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I was in a stall. It was making me a little crazy too. Worse than a stall - it seems that I had put back on 5 lbs. But i never admitted to it, because adding it back on to my trackers and tickers made it feel like failure. And I know I was doing everything the way I should. Eating smaller portions, less calories, slower and more deliberate choices of food. Working out as much as i can increasing the amount of calories I would burn. But... there the scale stayed stuck. I could have done a number of things for those 3 weeks. Blamed the lapband for not working. Blamed my body composition for sabotaging me. Cursed the Gods for making me have to be fat. But I remembered something I read from a friend of mine on Facebook who is a Yoga Instructor and really has embraced the lifestyle that goes with studying and practicing yoga. "Anything will work if you stick to it long enough." Pointing out the issue that once we don't see something working in a day or a week or a month we abandon it and try something else... always looking for the quick fix and trying to see results tomorrow. But the fact of the matter is... we didn't get fat over night. It took years of hard work and diligent, consistent, persistent bad habits to get us to this place where we'd want to consider surgery. So it would take equal and opposing diligence, consistence and persistence of positive, good, healing habits to get us where we longed to be. So I looked at the scale and said "f you" and kept on doing what I was told to do. Kept eating right. Doubled up my gym activity and vowed to stick to it. Just keep doing it, because it makes you feel better, your endurance is through the roof and it's a great outlet for frustration. Don't give up. Then suddenly - all the comments - you know the ones I said I wasn't hearing? - started to pour in. "Hey, wow, you're really losing weight..." "you're just melting away" "look at you skinny girl" "don't lose too much weight now..." (that's my favorite one - because I've only just hit the 1/3 mark on what I want to lose. And it's every day. And it 's from everyone. Even the haters that didn't want to admit to me that they saw it like I knew they did. It's a little overwhelming and I try to be gracious with my response but also not let it swell my head. "Thank you - I've been working really hard at it" is my typical reply - and it's true. I'm so excited about my evolving body. I have to shop for some clothes that fit this weekend. And I'm really jazzed about it. And just like that - once I stopped focusing on it... the scale just started moving in the right direction. Those 5 lbs are all but gone now. Hoping that it continues past the lowest point I reached and that I can pack my bags up and put my home in Two-Dorville on the market and move back in to my cute little condo in One-derland. Here I come. And nothing will stop me.

Every week, I take a class at my gym (LA Fitness) called Body Works Plus abs. It is what I term a fast and light weight class. Fast enough that you get a cardio effect while doing it, along with high reps (as opposed to the slow and heavy stuff I do in the weight room). The class has 2.5, 5 and 7.5 lb dumbbells in it. Stronger people (usually guys and super fit broads) can go out to the floor and get heavier bells if they want. Normally I take a pair of all three. Last night, Florence, the instructor, walked by and called me out about the 2.5s! She said I was strong enough to stop using them. The high reps do exhaust me! So I took that as a challenge, because normally I do use the 2.5s on some of the shoulder work because I am weak like a kitten in the upper body. I basically only used the 5s and 7.5s for the class. I didn't die. So I guess Florence was right. If this is worst of the problems in my life, I have it pretty good.

Hi Trace, Well, I'm happy to post that the stall has ended. Don't know if my body just needed to adjust to the rapid losses and not hold calories in fear of starvation or what, but finally! Lost 8 more pounds. I eat very low fat, 75-100g protein. Maybe 40-60 g carbs depending on the day (really avoiding the non-complex carbs). About 40 mins cardio and 20 mins weights each day. Friend just told me about Tabata - ouch! And, yes I was losing inches.. I could tell. I shouldn't be so obsessed with the scale, but well, it does tell the tale, so... The big "catch-up" loss was last week so I'm hoping this week will be at least 2-3 and I can stay on a steady loss pattern for a while.

What I've been reading on most of these boards is that Day 3 after the surgery is usually the worst. The swelling begins to subside and your stomach starts to function as it did in terms of hunger. But all you're shoveling into it is clear liquid. Well... Day 3 managed to get by me. I discovered clear SOUP broth (see my previous post about the distinction between that and "clear broth") and that helped me by greatly. Until today. I was due to go see my Godmother because she had cooked up a huge vat of Haitian Soup (Bouillon) for me to freeze and use during my puree stage. I was excited to see her because she had her grand daughter who is 1 year older than my daughter with her and I knew they could play together and my husband loves her too. I call her Nininne. So we get to Nininne's sister's house and everyone is pretty silent. Just on their respective pieces of technology ( laptops, tablets, cellphones ) and making idle chatter. I'm sure everyone in there knew that I'd just had the surgery and had little to say. Bigger things were afoot - my Nininne's niece is pregnant so that makes for better conversation. But she chatted with me about it and what it took and people she knew who had the surgery, etc. It was nice... I was drinking my water... and then it happened. They started cooking. First they pulled out the Haitian Patties which are these beautiful puff pastry creations that cradle ground chicken, beef or saltfish in it's center. EVERYONE had one in the room (except for me). Then they started serving up the hot link sausages to the kids with glorious white bread... then... they started cooking vegetable rice to go with their fried pork tenderloins (Griot). I? was going to lose my mind. EVERYTHING IN ME... it took EVERYTHING in me not to shove a patty in my mouth or a handful of rice or swipe the hotlink from my daughter's plate. I WAS SO HUNGRY. I'd not been that hungry in a very long time. I drank my water for a while longer, announced that it was time to go after my daughter was done with her hot link and made our way out of there. (Don't worry - we'd been there for about 2 hours so it wasn't like we'd just gotten there). I felt like I wanted to cry. It was too much. All the comforts of the foods from my childhood coupled with the presence of family ( my parents have gone from this worldly existence ) which I seldom get anymore... there were so many strings being pulled to get me to fall. I had to remove myself from the situation. And good that I did. I'm sure they would have had to wrestle me down to unhinge my hands open from clutching whatever food I snagged. Got home - and had some vegetable soup broth. And all was right with the world again. I've told myself that if i was in the mushy stage or even just the liquid protein stage... I might have been able to do better than I did today (which wasn't bad, considering i didn't cave at all)... but I could have had some great tasting alternative to everything they were eating. It's a process... I'm going through it... I just can't wait for the next phase that will hold me over a little better than clear liquid.