Globetrotter

A guy I worked with here became a spin addict and lost well over 100 lbs, without surgery! I really would love to spin but I will have to fashion some sort of home-made seat pad, I was bruised down to the bone the last time I tried it. Right now I do 30 minutes on a bike in cardio mode on my own and I work up a decent drippy sweat, I can only imagine with spin! That's it! I'm goin' in!!

As a matter of fact, my hip bones have always pained me. I was a competitive swimmer in my youth and my stroke was breastroke, which pivots the hips outward into an unnatural position and wreaks havoc on the joints. My hips hurt generally, but this thread was in relation to the fact that bones and joints are starting to emerge from their swaddling layers of fat, thereby causing odd "problems" related to no longer having the extra cushioning. Sitting in a chair for 10 hours a day I KNOW doesn't help matters, groan!!

I probably should have clarified - this is a PT (physical training) class on my Army installation and is taught by a soldier. The class is at 0530 in the morning so not a lot of time to really chit chat with the instructor.

I have no professional guidance on this but, I think maybe "fear of the unknown" may have been the subconscious impetus for my recent bout of slider binging.

I have to have lots of melted cheese in order to get the chicken to go down well, however, I use the restriction to my advantage; when I feel like I have been eating too much or too many slider foods, I eat some plain "dry" chicken and get so (uncomfortably) filled up, so fast that, that there's no room for anything else. I like to take 3 oz cooked chicken, cubed, a splash of vinegar, and 2 ounces shredded cheddar cheese. Throw it all together in a bowl, microwave until all the cheese is melted and bubbly and, yum! Throw in an ounce of brocolli and it's a complete meal and enough for 2 sleever-size servings.

YES. Stress affects weight loss. I work in IRAQ. I am almost 7 months post-op, I have barely lost 50% to goal. I have been stalled for 3 weeks.

For me it is because I associate winter stormy weather with hearty soups and stews, hot beverages, and doing your best to stay dry and cozy. So when it is overcast and cloudy and rainy, I have an automatic urge to curl up in a chair with a steaming bowl of something yummy and a good book. =)

Yes, I do have PCOS, but what can I do about it that will increase my weight loss? I feel like I have all three - PCOS, endo, & thyroid. =C =C =C

Through bad choices and head hunger issues I have discovered that, should I reach goal and enter into maintenance phase, 1100 calories will do it. I have eaten between 1000-1200 calories for most days in the past 2 weeks and have not lost an ounce. I now know that I cannot have food around me at all, beyond what is meant to be eaten for that meal alone, otherwise, I will eat it. Clearly I will have to join a support group or something when I get home. I'm so scared of not making goal, of gaining, of this not working, it's miserable to feel this way.

Suddenly in the past two weeks I have felt like I have a bottomless sleeve, I'm 6 1/2 months out. A 4 oz chicken breast used to take me to the brink and now just slides right down. I ate about 7 ounces worth of food for dinner last night before I felt the uneasy restricted feeling that used to come after only 2 1/2-3 ounces. I see now that my ability to control myself around food is less than I thought, and I need to have no food avaiable to me at night beyond the measured portion of my dinner.

Thanks guys. I tried to go back on liquids for a fresh start, didn't even make it a whole day, had shakes for breakfast and lunch and then chicken for dinner. I take 2 complete flintstones gummy vits every day, but that's it. I am exhausted. I have no interest in anything, no sense of hope or pep or gumption. Laying in bed, staring at the tv in a dark room sounds about as challenging as I'm up for. Went to the gym yesterday during lunch, it felt good. Will try to do same today.

At least you can pinpoint why you binged, I have been binging lately and there is no clear-cut reason why that I can point to. I really don't know what is wrong, just know that I'm feeling depressed, I've stopped going to the gym every day, and for 3 days my eating was over 1000 calories and I ate stuff like pepperoni, chocolate pudding, and microwave chocolate cake. It didn't even taste good (well the pepperoni did) and it definitely didn't make me feel better.

B - Protein shake L - 4 oz baked chicken breast D - 4 oz baked chicken breast no snack. Would have added veggies into L or D, no worthwhile veggies available however.

I agree with Tiffykins - quality not quantity. Go for the rich dense nutrients rather than just upping calories. Avocadoes are excellent but depending on where you live can be pricey. Good cheese, the real stuff not plastic wrapped slices. Greek yogurt, honey, nuts, oil-rich fish like salmon, hearty meats like duck, bison, & venison. Liver. Doctored protein shakes with wheat grass, spirulina, peanut butter, real whole milk. Egg yolks.

Day 14 of my stall. Average carb count this month: +/- 50 Average cal count this month: +/- 850 Going to try to cut down my carbs or at least change them up. I've been letting some Pasta creep in, in the form of Cafe Steamers balanced meals, along with chocolate pudding cups, popcorn, and all the carbs packed into some Protein bars (!!!). I'm going to go back to getting my carbs strictly from vegetables and fruit - no more yogurt or pudding or milk or accidental pasta or bite of english muffin with breakfast, those things are for goal-achievers and maintenence keepers. =( =( =-(

Thanks CLK & Liomari, that's excellent info. At my heaviest my periods became awful affairs, at one point the cycle completely flipped itself, 4 weeks of bleeding and 1 week off which went on for almost a year. It's better now post-op but I have hair growth on my face that indicates hormonal imbalance and sometimes the pain during a cycle knocks the breath out of me.

When I get so small that A) a (male) stranger describes me as tiny or, a thin/average female stranger describes me as tiny, that will be the size for me!

How expensive is the Mirena? If it is chemical, doesn't it affect your emotions like the pill? So, is it a combination pill/coil? I have this idea that you end up with strings, like a tampon, hanging out, which sounds unpleasant to me.

I discovered using spring roll wrappers instead of tortillas for even lower carb count. All this talk of tasty wraps makes me think of making skinny cheeseburgeritos, tubes of grilled burger rather than flat patties, minced tomato, cheese, slivered pickle, mayo & mustard, all wrapped up tight in a thick lettuce leaf. Two or three of those, each no bigger than a small cigar, sounds yu-um!!

After reading that list, it sure wasn't the salad that was the culprit. You said the JoJos were the same size as the fish, which was the size of your hand? And you ate two of them? Just imagining cramming that much into my sleeve makes me sympathetically ill.

B - turkey cream cheese roll ups X2, 1 hickory farms beef stick L - 2.5 oz tuna w mayo & mustard D - 3 oz chicken, 2 oz shredded cheese S - sugarless gum, hot tea total carbs for the day - 17!! What I wish I was eating? ... B - eggs benedict with fresh crab, a milky latte, english muffin with butter and jam, bacon L - fresh sushi D - croq au vin, hot apple pie, gin & tonic S - aged cheddar, crackers, hummus& veggies, caviar. Hey, a girl can dream!!

I've always tried to keep my carbs below 30g's, per my surgeon's recommendation. A really successful day IMO was if I could keep the carbs in the teens. Lately though they have crept up into the 50's and I have been in a stall for 12 days so I am going back on super low carb and low cal to see if I can shake things up. On vacation though I ate real carbs every day - bakery bread, Christmas cookies, milk, etc - and I lost weight like gangbusters, so, who fricken knows ...

Well, I am in a stall right now, 12 days so far, so I looked up my weight loss stats by month on my online diet tracker. Boy, did I get a nasty shock - I lost the greatest amount of weight in a single month when I averaged 608 calories a day! Here's the breakdown - Surgery 14 July Started tracking online end of August, by which time I had lost 24 lbs Aug - 1 pound Sep - 17 pounds Oct - 13 pounds Nov - 4 pounds Dec - 12 pounds Jan - 6 pounds Perhaps it was because it was the 2 months out point and that's a highwater mark, I don't know. But in the month of September I lost 17 (!!) pounds and though it varied the average calorie intake was 608. As for my exercise, at that time I was strictly doing the treadmill for 30 minutes of gentle walking. Granted, the dates I have to go by are just when I entered loss so the month of sept spills a little into either side so really I probably lost 15lbs rather than 17. The month of December, you will notice, was great with 12 pounds lost and what did I do? Ate what I pleased, rich Christmassy foods, did the elliptical for 30 minutes (most days), didn't track my foods at all. I'm starting to think that the weight training is holding back my weight loss. I know it is guarding against floppy skin and muscles but maybe I'm supposed to save the weights until I've lost the weight??

It's so scary, I've been in a stall for 12 days now and the idea of gaining back or not losing more is a nightmare. I've discovered, to my horror, that protein shakes - protein shakes!!- are sliders for me that create more hunger!! How messed up is that! I couldn't figure out why I have been a seemingly bottomless pit lately until I realized that it started when I started relying on a shake for breakfast. Something about the sweet liquid nature of it just encourages me to feel like I could/want to keep eating. =C =C. A lot of my go-to proteins are turning into sliders, which scares me. Tuna salad, turkey cream cheese roll ups, the protein shakes, boo.

I've heard rumors of people who fall into that category, I think most of us don't like to think about that possibility because it is so so frightening.