M2G

Lynda, that is awesome! Congrats! And I love the pictures. I think the 2nd one with the beautiful background needs to be your new profile pic! Beautiful!

Well, I did great adding in one more yogurt last night aaaaand then my family made popcorn. Gah! So I went over 500 easily...lol. LV- Wonderful news!!! So happy to hear that you don't have to "do" anything right away. Like G said, keep an eye on it (I'm sure you will!) Cathy- congratulations, have a FUN weekend, the 5:2 way will be waiting for you when you are ready! Cheri- I hope the baby starts feeling better with reflux meds...poor thing. I forget how hard it is to function on interrupted sleep! Hang in there! Well, again it is STILL raining here in Colorado. They even cancelled school because of it. We've had school cancelled due to snow but never due to rain! Aaargh. We have had a bit of flooding in our basement, but I think we have stopped it for now. We have a window well that filled with Water and it soaked right through the window. At least the basement is unfinished. The destruction city and state-wide is pretty devastating and 3 people have lost their lives. Just a few days ago we were all complaining about the heat. So keep us in your thoughts, I think the rain is forecasted to quit around noon today...I sure hope so!

Stalls suck. Keep doing what you know is right, stay on plan and the weight will eventually go down. Hang in there!

Well, thanks Georgia, I have to give credit to our instructor...she is a die-hard (outdoor) biking enthusiast (her idea of a leisurely weekend is a 2 day bike race...LOL) She pushes us HARD (nicely...darn it she is so sweet but tough!) and I do love the feeling after I walk out of there dripping in sweat!

So fast day today I've had breakfast/dinner and greek yogurt for a snack (I had plain but dressed it up with sugar free Torani syrup...in a fall flavor pumpkin Pie and a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice...yum!) But I'm at 465 cals right now...WHA??? That almost NEVER happens to me. So I'm all giddy thinking about one more little snack...lol. I also burned 632 cals at Spin class today...(estimated) but rode solid/hard for 62 minutes and 18.9 miles woo hoo! Anyway, guess I spoke too soon about cloud cover and rain. It. Will. Not. Stop. and it's causing some big flooding...wishing I could find the faucet and turn it OFF. We live in a dry climate(colorado) so this is most unusual...ugh! In the last 2 days we have gotten over 12 inches of rain in just our area!

I was planning on the band also...but thankfully about 3 months into my "6 months insurance required wait time" I did some research on the sleeve and switched. My VSG was almost 3 years ago and at the time the band was still quite popular. I credit many bloggers who were honest about their band experiences that helped me realize that I did NOT want the band. Then I had a bit of fear because my surgeon had only done 14 VSGs before mine. But I trusted him as a surgeon and knew that he was the right surgeon for me. So I pushed any fear aside and took a leap of faith. So glad I ended up with the sleeve!

Wow, great job! You look beautiful!

MS - Thank you so much for sharing. Both articles are very good. Funny I *just* said this last week or so in another post. I have to think of my obesity being in "remission" because I know how quickly the weight can come back on!

Most of the time we don't split just because often we want different things, and we are quite adept at boxing and eating our leftovers the next day... but 9 days of splitting everything proved to us that 1. we can manage to split (we each would just 'give a little' if we disagreed on what to order...for instance I like my steak well done, DH likes medium, but he is ok with well done...lol) and 2. the cost savings were substantial!! That is cool that you guys went together. I went first, DH went about 5 months later.

I think you should give yourself more...I peeked at my monitor today at around the 45 minute mark and it was 13.7. I rode 18.9 miles in 62 minutes. I'm okay with whatever you do but 5 miles seems low for 45 mins.

Oh it's on the digital display on the bike. It gives us RPM (which is our speed), WATTS (which is our effort) Kcals (burned supposedly but it doesn't ask us for height/weight/age etc. so the Kcals are often lower than what we actually burn) and then of course the distance represented in miles. The one thing that our bikes are "equipped" to tell us is our heart rate but if you don't have a wireless monitor then it won't actually give those results.

Well, first and foremost, congrats on your new baby! That is awesome! You recognize that you are out-of-control and that is great because now is the time to reign it in. I used my first pregnancy (12 years ago!) to indulge in ice cream every night. I also gained 65lbs which somehow did not magically disappear when I had the baby. So with my 2nd pregnancy I only gained +18lbs because I learned the hard way that I wasn't really "eating for two" and that the weight wouldn't just be "baby weight"... With all that said I recently took a back to basics class offered by my surgeon. It's all the rules that we "know/learned" but it was nice to have a refresher course! I will share with you what was covered: Rules of the Tool: 1. Fluids - stop drinking 10 minutes before a meal and try to go 45 minutes to an hour after eating...an hour is even better. 2. Meal Timing - meals should be every 2-4 hours, 5-6 oz after 1 year post-op is appropriate size, no Snacks or grazing. 3. Protein - minimum 65-80g per day and all meals are to be 75% protein and 25% complex carbs (veggies, fruit, Beans, whole grains, brown rice, etc.) 4. Label Reading - for your food, per serving take your calories and divide it by the protein...you should have 15 calories per every 1 gram of protein. This is the best/easiest calculation tool to help you decide what is a good source of protein. For instance let's say a Protein Bar has 170 calories (per bar) and 10 grams of protein. When you take 170/10 = 17 calories per every gram of protein. So this bar is close but would be better at 15. 5. supplements - now that I'm pretty far out from surgery, most of my Vitamins can easily be absorbed from my food, but I still need to take at a minimum Multivitamins, Calcium and the occasional B12. Since you are breastfeeding, you might need to continue/up your vitamins accordingly. 6. Exercise - Is this part of your daily routine? If so GREAT. If not, get moving. And when your exercise DOESN'T leave you sweaty and breathless you need to challenge yourself to do more so that YOU ARE SWEATY and somewhat breathless. Finally we talked about ABC Planning. A Plan = you are doing GREAT, you are on target with your meals, your liquids, your exercise and supplements. B Plan = you hit some of your goals but fell short in a few areas. C Plan = you are off target in all areas. So what will be YOUR Plan today? Check in with yourself and be honest. If you are slipping, where are you slipping and what do you need to do to get back to your A Plan?

Well glad you had fun at your party (you deserve to have fun!) but also glad you are back on track! Wedding is coming up SOON!

Yep the "average" size restaurant meal is about 4x what an "average" sleever needs, and probably at least 2x-3x the amount of what an "average" normal non-sleeved person needs. Since my husband is sleeved, we have often taken ONE restaurant meal, split it in HALF and then eat another HALF the next day. Crazy. Although it did come in handy this summer while we were on vacation...we split absolutely EVERYTHING because our hotel had no microwave, etc. Since we went to a 'theme' park where everything was ridiculously overpriced we probably saved $50/PER DAY by splitting every single meal. We recently attended a large family dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and I noticed they had a "SkinnyLicious" menu. The meal sizes, portion and calorie count were quite reduced from their "Regular" menu but I still ended up with 3 meals out of my one plate.

Congrats on your new baby and losing the baby weight!

HA HA HA!!! That is hysterical FYE! Heyher...didcha pull out an OLD photo of yourself? LOL, not that it would make a difference, kids are nothing if not brutally honest, but don't let it get you down. I was shocked hearing a first grader talk about a mom at school (years ago, my kids are now in middle school...there's a brutal place) but one of the little boys in the first grade class talked about a mom who had her tummy showing and a pierced belly button as a "hot mamma"...I was like really? You are SEVEN. Get your mind out of the gutter...LOL!

I agree that 1. you do need to let them go. 2. donating them is the best feeling ever (gave mine to a women's/children's day home a place for battered/abused women/children and they were in desperate need of plus size clothing) 3. it's hard stuff. Even at my highest weight, I have always been someone who wore nice clothing, jewelry, makeup, etc. I have never just rolled out of bed threw my hair up and pulled on a pair of sweat pants and felt that was good enough. So it was HARD for me to let go of my entire wardrobe of nice stuff that I paid a pretty penny for===>since we all know clothing manufacturers can get away with charging more for plus size clothing. In fact, it was so hard that I held on to stuff longer than I should have but once I knew WHERE the clothing was going then I was excited. I'm not saying you shouldn't sell it if you can, but donating all of my beautiful stuff made me feel really good. As far as the fear of regain...well, even though it's been a good two years that I have remained relatively at the same size (almost 3 years post-op) I did regain some weight ...from about 18 months post-op until the beginning of this year when I finally got a handle on things (total regain was about +20lbs which I have since worked off -10lbs). So in my "normal" closet I still have a bit of a fluctuation in sizes but nothing drastic. Don't let the fear of regain keep you holding onto the clothing. Let it go and bless someone else and concentrate on getting new clothing that fits you and your new body!

Not every surgeon requires a pre-op liver-shrinking diet. My surgeon doesn't do this for anyone, regardless of BMI, etc. He has a special tool that holds the liver out of the way during surgery. Also I think he likes to tell his patients that he thinks pre-op dieting is "mean" lol!

Congratulations! You look amazing! Keep up the good work, I agree nice to "see" you instead of lips.

I usually do spin 2x a week for an hour, and our instructor varies things quite a bit. Sometimes we climb, sometimes we do rollers, sometimes it's all about endurance and other times it's about fat burn. One thing I know is WE NEVER STOP. Ever. It's a heart-pounding hour of sweat. Even though each session is always the same, 1 hour long, I've noticed the actual miles vary from anywhere at the low end being 14 miles to the high end being 19 miles. It just depends. And I would *love* a 45 min. class. haha...the hour is brutal. AND this instructor teaches a sat. class that is 1.5 hours...too scared to try it. Been trying to work up to it and I want to try it someday...

I figured that was the case but that big toe "area" looks HUGE!

Okay, fast day yesterday ended around 548 or so...feasting today. Buuuut, first I had to FAST in order to have blood work done and didn't realize how much I would miss my lovely am coffee. (Oh sure you can have coffee on a bloodwork day, just no creamer or splenda...what's fun about that? ) I didn't miss the food, just the coffee. haha Okay, time to come clean folks, I did NOT tell my PCP about the 5:2. I'm not sure why. It was a bit of a combo of things. First my PCP had 2 "students" (obv. med students...not sure where they were in the scheme of their studies, etc.) following him around and even though I consented to have them there (I mean what do you say when they trail in behind the doc...hi can they stay? um, guess so...) it was ODD talking to 3 people instead of the usual one. So then he was interrupted with a phone call and had to leave the room, and both of them pounced on me getting to poke and prod me, then he comes back and does the SAME poking and prodding that the students *just* did. So I guess part of it was that. The other part was that I didn't feel like an "expert" on the 5:2, so I wasn't sure how I would sound trying to explain it to my dr. Ugh. I did tell him I was eating about 1,000-1,400 cals/day which is true. I just didn't get into the 500cal/day part. Gah. Anyway, rest assured my SURGEON and his team (aka my fav. NUT that I see) both have FULL knowledge that I'm doing the 5:2 and they are both 100% supportive of me doing it. How about the rest of you? Have you had a medical visit while on this plan? What do YOUR doctors/NUTS/nurses all say about this??? Oh and one final note: the nurse who drew my blood was fan-freaking-tastic. I think I counted 6 or 7 vials of blood. He did bruise me (not badly though) but that is pretty par-for-the-course with me. I'm a bruiser and honestly I think I've only had 1 or 2 at the most when I didn't walk away looking like I've been in a fight. I'm excited to get results...will share when I do! Oh here is the bruising... And Breakfast after... egg beaters, turkey sausage and fruit...

Ah, got it. Glad to hear they are comfy. They still look freaky. Are there two toes put in that first part or is that just for your big toe?

Morphinmom...so nice to MEET you in person last night at SG!!

Dr. Snyder is amazing. The best surgeon IMHO. The thing that makes him so great is he doesn't just do surgery and then set you afloat on a crazy and confusing sea of post-op madness. He has classes. He has seminars (NOT just the ones you have to attend in order to see him personally, but seminars that are designed for post-ops.) He has grocery store trips, and tons and tons of support groups. Sadly with you being in GJ some of that might get lost on you, however they do have a phone support group that you can take part in. Love him, love his staff. Nothing but excellent IMO!