LouiseC

I found http://www.mybodygallery.com/index.html really helped me to get a sense of what I look like. It has save me asking my stand " am I bigger or smaller than her" question about random women!

I have yet to see a fish oil pill that isn't huge. But I take them all with no issues.

This really resonated. I never thought of it quite like this before but that is exactly what I did. I dieted my way to morbid obesity. I see people like your chunky cute girl frequently now and see parallels to those who are already morbidly obese; in the relationship with food, the food is in control.

We started at the same weight and I also had my surgery in May 2012. I am a couple of inches taller though. You have done incredibly well and look smokin hot! The last few kilos for me have been mighty s l o w. for a couple of months I began to think maybe this was it for me, maybe I was just meant to be overweight. Then out of the blue the scale started moving again after a few months of nada. I am close to goal and know it is going to be slow. I am not going to do anything drastic though, just stick to plan, keep moving, keep tracking, and keep mindful. I want to be at goal by Christmas but if I am not, then so be it. It may be close enough to feel as though I can touch it, but I just can't obsess or it will take over my life which isn't normal or healthy. And I want to to be normal and healthy! The number on the scale doesn't drive me, it is the BMI that drives me. I want to be in normal range. I know that with the skin issues I have on my belly I will be in the high end of the normal range but I can live with that, that is my immediate goal. I will get the skin off one day (my surgeon says wait until 2 years out before plastics) and I am sure that will make the final difference and get me to the middle of the normal range, the ultimate goal!

It is very normal practice here in any medical procedure. The forms actually have a box to sign to give permission for the hospital to destroy whatever they remove for you and another for indicating you wish to take whatever they remove home. While not common, is it accepted practice. Here, it is a cultural thing. It happens mostly with placenta, but then some people want all that is removed in order to dispose of it is a culturally appropriate way. I know people who even bury their cut hair and clipped toenails :-) As for me? I was happy for them to keep it!

I would wonder whether this was part of the issue here? For me, being really mindful about eating has been key in this journey to date. I have come to the conclusion that it will remain key for the remainder of my life too! I know that when I eat, I have to be mindful. Not only of the choices I am making about what to eat, but about how to eat as well. My personal assistant now makes sure he diaries in time for me to sit down and eat throughout the day. It doesn't always work out like that (I have a fairly demanding job, travel frequently, and often run from meeting to meeting) but we strive for it. I will also eat during meetings (internal ones, not with clients, heh) if I need to. I still make mistakes, have bad days, make poor choices etc but I am getting good at just using these as reminders to mindfulness. I sit down, I take conscious bites, I chew thoroughly and breathe before taking the next bite. I put cutlery or the food I am holding down while I chew and will take breaks during a meal. It takes practice, so don't let one bad day get you down :-)

I look back on photos of myself and honestly do not believe I got that big. It blows my mind. Some photos I still find quite upsetting as while I knew I was big, what I see in the photos now I never saw back then. It has made me hyper vigilant now about really looking at myself in the mirror, having my eyes actually open and looking at myself without denial.

One day this week I was visiting an office where the team had signed up for a stair climb challenge. One of their team mates was sick so they asked if I would sub in. I did, and I managed to clock up 86 flights of stairs over the day. I was wearing heels too! Not so long ago I would have used the lift to go up one floor and would have been out of breath and need the handrail if I had to use the stairs. Wow, my arse was sore the next day though!

I can remember waiting for something to be loose around my waist,and it not happening. Then I began wondering why the sleeves were so long. Soon after that, I had the same experience with pants, they were still snug around the middle but suddenly I was stepping on the hems. I had not realised I was losing weight and changing shape in unexpected places; shoulders, butt shelf, upper arms, etc. I was looking to the obvious places but in fact the changes in shape were going on elsewhere. The same places where I had gained weight without ever realising it. Time. Give it time.

When I notice it, I am flattered and a little bit embarrassed. It is not immediately obvious to me but once it becomes obvious I feel good. My husband says he likes it when he notices other men checking me out, he knows I am his.

So glad this popped up in the current feed. I have been needing this, the past week I have been eating like a cow - grazing all day long! On bad carbs mostly as well. Yesterday I chewed my way through a quarter of a baguette which is more bread than I have had since I had surgery :-0 Not sure why, just really veered off path and once I start eating those carbs, I start craving more of them. I wouldn't say I felt hungry, but that didn't stop me eating stuff I really should not eat. So, I am doing this boot camp from tomorrow morning and getting back in control, being mindful, and choosing well. Thank you!

Really good article. And some other great articles on that site too. Thank you for the link.

These are three things I am starting to hear. It's annoying me. I know that those saying them are coming from a good place, that it is people who are proud of me, pleased for me and happy that I am happy. They are not being mean, i don't believe they are trying to trip me up or sabotage me. But I am baffled as to why they think I should 'stop' when I am so tantalisingly close to goal. I am still clearly overweight, though mostly in the tummy it is still a cuddly lump of fatness. Obvious when pulling on pants that fit everywhere BUT the belly. Held in place and kept in line with various forms of super hero reinforced foundation garment examples of underwear. But still there. Still the last few kilos stubbornly clinging on. Do others hear this? Can anyone give any insight into why they think people may say these things? I should just ask the next one who says it. In fact, I will ask the next one who says it! But until then, it would be interesting to know whether this is common for those of us battling the last few kilos or pounds.

I love the idea of flashing a before picture to remind others, and myself, of how easy it was to be mindless and go back to where I was. I should save one to my phone! Not that I think anyone is trying to sabotage me, nor that anyone around me would. However, people do make poor choices and often seek partners to those poor choices and I do not wish to be one of them. I can kind of get what you are saying about saying I have stopped but I am an honest sort and just could not lie and say I was done when I am not. I don't feel as though i have to convince anyone of anything, i am really comfortable in my own skin here, i just find the response annoying and find myself baffled by it. Not at the head bashing place yet. :-) Plus, I want to Celebrate getting to goal loud and proud! Can't do that if I tell them I have stopped now!

No regrets here! Best thing I ever did for myself.

Looks good! I love cooking and eating Indian food, though I have learnt to 'lighten the meals up and don't use ghee so much anymore, nor do I have rice or naan. It does mean I often end up with more of a hearty Soup than what others would be having. My favourites would be paneer makhani and a good Goan fish curry.

Stalls happen. Even when I am absolutely nailing the diet and exercise thing, I can go weeks now with little to no shift on the scale. Then it breaks again and the weight drops off again. It can be frustrating but I am learning it is just how my body works and I try to not set goals for having lost by a certain date. I have my over all goals, but no time dependencies. To the poster who asked what others do at the gym, I can burn over 700 calories in a group fitness class (les mills body attack burns the most) and I can easily burn 500 on the elliptical trainer for 40 minutes. Do you have a heart monitor to measure your own calorie burn or do you use the machine? I find my heart monitor to be very different to what the machine calculates calorie wise.

I am another one who went through a phase of feeling repulsed and disgusted watching others eat. It was a weird time! I still get shades of it every so often. I kept my feeling to myself as much as possible but wow, it was pretty intense! I think it was in part for me learning how to cope with not being hungry. Pre surgery I was always hungry and never felt satiated. Post surgery I rarely feel hunger. I went through the phase I think because I simply couldn't remember what it felt like to be hungry and the thought of shoving my face with bad food made me feel physically ill. I don't feel repulsed so much now but I am acutely aware of being hyper vigilant around food and this just heightens my awareness of others not being mindful in their food choices. It is hard, because I often want to jump in and say something but I know this would not be well received. I do say it to my husband and daughter though, I know they want to make good choices and that they do not have a fragility around me speaking plainly! They have the same freedom to speak plainly to me given that I am not always mindful in my own choices.

You look fantastic! Congratulations.

It is an odd thing for me, I never liked pickles. Never. Then post sleeve I crave them sometimes. I didn't eat them until after about eight weeks but now I always have them in the fridge for when the pickle mood hits! ETA someone did tell me that a craving for pickles/salty things was connected to a need for potassium what is your potassium intake like?