Six Month Bandiversary

Wow; I can hardly believe it's been six whole months since I was banded. The time has flown by. I think I'm pretty much at the 'sweet spot' as far as restriction goes, although if you'd seen me filling my face the other evening, you might beg to differ. But some days it's like that - I feel as if I'm eating my bodyweight in this, that and the other, then the next day I can be full on a cracker.

Things I have learnt, six months down the line:

1) I can't eat much in one go (unless it's chocolate, which seems to slip right on through...)

2) I can only eat a very small amount of regular white bread; toast is fine, so are crumpets, flatbread and tortillas

3) I like losing weight

4) I like getting slimmer

5) If I get stuck, it's best to get rid of the offending item ASAP, rather than hoping it will pass through. It never does; and why bother going through 20 minutes of discomfort in the hope that it will?!

6) Blogland and my fellow banded bloggers are funny, smart, helpful, kind

7) There's no exact science to the whole band 'thing'

Things I still haven't learnt:

1) Chew slowly

2) Take small mouthfuls

3) The band is a tool to help with the weightloss, not a magic wand that works without any input from yours truly

4) Related to 3 above, to stop eating chocolate, biscuits and cake like there's about to be a worldwide shortage and I need to bulk up

5) Drink more water

Anyhoo, in six months I've lost 35lbs (two-and-a-half stone) and dropped two or three (depending on the outfit) dress sizes. Without the band I know there is absolutely no way I would have done that. If I'd played the game properly and could just stop eating the sweet stuff, I think I would probably have lost a fair bit more, but I can't, so I haven't!