Shanny

I live in Baltimore City!

I told my job ulcer surgery. They still don't know and it's none of their damn buisness!

I'm 4 months out and I still can't eat pizza. I just eat the cheese and sauce off the crust. I think my issue is more with bread, I can't seem to digest it. But man do I miss it!

The scale finally moved! It's about damn time! I think this may be a promising start what is shaping up to be a craptastic week. SN........................Starting WT......................Current..................Goal................lbs to Goal Shanny.................191....................................174..........................165......................9

Okay, so I'm pissed because I'm stalled, so I decided to take some pictures of me today to get myself back on track. I got a mani/pedi and I was feeling cute, so here it goes. Before: Aruba - April 2010 Myrtle Beach - August 2010 50 Pounds lost Beginning of March 2011 End of March 2011 71 Pounds lost - Today As you can see I'm still working on my stomach, but I'm a work in progress! Still have 41 pounds to go. Not bad for only 4 months post op!

Thanks for the love and support everyone. I just wish this stall would pass. I usually lose about 3-4 pounds a week, and I've only been losing inches and ounces for the last three weeks. I'm beyond frustrated. It really helped though to see pictures of me a year ago and now. I'm not giving up. I have to look at it this way, I've lost 71 pounds in 4 months. That would have NEVER happened before. I love my sleeve, even when it's being tempermental!

This is hopeless! In the past 3 weeks I've only lost 3 pounds. I don't know what else to do. I'm exercising 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. Drinking plenty of water, and eating my protein. For some reason my body likes it in the 170s. I'm so frustrated. In the grand scheme of things I shouldn't be complaining. 4 months and 71 pounds. Although my measurements are steadily going down...38-36-42 ( ) the scale is refusing to move. I'm not giving up, but this is the worst. Since I've been sleeved I've only had 1 stall and that was for a week. I lose weight pretty rapidly, about 3-4 pounds a week. This couple of ounces here and there sucks! SN....................Starting wt.....................current wt..........................goal....................lbs to goal Shanny............191................................176...................................165...........................11

I waited a week. In the beginning you don't have a lot of energy but as you start eating more the energy comes back and all is well!

Congratulations! Keep up the great work. Who cares if it's slow? We're not in a race. Do it slow and healthy and then you'll be more inclined to maintain it. You're doing a bang up job. When are you posting picks?

This has been 1 crazy week! I only lost .2 pounds, but my measurements have changed. My waist went down 2 inches, and my hips an inch. I'm not complaining! SN........................starting wt..........current......................goal..............lbs to goal Shanny.................191...................177............................165................12

I'm addicted to the Special K strawberry meal replacement bars. 10 grams of protein, 5 grams of fiber. 140 calories. It's pretty darn good and keeps me full for a few hours.

Okay, I'm pretty new to this whole exercise thing and I don't know much about what you're supposed to aim for as for as a burn off. I just do it until I get really tired. Now, I don't know how accurate the calorie counters on exercise machines are, but in an average day I do about 20 minutes on the treadmill at work and about 30-45 minutes at home on my gazelle. Sometimes I mix it up and do the rowing machine at work, or the exercise bike, but that hurts my butt (that's another story for another time). Anyway, today for example, the two of those things combined said that I burned a total of 1,010 calories. I only ate 640 calories though. Does that mean I'm going to pass out and die? I'm still having a hard time getting up to the 800 calories my doctor wanted me to, but I figure 650 is way better than the 450 I was getting 3 weeks ago. But now when I put my figures in my tracking app, it's saying that I still have over 900 calories that I need for the day. Am I doing this right?

SN..................starting wt..................current......... goal...............lbs to goal Shanny..............191........................177.2.............165................12.2

You know what I noticed? When I weighed 247 no one said anything about my weight. Now everyone has a freakin' opinion. I didn't get a sleeve to be sexy, or to flaunt everything I have. I did it to be healthy and to be around for my son. So, now that I'm almost 70 pounds lighter everyone feels the need to comment on it. I used to be invisible and really it had it's perks. Now, everyone notices me and feels the need to tell me what they think. Today, we had an event at work and I wore a dress. One of the teachers said to me, "You look 10 times better now than you did last year." I'm still trying to figure out WTF she meant by that. Why do people have to give you back handed compliments? My boss told me, "I'm glad you decided to get active because you really needed to do something about it before." Really? At my highest weight I still did my job like a pro. My weight has NEVER effected my job performance. Friends are telling me that I should dress sexier so everyone can see how sexy I am now. I was sexy when I was 247! Someone else at work told me that I need to slow down because I'm losing too much weight and my girl won't like it if I lose my shape. That I should just lift weights and stop doing so much cardio because I'm getting too skinny. Excuse me why are you all in my relationship? How do you know what she'll like? Oh, the one that took the cake was the woman that said that I shouldn't have had the surgery because now I can't eat anything - I should have researched more and picked something different that would allow me to eat more. Right now I'm not really comfortable with how I look. I see everything that I still need to fix and I don't recognize myself sometimes when I look in the mirror. I'm trying to figure out who this version of me is. I'm still trying to wrap my head around how fast my body is changing. I really don't need everyone's opinions. I'm sure people mean well, but I feel vulnerable as it is. At first it was you look great which was embarassing enough (I don't like a lot of attention), now the comments are getting a little too personal. I don't need the Peanut Gallery's 2 cents!

I just tried the Atkins Day Break Apple Crisp Bar. OMG, that sucker was DELICIOUS!!! It's 130 calories, 10 grams of protein, and 17 total carbs, but 4 net carbs. It is uber yummy. A great little sweet apple cinnamon protein pick me up in between breakfast and lunch! So far K-mart is the only place I've seen this flavor. Plus there were coupons for Atkins protein bars in last Sunday's Baltimore Sun. $1.50 off any 2 boxes!

It took me about 2 months to get up to 700 calories. Quite honestly, most days I'm around 650. I started doing things to increase my calories. For example, with my Protein shake I use the unflavored unjury, 1 cup of lactose free 2% milk, 1 tbsp of low fat Hershey's chocolate syrup, 1 tbps of reduced fat Peanut Butter, and about 10 almonds. That in itself is around 400 calories and 33 grams of Protein. Granted, I can't drink the whole thing - it takes about 2 hours. The more stuff I put in it the harder it is for me to finish it. But, since I can drink more calories than eat, I make sure my protein shake really counts. I usually have a shake for breakfast. It takes time, but eventually you will be able to get a little more in. Right now I'm up to 4.5 oz of food at a time, which is better than the 1 oz I was at after surgery. I still measure everything too. I noticed when I s tarted increasing my calories I s tarted losing more weight, plus I had more energy to exercise!