Globetrotter

I want this, and an arm lift, and a total body contour, and a neck tightening and eventual facelift, and a thigh lift, and some restylane or botox in my face. Written out like this it seems like a lot, but my whole body needs to be taken in!

For my first 6 months I weighed every single morning like clockwork, after (sorry TMI) my morning BM. C'mon, we ALL know that is the best time ... anyway, I steadily lost a pound every other day, I should have recognized this fact and weighed accordingly but I didn't, I weighed every day. So, every other day, I'd be in an awesome mood! And every other day, get out of my @%$^&* way >=[. Now I haven't been on my scale in over a month, because the number hadn't changed in 3 months and it was getting so dispiriting. Maybe the morning after the last day of my next cycle I will get on and face the music =/

Yeah, that soon post-op and your hydration is the mitigating factor in everything. I went through extreme fatigue in my first 2 weeks po, I think most of us do, after all, you are taking in less calories all day than an infant in a single meal!

Oh man, I wonder what a Muscle Milk lite combined with Vanilla Latte Click protein powder, with a dash of chai spice - iced, would taste like!!! OMG!!

What are your stats Mambear? A 20 pound regain is not good of course but it's a different story if it's 20 pounds from a 60 pound total loss or 20 lbs from a 180 lb total loss. Also, there will always always be excellent brilliant excuses for not exercising. Yours are airtight of course, we who battle food addiction are very good at excuse making, just like most addicts. Have you ever sought therapy? Therapy is the final and possibly most important leg in our tripod of recovery. If you are genuinely ready to change then might I suggest: 1) A 5 day pouch reset, starting today. 2) A walk around the block, this evening. 3) Open a new tab as you are reading this and find a cognitive therapist in your area and make the phone call. now. Welcome to VST, a good place to learn and share and know that we've been there too!

A dermatologist for the skin stuff, a salon for the eyebrows, look up "threading" in your area, it gives a much more natural result for eyebrow thinning/grooming which is good for men. Some of the good new barber shops will offer these services.

As my face thins out I am developing harsh angles from my cheekbones down to my mouth corners, hard to explain but they make me look very ... harsh. They aren't frown lines or "marionette" lines, hard to explain, and I don't know if it calls for filler or not. Celebrities always look ****ed up when they mess around with their cheekbones.

This is a deep muscle so topical cremes won't do anything but botox will and the effects will be immediate, a friend of mine had it done on her "elevens", it cost $250 out of pocket, and they smoothed out almost immediately. You could also look at restylane which is a filler rather than botox, which just paralyzes the muscle so it doesn't make that shape.

It's all about the Click! Click espresso protein powder, one serving is the equivalent of 2 shots of espresso but pure protein! Some Click, some good quality chocolate protein powder like Jay Robb or Tera's Whey, ice cubes, almond milk, some SF Torani syrup, maybe even some SF whip and cocoa for dusting, put it in one of those Starbucks cups made to look like their disposable to-go cups and nobody can tell the difference! Your tastebuds will not know the difference, yum! Make a couple of protein doughnuts from World According to Eggface and you are the cleverest person in 'bux! =D

And this is why I LOVE living alone! =)

I'm so glad to see this thread, I thought I was the only one! I've been sleeved almost 2 years and I think I managed to vomit twice and sometimes as horrible as it is, you really do need to puke and you know you would feel so much better if you did so it is a strange sort of frustration to not be able to do this (horrible gross) thing. I was so ill and desperate one of the two times I puked that I actually tried to help things along and stuck my finger down my throat. *shudder* that was so so SO horrible.

I love pilates and yoga and have done both for about 9 months. The effects of pilates are gradual and you may think you aren't accomplishing anything until one day you realize that you lowered yourself into a perfect plank position without even thinking about it. I love to dance and pilates was so helpful in strengthening my core for balance. I would agree with Blackberry tho - fun and energetic are not 2 words I would associate with Pilates. =)

There's Torani and Da Vinci, most people have heard of Torani I think they are sold in more places. Also I do not know if Da Vinci makes sugar free and I know Torani does. They are super sweet to my tastes, less than a 1/4 tsp in a serving of greek yogurt is enough for me

I ran the numbers for my BMR, how many calories I am burning on a daily basis, and how many calories I am taking in. The numbers are rough of course but if my calculations are mostly correct, and it takes a deficit of 3500 calories to burn a pound, then I should lose 2 pounds by Friday, today is Monday. People are so fond of saying calories in-calories out, so I am out to prove it true - or not. What do you think might happen?

Well I guess we'll find out.

Thanks Coops! I'm looking at about a 1700 calorie deficit today, about the same tomorrow and for the rest of the week. Plus, my exercise this week is alternating grueling calisthenics and low-impact high-intensity yoga so we shall see what happens. I also will try to make my water req's. I'm afraid of the same results that beset you, zero loss, but I have to try at any rate! When you were so strict with yourself, were you also counting sugars? Ever since I added a sugar counter to my food tracker it has made me much more conscious of my intake, it's sneaky stuff!

This is pretty much how I eat already, my only dairy sources are butter and greek yogurt, if I stay away from cheese, flour-based products and too much red meat my skin improves dramatically. Then, if I eat so much as one big bite of cheese, within an hour I have the start of a gnarly painful pimple =(. I'll do it! I can't cut out the greek yogurt as it is too important for my protein but I will cut out the butter, switch spinach for my useless romaine hearts, and add in more veggies. Fruit has too much sugar so I won't up my intake and I will cut out my SF popscicles and sweetener in my tea. I suspect a whole lotta chicken in my immediate future!! =)

I have forgotten what it was like to "live" morbidly obese, and that's not good. This weekend I went to a prom-themed charity event and wore a miniscule dress the size of a postage-stamp and teetery platform pumps with what had to be at least 6 inch heels. And yet, I look in the mirror and don't properly see any difference between now and then. That's effed up! I was a 26/28 at my heaviest, why can't I remember the exhaustion, the humiliation, the constant sorrow? Maybe I am self-protecting because it is difficult to face just how horrible it was, after all, hiding and denial were how I survived for so long in that prison of my body. hmm. I don't want to go back, I want to authentically feel proud of this accomplishment, yet I don't feel yet that I've done anything to warrant such pride.

I don't have any WLS cookbooks but I do have The World According to Eggface's blog bookmarked on my computer and that is pretty much the best bariatric cookbook ever. =)

haha, it totally drove me nuts too! I think it stands for Workout of the Day, because I guess it changes daily so it's like, if it's Monday it must be such and such WOD. =) I'll be able to better report after tonight, since I've only done 1 introductory class and tonight is my first real one *gulp* =)

It's funny about the sliding scale of clothes sizes, when we were at our biggest it seems like we all had a varitey of sizes in our closets, reflecting past weight losses and gains. Now, I still have a variety of sizes but that is because of the schizophrenia of sizing within the clothing industry. Also, old habits die hard, and when I am at Goodwill and I see a pair of trousers in a size 8 or a pencil skirt in a size 6, and I am able to pour myself into them, I can't help but get them because it is just so tantalizing. So right now I am in a comfortable 14 pants, or 12, one pair of perfectly snug Levi's in a size 10, but I have pants and skirts and dresses in sizes 6-10, hoping, hoping... =)

It's a love/hate relationship with the scale, isn't it! When it is doing what you want it is your besty, when it says something you don't like it is a little @$$%^*!! I have been on a scale boycott for about 2 months now but may get back on it soon, over the weekend I wore my favorite LBD, with a body shaper underneath of course, and both the dress and shaper were a bit loose! I did the introductory free WOD for crossfit and 2 days later I was still so sore it hurt every time I stood up, sat down, or coughed. I'm on to something! =) I have my first official session tonight and am scared and excited. I don't want to look all gym-rat muscle bound, which some of those crossfitters look like, but I am excited about getting really strong and fit. =)

that sounds like some pretty awesome chicken soup!

I know, why don't we just have eggface pinned as a link in the food section of VST?

Someone up in the thread mentioned that those who are on a tight budget are often also short on time, which makes eating healthfully doubly difficult. This is so true, I've recently started employing "austerity measures" in my life and when I looked at my account activity for a week where I thought I was being a major frugalista, I still spent an unnecessary $80 - and it was all on food! Granted, about $25 of that was dinner for my boyfriend's birthday so that is arguable but that's still over $50 that didn't have to be spent, dangit!! I did go shopping at the food outlet and spent $48 on a weeks worth of groceries that normally at my expensive organic food co-op would have cost me well over $100, so that's good. I like the axiom, "failing to plan is planning to fail". By taking 3 minutes on a Sunday afternoon to pop a tray of discount chicken pieces into the oven, I have cooked chicken for the week, that can be made into hot or cold salads, sandwiches, soups or just inhaled with some mustard if I'm that tired. Right now I am trying to "shop my pantry" as long as possible before buying groceries, I discovered a box of protein shots, am making protein shakes from the last of the tubs of powder, and will explore some black rice made in chicken stock this weekend.