My mission if I choose to accept it.....

Hmm, I am able to eat a bit more now and I have to confess, this makes me a little nervous. I did make a risotto for dinner tonight, feta, leek and anchovies. It sounds hideous but it is SO tasty, it was originally an experiment on a friend who came around for lunch in a ‘last few days before pay day’ concoction. Then I has a small serve of chocolate pudding with some cream – yum. I am glad that I booked in for only 2 weeks away from my last ‘reverse fill’ because I think I will definitely need a fill by then.

I did go to the gym tonight to do a quick 20min run on the treadmill, which I did, though I struggled quite a bit because I thought that it felt a lot hotter in the gym than usual – my Mum said it was the same as normal so I don’t really know what that is about. I did take my temperature later in the night and it definitely was up about a degree (Celsius) and a half on normal – I don’t know if that is anything though.

Sorry Lady Lap Band for not getting to your comment earlier – for everyone else, this is what Lady Lap Band said ‘you should tell us more about these veggie powders I have never heard of such a thing and it sounds interesting!’ – so I will let you know what these are about. Okay, these powders are made by AIM and there are 3 vegetable powders: Barley Life, Just Carrots & Redibeets as well as a product called Fibreblend which is of course fibre. Let me start by saying that the only product that I have tried as yet is the Fibreblend – which tastes like marzipan and I really, really hate marzipan. I tried it in a smoothie (as did the poor old husband) and it was repulsive!! So, needless to say, I have been a bit reticent to try the vegetable powders. I promise I will try them in the next couple of days and report in.

I am going to come out of the closet about one of the main reasons that I had the surgery in the first place and that is because my husband and I have been doing IVF and I was hoping that it would make a difference to our success. Unfortunately it hasn’t and my hormones are still going crazy – I am hoping that things will normalise soon. It is one of the reasons that I have been really hot on getting as much nutrition as possible.

Anyway, I am on a mission to try these powders – will check in soon!!

Cheers,

Jodie
www.lapbandforthemind.com

Food glorious food!!

Now, I know that this topic is not a particularly good one for a Lap Band blog but honestly, after only being able to eat for around 4 days out of the past 3 weeks, well I am thankfully now able to eat a bit more!!

Yesterday I went out for brunch with my Mum and had the most divine creamed tomato soup with chorizo sausage - wonderful!! I was also able to have some fish and salad for dinner last night so this morning I was up early to do my 40min run (well, let's say slow jog to be more accurate!). I was so very proud of myself for the 40 min run I tell you. Especially because I had a personal training session on Friday morning and we used a kettle bell and my legs are still hurting I tell you!!

Basically we did 4 million squats in all sorts of different positions, my goodness, I didn't think I was going to run today but then I was actually hoping that I would run the soreness out - nope, still hurting I tell you!!
Well, back to work tomorrow and definitely another gym session, I am getting a bit scared about this 10km run I tell you!!

Check you later in the week.

Jodie

www.lapbandforthemind.com

A reverse fill?!?

Firstly, let me say welcome to my new followers - bless you, guys and thanks for the comment, Naomi - you gave me a warm feeling inside!! I am going to do a bit more work on this blog soon, put some progress pics on and jazz it up a little - so stay tuned you guys!! Just a tip for you as well - Jen, my BFF, bandster and business partner is starting a blog of her own soon, so keep an eye out for the link!!

I had a fill today – well it was actually a reverse fill, I had .2ml taken out of the band. I usually go for fills or at least a check in every 3 weeks and I realised yesterday that over the past 3 weeks there were around 4 days in total that I felt like I got enough water and nutrition for the day. With the training for the Melbourne Marathon 10km run, I was exhausted and really felt like crap basically.

I have the same fill doctor practically every time that I go now. I go to a pretty big surgery so there is actually a lot of choice for fill doctors. In the first few months after having the band fitted, I felt like I saw all of them. Then I stumbled across the wonderful Dr Caroline and boy does it make a difference having a fill doctor that I can talk to candidly and who has gotten to know me over the journey. She is fantastic and I love her – I try not to see anyone else but her these days. One of the main things that I like about her is that she is consultative. It is always a discussion between the two of us as to what will happen, she values my feelings and input, I like that very much as I like to be in control of my own journey.

The past week has been pretty rough eating wise. I have been trying out these new vegetable powders (cos I have been concerned about getting enough nutrition) but I couldn’t even swallow enough liquid to get them down – that is no good, I tell you. I realised that I was averaging only around 500mls of water per day when I like to drink about 2litres and I was barely able to eat anything. You might wonder why it took me the three weeks to realise that the band was too tight and I think it is because normally after I have a fill, it is quite tight and then eases off after around 3 days – unfortunately that didn’t happen this time

The good news is that I have now lost 35.6kg’s – whoo hooo, I am pretty damn happy about that and I have realised today that I have lost 76% of my excess weight – three quarters of the way there, not bad for 11 months hey! This means that I have 11.2kg’s to go to my healthy weight range – hurrah, that will be a great day I tell you!!

The training for the 10km run is going very well – there is under 8 weeks to go to train for this ‘race’ – I am using inverted comma’s because there won’t be much racing in me, I will be going out there to jog the whole way, that is my goal for the event. Last week I only did 3 training sessions and this week I have only done one so far (will do tomorrow and Sunday) and I feel it has been because of my lack of energy so next week for sure I am aiming for the 4 running sessions!! My session yesterday was really good, it was only 20min but I ran faster than I had over that whole time so that is exciting. Bikram yoga has been out of the question for me to for the last few weeks because I just couldn’t get enough fluid in, I am hoping to get a couple of those sessions in next week.

Well that’s about it for my Banding along journey – though I am trying to think of something good to do for my Bandiversary which is coming up on the 17th of September. Let me know if you think of anything, okay?

Chat soon!!

Jodie Flynn
www.lapbandforthemind.com

Inching my way to victory!

Sorry I have been away for a bit, gang – I have heaps of news. I have turned 38 – that is more along the lines of bad news than good news I would say but I did go away for a long weekend with my husband and woolly dog so that was really nice. My birthday day itself was a good one, we went to a bath house for a swim and a massage so that was divine!! I am taking my 10km run training very seriously as I even went for a run on my birthday – I was pretty proud of myself I can tell you!!

Speaking of my training, I have been going pretty well. Last week I did the first full week of training with 4 sessions ranging from 15mins of running to 30 mins by Sunday. I even did some hill sprints last Tuesday morning and I thought my lungs were going to catch on fire – boy did it hurt! The good thing is that it really set me up for some good sessions later in the week. This week I have delayed a few sessions, I have only done 2 so far, today’s was some 1 min intervals on the treadmill which I did at 12km per hour – I had never even been near that type of speed before but I thought ‘well if they do it on the Biggest Loser right?’. I am building up really slowly and am not aiming for any time records in the race itself (cos I am a real plodder of a runner I tell you!) but just aiming to finish the race jogging – hopefully in my healthy weight range!

Band-wise I have been going pretty well though it is probably just a touch too tight, I am hoping that it loosens off just a little whisker more and then I will be at perfect fill amount. I haven’t lost a whole lot on the scale but I can definitely feel it a lot in my clothes. Can you believe that I had on some size 12 pants the other day – well okay, so they were cutting me in half a little bit but size 12 – rock on!! I had a look at my measurements from the start and to now the other day and this is what I found out:

Neck – lost 2cm’s (1inch)
Boobs – lost 11cm (4.3inches)
Waist – lost 15cm (6 inches)
Hips – lost 29cm (11.4 inches)
Arms – lost 4.5cm (1.7inches) off each
Thighs – lost 13cm (5inches) off each

Wow – that makes me feel good I tell you – that is a huge difference in the time frame!! I am only a month off my Bandiversary so I am going to go all out over the next month to see how much I can lose in that time! I love the band – it has changed my life in so many ways – I just love it!!

Cheers,

Jodie

The ups, downs and changes!

So, it has been a little while since I posted and it has not been a great time for me personally. It is in these difficult times that I like to review how things are going as well as try to find the positives to focus on rather than the negative. Don’t get me wrong, I do fall in a heap and allow myself time to be upset or angry or whatever feeling that I am feeling at the time but I generally choose to let that go on for a certain amount of time before I start looking for a plan going forward. Thankfully, I have been able to do that and though I am a little sad, I am moving forward.

I have been thinking about my Lap Band journey a lot in the last few days and have really noticed some differences in myself. These are some changes that I didn’t even realise were occurring, they have kind of snuck up on me. Firstly, I am eating way, way slower than I used to. This is a really big thing for me. I used to eat extremely fast and now people that know me are even commenting on how slow I am eating! It is nice to slow down and enjoy my food rather than hoovering down like I used to. One of the reasons that I used to eat very fast was that if I was eating something ‘bad’ I would want to eat it as fast as possible to minimise the guilt that I felt for eating it – crazy hey?

That’s another thing, the guilt has reduced significantly. My relationship with food was terrible before I had the band. I swung between two extremes of eating only fresh fruit, veg, rice, potatoes and chicken and fish to eating junk food at every meal. I had gone on so many restrictive diets in my time that almost every food had been banned at some point. I pretty much felt guilty about every food that I ate. Now, I have discovered that given the choice, I generally pick the healthier item. I am not there by any means, I mean even this week when I when things weren’t going great, I turned to chocolate and unhealthy choices – I’m still a work in progress!

I’ve also started to stick my toe in the ‘normal’ shops. I have been hanging back because I wasn’t sure that I would be able to fit into anything but I am getting braver and more confident by the day. Speaking of confidence, I went out with my husband’s family last week for dinner. This would have previously sent me into a spin of ‘I have nothing to wear, I look horrible’ and I would try to find excuses not to go. It was so easy finding some nice clothes that I didn’t even think anything of going out for dinner, I had fun! This is a big change and has really snuck up on me!!

The other thing that is going on with me is that I am going to train to do a 10km run. In my previous skinny life I once ran a half marathon so I know how to train for it. I have already mapped out my 10 week plan so I will update you each week on how I’m going. The run itself is part of the Melbourne Marathon and ends with a lap of the MCG!! I am not going to aim for any time, I am going to aim to get through it!!

Here is my plan for next week:

Monday: 15mins steady run
Tuesday: 20 mins of fast intervals
Thursday: 15 mins steady run
Saturday: 30 mins slow jog

Don’t be fooled by the words ‘running’, I would class my ‘running’ as a very slow jog type shuffle but I am out there doing it so I am proud!! It is an ambitious plan but I need a good healthy focus at this point!

Till next time, my friends....

Cheers,

Jodie

www.lapbandforthemind.com

P.S. Have you checked out Jen’s and my photo’s on www.lapbandforthemind.com? We will keep them updated over the months so you can see our journey!!

Measuring Success without the Scale

Those of us on the Lap Band journey generally measure our success through the scale – this can sometimes be deceiving. We can be retaining fluid at certain times of the month or building muscle and because muscle takes up less space than space than fat, we have lost inches but no weight on the scale – this can be frustrating! Some of us (I have been there many times in the past) even get obsessed with the scales and the numbers on there but there are other ways to measure your success on the Lap Band journey – here are the top 5 that Jen and I have come up with!!

1. Your clothes

For most of us who have been obese, we have a wardrobe chock full of different sizes – when I started my Lap Band journey, I had at least 7 different sizes of clothing in my wardrobes. I have used this to great effect on my journey. I started off in the largest size and I had a pair of pants in the next size down hanging behind my bedroom door. Every week I would try on this pair of pants and when they fit, I started wearing them and threw out the old, larger pair. I am down 4 pants sizes since the beginning of my Lap Band journey and I have my eye on the next size down which is hanging on my bedroom door!

2. How long it takes you to walk 2km or mile

For many of us who have had a gastric band fitted, exercise is an alien concept (or more like alien torture!). Exercise can be one of the best indicators of fitness and weight loss! Walking or any form of exercise becomes easier and easier the more weight that you lose because you’re not hauling around so much weight. Work your way up to walking 2km or a mile starting with 10mins of walking if that’s all you can do. Once you are walking a mile, write down the time that it takes you to complete the distance. Repeat this measure each week and see how quickly your body responds to consistent exercise and weight loss.

3. Monthly photos

You might not notice the differences that are happening every day when you look in the mirror but a picture is worth a thousand words! Take photos of yourself from the front, side and back at the same time each month and watch the changes take place! This also serves as a great record of where you have come from. If you are feeling frustrated with your journey – take out these pictures and compare where you were at the start to your latest photos, generally this will cheer you up straight away! Jen and I are only days away from posting photo’s of our journey on www.lapbandforthemind.com – check it out in the next week or so!!

4. Compliments from family and friends

It’s really lovely when we receive compliments from friends, family or even colleagues and this is a great way to see how you’re going on your journey. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time for people to notice the weight that you have lost if you have quite a bit to lose but then generally the compliments will come thick and fast!

5. Your own measure

For many of us, there are some great personal measurements that we can take. Some people like to measure the reduction in the number of medications that they are taking, some will measure it by the pain (or lack thereof) in their backs when they are in bed. For me, I have a strange measuring system and that is the bathtub! I like to have baths to for a treat and each time I get in, I check to see how far my thighs are from the edges. In the beginning, both thighs hit either side of the bath, now I they are nowhere near it and I can get my whole fist between my thigh and the bath – now I am aiming for 2 fists! What is your personal measure?

On a personal note, I am back in the exercise swing of things – thanks for staying with me through the slump!! With that said, I am off to do some water aerobics!!

Cheers,

Jodie
www.lapbandforthemind.com

How do you pull yourself out of a slump?

Okay – so you know that last week I took a good hard look at myself exercise-wise and I came up with a plan for this week. Well, I have a confession to make – the plan did not work and it’s official, I am in an exercise slump.

So this week’s post is all about what to do to get yourself moving when all is seemingly lost. In the past, this would be the point that I would give up and think, ‘oh well, it’s too hard to get fit, I will just quit and sit on the couch and watch TV instead’. To tell you the truth, that is absolutely tempting today I can tell you, it is really cold outside and the perfect day to stay in and be a couch potato. Okay – so I am sure that you will agree, I really need to get off my behind and do something – so I will. I tell you what – I am going to go out for a 45 minute walk and come back and finish this post.

Okay – so it is roughly 60mins later – I got changed, got my dog and we went for a walk. It was bracing outside but it felt good to be moving again!! I went down to a park not too far from home and though it was cold, it was pretty sunny and it was nice to be out in the fresh air.

Now not to make excuses for another week of not moving enough but I did have a displaced rib that hurt unbelievably which interrupted any plans that I had. I honestly don’t know how I did it but it happened and had to deal with it. So what I am going to do is leave last week in the past and look at what I’m going to do next week.

Now I will do another decent piece of walking tonight because I will be going to the footy and then I will do a walk tomorrow as well. I will have a rest on Sunday and then go to the gym on Monday morning. Then I will walk in the morning for the rest of the week.

Next week I am going to tell you good that I went getting moving again – it’s time to pull out all the stops people!!

The lesson for me this week is TAKE ACTION!! As long as I get to the gym or do my walk each day, I will be very happy. I have had to give up Bikram yoga for the moment, so I am going to do some yoga each day on the WII.

I will check in with you next week!!

Cheers,

Jodie Flynn
www.lapbandforthemind.com

Come with me while I take a long hard look at myself!!

Okay – so this week has been a pretty bad week for me exercise, wise – I haven’t made it to the gym or Bikram yoga – what is that?!?! I had been going really well and had been really consistent for months but the last week, I have really fallen into an exercise slump.

Of course, the first thing that I need to do is to ask myself some questions – so I thought you could come along with me while I nut this one out. Okay, so the first question is – what is stopping me from exercising? Well, on Monday, I didn’t go to the gym because I slept in and got up too late – I had intended on going there later but felt sick later in the day. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday – I got to work early so that I could make sure that I got plenty done and then today – well I had a personal training session booked but I cancelled it because it is freezing and raining.

So, a week full of excuses, not good. I always have back up plans if I don’t make it in the morning (I am a morning person and exercise is way easier for me in the morning!!). Well, I could take my dog for a long walk or I even could do some time on the WII Fit but I didn’t do any of those things – why? I have been pretty tired, I have been working quite late and then going to bed late and not getting enough sleep so it has made it harder to get up early. Okay, so now I understand that the number one issue that I have is that I have not prioritised exercise highly enough – I have prioritised work over my health. Hmmm, I thought that little chestnut had been dealt with a long time ago – obviously I need to do a bit of reprioritising!!

Okay, because I now know that the problem is that I haven’t been prioritising exercise for myself – the question is why? I know the answer to this one straight away as it is a pattern that I have been working on breaking for a while – I think that work is more important than my health. Obviously this is not the belief that I want to have so I have been working on changing it to my health is my number 1 priority (as an aside, this is one of the big reasons that I got the band, I wanted to put health as my priority) – I am going to show this by taking action.

So – what action am I going to take? Since I missed my personal training session today I will take my dog for a walk – it will do us both good to get out of the house and get moving a bit. For me, it’s important to act right now because in the past I have been guilty of the old ‘I’ll wait until Monday morning’ which of course is only a habit that I had gotten in to – I am practising breaking it. Secondly, I am going to go to for a walk tomorrow morning and then I will go to the gym on Monday.

In addition, I am going to get my hypnosis MP3 out ‘Putting myself first’ because this issue for me is about not prioritising myself and I will listen to it for 3 days out of the next week. I am also going to focus on why I want to do exercise and for me, it is because of these things:

· I want to be fit and healthy
· I want to feel good about myself
· I want to be nice and toned for summer!

Okay – well this has been a long post and I hope that you have enjoyed coming along with me while I took a good hard look at myself! I will update you on my plan next week!! Remember – sometimes even though we think we have handled an issue, it still may come back in the same or a different way to challenge your resolve!!

Cheers,

Jodie
www.lapbandforthemind.com

P.S. Remember that we have our great new product out: The 5 Keys to Pre-Surgery Success. We have opened up an offer to our newsletter subscribers. If you sign up for our newsletter, we will give you the pack (plus all bonuses!) for the one time only price of $29.95 AUD that is a saving of $100!!!
This price will expire on 15 July so get in quick!!
Sign up to our newsletter at www.lapbandforthemind.com!!

P.P.S. Remember this special offer of $29.95 expires 15 July so get in quick to gain instant access!

Got a Lap Band already - here's how you can benefit from our eBook:

Chapter 2 - Goal setting & goal setting templates, these are useful wherever you are on your journey!
Chapter 3 - How much do you want it, great for reinvigorating your motivation!
Chapter 4 - Working out your mind, Focus, responsibility, persistence, this is really handy information to keep your eyes on the prize and move past those issues that can be holding you back.
Chapter 5 - Celebrate your success, it is really important to continue to celebrate all successes on your journey, big and small

Plus there is an unbeatable list of bonus items that go with this product!!
Bonus items:
Online journal
Exercise calorie tracker
Measurement tracker
Weekly exercise planner
Food tracker
Shopping list tracker

Got a touch of the when / then?

I don’t know about you but sometimes I feel like I am completely living in the future. Lately I have found myself saying when I lose weight, then I’m going to be able to wear these clothes, when I lose weight, I will be able to go out more, when I am maintaining my weight, my life will be so much better!!

I am not as bad as I used to be in the when / then stakes but sometimes it still comes up as an issue for me. I have also found that this has almost without exception been an issue with all of my clients who have a challenge with their weight. However, this is not only a challenge that is significant to those of us who battle with their weight. Many of our fitter / thinner friends have this when / then attitude to many parts of their life – for example have you heard people saying:

· When I win Powerball, then my life will be great
· When I meet my soul mate, then my life will be complete
· When I fix how I look, then I will attract the partner of my dreams

So what is wrong with thinking about the future? Well nothing really unless you put your current life on hold until you get your when / then thing – that makes the present less than it can be!! However, I think that the biggest issue with the when / then thinking is that it can be hiding a deeper issue. When I was single and overweight, I used to think – when I’m thin, then I will attract the partner of my dreams. The problem with this was that despite the fact that I was a fun, interesting, successful person, I didn’t think that anyone would like me because I was overweight.

So, what do you think happened then? I lost weight and discovered that I still didn’t think that people would like me and that was when I realised that there were some underlying issues that cosmetic changes to the outside of me could not fix. Interestingly enough, I did meet the man of my dreams and he is wonderful and completely loving though one of the things that I have discovered is that I still have times where I think ‘Does he really like me?’ This has been a bit of an underlying challenge for me and one that I continue to peel back the layers on. For me, it is important to keep on digging in to the issues that I have so that I don’t fall back into the whole cycle of ‘when / then’ and then feeling discouraged about my present life and then turning to food for comfort. Now, the important thing for me is ‘what can I do to make my now great?’

Here are some questions for you:

· How do you when / then?
· What is the underlying issue?
· What can you do to make your present more fun, exciting, excellent?

Cheers,

Jodie
www.lapbandforthemind.com

P.S. Jen and I released our new product this week: The 5 Keys to Pre-Surgery Success. We have opened up an offer to our newsletter subscribers. If you sign up for our newsletter, we will give you the pack (plus all bonuses!) for the one time only price of $29.95 AUD – that is a saving of $100!!!

This price will expire on 15 July so get in quick!!

Sign up to our newsletter at www.lapbandforthemind.com!!

P.P.S. Remember this special offer of $29.95 expires 15 July so get in quick to gain instant access!

Got a Lap Band already - here's how you can benefit from our eBook:

Chapter 2 - Goal setting & goal setting templates – these are useful wherever you are on your journey!

Chapter 3 – How much do you want it – great for reinvigorating your motivation!

Chapter 4 – Working out your mind – Focus, responsibility, persistence – this is really handy information to keep your eyes on the prize and move past those issues that can be holding you back.

Chapter 5 – Celebrate your success – it’s really important to continue to celebrate all successes on your journey, big and small

Plus there is an unbeatable list of bonus items that go with this product!!

Bonus items:

Online journal

Exercise calorie tracker

Measurement tracker

Weekly exercise planner

Food tracker

Shopping list tracker

Shall I compare thee to a summers day?

Okay, I had an interesting experience at Bikram yoga yesterday and it really reminded me of life with the band. Bikram yoga is all about consistency and incremental changes. Each session, the heat is the same (43 degrees Celsius / 109 degrees farenheight), the moves are exactly the same, it is only you that is different – we all bring along what is happening in our lives to the sessions so sometimes the sessions are ‘easy’, sometimes they are more challenging.

One of the lessons of Bikram yoga is that you cannot compare your progress to someone else’s. No one else has had your life experiences, no one else has had the small or large injuries that you have had in your body, your flexibility is all your own. One of the most interesting (and frustrating) things about Bikram yoga is that sometimes I find that I have a great session – I am able to hold a pose for longer or I have been able to stretch further and then this is followed by a session that is so challenging, I feel like I am back at square one.

I had a really challenging session yesterday morning. I had been away and it was my first session in a week. I go with my sister who has never had a single issue with weight, in fact she is the skinny mini to end all skinny mini’s! I had one of those really, really challenging sessions. Even though I have lost a whisker under 30kg’s, I felt like I was back at the start of my journey. I couldn’t balance to save my life and I found myself comparing myself to my sister, I knew it was crazy but I just couldn’t seem to help myself.

I really started the negative self talk and before I knew it, I was almost in tears. After the session, I couldn’t help but keep thinking about it for hours. Why do we compare ourselves to others, there are always going to be people who are better at something than us and people that are worse than us so what does it matter? For me the comparing has been about finding validation. Yesterday when I discovered this, I started to give myself the validation that I needed. I celebrated the fact of nearly losing 30kg’s in 9 months, what a great achievement. I looked at my board of successes and felt a whole lot better!

So, what has this got to do with the band? Well of course I have SO many clients who compare their progress to others and at the end of the day, what does this matter except for what you have achieved for yourself? When you find yourself comparing yourself to others, think about what it is you are trying to get from the situation and then see if you can provide it for yourself!

As for me, I am off to yoga again tomorrow, no doubt to learn another lesson!!

Chat soon!

Jodie Flynn
www.lapbandforthemind.com