Globetrotter

This kind of news just scares the pants off me, it is my biggest sleeve-related nightmare. However, he didn't say she has gained all her weight back, just that she was still fat. I don't want to still be fat! This is scary, and I am such a slow loser.

Hey everybody. =) I am 7 months out and now that I am on the back half of year one, I am suddenly interested in hearing from the year 2 crowd. It's kinda like the difference between freshman and sophomore year in college; year one everything and every experience is novel and thrilling, year two brings challenges because after novelty wears off, there's a lot of work and things can get complicated. So I'm looking to hear from those who are approaching their 2nd surgiversary or have recently celebrated it. Year one was (I assume) spent losing the majority of the excess weight. What did year two bring? Did you achieve goal in year 2? What changes did your body go through? How has your eating changed? How do you maintain without gaining? Thanks guys!

Long time no hear Jane, good to "see" you.=) How are you maintaining? How did your calorie intake/diet change? How long have you been maintaining now?

You know what they say, if you were old enough to wear it the first time, you're too old to wear it the second time! =P Not that I'm interested in wearing giant baggy jeans, enormous doc marten boots, a body stocking, and massive plaid flannel shirt. Er, no thanks! Instead, I really want to bring back the fashions that I didn't get to participate in during the last 13 years because of my size, particularly the year 1998. '98-99 was the year of long shaggy tousled layered hair, pencil skirts with below the knee boots, and suits with teeny skirts. Also, at 32, I want to -FINALLY- make a lifetime dream come true and wear the Princess Lea-gold bikini outfit for halloween. I figure if I can hit goal by then and wear a nude full body stocking, that I can carry it off. I do wonder though if there is a way to freshen and update a piece of clothing that I still have from '94 - a plaid wool kilt. Probably not, huh?

hey does anybody know of a shapwear garment that would hoist up the tummy apron AND nip in the waist? Whenever I try to wear a spanx-style garment, I end up with all the shape of a Jimmy Dean sausage.

Thanks, I'm actualy 7 months out now, this post is over 2 months old. I have lost since then, a little less than 20 lbs. I have always been a slow loser and seem to be getting slower and slower.

B - turkey cream cheese roll ups X2 L - .5 oz dried figs, 1 banana cononut vegan raw macaroon, homemade biscotti X3, Sahale Snacks almonds cashews & pecans 1 serving. D - 1 oz chicken wing meat Exercise - 35 min. bicycle, weight rotation. Vits - 2 flintstone's gummies Water - not enough! not enough Protein, wayyy to many carbs, bad girl.

Sounds good but all that talk of bacon fat makes me a little queasy, I think I would prefer Eggface's Muffin-less McMuffins; she takes a ring mold puts it in a frying pan, places a round sausage patty at the bottom, breaks an egg into it , and lets it cook.

Wow ... respecting the food for what it is, and not asking it to make me feel good ... you just blew my mind a little bit there. That's seriously profound and I'm wrapping my mind around it, I recognize the truth there, that I have always looked to food to make me feel good. But food can't return love, it can take, but not give. I'm starting to see my desire to snack as correlating to the need some children have to suck their thumbs; feelings of fear, maybe boredom, familiarity, wanting security. I'm not going to start sucking my thumb as an adult, obviously, but I do need to transfer that act of reassurance to something benign, like maybe one of those Tibetan bead bracelets, worry beads, something. Sugarless gum maybe.

B - 3 oz chicken breast L - 2.5 oz jerked chicken, 1 pineapple ring D - 3 oz chicken breast, 3 oz shredded imitation cheddar S - 2 pieces fudge no gym.

I had my surgery on the West Coast and 3 weeks later I flew 22 hours. I wore compression stockings, never stopped moving my feet the entire time, and drank Protein Water constantly. I think it would be cheaper and more sensible for you to have surgery there in the UAE, I know that they are doing it now.

B - nothing, hot tea. L - cheeseburger patty, 1/2 ice milk soft serve cone D - 3 oz chicken breast, 2 oz shredded imitation cheddar S - turkey cream cheese roll ups, X2 Protein 78 carbs 16 calories 797 Did good on carbs, could have used another 5 grams of protein.

I recently tried some elbow macaroni, with a little meat sauce, this was my first pasta since surgery, nearly 7 months ago. No sooner had I swallowed then I got the uncomfortable feeling that acts as a *warning!* *warning!* *danger ahead!* feeling. Thank goodness I had the strength to stop eating it. Also, it wasn't tasty.

I don't even have kids yet but I am totally going to copy that family pic someday - too cute, too priceless, love it!!

I make a sort of instant version I guess: chicken chunks, broccoli, shredded imitation american cheddar (yuck I know but all that is available). However, I have discovered that adding balsamic vinegar to the cheese before melting it performs some kind of yummy magic, adds a great tang to the chicken and texture to the cheese. yumm!

I'm 7 months out and am terrified that the real weight loss is over! The previous month, I lost only 6 lbs. Then last month, only 3 lbs. I try to exercise every day, I try to keep the calories down, I try to keep the carbs down (below 40) and I am nowhere near goal. It is all very very very very depressing.

Many teas that are commonly available in grocery stores have anise as an ingredient. The popular tea, "Tension Tamer" by Celestial Seasonings is a strongly Anise tea and widely available. I am having serious head hunger issues right now, I'm 7 months out, and even though I am struggling and not always winning if it weren't for my gum and flavored teas it would be even worse!!

Neither of the scales belong to me and I don't have a 5 lb weight available, one scale is in the medic's station and the other is at the gym.

B - turkey cream cheese roll ups X2 L - 5 oz turkey, 1 tsp cranberry sauce, 1/2 ice milk soft serve cone. D - hot dog no bun, 2 oz chicken wings. S - 1/2 cup popcorn too many carbs, too much sugar, not enough protein! =(

I too have a scale issue; I use an old-fashioned doctor's scale, the kind where you have to move the big weight on the bottom and then the tiny weight on top, until the floating pointer on the right side balances in the exact middle. I had been in a stall for 2 weeks and then my regular scale broke so I went another week without weighing. Then I decided to use a scale at the gym, also an old-fashioned doctor's scale. That scale said I had lost 10 lbs, hooray. This morning (3 days later) I stepped on my regular scale, which had been fixed, and it said I had only lost 3 pounds. =( So, which one is correct? I make sure to "zero out" the scales before stepping on them, how can a scale like that be wrong?

I actually wish I had this fear! The truth is that my fear is the opposite, I guess I don't have enough faith in the sleeve because I think that I may not really believe (yet) that even getting near goal is possible, let alone exceeding it.

Crystal Light "Sunrise" flavor; the sunrise is orange juice flavored and too intense by itself, the miralax mellows the flavor for some reason. I like miralax the best but I think a dependence on it led to my recent bout of ultra low sodium and potassium levels, that ended with me in the hospital.

Monday was a tight tummy day; B - 1 TBSP cream cheese L - 2 oz turkey leg D - 2 oz steamed shrimp, 1 turkey sausage link S - half serving smokehouse almonds, 2 cream cheese turkey roll ups.

I'm not sure what is going on here but, I have in recent weeks, been awakened in the middle of the night by sharp pains in my hip bone socket region. At first I thought it was a fat roll getting pinched in the wrong position, anyone who has been super fat knows what I mean. But that wasn't it, I think that it is actually the pressure of the hip bone, making itself known, pressing into the bed!! I reach down to feel with my hand, there's nothing in there, just my hip and the bed, and the bed is topped with a 4 inch thick piece of foam! My knees and ankles are still well padded, unfortunately, but apparently my hips when lying on my stomach, aren't!

Yeah Tiff, even being on your friends list, I've never been able to access your gallery since the big VST changeover a few months ago. =(