PB versus Sweet Point: help please?

I have a 10cc band and 10cc worth of saline in it – though there’s room for a little more, so I’m told. I feel quite restricted at times, in that my lunchtime sandwich takes the best part of an hour to eat, and often doesn’t get finished.   Today our stationer brought doughnuts - the non-ring variety with jam in the middle - my faves in the past; I was pleased to note that as a previously '3-doughnuts-down-without-drawing-breath' sort of person, I struggled through one and didn’t feel life was cruel when looking at the ones still in the packet.  In addition, scrambled egg is only possible in moderation, so are sardines on toast (the cats benefit richly from this).  These days I rarely have PB issues.

“Sounds OK to me” you say.  Well, not really.  I’m losing weight, but really slowly – sometimes it takes about two weeks to lose a pound, and I think that’s too slow by anyone’s standard. 

I don’t want to live on bread, buns and egg.  The real acid test of the band, surely, is how it helps you when you have a normal meal – as in a selection of proteins, carbohydrates, vegetables, etc, served hot on a plate.  I long to experience what most of you talk about, the full feeling after a few mouthfuls. 

But if the food goes down fairly easily – such as (for me) minced beef, rice, mashed potatoes, sausages without their skins, chicken breast, prawns, spaghetti, lasagne - then a normal plateful is easily finished in about 20 minutes or so.  My willpower is weak here, so using a small plate just brings out the old me (“Wot’s that when it’s at home?  Take it away and bring me a normal helping please...”) and that’s exactly why I have a band.  Take scrambled egg for example:  I give John and myself half each, then have to stop shortly afterwards and give the rest to John – much easier than giving myself very little in the first place...

But when I cook normal meals of the ‘meat and two veg’ variety, the band doesn’t help me at all (or barely).  I can cope during the first half of the day (during the working week anyway) where bread is the food, but evenings and weekends are often a problem.

So why haven’t I yet
experienced the sweet point?

My next visit to Taunton is next Wednesday (NOT with Numty, see last but one post), and I wonder if I should ask for another 0.25 cc, but then - will I PB every two minutes?  Because if I do, I get so fed up with feeling hungry and uncomfortable that I snack unwisely and don't lose any weight anyway.

I continue to swim once or twice a week and I’m pleased that I manage 20 lengths each time.  It makes me feel fitter, no doubt about it, but I’m not surprised that it has no other visible effect.  The gym continues to be my preferred charity:  I ‘donate’ money to it every month by direct debit but rarely go.  So I’m a bit of a numty myself.

Have any of you read the extremely popular blog Jack Sh*t, Gettin' Fit?  He’s got 1210 followers, probably because he’s very good at motivation, and funny to boot.  Last week he asked readers to submit to him photos of index cards where we had printed why we wanted to be slim/do more exercise, etc.  I sent him mine the other day, which I hope he’ll publish some time (it sounds as though he’s been deluged by entries).  This is what mine said:

It’s that simple.

-oOo-

Photo Finish:

From Lonicera's non-digital archive

Visit of Chinese circus to Bristol

I queued for a couple of hours beforehand to ensure I was able to sit in the front row so I could take pictures.  They were happy for me to do this, as long as I didn't use flash - which suited me because I'm no good with flash...  To compensate for this I used very high speed film.  And that, M'ludd, is the case for the defence as to why the pictures are so grainy!

I remember winning a competition with one from this series, but I just can't find it - it'll have to follow one fine day when I come across it as I work my way through the slides I'm scanning...

-oOo-