gmanbat

Are you from Indiana? I knew a Kim Barnes from Indiana.

OK, always do what they say, they know your case. Looks like they are gradually increasing your intake, not a bad thing. I think my people looked at hulking and menacing me and decided realistically, for my wife's sake, that I needed a lot of intake. Sort of the "if you don't feed the bear a lot he could get very cranky" school of thought.

Why are you doing this to yourself? Move to the south! Kidding. Good for you!!!!!

Did the doc and NUT not say 3 meals and 3 snacks, the snacks being small protein servings? Mine did. The idea is to prevent muscle loss. I think a significant amount of my rapid initial weight loss was muscle mass. I am now stalled at around 7 pounds from my goal because I am weight training and doing cardio and adding muscle back on which weighs more that fat. During this time my fat is still coming off as revealed by the mirror and my clothing sizes. Having adequate muscle mass is a good insurance against putting fat back on.

I like what 4ALongerLife said. There is an answer. You will find it. We will help if we can. There's more than one way to skinny a cat! I call my wife DebbieDeb among an endless number of other nicknames, all terms of endearment. :wub:

We have a nice wine rack in the furnished rental we moved into. It is filled with those as we don't drink hooch. We run through them pretty quickly with all the coffee drinkers here and our bean-fiend friends also. You have some nice flavors there! Here's their website: http://www.torani.com/#/

I was amazed at how little food I REALLY needed. No fainting occurred as I had envisioned. Instead, an actual increase in energy. Apparently my voluminous eating was contributing greatly to my weak and run-down feeling, probably due to the energy needed to digest the huge portions. In my case nutrition was satisfied quite easily with proper training.

I hadn't worn my new sport coat for about a month. I bought it because I had to, darn sleeve! I purposefully bought it too small, the buttons pulling, to make way for more reduction. I put it on Sunday and, you guessed it, too big. 2 inches slack pulled out from my belly. It was still wearable, though. Hope it will do for another 10 pounds and then it's Jos A Bank for me! Some of my old clothes make me look like a kid putting on daddy's stuff. I just can't wear them anymore, even to paint in.

Good perspective! It is hard at times and will be hard at times all the way I think. The good part is that the massive positives belittle the hard times. I look at my deflated lower belly which has the texture of a rotted orange and realize that it is likely that I will never be asked to pose for that huge picture of a guy with his shirt off that greets you at the entrance of every Abercrombie and Fitch. But then I think, "These guys sell clothes, why are they promoting shirtlessness?" Hey, I look pretty good in a shirt. I am getting strong as well. I am starting to like my belly. It reminds me of my victories.

Karate is great exercise, fun too. Boxing workouts are great. I won't risk busting those incisions so I won't spar for a year at least, maybe more. When I can do crunches and push-ups without discomfort, it may be time to get it on. My brother achieved 5th degree black belt staus in Tang Soo Do which he learned in Korea and ran a dojo for years in Iowa. He has spoken to Chuck Norris who was of the same discipline originally. He gave his little brother free lessons but I didn't learn enough to belt. Now you got me thinking about starting up again. :ph34r:

Prayers for you.

Beautiful!!! I know I'm not your pappy but I am proud of you just like I am.

Welcome!!!!

Sorry you went through so much but I am happy you are doing good. If one is defined by the battles they survive you are one strong lady!!

How shocking! I would never fall off the wagon! I am always in perfect control of my diet and never (This post has been aborted by the BS police, this guy has been off the wagon many times, please disregard his bologna)

That's what you want. I am looking slimmer and meaner all the time but I flutter around the 226-230 weight and have been for a month. In the mean time I am stepping up the exercise and putting on gorgeous muscle. If I wasn't married and a heterosexual I would be attracted to me.

I am much less hungry. I still can go food hunting if I don't watch myself but it is not the same kind of desperate scrounging that I used to do. I was hitting the food hard for over 60 years, that itch is still in the brain. My stomach is now an ally that holds me back and wakes me up.

I used to travel around, lost, not asking for directions...no matter what. My wife couldn't understand my knucklehead. It was natural for the stubborn side of my man nature. What is natural is not always what is better. I learned to ask for help. I learned to use google maps and rely on a Garmin, too, after a period of arguing with everything it said. Us humans invent things to help us. It is part of that higher reasoning thing. We figure out work-arounds to problems. That's what WLS is. It may not be as natural and it is not easier but it is a solution and it is effective. In my case, a life saver. Could I have lost over 100 pounds without it? Theoretically yes, practically, highly unlikely.

Throw in some cornbread and you're barkin' right up my tree!

http://www.nutritionexpress.com/showarticle.aspx?articleid=787 Casein?

You are smart for measuring yourself! That's where it really counts.

Of course, if you are really troubled, get help. These sessions appear to me just to be a service for insurance companies to weed out folks who are vulnerable for rejection and, subsequently, savings to boost their bottom line.

That is exactly how to handle it. Remember, Psychs look for weird, so don't be. Tap into your best oatmeal self, young thespian; you're Hepburn, you're Pacino!

I was denied for 2 years of drug abuse and for being a hippy ....in the 60's ...which freaked out the Psych I guess. Clean ever since. No longer a hippy, I'm a Tea Party Republican now. My surgeon was mad, sent a letter right off and got me approved. Some are good but some Psychs need Psychs.