Globetrotter

And if you can't join 'em - beat 'em at their own game!! Go to the World According to Eggface, and make her Protein Doughnuts, complete with "icing" and "sprinkles" Her pictures are impressive, they look like the real deal and she claims they taste like it too

Well, I've gained about 30 lbs in the last 14 months, and you all know the traumas I've suffered and the inhuman amounts of stress, and it only got worse - I've been given a preliminary diagnosis of a potential neurological illness. Devastated doesn't begin to cover it. I may need to be medevac'd to Germany. I stopped feeling good about myself when I lost my job a year ago June, and it's like I gave up on myself.

CLK, I should remember that all things are relative - and that if I am every so lucky as to actually achieve 150 lbs, I know I won't even enjoy it, I will be focused on wanting to be 130 lbs. Yesterday was a successful fast day, finally! 600 cals. My energy might be getting better so I may be able to return to the gym soon.

Thanks Dee, no I did not say, it is preliminary and I am holding out hope that it will be incorrect, until then I don't want to say it. and then again, the fatigue could easily have been the result of a change up in my caffeine intake, my sugar intake, a crappy mattress, a difficult week at work, take your pick It's the end of the day, I'm done in half an hour, and I can feel the food demon creeping up - this is when I have to remain the strongest, and when I usually cave.

Aghh, Coops! Hoist on my own petard, you got me!! I guess because I'm not exercising these days, I'm afraid to eat. The reason I'm not exercising is because I am battling fatigue that is a symptom of something I've recently been diagnosed with, so just getting out of bed and putting a bra on takes it out of me. Today is a fast day, I'm going to keep it simple with 2 shakes and a Quest bar, that will bring it to 498 cals, 38 carbs 64 protein. That's kinda high on the carbs and low on the protein so if I'm still feeling the NTN (Need To Nibble), I will have a beef stick.

Isn't seeing 100 lbs lost SUCH a rush!! So awesome!! As a 3 year veteran I would love to give you some hindsight advice, such as, keep those carbs downdowndown until you hit surgeon's goal, get a trainer and have them kick your a$$ with high interval training so as to train your metabolism so that you can keep losing after the honeymoon, keep an online food tracker (I'm sure you are doing this already), and get a therapist or support group that meets in person, not only online. Also vitamins and green superfoods!! Congratulations!!!!

Unjury chicken soup is a perennial favorite for the full liquids stage. also, beef consomme, low sodium tomato soup, V8, blendered leek & potato soup, and adding Unjury unflavored protein to any soup makes it legit for your protein count.

Woah Keys, long time no see!! So glad to hear from you, a fellow member of the 3 years crew! I remember how dedicated you were to your protein and exercise! If I recall you are also quite tall, at least to me (I'm 5'3"), so a size 8 means you are still pretty lean, good for you! I love that you are still big into the cycling, right on!

Boy do I understand stress eating! Also, grief eating, fear eating, anxiety eating, nervous eating ... I find that, when the urge comes over me, if I can get a really good strong hug from someone right away, the feeling passes. Or if I journal through it, the feeling will pass. If everything is just too overwhelming and I'm totally alone, then I hurriedly shove as much salad greens and raw veggies into my mouth as I can cram, those are still sticker foods for me, so if I'm packed to the gills with those, it's physically impossible to poison myself with something bad.

I too have pain issues with some wheys, and soy, basically anything with higher gluten content. Also, I have to stay away from the casein, as it gives me horrible cystic acne. Unjury and Syntrax have been the gentlest and most effective for me.

Cheri, I've heard that breast feeding burns crazy calories. Coops - alright girl, you are my sleeve sister but I'm about to rant at you! Stop saying you are medically obese!! I mean, unless there is a major difference between US and UK charts (I don't know perhaps there is, I'll check) you are NOT obese. I think you are 5'3"? 5'3" and 160 is overweight, according to the NIH website, NOT obese. Furthermore, repeating this toxic phrase to yourself is every bit as harmful as teenager girls pinching their teensy baby rolls and calling themselves So Fat. "Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but words they cannot hurt me" is the biggest pile of effing hogwash ever foisted upon the human memory. Words matter!! Words cut! Words shape perception, trust me, in my line of work - I know. You work effing hard, you face your struggles and keep plowing ahead, we all love and respect the heck out of you, so, FEEL THE LOVE GOSH DARNIT!!!! <3 <3 PS - I am also 3 years out, am 50 pounds away from normal, and it makes me feel like a giant piece of poop when I hear VSGers who are from my time frame/numbers complain about how fat they still are, and they are like 30/40/50 lbs lighter than me v_v. rant over :wub:

Yeah that is so true, I'm at under 500 cals right now, end of the work day, I could make this a fast day by having a shake for dinner, or go to the dining hall and get real food ... Luckily I am so exhausted the idea of chewing seems like an effort, so it may end up being the shake :/

Yep, eat like it's my job during that time, and specifically my craving for meat is ridiculous, I attack a rare steak like a velociraptor! In the 2 days right before, red meat and chocolate and my boyfriend!

Why would the hormones make you accumulate belly fat? I thought that pudgy middles were something that everyone battles in middle age, fat or thin.

Exercise is crucial, I've seen incredible before and after pics of people who have nearly eliminated the batwings just with weight training, but I think most of us will require surgery to eliminate them. Either way, weight training is crucial.

Fiddleman stole the advice right out of my fingertips, lol! Go to The World According to Eggface, for her awesome zucchini pasta recipe. Also remember the old phrase, "just because you can, doesn't mean you should", at a few months out you may (or may not) be able to handle pasta, but that doesn't mean you should eat it. Even enriched fiber pasta has next to no benefits, is a filler without nutrition, and pure carbs that aren't even complex. There are other ways of getting the pasta fix, check out Eggface, she's Italian and has found many wonderful ways of replacing traditional empty calories with delicious alternatives

Yeah, my protein is definitely lower on fast days, probably around 50. On feeds it's more like 80.

I decided to do ADF, Alternate Day Fasting, rather than 5:2. I eat 600 cals on fast days, and 1650 on normal days, and my rhythm is every other day, on-off-on-off-on-off. Is anyone else doing ADF? How do you like it? I am discovering just how monumentally involved my brain is in my hunger response, on normal days, when I can eat a lot, I suddenly have no appetite. On fast days, when I can't eat, I suddenly want All the Foods. Hello, headcase!! Today is supposed to be a fast day and I will have eaten all of my calories by 1pm!! When I started 5:2, I did 5:2, and it is still the same issue, all in my frickin' head difficult as it is, I actually am more accountable when I do ADF, because I can "get through" the fast days by telling myself that it's okay, I get to eat tomorrow.

I will have to have someone send me some

Coops, it might also be the result of withdrawing from sugar? I felt this way when I started ADR, that sugar withdrawal is no joke.

Gmanbat, it is okay that you posted here, I love to hear from the guys. However, it did slightly skew the thread, as the point of my original posting wasn't complaining that men are visual creatures, after your response it made it seem like that. My real point in the OP, which I guess I didn't clarify enough, was this paragraph: "So then I became not-obese, and then I got fit and almost trim (all the excess skin kept me from really looking buff) and suddenly I was visible. Men not only saw me, they pursued me, doggedly and I discoved that this kind of attention is just as saddening/depressing/disappointing as the invisibility was. Because of my armor of obesity, I never had to deal with men trying to get into my pants, and because I never had to deal, I never learned." I'm not saying men shouldn't judge with their eyes, after all, I do, it's just that I know they wouldn't be giving me all this full-court press if I didn't look this way. Perhaps it is sort of like ... I'm getting away with something? I'm passing for average?

Indigo, you got it, you really got it <3

The family photographic black hole is noticeable, packets of pictures, in albums, scrapbooks, the old envelopes (remember how exciting it was to go pick up your photos before digital?!) and then ... nothing. It's like I was in a coma for 10 years. And although I've had a facebook account for about 6 years now, there are maybe 4 photos of me in my FB albums prior to 2 years ago, and I was hypervigilant about not being tagged and removing any photos of me that others put up. Sad. This thread is called little things you never would have done, and one of those things for me is wear high heels if I had to do anything other than sit. Before my obesity I lived in high heels, I'm only 5'3" and every shoe I had was a heel of some kind and I wore them all day and went up flights of stairs at a run. By my highest weight however, just getting out of bed made my feet swell up and they were so fat that squeezing them into any kind of shoe and then standing for more than 5 minutes meant agony, nevermind trying to wear heels. So, one of the sweetest little victories last year (when I was in a Stateside office) was getting all girlified for work and wearing pretty high heels, wearing dresses with hemlines around my kneecap, I even enjoyed wearing pantyhose because they were a snug second skin like they are supposed to be, not torturous sausage casings.

Interestingly, everyone has focused on the relationship aspect of the OP. I would like to turn our attention to the other significant point of the post, that you feel the need to be constantly doing something. Sure, this is likely the result of making up for lost time, all those years when we sat around doing nothing and as you say, literally wasting our lives. But I do think there is something else at work here; you see, we used to fill that "boredom" or antsiness or whatever you want to call it, with food. Which of course reaches back into the "whys" of our overeating in the first place. What were we avoiding by stuffing our faces? What aren't we facing by being constantly active? What would happen if we were alone with our thoughts? I don't know if I'm making any sense or if it's just hogwash, but this occurred to me too, just like it did for the OP and a few others who said they have felt this way. When I was in the States a typical day for me was as follows: 5am wake up, 6am-2pm work, 3pm pilates, 4pm yoga, 5:30pm crossfit or tango, 7-8pm do laundry/pack lunch/set out clothes for following day/pay bills/journal/shower. 8-9pm watch a movie or show, sleep. and I did a version of this 6 days a week, I only slept in on Sundays, and even then it meant getting up at 8 instead of 5. and guess what? I really mean this when I say, that I still felt like I wasn't doing anything. I'm serious guys, I still felt "lazy". No doubt that is from over a decade of social abuse, being told overtly and subconciously that I was lazy or worthless etc etc etc. so anyway, I love being active, I love dancing and physical movement and being social, but I have also concentrated on being okay with just being me, and not having to prove my worth every second of every day. Hope my ramble made sense.

Georgia! I'm all choked up now! Thank you!! <3 The last 13 months have been absolutely brutal to me, unceasingly brutal, and I'm not making anything better or easier by packing on pounds and becoming unfit.