clk

I still try to drink a Protein shake (usually as a Protein coffee) every day, to boost my protein intake. So tubs of Syntrax nectar are just a part of my life now.

I eat hard boiled eggs almost every day.

I also eat cheese sticks and vanilla greek yogurt a few days a week.

I go through stints where I eat Jerky like it's going out of style.

Oh, and for snacking? I love me some smoked paprika roasted chickpeas or Sriracha chickpeas - or even some wasabi peas if I'm splurging. I eat half a portion size but feel like I just binged on a bag of chips after that small snack. I usually make a double batch and they keep nicely in an airtight container with a layer of paper towels to absorb moisture. Yum!

~Cheri

If you're genuinely stalled - three weeks or more at one weight - yes, hitting the basics is a good option, as is resuming tracking if you stopped for some reason. It's SO easy for people with a history of disordered eating to resume bad habits but slip into denial about their actual intake.

But quite frankly, stalls are just part of the process for almost everyone. And really - almost everyone - I can count on one hand the people I've seen here over four years that never stalled!

So the best thing to do during a stall is...wait it out. Once you know you're eating right and you're not in denial about your intake the very best thing to do is keep pushing forward, putting the scale away for a while if it's defeating you or causing negative feelings. I had two nine week stalls and took a whopping seventeen months to lose 107 pounds. We all lose differently - I saw a post just today where someone lost more than that in nine months!

So if you do find yourself in a stall (and you probably will) make sure you're on the right track and keep doing what you're doing. Minimal fiddling with your diet like increasing or decreasing calories for a week to see if it shakes things up is also a simple but not drastic move to make. I see people that absolutely panic at their first stall and cut things way down to 400 calories a day and practically starve themselves just so they can see the scale move. But that just damages our already screwed up metabolisms! We need consistency - we need to let our bodies adjust to the rapid loss and the big changes and to let it know food is still going to come and that this isn't a famine.

Good luck! Stalls happen. Find my friend coops on here. I think she stalled for more than a year one time, and without changing anything the scale finally started moving again and she's closing in on goal. There's no prize for finishing faster here, so just focus on good, solid habits that you can maintain for life.

~Cheri

If you're early out it's no surprise. And even vets have issues with this sometimes. There are even threads on it in the vet forum, I believe! I still struggle at times. I just get sick of Water and I avoid most of the drops, too. I only do the ones that have B Vitamins in them, since I'm always low on those. But at times plain Water will still make me feel nauseated and other times I just get tired of drinking around the clock. Or visiting the restroom around the clock!

Just work at it and don't quit. There's a definite difference in my loss pattern if I go low on water several days in a row. Close counts here, so drink as much as you can and don't start drinking other things instead. You can run into a real issue if you sub that water for juice, sweet coffees or teas or (heaven forbid, *gasp!*) soda just because you're sick of the H2O.

~Cheri

Yes, it definitely depends on the quality of the snack. That isn't to say that an occasional (definitely NOT daily) indulgence is forbidden. But your regular Snacks should be high quality choices that help keep you full and boost your Protein or other nutritional levels in some way.

I still snack most days. I just don't eat a lot in one sitting, even a few years out from surgery. I need those Snacks to get the right intake, and also, just to feel "normal" enough that I can go grab a little something to eat if I want it before dinner!

~Cheri

Breathe, Laura! Hang in there. Here's hoping the visit passes quickly and that you're still sane (and haven't killed anyone) by the end of it.

~Cheri

Checking in. Feast day. Still not a feast like before as I've pared down the calories but it might feel like a feast after yesterday! Down a touch on the scale - might even say goodbye to one whole pound this week! That would be awesome, actually. Then I'd have two more to the top of my maintenance window and four more after that. Six pounds shouldn't seem so daunting, but again, my sweaters are snug and I'd like them to fit again!

Fast day was fine yesterday - no real trouble sticking with it or staying on track.

Off to run errands. My son wants to be Pete the Cat for storybook dress up day at school. I guess only folks with young kids would know about Pete, though. Anyway, I need to either find cat ears or make them. I don't really understand the motivation for the school district behind not celebrating "Halloween" at school...but then doing a party day where the kids dress up on Halloween anyway. It's like the "holiday parties" in the military - you know, the ones where you're voluntold to attend and there's a Christmas tree, Santa and everyone sings Christmas carols...but it's totally NOT a Christmas party. Seriously, just call it what it is and move on! And hey, consider letting those of us that don't do Christmas have a choice about not attending, too. Bah, that's another story!

Well, hope all you lovelies have a great day. I'm feeling well enough that it's time to start tackling my to do list. I hope I don't pick up any new bugs out there, but I'm ridiculously excited about getting out of the house and being in the sunshine!

~Cheri

Super quick check in then off to bed. Hubs is traveling for work and I'm taking advantage of that. I got the man to agree to stay up to do the dream feeding on Elisheva so that I can go to sleep early and hopefully get some good rest. I'm not above a little negotiation, that's for sure.

Perfect fast day - I did great though it was kinda rough in the afternoon there. I felt like eating but drank Water instead. I'm a champion.

You guys are a hoot and gave me a chuckle with your posts.

Oh, and I once got a PM from someone that follows my content asking about something I posted here in this group, so yeah, it's not searchable or viewable from the regular forums but if anyone follows your content they can peek in though the back door, so to speak.

~Cheri

Bad things hit in a flood sometimes. And yes, many of us use food to cope and to drown out feelings of sadness, frustration or stress. I even ate when I was happy!

I'm very sorry you're having so many hurdles at once. But you do know what's wrong. I can say that for me, when I can't control my life, it's nice to know that I can control how I react to my life. I feel a sense of empowerment from sticking to my program and seeing results, even when life is hard. And please, don't get me wrong. I get so incredibly frustrated and want to quit sometimes. But you did not have a risky operation to sabotage yourself and wind up where you were.

Regain control of what you can work on. You can't change losses or illnesses. But you can change how you react. Take charge of your habits today. You're doing such a great job so far and there is no reason to throw it all out by choosing to avoid the mirror or the scale.

I really suggest maybe seeking out people with similar issues or finding a friend you can really talk and vent to, since without a job it's harder to have insurance and access to a counselor or therapist. Sometimes talking really does help and ease some of the burden.

Best wishes. The real challenges of this are the hard times, of course. That's when we know how we'll do. It's easy to do the right things when you see results, feel happy and everything is going great.

~Cheri

Never mind. This is why I stick to the vet forums.

Fasting. Kinda mad at the scale - was happy to shed six tenths of a pound last week but it all popped on after one sleepless night. I see now why moms have such a hard time losing weight after birth. I need three things to see consistent losses: lack of stress, plenty of rest and hormones that stay in normal levels. It's nearly impossible with this little one keeping me up, and of course I'm still fighting that cough I've had for more than two weeks so when she sleeps I often lie in bed coughing.

But in any case, I had nearly a week of very good, solid eating and I'm feeling positive about that. The more I stick to the program the easier it gets. And luckily, my Water intake is much higher now so I feel like I'm finally back to normal there, too.

I'm about to have my first meal of the day - some leftover matzo ball Soup (low calories!) and some egg salad, sans bread. I made a big pot of turkey chili last night and will probably have a nice bowl of that for dinner. I can have a full cup and it's still only 180 calories, but that's too much for my sleeve so I'll only eat 3/4 cup. I'll do a Protein Shake between breaking my fast and dinner and that should bring me in at 505 and that's fine by me. I might just sneak in some crunchy celery sticks later on if I feel like I need it but the calories from that aren't enough to sabotage my day.

GT, sorry about that. I don't have a tremendous amount of tolerance for a lot of women. I have a handful I can get along with very well and a larger number of acquaintances I can be friendly with whenever we meet, but it's not that often that I want so spend a lot of time (not to mention all day at work and all evening as roommates!) with any one person. It's surprising I'm married - I like my space and my privacy quite a bit! Hopefully those three weeks will fly by! I miss the produce outside of America. No joke - I swear that as crazy as it sounds the fruit and veggies taste so much better in Germany and even in Eastern Europe. Things have flavor. I miss the tomatoes the most, because it's hard to find a Tomato that tastes like anything here int the US!

FYE, good on you for working so hard. I gain after any hard workout, so yeah, the Snacks might be there but you might also have tiny muscle tears that lead to water retention, too. Hope you're not too sore today!

Enjoy the weather, Georgia. I'm about to pull our fireplace kit out of storage because we're having crisp enough nights here that we can enjoy a fire once in a while.

Hope all is well Laura, and that you're doing okay. In case you were wondering, I'm managing to stay out of the Halloween candy. Luckily, it becomes less of a struggle each day that I stay completely on track.

~Cheri

Oh, and side note - I "blew" 200 calories yesterday on rice krispie treats, of all things! I suppose I should have known they were a slider food. What I didn't know was that making them for the twins' Kindergarten Halloween party would trigger fondness for a childhood treat. Or two, darn it all. I still did great yesterday and clocked in at 1019 calories (I'm aiming for the 1000 ballpark) but was kind of mad when I got hungry between our early dinner and bedtime and had no calories to spare because I'd indulged earlier!

I am completely freaked out by plastics. My sleeve? Once I got over the idea that it was too drastic I was fine with it and never worried. Plastics are creepy though. It's me paying massive amounts of money to a surgeon so he can basically play cut and paste to make me into a Frankenbarbie. I'm not sure I'm down with that.

Plus, pain. Lots of pain. And eww, drains. Just...all of that grossness that comes with being sliced and sewn back together again. It's true: I haven't had plastics yet because I'm a weenie.

~Cheri

Ha! I was so thrilled for this brief period of time that I could reach everything and groom myself. Hubs and I had agreement where he did the grooming for me when I found it was too hard to do because of my size. Win-win, right? Well now I don't even want to groom! Yeah, I can REACH but with the loose skin (thanks, twin pregnancy!) I don't want to SEE it!

Hubs is old school, anyway and doesn't mind but yeah, I keep the grooming to a minimum nowadays. I, too, am looking forward to the lift!

~Cheri

Yes. Sadly, it doesn't go away even when you consider yourself normal! I'm short (5'1") so my current weight of 145 is still overweight. I went in for treatment for endometriosis and couldn't believe my new PCM told me I should really consider shedding some weight. Because, you know, I should weigh between 97 and 127 pounds at my height!! To top it off, I had given birth five months earlier!

Yes, I wanted to shout and scream and resort to violence. Nothing like feeling defeated after working hard to lose weight.

In my experience, those in the medical profession are the worst about this. Rather than do some simple tests, let's just tell someone to lose weight and exercise. Because surely, we've never tried that option before, right?

~Cheri

Honey, you can still lose weight after a bad, bad year!

Your sleeve is still there and still works just fine. I had more than one stumble on my way to goal - I had two nine week stalls that lasted partly because I fell off the wagon. Once I get frustrated with a lack of results, it's easier for me to fall off track.

All you do is pick it up, go back to basics to kill those cravings and go back to plodding your way to goal. It's both challenging and simple, and it's one reason I still love my sleeve. I'm three years out and trying to shed my last seven pregnancy pounds. While it's frustrating to be trying to lose at all, it's so reassuring that all it takes to see loss again is eating plenty of Protein and staying away from the junk I shouldn't be eating. The mental work is the harder part - making the choice not to sabotage your own success.

Get it together and keep shooting for goal!

~Cheri

And seriously, do some reading here on the site. There is absolutely no tweaking you need/can really do that's going to help you lose faster. We all lose differently. You're hardly eating at this point, so put the scale away and focus on hydration and protein!

~Cheri

I lost zero pounds.

I gained eleven pounds post op and didn't lose until my third week post op - all my first month's loss came in the last eleven days of the month.

~Cheri

This might be a stupid question but I am having a hard time understanding this. Why does your sleeve know when you're full when you're having the dence Protein but there's not always that full feeling when you're having Cookies, cakes, etc? I don't understand that. I thought the tool should have been with all foods. I probably would've never got the surgery if I had read these posts before. I want to be able to have a bite of pizza or a bite of macaroni and cheese. Now it just looks like I'm out for failure because there is no way I will be able to not have at least a bite of these in the future. I had talked with a friend who is a year out, and she is pretty much eating whatever she wants, which is healthy, but sometimes she will have Snacks. She is still losing weight. I would thought I would be the same.

That's a great share Laura made, so read that article.

Plain and simple, dense Protein hangs around longer and keeps you feeling full. chips, Cookies, popcorn - those things get chewed into small bits and slide right through. You can eat more before feeling full. In some cases, A LOT more.

And yes, at three out I pretty much eat what I want. And if I'm careful to do a day or two a week of very strict eating (protein, protein, protein and no snacking) maintenance is pretty easy. At least, easy in that I don't seem to move out of my window. But it's still work to avoid the snacking or the cravings or the plain old desire to sit down and eat while watching television. That's the long haul stuff you need to watch. Daily weighing in maintenance and goes a long way towards keeping you at goal.

~Cheri

You're fired!

Just teasing. It's been rough for a bunch of us, yeah. Here's hoping there's sunshine, rainbows and unicorns standing by for next week. I need some damn sparkles in my life!

And yes, typing on VST kept my fingers and mind busy long enough that the desire to eat is pretty well gone. Phew. I'm going to do this. I am going to lose these stupid pounds and I am going to get back to goal.

~Cheri

Alright....and here is the dreaded before and current.

Holy crap, man, you look awesome! Congrats on your surgery - I haven't been around much lately but saw a post somewhere that you'd been sliced and diced and had to hunt down this thread to see it. Can't wait to see how those scars heal up. And I'm so jealous that all of you "newbies" are getting plastics before me! I need to just do it but I think I'll just research for another year first....

~Cheri

I'm 3+ years out.

Almost always make me ill or uncomfortable: Pasta, rice, flour tortillas.

Sometimes make me ill or uncomfortable: potatoes (any way) and bread - I include biscuits, waffles, pancakes, etc. here because even now I can only have a few bites of these foods before I'm too full.

And I simply cannot eat anything overly sweet. I scrape frosting off cake, avoid cheesecake if it's not plain and skip Syrup on my two or three bites of challah french toast.

~Cheri

I can't watch it at all - none of those shows where they eat massive portions of food. They make me feel incredibly ill.

I hope that Man Vs. food guy looks better. I caught part of an episode more than a year ago and watched him red-faced and sweating while he ate enough food for six people and had the sad thought that one day he was going to die of a heart attack while eating a sandwich the size of a bus.

~Cheri

I'm three years out. My capacity did just about double around nine months to a year out.

Before people start panicking, what does that mean? It means instead of 4 oz. of food I could fit about 8 oz. That left me room to eat a wider variety of foods, work some healthy, fibrous veggies in and to eat my Protein at every meal without relying so heavily on shakes. I still do a shake a day to up my Protein, of course, but I don't have to anymore.

If I stick to dense protein alone I'm lucky to get 3-4 oz. in at one meal. That's still eating like a bird.

Caveat? Unfortunately, restriction (for the long haul) really only applies to good food choices and things like bread, Pasta and rice. Crispy junk foods slide right down, but that's another story.

~Cheri

It took me a long time to be able to reach both my calorie and Water goals. But the simple answer is that if you're awake, you should be sipping. It's almost impossible to do otherwise, at least in the very beginning.

~Cheri

Hugs, Susan, and thank you for a great (brave!) post!

I, too, can say I posted almost the same things as the OP around a year out. I totally embrace moderation and do not want to eat on a restrictive diet for the rest of my life.

But guess what? I'm STILL a food addict. I still use food to cope, I still have the ability to binge or overindulge and my sleeve, while it controls my portions (of dense protein!), does not, unfortunately, control my consumption of popcorn, Cookies, chips and basically any other junk food I'd like to eat. And of course, at 3+ years out I know exactly how long I need to wait between meals to eat around my sleeve. So instead of one piece of pizza, I can easily push it and consume two or three if I choose to do it.

There is a very, very thin line to walk if you want to do moderation. Do I eat a piece of candy once in a while? Yep. I'm a baker. Do I eat my own cakes, Cookies and pastries? Yep. But you know what? Maybe six days out of seven it's easy to say no or to eat a small portion. But that seventh day sometimes is a challenge. It's those days you need to watch. They happen to all of us.

So saying you can stop at one now doesn't mean you can stop at one later. My sleeve only helps me eat small portions if I choose to eat the right foods. A whole damn sack of Oreos would fit if I let them!

Regain is far more common than you think. We did not get obese because we couldn't follow a diet short term. We got obese and stayed that way because we have poor habits that are ingrained and incredibly difficult to break. We're champion dieters, but we're not good at maintaining. Nobody here woke up twelve pounds overweight and decided for surgery. Every single one of us has lost and gained on other programs only to wind up here with a sleeve.

So yeah - some folks get a little crazy about restriction and moderation. Because it's more challenging for some people than others, but it's not an easy hurdle for anyone here. How you feel at six months out is way different than even one year out, let alone more than three out like me. Some foods will trigger people and they avoid them for the long haul because of that. And many, many, many people get plain sloppy after a year out. They hit goal, consider themselves done and don't peek around the boards again until they've got a 20 pound regain to work on. Or worse, they never come back.

So yep, caution with moderation for sure. Because those good choices get harder to make and that sleeve only goes so far for you. It used to be 70% sleeve helping me lose. Now it's 70% me keeping me on track - the sleeve only helps me IF I MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE IN THE FIRST PLACE!

~Cheri

Oh, and it's kind of unfair to post things on a public forum with the expectation that you're only going to get replies that agree with you. Butter might sound negative to you, because you expected a bunch of "Amen!" posts in return. But to me? That's the voice of reason, blunt as he may be. He knows what he's talking about - all of us vets do. It's easy to skip the posts that you don't want to hear because everyone wants rainbows and sparkles and hopes for an easy journey to goal (and of course, a permanent stay there) but we're here precisely to help people with things like this, because it really IS different the farther out you get and if we don't share our experience, you simply won't hear the other side of the story.

CGJ, you look AWESOME! I can't believe you look so good so soon after surgery. Congrats on being back in the states. Don't sweat the appetite. Plain and simple, you're healing and your body needs fuel to do it. Up those Protein Shakes, maybe add in some smoothies and get online with Peapod or something and have them deliver you some veggies!

OD, good on you for the cake, and happy belated birthday.

Cathy, enjoy the trip! Relaxation sounds so wonderful - what's it like to relax again?

Laura - I am glad you posted. I know we've talked about it but those things that make us who we are (including the fat people with disordered eating we used to be) are all still there. And it's a challenge at times. I'm sorry about your brother. It's inadequate and doesn't express it completely but it just plain sucks.

Hugs to GT and Cathy on missing their parents.

Georgia, thank you especially for your post. We have a very troubled child (my stepdaughter) and it's been a long four years with her in and out of rehab, in and out of suicide watch...both my husband and I have buried children at one point and it's been so incredibly defeating to see how all four parents are absolutely unable to help this girl. We're half prepared for that call one day that she either succeeded or that she overdosed. I hope that some day she can be clean and sober. It's so hard to match up the girl we see now with the incredibly bright, optimistic and ambitious girl she was just five years ago. It's heartbreaking.

As for me, this is also a hard time of the year, which just feeds into that negative cycle. My daughter would be fourteen years old at the beginning of November. From 1 September to 16 January is what my husband and I call the down time of the year. Everyone else is thrilled with the holidays and family gatherings and we're "celebrating" birthdays and death anniversaries for children that aren't with us. It sucks.

On a more positive note I'm down a touch on the scale. Not much but it's a start. I know it's not in line with 5:2, so if ya'll want to give me the boot I understand, but I'm doing no days over 1,000 calories right now. My feast days are 1,000 calories, give or take, and my fasts will be 500 calories. I really feel like I don't shed weight well until I'm under 900 calories a day, but I figured I'd give this a shot. I expect I'll see a larger drop immediately out of the gate and then it will taper, but hopefully, HOPEFULLY it will be something I can maintain. I only have seven measly pounds. I really want them gone.

Then I need to focus on toning because I've got a gold sparkly gown to wear next year (unless she changes her mind) and I'd hate to look floppy in it.

Oh, and thanks for the compliments on my little Shevi. People don't believe me but honestly, she's harder as a single than my twins ever were at this age. I'm hoping that means she'll be an agreeable toddler!

Best to everyone. Hugs all around. No fast today but I got my feast planned to the letter so I'm going to stick to the program and prove I'm in charge of my diet.

~Cheri