Fiddleman

Still eating 3-5 ounces of protein every 3 hours except for 2 meals when I drink protein shakes. Sometimes I sneak an extra meatball or small sausage (1 ounce). When I eat out, I have more variety, but still about the same amount.

I would never get tired of the attention. Love it. Bring it on!

Drink milk shakes all day. Ha! Just kidding. I know what you mean. I find that 900 calories a day of mostly Protein is about maxing me out in terms of eating. I do eat six times a day ( every 3 hours). My energy is pretty good. Not constantly wired like I drank 3 ventis (seriously, would never do that), but good enough to be fairly productive from rise to bed.

Great! Can you give some details on the actual experience. How often we're you drinking water. When did you eat your gels or energy squares. Did fatigue set in? Etc, etc.

Let's see. 3rd week: cold -1 week and took a lot of NyQuil 5th week: cold - same 2 month: flu - 2 weeks, high fever and generally miserable 3 month: staph infection (weird on my head) - lasted for 3 weeks and painful. Went away with antibiotics. 6 month: flu - 3 week. Worst flu I have ever had and kept me in bed for first 3 days. Last month. Got so dehydrated because I had trouble drinking Water and the flu robbed a lot of water. Definitely have been getting sick more after surgery. I used to only get sick once a year if that. There were some stretches where it would be 3-4 years of no colds or flus when over weight. I think part of the problem is that I visited the clinic quite a number of times post op for various reasons. Even though I am careful about using purell there, opening door handles, etc, it is hard to avoid the many other sick people in the clinic. It is strange. I am generally very healthy. Take my Vitamins and supplements every day. Eat the high Protein and high amounts of water. I have lost a lot of weight in 7 months, most of it during first 6 months. Oh well, small price to pay for being healthy in terms of physical fitness and diet.

That is awesome! Great success story.

Mark, your description of water use during muscle recovery was so crystal clear. I have never looked at why weight seems to plateau a day after a hard workout and then drop a few days later. I love knowing the real reason. It is so logical. This would make it REALLY clear that everyone should focus on water hydration before and after a workout in addition to a protein shake.

Not sure this calculator is accurate. It tells me to eat 1936 calories a day to lose 1.2 lb a week. That is so much more then the 900 I eat a day now. I exercise 5 days a week for about an hour a day (800-1000 calories burned a day). Would this calculator equally apply to us with much different internal plumbing then non-WLS folks? Our stomachs absorb nutrients differently and I have a hunch that it takes less food for us to gain weight then the non WLS person given everything else is held constant (exercise, etc).

There goes that darn auto correct again.

That is pretty speedy! Congratulations.

This is my type of success story I enjoy reading. Thanks for posting. My story has many of the same no BS, no whining, high determination undertones as your story. Congratulations and I know you will be a smashing success all the way to the end. By the way, your pictures are very telling on your success.

Thanks, good information. No time to read the online manual now, but will when I return home tonight. Too bad I did not think to do this when I first bought it refurbished!

I got my precor treadmill off of Craigslist a while back and it is a refurbished model from a gym. The model is C954 and has been around awhile. Love it though as it is a very solid product and does the basics very well. The Max time is 60 minutes, but the message seems to indicate that it was configured to this for the previous gym where it was used. I want to be able to run more then 60 minutes on it without stopping and starting a new program. Does anyone know how to change this setting? I do not think it is an easy user setting because the idea is that the gym wants to enforce a Max time on the gym members. Might be a way to get into a different "hidden" setup mode for the machine.

Does anyone know of some reputable plastic surgeons in the Seattle area? Does it make sense to have it back at the hospital where I had the WLS (swedish)? I would like to consult with a few plastic surgeons around the region in order to gather information at this time. I still need to check with my insurance (United Health Care) to see what is covered. I am shelling out higher premiums for the plus coverage. If someone already knows what UHC covers for cosmetic surgery following WLS, that would be great to know. I do not think I have a medical reason to get the (extended) tummy tuck, but it would be nice to be flat down there. My stomach area has always held a lot of fat over the years so that is where I have some hanging skin. Rest of body is OK in my opinion, but the consults will help me determine for sure. A bit psyched that this type of surgery is under 10 k. If I had to pay for it out of pocket, it is affordable. Maybe not right away, but I could save up for it.