CraftyChristie

Even though you are not on liquids, adding in some protein shakes (make sure they are pretty low carb) would help you get variety. If you like tuna, try making it new ways without mayo such as with some mustard and relish, or olive oil and pepper. Scrambled eggs are great too. Also - try some meatless products! Morningstar Farms brand has really delicious meatless products. They taste good and are very high in protein. I especially like the breakfast sausage patties, chicken patties/nuggets, and veggie burger patties. Hope this helps you find some variety and a lot of these things will be great when you are back on solids after surgery too.

I'm 27 and I first looked into WLS at age 20 - wish I had done it then. I thought I'd give myself more time to keep trying to do it "on my own" but all it has gotten me is 70 lbs heavier. Back problems, knee problems, plantar faciitis... all kinds of things that I didn't have yet when I was 20. I honestly think earlier/younger is better so you can get things under control BEFORE you start having a ton of probems. I wish you all the best.

I don't know for sure yet but my consult is May 12th and they said it will probably be 2-4 weeks after... so I might end up around the same time!! :biggrin0: I will definitely let you know!

This isn't something to worry about - 20 to 30 lbs loss is about the amount most people stall, I know I have (not from surgery, but in my own weight loss attempts) and it's simply because your body is changing so quickly, and it needs a little time to adjust. Especially with surgery because it's so much change so fast. It would be impossible to just go down down down without ever having plateaus. At 2 weeks, you are definitely close to starting to go down again. Usually 2-3 weeks is enough for your body to adjust. At that point if it still doesn't try changing your typical diet up or just going for some short walks - something to wake your body up again. But my guess is truly it will start moving on it's own again. These plateaus are your body's way of adjusting - and it's actually a good thing - it will help with things like excess skin :tongue_smilie: Your body needs that time!

Take some time for yourself, some deep breaths, and focus on something positive! The best thing is if you can find a project of some kind to focus on for a while, that will help the time go by. Good luck!

Yes please! :-D I'll PM you with my email address.

I want to cry, seriously, I am picturing my own mom and I can't imagine hurting her like that or making her cry. I really hope your daughter comes around. In the meanwhile, I'm 26 and I will gladly be stand in for a while :001_wub: You need some mother-daughter time you come hang with me in CO. We'll get manis and pedis and go eat our tiny meals together :thumbup: I'll give you as many hugs as you would like :thumbup:

All I can say to this is.... :thumbup::redface1::thumbup::001_wub:

OK, for the CHEATING comment, here's what I'm thinking... Cheating? Eating right, exercising and focusing on my health, but with a little help, is cheating? So having a personal trainer or a nutritionist or a therapist to help me as I do the right things... is that cheating too? It's a helpful tool just like those things - I still have to be the one to put in all the work - a surgery doesn't do it FOR me just like a personal trainer doesn't.

I say vlog!!! I just started vlogging on my private health blog. I may go public later but right now privacy is something I want. As a suggestion if this interests you, I keep my blogger blog private for invited readers only, and I use Vimeo for my videos. It is higher quality than YouTube with no time limit (but you do have to pay if you want that feature I think)... and it allows me to password protect my videos but still embed them in a site. So on my blog which is for my invited readers only, I post the video and provide the password. But anyone who would happen on my Vimeo account through my other public videos would never know these private videos exist.

ah yeah, the protein thing makes sense. Thank you for the reply! So glad you are doing so well.

Wow, that is so wonderful to have your husband now fully on board. Having his support will help you be much more successful! I feel very lucky that my husband wants to have surgery also and we can go through this stuff together. I'm so sorry that you're feeling like you can't leave the house. I have had times like that and take it from me - staying in the house actually makes you feel more depressed. At least get in the car and take a nice drive with the windows down, or something like that, where you will still feel like you're not out in public as much but you can get sun and fresh air. It really helps you feel better. You MUST start the journey of learning to love yourself even while heavy... it is hard but it is possible. I weighed 295 on my wedding day (at the time that was my highest weight ever) even though I had wanted to lose for my wedding, I gained. But I was so happy and truly happy with who I was that I didn't even care... and everyone said I looked more gorgeous than ever, and asked if I had lost weight. I laughed inside thinking, um no I gained like 15 lbs! But you know, I was confident and happy and that truly shows and makes you more beautiful on the outside!! Find one thing about your appearance to compliment yourself on each day when you look in the mirror. Keep adding to it. So today maybe it's your smile. Tomorrow maybe it's your smile and your eyes. Then it's your smile, your eyes, and that cute freckle. Whatever... eventually you will really start to like what you see. Weight is only one part of who we are and you can't let it define you. Be happy with yourself NOW, and that will only make your happiness even greater when you ARE thinner. If you rely on the thinness to make you happier, it won't live up to your expectations. Best wishes!

Best wishes Brenda!!! You are having surgery on my birthday I'll be thinking of you!

What a wonderful story - I'm so glad you finally found the right tool to help you succeed. Although I never had quite your fitness level, I feel the same way, that I am a pretty 'healthy' fat person when it comes to exercise. When I was around 250-260 I could easily do hour long workouts, and I saw all the skinnie minnies come into the gym and hop on a machine and daintily workout for 10 mins on a flat level... while i'd be doing hills and inclines for an hour. It felt so unfair! I think fullness and portions have always been a problem for me too and so I expect a lot of success with this because I'm willing to do all the work. As someone who as also been heavy my whole life, I think your body just gets comfortable with it and weight loss attempts become harder because your body just doesn't want to do it anymore. I know all the right things to do but when I do them, my body barely loses any weight now. I hope we both have wonderful lasting success!

As far as having 110 lbs to go look at it this way, how many times have you started, thinking about how far you have to go, only to stop after 20-30 lbs and go back up? That won't happen this time... sleeve is an excellent tool and it works if you work it. So yeah, it may take time, but it will be far less than without surgery if you were continuing to yo yo and try on your own. Even if it's a year, or two.... then you have arrived. I think back and man if I'd done this 6 years ago when I first thought about it, I would have been at a healthy weight for 4-5 years already! Instead I'm 310! My highest ever! So yes just hang in there, and it will come! Best wishes.

I just read the rest of the thread... the way she responded was really rude! I was designing digital products once and someone made a product using my stuff and gave it away for free without asking me. She didn't take credit as if it was her own, but still, that's against all the usage terms in that field. I politely told her that and she told me I should take it as a compliment that she liked my stuff enough to make something with it to give away. Reminds me very much of the comment this girl left you. Some people just don't get it! Exactly like you said, it isn't her place.

Yeah... I have learned some hard lessons too. I had someone "friend" me on Flickr, and when I looked at theirs it looked like they were collecting photos of heavy women, both clothed and nude! I have NO nude photos just for the record LOL just typical photos of hanging out with my friends and family, but apparently the guy got off on that. That was super creepy. I've also been weight-loss blogging on and off for like 9 years now and I've had people recognize me in person which is creepy too. It's so hard to balance because if I make everything in my "online life" private, it makes it so much harder for people to be a part of it, especially family members who aren't that internet savvy. Hard enough for them to get to the link... if they have to have their own account, sign in, have a password, etc to see private stuff it just doesn't help. Plus then if my photos were private I couldn't really blog them. For me, I had to just accept that if I want to live my life the way I want to live it, then I will have these things happen from time to time. So that's where I'm at for now I guess. That being said I totally agree you should have been asked before your photos were used. I think people forget with weight loss before & afters that this is a real person with a real life and feelings. They just see a photo they like and they are only thinking about the fact that it shows a success. I hope you hear back from the person!

That must have felt great! I am definitely on the other end right now. When I see someone I haven't seen in a while, I definitely weigh more than the last time they saw me. I'm looking forward to when I would LIKE to run into people :thumbup1: :001_tt1: Glad you got to have that experience.

That's so wonderful!!:thumbup1: If you don't mind my asking, how long after surgery did you have to wait to swim? I would think til all the little wounds from the laproscopic procedure are totally healed up? Or is there some other guideline too? I would really love to start out with swimming because with knee, foot, and back pain, that's the easiest way for me to get cardio. I know once some of the weight is off I'll be able to handle more impact again but in the beginning swimming would be wonderful.:001_tt1:

yes exactly pnw218 .... and Phatcurves, just one more point... I want you to know that I don't say these things because I want to be right, or make some point, or tell you want to do... it is only that I care and I can tell you're struggling and I'd love to see you help yourself out of the situation and find more happiness. Big hugs to you.

OK firstly I am glad you are feeling a little bit better! I want to say one thing though. I totally understand your feeling that you are not strong enough to leave right now. And I won't harp on it but just want to put this out there - similar to what was said by someone else about the oily rag.... I know you feel your self esteem is low and you don't feel strong enough to be on your own but sometimes the truth it that it is the other person who takes away your strength. So although you feel that now, you would actually feel stronger without him in your life. I'm no counselor or anything but I have seen friends in these situations. I know it's a hard thing to face so I would never try to push you, rather I am only trying to encourage you to see that you CAN do this on your own and that it may actually be easier, because you don't have to fight anyone. We are all here for you if you need us!