I cant eat any more, so I am kind of self restricting.

So she decided that she was going to put in 1.2ml, but she was going to do it over 2 weeks. She said she would give me 0.6mls today, and then the other 0.6ml in 2 weeks time at no extra cost.
This was to err on the side of caution and get a good idea of things and how I react to fills, especially as it was after my 2nd fill back in May that my port blew out and I was obviously nervous about that.

So I laid on the bed and she showed me the needle in the package with the hole in the side. She placed 0.6mls into the syringe and then started to feel for the port. I had my hands raised over my head, and then she asked me to do a leg lift like in the gym so that the heels were just off the bed and then she located it fine. This all took much longer than its ever done before. Then she said "Look at the angle of the needle. I will write down that your port is slightly on its side so that I remember in future, but I just wanted to show you that too so you know as well." And it was indeed a little bit weird. Not vertical, but slightly lying down and to the left a little.

So then she pushed the 0.6 mls home and I thought that was it. But then she said "Now I am going to check the total fluid..." and carefully withdrew the liquid. "I am doing it ever so slowly and then releasing the syringe to check for the slight suction that should be there" which is was and that apparently means that there are no leaks and stuff. She pulled the syringe to maximum and there was exactly 5.1mls in my band. WOW. I felt a bit weird and funny when she put it back in, but I just lay there for a few minutes. There was no bleeding from the wound or anything like that and everything was done.

She filled out a card with my weight on it (110.6kg on Sunday 13th January at 4:45pm) and then how much she had put in, and how much was in the band in total.

Then there was more talking and showing me stuff and a model and spare bands to show what she had put in and show the difference etc. Then I went to see the dietitian. She is called Hala, and she is lovely too. She looked over my diet sheet and wasn't too bothered either, and then asked me to keep a record of all my food until I see her next time and when I eat that food as she said that was really telling.

So all in all, a very enjoyable and reassuring time. I felt in VERY safe hands with people who know what they are doing, who have experienced the operation first hand and gone through the process. It was truly worth the £100.

Today's food:
3 smoked salmon slices
mash
green beans
minced beef and gravy
1 square of 70% chocolate

Extra protein with your Mussels...

I was amazed at the amount of tiny crabs I had in my mussels when we were in France. Apparently the mussels eat the little crabs and this is the time of year for them to do such things... makes them a bit crunchy though. I couldn't be bothered to keep checking them, so I just gobbled them down.

Anyway, back to fills... Had a an answer to my distress email from my Bunk Mate from Brugge this morning. She is so adorable and I love her to bits. I am so pissed of with this weight thing though. Any of you who think I am rash then don't worry. I am going to London tomorrow to see the weightloss surgery group www.wlsgroup.co.uk for aftercare and to see how they are. I don't actually know if they will give me a fill tomorrow without seeing my x-rays but if they offer me one I am going to take it. Then I will see how I feel. Obviously it depends on what she gives me. If she gives me 2ml (doubtful) then sure I wont have another fill for ages. If she gives me less that 1 ml, then I am totally getting another one on Thursday from the other doctor. But don't worry I wont do anything rash. Yesterday I was just wound up.

My reasoning is this - supposedly most people having significant restriction and it really working for them are at about 7mls give or take. If that's the case, then I am going to need more fills. I cant keep living like this and I need to get my life on track yesterday. So as the aftercare from www.wlsgroup.co.uk is just that - an aftercare PACKAGE - I can get unfilled at any time and have access to a 24 hour bariatric nurse in an emergency. I am not going to be all out in the dark on my own like I was last year.

I am going to be sensible, but I physically cant take not losing weight any more.

Today's food:

Breakfast: Nothing

Lunch: beans on toast

Snack: muller corner

Dinner: chicken breast stuffed with fresh lemon and onion and wrapped in thin pastry (60g) served with broccoli and carrots and a cardamom sauce.

All heavily counted and verified and total calories today were 973.

You see, I really am sticking to plan so its not just a case of eating less calories anymore. I am totally doing the right things.

Today has been manic. I hate it when I have loads of piano lessons all over the place. I was in and out of home like the proverbial fiddlers elbow today. I had 3 straight off the bat and then 20 minutes to kill before the next one, then 1 hour to kill before the next and then 2 hours before the last one. It really drags the day out. Anyway, its over now and I was able to shift one up closer to another one so next week wont be quite as annoying. I might try and squeeze another couple of lessons in to make it worth my while staying out to be honest. I would rather be working anyway, if I kind of have to remain in teacher mode all day. Its not as if I can relax on those breaks.

So, I am off to watch Shaun of the Dead... again... and see if its still as funny!