M2G

So I'm a big fan of caloriecount.about.com ...it's free, they have a phone app (also free) and you can log things from anywhere. I tried MFP but I wasn't a fan of the way you enter the amount of food you consume (in all honesty though I tried it well over 2 years ago it could be better now.) But with CC, you can enter almost any food by serving, grams, cups, ounces, tablespoons, etc. It's very flexible. And I love the way you enter your exercise, and of course you can store favorites, etc. You can also list things under exercise, like Snow Shoveling, or Vaccuuming...if you wanted to "count" that as your exercise. It's worth checking out since it's free. Oh and great way to kick start your weight loss, I'm a big fan of tracking what you eat, exercise, etc. Being "aware" instead of just thinking, "oh I ate a handful" is really a great way to start being accountable, so kudos to you for jumping in with that!

Congrats on making your 3 year...AND for being at goal and hanging out there. You look fab and it's great to see you around! Hope life is treating you well and hopefully your hubby hasn't had to travel much lately with the holidays being here. CONGRATS to you and thanks for hanging out with all of us for so long!

Ok, we are home from our trip, but faced with another day of "eating" and drinking (ouch Coops, I *never* get hangovers, and hoping to not feel one tomorrow either) but today is a couples bridal shower for one of our friends who is getting married (again...had 2 boys with first wife, then she decided to run around on him, so they divorced about 5 years ago, then this spring the gal he was dating had his baby...a girl...so they are finally getting around to the married part...will get married on new years eve...fun...but today is the shower, and it's been so long since I went to a bridal shower...the new thing is to have couples showers so we *both* get to go and to make things interesting, they are having it a bar while watching the Broncos game!) Sorry about that horribly long run-on sentence. Loving all the photos, CGJ and LV...woo hoo! FYE that ride sounds totally crazy and fun! OD sorry about your turkey day disaster and Allen's brother thinking he can insert himself in there with "advice". GT, I agree a lawyer would hopefully be able to find a loophole or get you some type of benefits! Sarsar...sorry your DD has to leave...at least you had fun while you were together. Brown...don't give up...I'm not giving up and you can't either! Georgia and Coops...OMG you are rocking this thing...I'm sooooooooooo happy/proud/excited for you (OD too!) As for me I'm not getting on the scale yet..we DID manage to go for a run on Thanksgiving day to combat the food, and wouldn't you know it I ate a wonderful meal and felt fully 100% SATISFIED without feeling stuffed. Even said NO to ice cream on Friday AND funny but true story, those honeyed nuts that my mom made were sticky as all get out but I KEPT ON EATING THEM. Well on Thanksgiving day, I was trying to "stir" them in a glass bowl and they were so sticky the entire bowl fell off the counter and shattered. Problem solved as all the nuts went into the trash. (I did feel bad about the bowl breaking but my mom said it wasn't her favorite bowl anyway...lol) Funny how I could NOT stop eating those stupid things and then once they had glass shards all over them it was such a wake up call for me. Anyway, GOTTA get through today and then GOTTA get back on track!!!

Ended at 165.3, 10 short of my 175 goal. I knew it was going to happen, and I'm ok with it. I did go running (on Thanksgiving day) while visiting my family SO that was a huge win for me!

I know that for HTML5 the "strong" tag (or bold) is a depreciated tag. Not sure what version of HTML you all are using.

Wow, Niki just found and read this entire thread this morning. I just want to add my thoughts and prayers to everyone who is thinking about you and hoping (praying) that you get not only answers but some relief soon. I'm so sorry that you have been through all of this, and really glad you have the support of your family and friends. (And Lisa I'm sending you the same prayers, hoping you get some answers to your struggles as well.)

Happy Thanksgiving to all my sisters here and to those of you (Coops, Cathy, and anyone I'm missing) like SarSar said...happy Thursday to you. LOL I'm here at my moms and realized that as much that she is a food lover and a food pusher I'm very much a FOOD ACCEPTOR...my own dang fault. She made honeyed nuts yesterday and I could NOT stop eating them ...gah! Plan for today is to GET SOME TYPE OF EXERCISE in. She lives in a beautiful area and hubby, my oldest DD and I are talking about going for a jog. Youngest DD is not feeling well, sniffles, cough, laying low. Anyway, there will be LOTS of food today and I'm really trying to keep it to clean proteins and only a smidge or two of the bad stuff. Thinking of you all with...grateful to have this forum...special thoughts and hugs being sent to GT.

http://health.usnews...e-biggest-loser Big takeaway from the article for me was the similarity (intense weight loss with biggest loser and WLS) in regards to metabolism. Quote from the article: "Unfortunately, fat free mass preservation did not prevent the slowing of metabolic rate during active weight loss, which may predispose to weight regain unless the participants maintain high levels of physical activity or significant caloric restriction." Anyway, it's an interesting read.

Thanks for posting, I got the email about this also. Trying to decide if I should attend or not...

Heading into the big holiday week at 153.26... Really need to keep myself in check the next 5 days!!!

Well, I don't often "road" bike but I'm a huge devotee of spin class (I know they are quite different) but one of the things I love about spin is that I get to work on my form without worrying about other things like cars, rocks, pedestrians, etc. The lady who teaches my spin is very much an outdoor biking enthusiast so she really works on our form constantly. The one thing that I also adore about spin is that it is 100% about exercise...I walk away drenched in sweat because we don't ever stop, it's constant pedaling for an hour (or more...she does offer a weekend class that is 1.5 hours...only taken it once but I will do it again.) I have an old bike that sits in my garage, but I had a nasty accident years ago in college on my bike and have been a little gunshy ever since. Maybe my goal for next summer will be doing more outdoor biking. I think biking around is a great way to add more exercise to your routine and I think it's great that you are doing that! I agree about the sore butt thing, however, that only lasted about 3 days when I started spin back in March. Everyone says after a while you get a butt callus and I guess I did because my butt never hurts anymore. And the bike shops DO have just about everything you need to be comfortable. I saw some padded shorts on clearance...right now is a good time to buy stuff on clearance here because there is a lot less winter biking going on, so maybe see about the shorts or getting a padded seat. I think you are just going to have to keep at it in order to get better. I think the more you do this the more comfortable you will feel on the bike. Good luck. What kind of "hybrid" bike do you have?

I still fight this to some degree (at 3+ years out) and honestly I don't think that there is an easy answer. I will spend time looking at old photos of me (rare because I was usually safely behind the camera) or pulling out old clothing to wake up my brain that is telling me I'm fat. But to some degree I don't think that it really ever goes away 100%. Here is a clip from Shelly at the World According to Eggface, where she went on the Rikki Lake show to talk about it: http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-ricki-lake-show-wrap-up.html Body dismorphia is crazy...because when I was at my largest, my brain would refuse to acknowledge how big I was (which was a big reason to hide from the camera because cameras have a way of telling the truth ---mostly, photoshopping notwithstanding---) I was in the camp of refusing to buy bigger clothes and instead squeezed myself into the biggest clothes I already owned (3x and a few 4x) but now at the other end of the spectrum, I still have *those* moments when I think I'm much bigger than I really am. For me, I also went through a regain period and I think that has messed with my brain considerably (GT, I know you feel me sista!) It is truly humbling to hit a "low" and then bounce UP. Gah! BUT here is the kicker...when I sit and compare photos of me at my lowest weight, compared to my regain (which now is about 8lbs) I literally see NO DIFFERENCE. So basically even though I'm still beating myself up over the extra lbs, realistically I cannot see them, but I know they are there. Anyway, that got a little long...it's sad to me that Michelle (Shelly) still 7 years later cannot SEE her transformation. Wow, just wow.

No even though it "suggests" a quarter of your "regular" calories we do NOT go less than 500. Most of the sleevers who follow this are eating approximately 1,000-1,500 (maybe some do more but most of us are in the 1,200-1,400 range) on a FEED day (i.e. regular day) and then 2 days a week we cut it down to 500 for a FAST day (and a lot of us end up between 500-600 range --sometimes a tad more-- and call it good.) It's definitely worth trying.

Morning all, I just love this thread because it's like the chat room only better...because when I'm offline, I can always just sit and drink my coffee and catch up. So instead of etc. we can call this the permanent chat thread? And there is waaaaay to much for me to comment on so I will stick with this: Definitely going to see the Hunger Games movie...thought they did a good job following the book for the first one, so excited to see how they handle the second one. My almost 13 yo is reading the Divergent series right now and talks about it incessantly, not sure I'm up to reading it also. She will probably start the 3rd book today. Seems similar to the Hunger Games and I did look it up on Wikipedia and had a hard time even reading all the stuff they there (ie. it didn't hold my interest) so I might have to skip this one. She is very much into the young adult stuff and for some of you who also are, there is also the Maze Runner (I think it's also a series of books, can't remember how many) but I don't think I saw that mentioned here but she was into that last year.

OKAY LADIES...here is the difference between curly and straight hair and how cutting long curly hair MUST be done with careful consideration to how much the curl factor SHRINKS the length of your hair. ---remember their hair is almost the same length...the only difference here is that one is wearing hers curly and one has it straight---HUGE DIFFERENCE!

Well I didn't realize that I all I had to do was say the word --Alex-- to conjure him and have him fix whatever I want to whine about! Thank you for fixing it. I didn't PM you because as I said it really wasn't a big deal in the grande scheme of things and I knew you were busy putting out bigger fires. But, a sincere thanks for fixing what bugged me! Another vote for the jeggings/skinny jeans look for you. And I love jackets (LOVE is an understatement!) and I LOVE black, but I think it's something about the neckline that doesn't work on that particular jacket. Hen night? Does that translate to LADIES NIGHT? Ha ha! I do adore you and your BritSpeak...OMGosh I'm going to start calling it that. Hen night. People will be like wha???? And I ALSO love the idea about posting our outfits!! Some great feedback going on here. I'm unsure about adding more. I like the small intimate group we have created and more might sort of ruin that. I'm not against new vets joining in, and as Laura said there are lots of people who go "oooh, I'm going to do the 5:2" and then they try it for a day or don't make it through the day and and just go nevermind. So I guess what I'm saying is someone needs to sort of prove that they were persistent before allowing them to join? Totally agree with Dee and Sue on this..it's the neckline!! So my girls have LONG curly hair when it's straight ...it goes all the way to their waist. So imagine your hair times 2! My oldest would love to go shorter but is also afraid of the afro look and I'm here to tell her that is probably what would happen if she goes shorter. Honestly the curl factor is HUGE when you consider length, so Sheryl...I'm with you I would NOT cut it. Plus I'm a fan of long hair on myself, so I would never tell someone with long hair to cut their hair. Oh here is a GREAT illustration of the difference between length JUST DUE TO THE CURL FACTOR. Both of my girls have approximately the same length of hair. (actually I will put it below this post...I'm scared to put it here in fear of messing up my carefully selected "multiquote" when I put this many multiquotes my computer churned for a loooooong time before coughing them up!) YUM! thanks for sharing! Alright so my update is that I DID NOT FAST on Mon. as scheduled. That darn AF showed up and I just couldn't do it. I don't think I will be able to until Mon. I REALLY NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT IS GOING IN MY MOUTH. We start our vacation today and the family has already decided lunch will be at Smash Burger. At least my husband is sleeved and when we are on the road and traveling and what not we can pretty easily split things. For anyone I missed, sorry...oh GT thank you for that website...gonna look at it!

Thanks girlies...GT you are so right about trying to swap stuff out. I get moans and groans whenever the word "healthy" proceeds ANYTHING I make, so I just omit that and say "here are some banana choc. chip muffins" and never say that I swapped anything for something healthier! My mom makes the most delicious cranberry sauce (and I will have to ask but I think she does use some sugar-free stuff...she is diabetic after all you would think that there would be MORE of the health stuff around... ) but anyway, it's usually just a big ole food fest. I'm am going to try to fast today. I have errands to run and that keeps me away from the kitchen. Chimera...glad you are back with us...still need some checkins from some of our other gals. Hope they pop in sometime soon! CGJ- Thanks for that informative post about the vanity sizing there...lol. I don't doubt she is a size 2 cuz I think she is around 120lbs or LESS. Good for her but yeah, don't need it rubbed it.

I don't' know what that is? K. I googled it and maybe they are similar? Not exactly sure but I found it at King Soopers (Kroger brand) I took photos of the package and of the nutritional stuff for anyone who is interested. I went back and bought a couple of more packages! Nut info:

Yeah you are NOT alone with that for sure. It happens a lot, but not talked about much.

Ooooh, I've never had Nutella and since I've never partaken, everyone who has just says to STAY AWAY and not go there. My oldest DD has a peanut allergy so there are lots of things we don't buy, Nutella being one of them. Most of the nut-alternative spreads (like Sunbutter) she isn't actually allergic to but it's TOO CLOSE to peanut butter for her liking, so we just don't bother with most of the alternatives. The ONE thing that she can tolerate is cookie butter...go figure. And I don't recommend trying it. It has little to no nutritional value and goes down real nice. It's really good on pretzel sticks dipped right into the container and fed directly to the mouth. Not that I've tried that or anything...

All Bran... And I just found some pumpkin Spice Soy Milk that was an impulse purchase at the store. What a lovely mix, 1/2 cup of All Bran and 1/2 cup of spiced soy milk...yum!

I don't recall being told there was any chance of memory loss either (or as Laura and Butter have handily pointed out ...perhaps I was told and forgot?) Seriously though I don't ever remember hearing that or reading that or being told that by my surgeon. I was MUCH more worried about my temporary vision loss (I was blurry for a few days after) but it was due to the nausea patch I wore behind my ear in the hospital and for a day or two after surgery. Once I removed it and a few days passed my vision returned to normal. I think anything is possible during that first few weeks post-op. You aren't eating, drinking only liquid Protein and Water, resting, walking, and napping. So if you can swing it I would recommend a week or more off from work. Recovery period is when lots of things go a bit wonky with our bodies but if you follow protocol and don't experience any type of complication, most of the stuff that is 'off' right after surgery clears up within a week or so.

Can you explain what sort of "revision" surgery you had? I know of a couple of people who had bypass years ago, regained and are unhappy. I know about the band-over-bypass, converting to DS, sleeving, and the Rose procedure, can you elaborate on what you had done? Best of luck to you!

Kelly I don't want to discourage you at ALL! But truthfully for me personally, losing the regain has been painfully slow. I know for some of my other sleeve sisters who have regained, and LOST the regain, it was fairly quick. But I never was one to be a quick loser, so this is kind of par for the course over my whole journey. And don't forget that this is a journey. PLEASE DON'T give up if the lbs are going as quickly as you would like. Start making the changes you KNOW you need to make in order to get the most benefit out of your sleeve. And stay with it. I've been chipping away at my regain for 11 months now and have lost about -12 out of 20. So that is just how painfully slow it has been for me. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to NEVER GIVE UP! Hang in there!

Nothing wrong with being "confused" but when you say it with the air of superiority disguised as medical advancement and stated as a fact...well, the can has been opened...