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MFP lies and taunts me all the time! I hate that calculator. If it were right, I'd be 120 pounds by now, but it lies! Get back on track, lady. A day like that ONCE IN A WHILE will not hurt you but you know that. I host a big dinner or brunch here and there and am amazed by how easy it is to eat over 2,000 calories if you eat foods that go down easily. I hear confession is good for the soul, though. And our book club winds up being mostly chit chat and baked goods, so I understand entirely! ~Cheri

Fast day ended just under 500 for me and was a pretty easy day. I try to eat earlier in the day than most of you because even though my diabetes is in remission, I still have some noticeable issues with my blood sugar if I go too long without eating. I just stop eating early the night before a fast to get as many fasting hours in there as possible. Weighed this morning and am down more than two pounds from yesterday and have decided that scales are instruments of the devil. I'm kind of cheating...not really fasting today but not really feasting. I want to see another small drop on the scale tomorrow, too, in the hopes that part of the drop will stick. So today I'm putting off my meal until lunchtime and going protein heavy. I'll aim for somewhere around 950-1050 calories. Not really 5:2 but seriously, my sanity NEEDS me to drop at least half a pound to stop seeing the same number range on the scale. Then, it'll be onto the next little two pound range but, still! I'm not even announcing my weight because I'm hoping it will be "real" tomorrow and I swear I'm jinxing myself by getting excited every time I break back into maintenance. I swear, I'll still do 5:2 in an attempt to get down lower, but just being back in my safe zone will be a huge relief. All ya'll glamorous ladies enjoying time out of the house, going to parties and taking vacations make my humdrum days of baking and tending little ones sound so boring. I'm going to take my 5 year old twins to see Despicable Me 2 this weekend, though! I can't even remember the last time I saw a grownup movie in the theater. We're interviewing sitters so hubs and I can work our regular date night back into the schedule. So maybe I'll have an opportunity to get out and about again soon. Hope everyone has a great day and a wonderful weekend. We need some sunshine around here or I'll lose my mind. ~Cheri

Sounds great! I'll send you a PM and we can work out some details, and also figure out how we'd like to invite people from here. My suggestion, to keep things as private and safe as possible would be to ask for PMs from anyone interested in attending but we can talk that out and see what sounds best. Thanks for the info - it appears the support groups are for patients only, though. Do you know if they're open to people that didn't use their practice? I know you can bring guests, but I wonder if that's more so that you can bring in someone pre-op that might be interested. I can give them a ring, but you may know the answer from experience. ~Cheri

You need to eat while nursing, but it's not much more - I was told an extra Calcium rich snack a day is about the difference in calories you need over your typical intake. You burn approximately 500 calories a day if you exclusively nurse or pump. I'd start by tracking your intake if you aren't already. Before looking at anything else, see if you let your habits slide while pregnant and if you're eating more than you realize. It happens - the hormones make us want to eat (me, anyway) and without tracking it's easy to miss it or slip into denial. Were you in loss or maintenance before pregnancy? I was in maintenance. I had to shift into loss again, which is kind of tough, especially while nursing. I only cut my calories down to my pre-pregnancy maintenance levels, or roughly 1,400-1,600 calories a day. That's what worked for me - you have to go back to what was working for you. If you were in loss and eating very restricted calories I would caution you about returning to that before weaning. You may very well compromise your milk supply and it's very hard to get back. It takes time to shed the final pounds. How much did you gain? I lost a big portion of my gain in the first few weeks, but have been fighting the last fifteen pounds for nearly four months now. They come off very slowly (I've 7 pounds to go, and have since weaned my daughter) so be patient. Disclaimer: I'm being a total hypocrite here, because I'm not feeling very patient, myself. Maybe by reminding you, I'll remind myself, too. In any case, the most important thing is your supply. The weight is definitely coming off of me and I just have to be sure that I don't slide into poor habits and it keeps coming off (albeit at a poky pace) so as long as you're okay on that front, I wouldn't worry. Even if it's frustrating and we want our bodies back now! Congrats on your new addition - it goes so fast. I'd forgotten how quickly it flies by as my twins are nearly six, but my daughter is already four and a half months old and it's amazing because I feel like I just had her! ~Cheri

Sorry for the loss. It's true - many women experience this without even knowing about it. We did IVF/FET for our two and were told multiple times that seeing multiples on our early ultrasounds would not mean that both/all of them would make it even to ten weeks. How far out from surgery are you? Were you in maintenance prior to pregnancy or still in loss phase? If you'd been maintaining at a steady weight I'd be more worried about losing, but if you were already losing, you'll likely continue to lose for a while. We've had some gals that got pregnant before a year out lose all the way up until the final trimester, and finish up gaining very little weight overall. The more important thing is the baby's development. Good luck and congrats on your pregnancy! ~Cheri And my post sleeve baby was born 21 March of this year.

I went alone (Dr. Aceves) and had a great experience. I simply planned ahead, did my research here and spoke to Nina about any questions I had to be sure I knew what to expect. I even flew all the way from Germany for my surgery! I made good friends with the other ladies being sleeved the same day and even kept in touch with one of them throughout the first year post op. The only thing someone else did for me was run to the pharmacy to get medications. One of the husbands offered to run for all of us that were recovering, and of course we gratefully accepted. ~Cheri

Head over the to the pregnancy board - they're everywhere! ~Cheri

Congrats on your success! You look great and have come a long way in a short time. ~Cheri

I've gone back and forth. The initial post op diet really destroyed my taste for certain foods. Later, when I wanted to eat again, I found that I preferred more spice and more flavorful foods than before. That's not a bad thing. That persists even now. If I'm only going to eat a small amount of food, I want real foods with great flavors and textures. I simply don't like to waste my space on sub par food. Tasteless things I used to gobble down and crave, fast food in particular, are just disgusting to me now. I don't avoid them 100% but instead of being a rare treat, they're something I do because circumstance doesn't give me a better option. There's almost always a better option! I used to really enjoy very rich sweets. Now I think they're just okay, and in moderation at that. There are only a few sweet foods that really tempt me. But I do prefer crunchy salty Snacks these days and never cared much for them before. I think that if the will is there in the brain to eat emotionally or to graze because you're bored or whatever your motivation is, your body will demand something that fits the bill. And truth be told, I can fit huge amounts of salty, crunchy slider foods if I wanted to, so I'm careful about my intake of these things. I eat a huge variety of foods now and was more wiling to branch out post op because my diet of chicken breast got boring very fast. I also taste any and all artificial sweeteners in my food and prefer not to consume them at all. I no longer buy anything that is low fat or sugar free. Yuck. I'd rather eat the real deal. And I prefer homemade anything to store bought. I can taste everything now - the metal of the can the green Beans were in is noticeable, so why not just make fresh? And I developed lactose intolerance and despite the fact that it's mostly faded by now, I still don't like to eat things like ice cream or rich, creamy sauces because they made me ill early out. I'm still unable to drink cow's milk, even Lactaid, but I don't really miss it, either. In almost all cases, the change has been positive, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. ~Cheri

Agreed. On the one hand, it's very important to be aware of complications, your risk for them and your doctor's track record for this particular surgery. If he had a number of deaths or suspicious statistics, I'd worry. Ultimately, you either trust him or you do not and should pursue a different surgeon. And people sue over the absolute DUMBEST things sometimes - not all cases are warranted - so unless you know specifics it's hard to gauge. ~Cheri

Now, up until about sixty to seventy pounds off I can really see someone that isn't in your very close circle not commenting. I would HATE to be that person to bring it up and compliment a person just to be told that nothing has changed. People are either outright rude about other people's weights or they don't bring it up at all. So most people wouldn't bring it up until it's very obvious, unless they knew a person was trying to lose weight and were looking for the differences. Even I didn't really see a big difference in myself until sixty pounds. My husband could see it but I didn't. Family asked if I was losing - they didn't say, "Congrats, you look good and you've lost weight." So I think that it's when we clock the really big losses that people seem to come out and notice. But Cowgirl Jane's SO? No way. That's way too much weight for a person that sees you regularly to let slide. That's not okay. ~Cheri

Right?! I spent what, nearly seven years as my husband's invisible fat wife. I did the same baking, the same housekeeping, raised my kids once I had them and my stepkids when they were with us - nothing, NOTHING has changed to people outside of my normal circle except my weight. People that know me get the newer attitude, the confidence, etc. but that's different. And now, I'm super wife to all my husband's coworkers. What? I mean, I spent YEARS being ignored. Do fat people really make other people this uncomfortable? Years, literally, where the most effort anyone would expend getting to know me was a nod or a "Hello, nice to meet you." And now they flock to compliment me, to talk to me, to ask about my day, my feelings, etc. Everyone tells my husband how lucky he is, how jealous they are that he has "the whole package." Seriously - a coworker said this to him the other day! Like, what? I'm a valuable commodity now that I'm attractive to more people? Whatever! People are SHALLOW. And yeah, I can say a lot of my attitude is different, I'm out in public more now, I'm more approachable, blah blah blah but I know that a huge part of it is that both men and women are nicer to attractive people, and most people don't consider someone who is overweight attractive. That may sound controversial or mean or like I'm not cutting people slack. But in my experience it is absolutely true. People treat me differently. I walk around the same way and strangers approach me for small talk in the store. I get hit on by men constantly (it doesn't help that my wedding bands need resized because they're way too big, either) and even women treat me very differently. Not just new people - people that I've known for years and years suddenly think my opinion is worth more or that I'm worth more social effort. It's total B.S. and I wish they'd go away. Sure, it's flattering. Sure, it could go to my head if I had less sense and a lower self esteem. But in truth, I'm a sarcastic little mean person on the inside and I always have been, so a big part of me wants to stand up on the table and shout out that no shallow bastards are allowed to talk to me. I'm definitely down for practicing my RBF. Because seriously, people need to leave me the hell alone. And I'm thankful I'm not single. Because I'd have to weed out the shallow, thoughtless jerks and wonder, "Would this person be talking to me 80 pounds ago?" I have a husband that loves ME - he picked me big, loved me when I got bigger and loves me now that I'm smaller (even if he laments the loss of his plump wife) - my size was never a major factor in our relationship. He didn't love me in spite of my size, even if people seem to insinuate that sometimes when they talk to him. Like he took a hit having a big wife for a few years or something. It's disgusting and yeah, it makes me really angry. Bleh. Anyway, sorry to hijack your thread with my personal rant! ~Cheri

Yes, I agree that it's not so much the ton that bothers me - it's the idea that I wasn't attractive until I lost weight that bothers me! Now it's in reverse, and people can be really insensitive when they see my before pictures. Like now that I'm thinner, it's somehow okay to say things like, "Wow, you were huge!" or "You look like a totally different person!" or the ever so popular, "I can't believe you ever looked like that." Um, no. Thanks for the compliment (I think) but I clearly look like the same person, just bigger. Not huge. And the way I looked was larger, yes, but I really dislike comments that make me feel like I was somehow disgusting when I was larger and am only acceptably attractive now that I'm smaller. It's just as bad as the "You have such a pretty face" comments I got as a big girl, followed by that pause that clearly said "and you'd look so much better if you'd lose weight." Being fat is not the most terrible, unattractive thing in the world and while it's okay for me to sometimes beat myself up about my size or wanting to shed a few, it's definitely not okay for other people (who have never battled their weight in most cases), to comment on it the way they do! ~Cheri

I've had spells where I've needed my PPI for a short period of time, likely due to stress and I definitely had to take it while pregnant. I have noticed that on fast days, I have to take one. Other days, I'm fine. But the days when I don't eat much I have a noticeable increase in my acid and it's enough that my stomach will rumble and I'm uncomfortable. ~Cheri

Fasting today, forgot to eat this morning. Is that good or bad? I'm a bit jittery and need to eat so a brief update. Bounced back up on the scale - damn that thing all to hell. Back in the same dang window I've been in for a few weeks now, like it's just taunting me with what could be, but isn't. Ah well. I knew it was too good to be true. I find myself kind of bored now that we're just a family of five plus my mother in law. It's both relaxing and uncomfortable. I'm used to doing more because I've had to run almost non stop lately. The junky emotional news hasn't stopped - got a call last night that husband's ex-wife, stepkids mom, has breast cancer. WTH. Just, really, WTH. The only good news lately is that DH isn't deploying ASAP. No, not true. Elisheva is very healthy (despite a rough start due to allergies) and my twins are doing great and excited to start school. My husband had some run ins with cancer himself recently but just got a clean bill of health, that's good news. And I guess if I want to be self-obsessed, I also haven't gained any weight despite the fact that it's been one hit after another since January. So all told, I can complain but it's not so bad. Now, I'm off to eat a fast-suitable lunch of homemade minestrone soup. It was yummy the other night and is sure to be even better now that it's had a couple days in the fridge. Later, gals! Have a great day. ~Cheri

I'm three years out. So, I walk a line here. And for now, that line is pretty easy. But it's not the simple, mindless thing I thought it would be. Does that make sense? I think the challenges in maintenance aren't when life is rosy and things are going well. It's when we hit the normal ups and downs and run into stress that our ability to hang in there (both with diet and weight) get tested. So for the most part, my maintenance was pretty easy. But add in some stress and it does become something I have to battle more. If the stress and upheavals are a normal part of a person's life, they're naturally going to experience a greater struggle. The issues I have with food are emotional and are really tangled and complicated. There is still no physical desire there unless I trigger it with some type of food - and even then I'd probably be battling a mental/emotional food association more than a real, genuine, physical desire to eat. I do still eat what I lot of people call junk. But I try very hard to keep it in moderation. And if I'm feeling particularly stressed or going through a lot, I try to limit my exposure to that stuff. Because yeah, it could easily become a mindless food binge if I went after the junk food on a really bad day at the end of a rough week. I've done it before and suffered no regains, but in the back of my head is that voice that says I've just been lucky so far, and I must be more careful or it could be an issue the next time. I don't know if it gets easier. I think my whole perspective is skewed from where I would have been had I not had a baby and been forced to lose weight again. If you had asked me at two years out, before I was pregnant, I'd say it wasn't hard and it was easy. That food was just food and not good or bad - that the real issue lies with controlling how I use food and how much of it I eat. But having the last five months be what they've been - facing a lot of struggles and a new baby (and likely some postpartum blues for good measure) has really changed my mind about a lot of this. Do I find it easy to avoid eating foods I shouldn't and to avoid gaining weight at three years out? Yes. But do I find myself wanting to lean on food more, or skip fast days or just eat what I want because I can do it once in a while without gaining (so far)? Yes. Every day is not a challenge for me. So in that respect, maintenance is okay - if I can really even call myself "in maintenance" right now while I'm still trying to shed a few pounds. The issue comes up when we have something change. New medication, new house, new baby, life issues, sick friends, sick family, etc. It's how we cope - and I don't really think that gets any easier the longer you get out from surgery. And for me, the way I am eating has NOTHING to do with that - I can eat what I want. For me, that's okay. It's the stress/boredom/mindless eating I have to watch. The desire to eat a brownie doesn't show up because I ate chips the other day. It shows up because I have a bad day and food is my drug and will probably always be my drug. So I guess all of this rambling (which probably makes no sense to anyone but me) is all to say that how hard it is will likely depend on first and foremost, your relationship with food. If you use food to cope or satisfy or soothe, I think you're going to have a much harder time at any point life gets tough. And if you're just a volume eater that enjoys food too much, you're probably going to have an easier time in maintenance. My opinion, based upon my own experience, is that it's a separate issue from regular diet. Moderation works incredibly well for me, and I do eat things and make things that I get the feeling many here would cringe about and many would not be able to eat and walk away from as easily. I don't think there's any easy answer here. I do think that no matter what, being careful about my weight will never, ever go away. If I use that as a benchmark of success - staying in my maintenance window, I mean - I can't see how it could be an issue. It's when I avoid the scale that I have an issue because I get "surprised" by five pounds (it's never happened, BTW, I'm using it as an example of my past behavior) so if I weigh daily and make small adjustments as needed, how could I ever get out of control again without a major upset to my health or without consciously choosing to stray completely and overindulge regularly? I probably sound slightly judgmental - along the lines of "if you're not losing you're not trying" but I am genuinely curious if anyone has been diligent and just been sideswiped by a gain of more than five pounds. Because I might be forgetting things I've read but I swear that almost every single regain post (that isn't due to a medication/illness) involves deliberately avoiding the scale and eating "wrong." Am I mistaken? I clearly need more calories. Today's a fast day and without my realizing it's gotten past noon and I haven't eaten. I doubt this makes any sense. I'll have to eat something and come back to edit it later, to make it coherent! ~Cheri

Yes - I had not realized until post op how many of society's rituals revolve around food. When I am not hungry, I don't want to eat. And I shouldn't have to eat in order to make people feel more comfortable, or like I'm part of the group, or because they want to feel better about the fact that they're eating something. I don't want anyone to roll their eyes at me and dismiss me as "on some crazy diet" and I shouldn't have to explain myself. And the guilt around food - how ridiculous is that? Parents that enforced the clean your plate rule with beatings and lectures about how poor they were growing up certainly did me no favors. I should not feel any twinges because I can't eat the massive portion on a plate, or because I choose to eat only an appetizer. I shouldn't have to rationalize to myself that it's okay to "waste" the money or the food. But for a long time, that's exactly how I felt. Being in charge of my body and being free to express my wants and my desires without repercussions or justification is just as important to me as feeling worthy enough to do what I want or buy what I want or eat what I want. It's all so tangled. This is what makes this a challenge. This is the part that makes maintenance or long term success hard. ~Cheri

This is pretty much how I got down to goal last time, too. I think I posted around a year out in my update that I was basically already transitioned into maintenance mode. For me, that meant something akin to a less structured 6:1 program. I didn't go ape or anything and I still weighed pretty close to daily but I wasn't working hard at losing. Maybe it was just that I needed to stress less about it or maybe it was that I just stopped focusing on a scale goal and my body was going to stubbornly give up the pounds, anyway. But I slowly lost those last few pounds and while it took forever, I was pretty darn thrilled with each small drop, because I was so sure I'd never see the end of the 150s! I only wish I could have taken your more relaxed approach to the whole thing but I was (and remain, in loss) OBSESSED with the numbers and where I'm at and how much longer to my goal. I still have to remind myself that my weigh in doesn't need to ruin my day sometimes, and that's sad. I still need to come back and read other posts and re-read my own weight loss tracker and posts to reassure myself that it does come off if you're patient enough with the slow pace. Imagine how peaceful and calm the forums would be if we all took your approach at six months out! ~Cheri

Glad your day was better. You know, I feel more than a few twinges of guilt sending my homemade goodies into the office with my husband. Now, in fairness, more than half of them are military and so very active and regularly working out. But yeah...the other day my son wanted cinnamon rolls, so I made a pan the night before to bake in the morning. I set aside one for each family member in the house and sent the remainder in to work with him. So I'm probably contributing to office weight gain for all of his coworkers. I usually bake once a week for them (in the Embassy it was "Cookie Wednesday") so when I don't bake, people ask my husband if I'm doing okay because they think I'm sick. I mean, on the one hand, I do not expect anyone to eat more than one cookie or once in a while a big treat like a cinnamon roll. But then again, I know that in my fat days I'd have parked my can right by the baked goods and had myself a feast. I should probably stop. But I really, really enjoy baking. And I don't want it all in the house because it goes to waste - we simply don't eat that much. So, for now, at least, his coworkers have to battle temptation on a weekly basis, and it's all my fault. Now I feel terrible. ~Cheri

Stay strong, Dee! No need to keep me strong about foie gras, though. I enjoy good food but the old Jewish grandmother that lives inside me insists the only liver I need to eat is chopped liver (made with chicken livers, plenty of onions and schmaltz/gribines, preferably) and this one time I was served a dish in a fancy Belgian restaurant that included a foie gras creme brulee and it was just...so wrong. Put me off the stuff forever. But you enjoy it once your feast day hits!! Laura, that's a heap of sh*t right there, so I hope that you can forget yesterday and move on to today. I hope your dog will be okay - though I know that once they're old like that it's hard. Keep us posted on the biopsy. I hope that they can use the least invasive method possible and that it won't scar too badly. I also scar badly, but it does fade with time. But I get it, I wouldn't want one where everyone could see it, either. And prayers for your friend, too. I got a call from my closest friend yesterday that she was diagnosed with cancer. Just a day for bed news, wasn't it? On to today, I'm ready for something better! And while stress eating isn't cause for celebration, you still deserve a pat on the back for binging on roasted soy beans and not cookies or any of the dozens of other poor choices you could have made. So, my update: I think sleep has been a major factor in my moodiness lately. I hadn't really put it together. Shevi hasn't been sleeping well for the last few weeks. I was getting between four and five hours of sleep a night and she wasn't napping during the day. All of a sudden, she went back to normal yesterday. Two nice, long naps and she slept eleven hours, woke up for a couple ounces and went back to sleep for another two hours. And I feel AH-MAZING. Seriously, like I have my sanity back, even though the sun isn't shining. I was also down on the scale - the first real loss I've seen in forever. If it sticks (please stick!) I'm down into my maintenance window again and logging 140 pounds. Please let it stick! I'm feasting today and fasting tomorrow. Missing my stepkids a lot more than I expected but kind of relieved to have the house (mostly) back to normal. I just need to clean and put everything back where it goes. Hope all of you ladies have a fabulous day! I'm choosing to be positive today and not dwell on things that have been bothering/worrying me. I need a nice, relaxing day and I can't have that if I choose to let myself be stressed. ~Cheri

YES!! This! I see so many women absolutely freaking about about the "stall" each month during their cycle and it drives them nuts the first time it happens post op. But I GAINED each month and only lose one week a month, typically, so I had a very similar pattern to yours. I've been here a while and I still get frustrated when I see the "110 pounds down in 4 months" posts (I grabbed numbers out of the air because I don't want anyone to think I'm knocking them) because while I'm thrilled for the poster and happy for their success, I see two things coming down the road: 1) That person will stall, because a huge amount of weight has come of amazingly quickly, and they're more likely to panic when they do finally slow down because they've become accustomed to fast loss 2) Other people that haven't achieved the same amount of weight loss in a similar time frame start to feel frustrated and question their success. Yes, some of them post about this and get panicked about losing the weight or stalls or slow loss. But many more probably just get discouraged and never say a thing! That's why I really love seeing a variety of threads stay at the top of the success board, and why (if anyone's reading this and annoyed by this thread popping up all the time) I work to keep this one going and on the first page as much as possible. We're all successes - but we all also get hung up on the numbers sometimes, too. I'm guilty of it, too. Got on the scale this morning and saw my first real drop all month. And oh yeah, now the smiles come out. ~Cheri

Thank you for the advice, I'll pass it on to her! Yes, she gets ridiculously sick each time they try to stop her (four times now) and has been hospitalized three times and nearly died once from some crazy histamine reaction that I don't fully understand. I'm very worried about her and she's had so many tests, blood draws, scopes, laparoscopies, etc. trying to figure this out and nothing, nada, zip. ~Cheri

Yes, and it's good info to know. Mine was much lower than the average - basically, it doesn't factor in your exercise (which is why it's the resting test) but it gives you a baseline. I was told (I think - this was more than five years ago) that the average for women was somewhere around 1,400-1,500. I came up much lower than that, enough that it surprised them (as an obese woman they fully expected it to be higher than for a normal weight woman) and this, coupled with the visit to the nutritionist where they told me a 1,200 calorie diet was too many calories, but to eat those calories to avoid "starvation mode" and exercise 600 calories off per day to lose roughly two pounds a week is what finally pushed me to think about a more drastic option. I opted for surgery and started my research immediately. There was no way that I was going to be able to maintain that long term, I'd already tried over and over again. In any case, I've found that I can eat far more now that I'm thinner...which makes perfect sense, actually, because I'm far more active than I was as a morbidly obese slug. Now I can easily eat between 1,400-1,600 a day, all the way up to 2,000 a day if it's not a regular thing and I can do it without experiencing a gain on the scale. So as far as that part goes, maintenance was pretty easy for me. I just had to weigh every day and maybe watch my intake one day a week to be sure I wouldn't hit the high end of my maintenance window. It's the emotional aspect that's really challenging, in my opinion. food was not just sustenance to me. The thing you need to consume every day for survival should not also be your (second) best friend, emotional crutch, stress relief and preferred coping mechanism. For me it was. So being thin, being in maintenance doesn't change that. I still have to be me and I still have to be careful about my relationship with food. Food and I? Sometimes we got issues... ~Cheri

I asked about carbs because I was higher than most gals here but that's what worked for me. I started out no higher than 40 but once I adjusted to 75 or so a day I was losing at the same pace but felt a million times better. Mentally and also with that desire to graze/binge I get due to a diet that makes me feel deprived. I ask because everyone is different so if your body can handle more carbs without a setback and without it triggering you, I'd eat more. Why restrict more than you need to? This is a huge reason why 1) I track religiously and 2) I give each diet adjustment at least a week or two before declaring it a success or loss. If you know exactly what you're eating and you're weighing regularly you can see how the two work together. I lost no differently on higher carbs. In fact, in maintenance I eat 120-140 a day on normal days. It makes no difference to my body - I still lose at a poky pace if I restrict down to 40 a day, so why go through that if I don't need to? So, when I asked about your carbs, my concern was that your desire to do the sliders might be due to deprivation or that you might be one of those few that needs a different mix to lose effectively. Don't be afraid to experiment. What works for you is probably not what worked for me, or the next person, either. Figure it out and go with that - there is no perfect answer or we'd all get to goal in a flash and stay there forever. Good luck, ~Cheri And for the record? I do the real deal on everything - but I can do that without going ape on junk food (usually!) so my yogurt is the Chobani and it just happens to be fat free but it's definitely got carbs.

While I'm frustrated and sad that he'll go I know we're lucky. This is the job - it's just that the short notice isn't all that great. Now that we have more time to plan I'll be okay with it - still stressed a bit and still worried for him but much better. I have to be able to plan or I don't deal well. Amazing perspective, as usual. Thanks for that - it is good for my insulin, in particular, as someone who is insulin resistant and whose diabetes is in remission. IF is good for our blood sugars, so I can't disregard the benefits even when the scale doesn't obey my every command. I make the family eat what I'm eating. And I say the cast weighs five pounds. Wishful thinking, huh?! How long do you have to wear the darn thing? Yeah. I found my fast night landed on a pizza night a while back and even though I normally don't get excited much for pizza (how can I get excited when I only eat one slice of a food that remains, in my mind, a quantity dish?) I was kind of a moody crank that night because I was eating tuna while they were eating pizza. Now I plan around them and make them eat what I'm eating. Chicken breasts all around, please! Today is going well. Actually, I'm low, low, low on calories but whatever. I've only had 580...and it's not a fast day. What's up with that? I mean, really? Because I swear it's a nightmare some days to keep the fast days to 550 or less and on the feast days I'm just fine avoiding food and even do it unintentionally sometimes. You know why this is bad? Because my body KNOWS I'm low on calories and I start getting super hungry in the evening. Yeah, evening snacks are a no-no for me because it gets out of control too quickly. Unlike positive habits, it only takes one night of snacking for my body to be like, "Hey, it's 10 pm, time for a snack" every single night after that one slip! Stupid fat person habits...it's like they never, ever go away, no matter how long I spend in a small body. ~Cheri