Lindsay

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the best, hands down. Bio Oil http://well.ca/products/bio-oil_23437.html?keyword=vitamin+e+oil

what are you doing for exercise & diet? specifically?

I feel your heart ache. My boyfriend (who i live with) isn't very supportive either. Or, at least, he wasn't. Now that it's almost been a year, he knows as much about the band as I do, and I'm amazed at his support. Who knows ... your husband may gain a new respect for it, too. As for self control. I have very little in the evenings, so I've come to the conclusion, that if i don't buy it, i can't eat it. It's as simple as grocery shopping healthy, and everyone else will follow in suit. That includes your children. You shouldn't have crap in the house. So ... It's a good thing all 'round. Don't buy what you can't eat. Then it's not avail.

Tha'ts how I am now ... I have to have something warm (i usually have a cup of green tea), wait about 20 minutes, then eat. I also can't eat nearly as much as I used to. And this has really prevented me from over eating, which is a big issue for me.

I healed quickly, but had bad gas & heartburn which is something I'd never experienced prior. It completely disappeared after about 6 months. Shoulder pain was really bad for me, too ... there were some nights I'd have to take a muscle relaxant to calm it down. But again, it completely disappeared after 6 months. Now, I'm just dealing with constant burping. Something I don't even realize I do anymore (my sister told me I was gross 2 days ago ..lol)

I used to work in the fitness industry (did for quite a few years!) and then branched out of it almost 2 years ago to go back into advertising I'm certified here in Canada, but also have: America College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist ACSM -Certified Health/Fitness Instructor American Council on Exercise (ACE) - Certified Personal Trainer Stott International Pilates Method - Certified Mat Level 1

I don't keep food I can't eat in the house. I don't buy crap, so I'm not tempted to eat it. I work from home too, so I feel your struggle!

Stormy, That being said, the majority of women can not lose fat with diet alone. You do need to incorporate at least 45 minutes a day of HIIT (high intensity interval training) - in both resistance training & cardiovascular. (And while pole dancing may be fun, it`s definitely not what I mean in terms of increasing your heart rate for a specific amount of time.) I would be interested in seeing specifically, what you eat in a week. Have you tried keeping a detailed food diary (fitday.com, etc) A few crackers, a small slice of hamburger ... it all sounds so vague, and I`ve worked with a lot of people, and that`s usually a red flag. People often don`t eat as little as they think they do - OR, the calories they are taking in, aren`t valuable.

I'd say that's one size change - both in gain and loss (which isn't a lot!!!)

i wouldn't recommend weighing in daily. it can be a huge mind f*ck.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Someone once said that if your dog is fat you're not getting enough exercise. Oddly Enough | Lifestyle So it's no surprise that as human obesity rates soar, man's best friend is loyally packing on the pounds as well. "Overweight people are more likely to have overweight dogs," said Victoria Stilwell, dog trainer and author of "Fat Dog Slim: How to Have a Healthy, Happy Pet." Over 34 percent of people in the United States are considered obese, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Most estimates say up to 40 percent of household pets are overweight. "An overweight dog shows real negligence by the owner. There's pressure on the bones and the heart and the organs. It's just not pleasant," she said. "If a dog doesn't get enough exercise behavior problems such as anxiety, chewing, destruction, excessive barking, house soiling, can occur" said Stilwell, who hosts the Animal Planet television show "It's Me or the Dog." In the show the British-born ex-actress comes to the rescue of pet owners driven to wits' end by dogs behaving badly. "Really understanding your dog's experience of the world makes training easier," said Sitwell, who tries to see the world from a canine perspective. "It's weird for them to be living in our domestic environment," Stilwell explained. "Why can't they toilet where they want? Why can't they jump up? Bark? Why can't they chew?" Wayward pets are re-educated with positive reinforcement techniques. Neither hands nor voices are raised. Stilwell says Sadie, her chocolate Lab, is living proof that a fat dog can get slim. "When I rescued my dog two years ago she was extremely fat," she explained. "It took me a year of feeding her a very good quality diet and exercise to get 20 pounds (nine kilos) off her." She suggests the exercise fit the breed. "A Labrador Retriever is going to like retrieving. Dachshunds are tunnelers. And terriers want to negotiate to get to the toy rat. If your dog is a hunter you can hide toys in the garden," she said. Dr. Nicholas Dodman, a veterinarian and animal behaviorist at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, in Massachusetts, calls food and exercise the yin and yang of pet care. "It's a lifestyle problem that leads to a sort of mental funk," he said. "The dog, who is at home, sometimes alone with very little to do, becomes bored and depressed. Eating becomes the only pleasure in life." Dodman, author of "The Well-Adjusted Dog," blames the owner. "He (the dog) hasn't got opposable thumbs, he can't go to the refrigerator and take out a pork pie in the middle of the night. He eats what you give him." His motto is -- a tired dog is a good dog. "It's the owner's duty to provide a minimum of 30 minutes of cardio-type exercise," he said. Dodman said felines also need 30 minutes of daily play. But unlike their dog-owning counterparts, couch potato cat people can stay put. "You don't have to rush around. Just shine a laser light or throw a ping pong ball. Cats will chase moving things." On the subject of felines, Stilwell is stymied. "Cats are a little beyond me," she admitted. "Cats are a different bowl of fish." Source: Reuters.com

I'm not a cig smoker, so I find this even more interesting! -------------- NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Cigarette smokers have lower IQs than non-smokers, and the more a person smokes, the lower their IQ, a study in over 20,000 Israeli military recruits suggests. Health Young men who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day or more had IQ scores 7.5 points lower than non-smokers, Dr. Mark Weiser of Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer and his colleagues found. "Adolescents with poorer IQ scores might be targeted for programs designed to prevent smoking," they conclude in the journal Addiction. While there is evidence for a link between smoking and lower IQ, many studies have relied on intelligence tests given in childhood, and have also included people with mental and behavioral problems, who are both more likely to smoke and more likely to have low IQs, Weiser and his team note in their report. To better understand the smoking-IQ relationship, the researchers looked at 20,211 18-year-old men recruited into the Israeli military. The group did not include anyone with major mental health problems, because these individuals are disqualified from military service. According to the investigators, 28 percent of the study participants smoked at least one cigarette a day, around 3 percent said they were ex-smokers, and 68 percent had never smoked. The smokers had significantly lower intelligence test scores than non-smokers, and this remained true even after the researchers accounted for socioeconomic status as measured by how many years of formal education a recruit's father had completed. The average IQ for non-smokers was about 101, while it was 94 for men who had started smoking before entering the military. IQ steadily dropped as the number of cigarettes smoked increased, from 98 for people who smoked one to five cigarettes daily to 90 for those who smoked more than a pack a day. IQ scores from 84 to 116 are considered to indicate average intelligence. Recruits aren't allowed to smoke while intelligence tests are administered, the researchers note, so it's possible that withdrawal symptoms might affect smokers' scores. To address this issue, they also looked at IQ scores for men who were non-smokers when they were 18 but started smoking during their military service. These men also scored lower than never-smokers (97 points, on average), "indicating that nicotine withdrawal was probably not the cause of the difference," the researchers say. The researchers also compared IQs for 70 pairs of brothers in the group in which one brother smoked and the other did not. Again, average IQs for the non-smoking sibling were higher than for the smokers. The findings suggest that lower IQ individuals are more likely to choose to smoke, rather than that smoking makes people less intelligent, Weiser and his team conclude. SOURCE: Addiction, February 2010.

Don't sweat a few lbs, give or take. Women are so prone to retain water, which is always reflected on the scale. A pound of fat contains roughly 3200 calories. So you'd have to consume 3200 calories beyond what you burn in a day to gain a pound of fat. My weight is steady at 174. I haven't been trying, hence the no-movement on the scale!

Quite a few people have had tummy tucks, Lipo & LBL's in this forum. I'm sure they'll chime in soon! But yes, it can be done. The port may have to re-placed, though, which is normally not a big issue. It just depends. Hope this helps a bit!

Not knowing if this is a joke or not, it's THC(found in marijuana) that binds with a certain neural receptor in your brain responsible for Ghrelin levels. Hemp is a specific type of Cannabis bred for it's long fibres, to manufacture rope, thread, clothing, paper, etc .. While hemp is unlikely to save the world, as many proponents are fond of saying, it is an underutilized vegetable resource. It's also rich in healthy fats and some vitamins, depending on how it is grown. As a result, it is frequently used in skin salves and balms, as well as in nutritional supplements. Living in very liberal Toronto, I know way more about this than I'm proud to admit.

Write down what you're eating. EXACTLY what you're eating. (not what you 'want' to think you're just eating) It's a great way of reflecting. I think the misconception is that the band will prevent you from over eating. Because it definitely won't. Getting a handle on emotional eating isn't something that will be cured, fixed nor repaired with the band. There are a million and one ways of cheating the band.

thanks for the update! how much did it cost you?

Source: Wikipedia: Colon cleansing Source: Johns Hopkins Health Alert - Colonics: How Risky Are They?

Source: Wikipedia: Colon cleansing Source: Johns Hopkins Health Alert - Colonics: How Risky Are They?

..and because I have a research tendency, I did a quick search on a few of my favorite accredited online medical resource websites. I just want to ensure there's so confusion between opinion & fact on this topic. Whiel I personally have tried this, there wasn't nearly as much info poo-poo'ing (excuse the pun!) as there is now. Source: Mayo Clinic: Colon cleansing: Is it helpful or harmful? Source: Gastrointestinal Quackery: Colonics, Laxatives, and More

Source: Mayo Clinic: Colon cleansing: Is it helpful or harmful? Source: Gastrointestinal Quackery: Colonics, Laxatives, and More