Globetrotter

Ever since I came back from R&R I have been slipping. My room is an utter pigstye, I've only been to the gym once this week, my eating has become more and more disordered, I'm not styling my hair in the mornings, I have no energy. I can't blame my cycle, as this has been going on for at least 2 weeks and I'm still 2 weeks out from it. I return to the States from my tour in 5 more weeks, there is a lot of anxiety wrapped up in that - finding employment, keeping employment, finding a place to live, still being fat. I've been in a stall for 2 weeks. I average about 850 cals a day, 80g's Protein. My carbs have risen, used to be below 25, now are regularly above 35. Pretty blue right now.

Waaaahhh?!!????? You're pregnant?!! YAY!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!! 11 weeks, that's about the time I came back from Iraq and I stopped being as constant here on the forum. How wonderful, I know you and your husband have wanted this for a long time, how did you find out and how did you tell him?

I am almost 5 months out. On Thanksgiving I calculated all my foods online so that I could partake but not go overboard. Yes, my carbs were high that day, but my overall calorie count was only 20 or so higher than normal. I am up two pounds. I'm so depressed about this. How is this possible? In 5 months I have had stalls and maybe a 1/4 lb wavering before a drop, but never a gain. Two pounds. I work out 5 days a week; 20 minutes elliptical, a complete weights circuit. Don't tell me to up the exercise, my circumstances and time capacity barely allow for this much. At 5 months out I should have lost 100 pounds. I have been so faithful, a model patient, and this is how I am rewarded. What is wrong with my body that it is the freak that refuses to lose weight.

God, Christie, I really needed to read this right now. I returned from Iraq almost 2 months ago and in that time have only lost about 10 pounds. I know people will jump on me for saying "only" but yeah, only! With this surgery and being in my first year (8 mos out), I get to say "only" because we all know it should be more! I have fallen off with attending this forum, fallen off with inputting to my diet tracker, my protein is way low. Yes I have finally crossed over the Great Two Hundred Divide, but only just. I haven't hit 100 lbs lost yet. I am surrounded by delicious food and these old feelings of inadequacy are coming back - I'm the fattest one in tango class, in zumba class, and the biggest size in regular stores still doesn't fit me right, but the smallest size in plus is too big. in the last 20 days I have lost maybe 3 pounds. I'm eating protein bullets, greek yogurt, sashimi (no rice), and baked chicken almost every day. I dance or zumba or something every day. And only a pound a week. =( =(

I have never done a spin class, and am super intimidated. The one time I tried, the seat hurt my dainty bits so much I gave up after 5 minutes and was bruised for a week. Granted, that was 80+ pounds ago, but still. Any advice on how to approach? There is just one basic class available, and it is not a beginner's course. How can I ease into it?

Hello from sunny San Diego! When last you heard from me I was a ball of anxiety, preparing to leave Iraq. That was three weeks ago. Since then I did indeed leave Iraq, proceed through the aggravating Army redeployment process, cross the country (seeing friends and family along the way), and finally drove from Colorado to California, where I am now. Now I am with a dear friend helping her out with her newborn. My eating has been disordered of course, and unconscious anxieties about returning home etc. have manifested themselves in carb & chocolate indulgences that may or may not have turned into 3 lbs. Travelling (tmi alert) always makes me super constipated though so that might just be fake pounds, a couple of courses of miralax will tell. =P I am in the two-oh's though, I thought I was even 201 the other day but today it says 205, which may be the snickers (yeah I know I know) talking. This is a healing process, coming home, and way more difficult than leaving home. I actually bought a dress in the regular women's department at Target the other day - xxl of course, but still! It is a little thin cotton sundress with a deep v neck that I wore with a tiny amethyst cardigan and little silver strap wedgie sandals. It was the first time I had worn a short (knee length) dress in 12 years. Very strange. A lot to process. So I leave here soon and will travel northward to the bay area where I will settle down for 2+ months of quiet living, I will reconnect with my food, my exercise, my self. Here's hoping those months find me slipping under the 200 lb. equator and sailing toward goal. =)

Breakfast - 1.5 sausage patties, 1/2 plain crepe, 1/4 cup oj lunch - 4 oz chicken, 1 oz steamed veg medley, 2 oz shredded imitation cheddar dinner - unknown! Snack - maybe a granny smith apple, maybe a Protein shake, maybe a chocolate chip cookie, maybe nothing, who knows yet! vits - Flintstone's gummies Water - probably not enough, but will try!

It varies, I try to keep it below 850, I'm supposed to keep it at 600.

2 years before surgery I weighed everything that went in my mouth and worked faithfully with a personal trainer for 5 months and lost 20 lbs. When I sat down with my surgeon he pulled out a sheet of paper and drew a timeline graph of how the post-op weightloss would go. He emphasised that there is a 9-12 month honeymoon period wherein the excess weight comes off and whatever doesn't come off in that timeframe would have to be dieted off like a regular person, because after a year your body adjusts internally to the surgical changes. He also expected me to hit his goal (150) by 12 months. So here I am at 7 months out with 62 pounds to go before hitting his goal, 82 lbs to hit my personal goal (130). I try to visualize when I went from acceptably chubby, the kind of fat that can be hidden, to unavoidably fat and embarrassed and uncomfortable. I stopped wearing a swimsuit in public by the mid 150's, high heels became painful by the 170's. So I am going to be at surgeon's goal before I feel capable and not obese.

I can get protein powders, but I have discovered that if I start my day with a protein shake, I stay hungry all day, so I try not to depend on them.

Hahahahahaahahhhahehehehehhe heee hee hee hee .... So many of you know that I am in a deployed environment. As I have mentioned here in the Ladies Room, deployment is a long, long, LONG time, and when you combine that with the ... unusual ... side effects of surgery, there can be times when, well, when... you just. wanna. get it. ON. However, again, being a deployed environment, pickings are ... slim. And complicated. So what is a girl to do? Well, this girl took care of business, and let's just leave it at that. However, someone stateside sent me a goodie basket (indeed, indeed). Having no need for what the box contained, as I already had the situation well in hand, I put them aside to be forgotten about. Well, I am preparing to leave and giving away tons of things; books, dvd's Snacks, toiletries, you name it. And then I remembered the goodie box. Well, all the other goodies I put in our female bathrooms at work, it is the understood drop-off point for stuff. So, I picked one of the lesser used bathrooms and discreetly tucked the goodies into a big cardboard box ful of pads & tampons. When I went to check at the end of the day, it was gone! Did I mention that the kit contained a "bullet" vibe, personal lubricant, and tub of edible "nipple" balm? Oh yeah!!

Here is a link to an excellent article that explains why I get that amazingly pleasurable and satiatied feeling after weight sets that take me to muscle failure ... http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/phys-ed-what-really-causes-runners-high/?scp=1&sq=runner's%20high&st=cse

Overall weight loss has been very slow, about 55 lbs in 6 months.

can't wait to have these "problems"!!

I was never a stereotypical woman regarding TOM before surgery, now I am a walking cliche - give me chocolate, shut your mouth, get out of my way! My hunger rages and only chocolate will soothe the savage beast, chocolate and exercising at the gym like I'm being chased by the hounds of hell. The upside to that is that for whatever reasons - call it pent up energy, rage ... - I am able to go farther and harder at the gym during that time. RAAARRR!!

Works "too" well? Is that like winning "too much money" in the lottery?

*GULP* Thanks everybody, I'm redeploying right now and it is just extra easy for things to get spun up and blown out of proportion in my mind right now. Plus I'm "behind" in my weight loss by surgeon's timeline so that is added pressure. I'm tired of not succeeding, I want to win! BTW - this is off topic and I'll post the rest in the Fitness tab, but there was an excellent article in the New York Times about the so-called, "runner's high". How really, it is the cannabinoid receptors in your brain responding to intense effort. This produces a euphoric almost orgasmic sense of calm and satiation. Where did I put my sneakers?!?!

I'm trying to get back down to eating only 600 calories a day but I am discovering that without liquid Protein bullets or low-carb protein powders, it is next to impossible to get 80 grams of protein while only taking in 600 calories! I miss vegetables sooo much; peppers, cucumbers, radishes, fresh peas, fresh carrots straight out of the ground, heirloom tomatoes, arugula, spinach, leeks, yams, chard, kale, baked squashes. And real cheese with no additives or anything, just bacteria and time. Same goes for yogurt, and I miss real pure unadulterated meat; fish, rabbit, pork, real chicken that hasn't been pumped full of steroids and antibiotics. I miss heirloom grains and real genuine butter and fruit that gets bruised and goes bad because ripe fruit was not meant to last forever. My homage to food. And now, back to our regularly scheduled calories.

I am a naturally anxious person and you guys, reading all of this has me in such a panic, it makes it seem like there is no hope no point that the sleeeve isn't even going to help and I'll just be fat fat FAT. I need to hear positive words of encouragement, how I'm not going to end up like that 4-year woman. I'm frightened because it feels like everything has become a slider food; steamed veggies, turkey, tuna, peanut butter. So if I want to maintain eating proper sized meals that don't tempt me to overeat, I will have to stay eating cardboard chicken breasts and that's it! In serious panic mode right now ... I miss real food, to think that I will have to eat plain dry chicken breasts 3 times a day for the rest of my life makes me want to weep.

I assume you meant "bowel" movement and that is totally normal. With surgeon's okay, incorporate a gentle laxative like miralax into your hydration. Also remember, 4 days out from surgery, there isn't anything in your system to get rid of, you're empty, like a vampire.

I'm 7 months out and the only food that doesn't work well for me so far is pasta, very uncomfortable feeling. I haven't tried rice yet, or soda so those may turn out to be unfriendly. Of all the proteins, red meat keeps me satisfied and full the longest.

The tampons and pads were in a big open cardboard box in which all the tampon and pad boxes were jumbled, and I think upon inspection it would be clear to the new "owner" of the goodie box that it was unused, though I did dab a fingertip onto the balm - to use on my mouth, I was out of lipgloss!

Yeah, looking at the stats for male sleevers is always depressing, they're like, hey look at me I lost 130 lbs and reached goal in 6 months.

How do you participate in a weight loss challenge when you have the sleeve? I'm 7 months out and nothing I do (positively) effects change in my weight loss; I've upped the cals, lowered the cals,super exercised, no exercise, etc. etc. etc. Still, slow as molasses. Monday - B - turkey cream cheese roll ups, X2 L - 3 (1oz) meatballs, 1/4C marinara, 1/4 ice milk cone D - 1 oz chicken wings, 1 tbsp Peanut Butter S - 2oz dried figs, 1 raw vegan macaroon, 1 serving spiced cashews And my Valentine's Day sweet, the top to a chocolate chocolate chip muffin. Vits - 2 flintstone's adult gummies no formal exercising, but packing cleaning and preparing to move takes a lot of effort!