LouiseC

It happens and then it grows back. The other posters are correct about protein and it is important to keep your intake up. That said, I would avoid those protein shots and go for cleaner protein options. As I understand it the protein shots are made largely from protein that is not easily digested into the human body and therefore you are not getting the nutritional benefit you imagine you are.

MississippiQueen, I apologise if my post read as condescending. That was not my intention, I was trying to share part of my own journey which was very much about learning to change my mind about things. To do this I had to often go far away from the emotional and into the facts, hence the dictionary reference. But on reread I can see how in your current space this could be viewed as lecturing. Please be assured that my intention was far from lecturing and my words come from my own experiences with failure and poor choices along the journey I have been on.

So much of this journey is about changing your mind about things. As has been said earlier one of the ways to do assist you to do this is by changing your language The dictionary definition of cheating...... cheat tʃiːt/ 1. To act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage. To be sexually unfaithful. 2. avoid (something undesirable) by luck or skill. What you are doing does not fit within the definition of cheating. You are not gaining an unfair advantage and you are definitely not avoiding something undesirable by luck or skill. I won't ask about sex though..... Basically, you are being dishonest to one person only and that is you. There is nothing to benefit you in this process. You need to decide to treat you better and not to be dishonest to yourself. This is so very much a head journey, learning that you deserve better. And I am not talking about the pizza, I am talking about beating yourself up about it afterwards. Yep, you ate something that really was not going to be good for you. Own it, learn from it, forgive yourself for it, and get back on plan. Dismiss words like' cheating' from your vocabulary around food. Be good to yourself in your mind and your behaviours will follow.

I wonder if you are hydrated enough? Peristalsis requires Fluid to work the food down into your gut, this fluid is mucous I think but I wonder if that contributes to your discomfort. As for the honeymoon, PDXman nailed it for me. The choice is yours here.

I was surprised very recently by a couple of the younger and newer staff at work. This was at the office Christmas party and they did have a few wines in them! They did not know I had the surgery and did not know I used to be obese. They were telling me how much they love my 'strut' and how when I walk past their work area they also talk about my clothes and how beautiful I am. I was speechless at first and told them I think the strut must be from new found confidence, I then told the about my journey and they were speechless. In fairness, I am the boss so they could be blowing smoke up my butt :-D In non work situations I have been amazed at how often I am hit on. It took me a long time to realise that I was being hit on. Now I notice men check me out, sometimes blatantly, almost everywhere I go. This didn't happen before. I do think Itis a combination of weight loss, confidence, and taking mores are with how I look and how I present to the world.

To be honest, the bit that really bothers me is that he did this via email. I am less bothered by what he said and more bothered by how he said it. My reasons? Well, I wish my husband had said something to me sooner. I was in a real state of denial about my weight and did need a good long hard look in the mirror. Our loved ones are often those who can see the behaviours developing in us that we deny. They are the ones who have to watch us make poor decisions and we often jump on them I f they are honest with us. I actually wish my husband had said to me years ago that he was concerned with the way I was loading my plate and eating mindlessly. I wish he had held that mirror up to my face as I was in a slippery slope that saw me top out at just under 300 lbs. why didn't he tell me? Well, I suspect it is because of most of the responses we see here. We have come to expect that our loved ones won't tell us the truth if it will hurt our feelings. Maybe sometimes it takes hurt feelings to give us the prompt we need? That said, he did it by email? Ugh.

Stalls happen, they just do. Then they break again. I have learnt to listen to my body and try to mix things up when I hit stalls. In looking at your diet, what you ate yesterday, I know this would not work for me over time. I know it sounds odd but when I stall and review my own diet I have found that there is one thing missing and that is good fats. Monounsaturated fatty acids. It may not work for you but perhaps try and add some - olive oil, avocado, nuts and seeds. Also Omega 3 rich foods like salmon. They are calorie dense but my body responds well when I am feeding it the good fat every day.

It's 4.30am here and I have been awake for an hour. It is unfortunately part of my new 'normal' ( there's that word again).

Auto correct comes up with some gold. I loved that! From now on, my own postpartum stretch marks are going to be know as post party! On the topic, I don 't know if I want to be skinny because I don't think of skinny as healthy. People call me skinny now and it takes me aback. I don't think I am skinny but I do think I am slim. My stand out moments have included the time I first saw my collarbones. I LOVE them! I love seeing them pronounced and obvious. More recently it has been seeing my ribcage and my hip bones. Even more pronounced is feeling my hip bones when I lie on my side, it isn't comfortable, far from it! But it makes me smile nonetheless. I love being able to buy clothes, almost any clothes I want and from any shop. I still have times I feel 'fat' and this usually occurs when at the gym or yoga because so many of those around me are actually skinny! That said, i wouldn't call them unhealthy, but i do make comparisons and try to picture myself post plastics. I still want curves, I like curves and I don't want to be bony. I still have my belly and thigh skin excess which isn't all that pretty and does make me feel 'fat'. My husband has asked that I not refer to this as ugly which has been a hard transition to make. I want to be slim, healthy and fit.

Hi Cathy I also think I dieted myself fat, so I understand you there. I am curious though, do you consider your husband's diet and metabolism to be 'normal'?

Been a while since I updated.

I found an increase in milia (milk spots) which are small keratin filled cysts under the skin when I was drinking a lot of Protein shakes. They usually appear on the cheeks and around the eyes. A diet that has a lot of protein, fats or cholesterol can contribute to milia. I don't know if that is what you are experiencing, my when I cut back on the Protein Shakes, the milia reduced. (In addition, I became lactose intolerant for a long time post surgery so had switched to alternate protein sources to dairy which may have made it worse but I really can't recall)

I am not quite at goal, my own goal that is (I passed the surgeons goal a while ago) but I am just 3 kilos away and pretty much consider myself in maintenance mode for the most part. I am waiting until the two year point to have plastics for the excess skin and will also likely get my boobs somewhere back up near my chest at the same time :-D sorry for the TMI but they are shockers these days! I estimate about half the weight I want still to lose is in skin and I am really comfortable with carrying these three kilos for a few more months if need be. So, what was I saying? Lol. Treats. I have them, usually a couple of times a week. When I do it is likely to be a sweet and I have a new found love of ice cream. I can easily eat half a cup and then I am happy. It is strawberry season here so lately it has been strawberries, though only about three or four, chopped up with half a cup of real vanilla. I buy good quality ice cream. I buy good quality food period. If there is an occasion at work then I will have a little bit of cake or cookie or whatever is on offer. Again, it is a single serve and I factor in the calories and know I need to burn them. I rarely eat chips, if I want the savoury Snacks I will go for nuts these days or spicy roasted chick peas. I also enjoy tamari roasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds. I drink wine frequently. I don't consider it a treat but rather part of a 'normal' diet. We often have a glass with dinner and I just factor it in. Occasionally I will have more, drinks with friends or family occasions. Again, I factor it in and work it off. I watch those I consider 'normal' healthy eaters very closely. I am consciously changing my behaviours, habits, and ultimately my relationship with food. I do not even for a moment consider the notion of eating anything I want to be 'normal'. This isn't normal. And it isn't healthy. It may be common, it may even be the usual for many. But it isn't normal to me not by a long shot.

I was just reflecting on this a bit more. I was only able to start eating salad again about four or five weeks ago. Nineteen months is a long time to go without salad! I stated slowly and was absolutely overjoyed to discover I could tolerate it again with no discomfort or rejection. Thing is, I was not prepared for just how FaNTASTIC fresh vegetables taste. I relish every bite. I have never in my life been so excited by salad as I am these days. Made better because now I also have my own vegetable garden and everything good is coming in season so it is spinach, kale and lettuce from my garden with fresh bSil and lemon and olive oil dressings and I am feeling this better than any ice cream great I may have thought I deserved in the past. Yeah. Normal is different to what it used to be!

I am almost at 'normal', or at least the version of 'normal' I have been striving towards. I consider that to be a balanced and varied diet where the energy I consume is equal to the energy I exert in the business of living 'normally'. I know I am one of the lucky ones. I have limited hunger, sometimes I forget to eat if I am busy (this is not a good thing) and I reach satiation really quickly. My weight loss, while almost at 100% of my excess weight! has not been dramatic. It has taken 19 months since surgery and I do work out and count my intake religiously. I will need to continue to do this but this is what I now consider the new 'normal'. Last night I was at a work event and there was a buffet. Ugh. I hate buffet these days, all that food just looks disgusting to me and I can have quite a strong reaction to seeing people load up their plates like they won't eat again for a week. To me, that isn't 'normal'. Yet it used to be and I know that for most people they don't even realise they are doing it. I had a small plate, a bit of ham, a bit of salmon and some new season asparagus with a side salad. A woman next to me who does not know me or the journey I have been on asked me if I was being 'good'. So I guess to her, what I now see as 'normal' is what others see as 'good'. So perhaps this 'normal' really is down to individual perspective? I haven't had a french fry in 20 months. Nor do I want one. Actually, I have had one and I threw it up. My sleeve doesn't tolerate deep fried food. As I said, I think I am one of the lucky ones! I never drank soda so I feel no loss now. To me, it isn't normal to guzzle so much sugar and chemicals. I drink alcohol in moderation and I enjoy sweets on occasion. I eat good carbs. Life is good and feels pretty damn close to my version of 'normal'.

I choose the sleeve as it seemed the simplest, it is permanent, which appealed to me, and it did not seem as severe as the bypass. I did not want to band due the many complications and risks it presents over time and also because of type relatively low success rates. As someone said earlier, hardly any surgeons here in NZ do the band now anyway as it has really fallen out of favour. I did not want to malabsorption issues and dumping syndrome common with the bypass. I wanted to get as close to 'normal' as possible. The other reason I choose the sleeve was for the effect the sleeve is thought to have on the production of two hormones, leptin and ghrelin. The sleeve procedure sees the removal of the fundus which produces these two hormones in our bodies. Oddly, it doesn't seem to work for all but it has for me. It is still largely experimental so few claims can be made but I know I experience an entirely different relationship with food since my sleeve. I reach satiation quickly and I am rarely hungry. Both of these are hormone related. I am convinced of this. I am now 19 months post op and I am 3 kilos away from my goal weight. I consider half of this to be excess skin. I feel amazing, full of energy and very happy. I have no need for supplements and eat a rich and varied diet. I have zero regrets about my choice to get the sleeve.

I must be a bit dense, I can't workout it how to set goals for my macros :-(

The calculation I work off is that In order to lose half a kilo a week I need to burn 500 more calories than I eat per day. To do this, I have estimated my daily calorie volume burnt just through existing and then subtract the 500. This equals 1606 calories a day for my age, height, weight and lifestyle. I take this as the absolute base and then consider my working out to be all bonus. Of course, I will have treats within this but stay really focused that each treat needs to be burnt of fine exercise. I agree as others hVe said that MFP lies! But the formula seems to work for me.

I had this issue and kept trying to shift the stubborn fat on my thighs before realising it wasn't fat, it was skin. It was a low point, for sure. Oddly enough, it is worse on one thigh and despite realising it is skin I keep working it like crazy! I am trying, very much so, to love the 'skin' I am in :-)

Yay! Yes. Life is good. I went to acupuncture the other day and the therapist filling out the form wrote 'normal' next to the box that asked for my body type. No words were exchanged as she did this but I felt so, so good in that moment!

It could be gas, or it could be constipation from the pain medication?

At 11 weeks, i was able to eat a considerable variety. Even then, Soup was always a go to on any restaurant menu and most places are open to adapting to suit my needs. I am always prepared on trips to the USA for hotels to be a bit different to what we are used to. Sometimes they don't have a bar fridge. That said, there is always a store close by that sells yoghurt and cheese and Protein bars etc. I really enjoyed my last trip to Houston, I hope you have a great time!

Wow. Recommending insurance fraud? Dude, its 2013 and you seem old enough to figure out that lying to insurance companies is never, ever the answer. It has to be one of the worst recommendations ever. f**k, those bastards can have more influence over your future than the inland revenue.