Pinky Green

I'm down to 179 now, weight is going real slow. The main reason I got this surgery is because my knees hurt so bad I had pretty much become immobile. The doctor I went to for my knees told me that if I didn't lose weight, I would have to have knee replacement surgery in 5 years. Well that was about 3 before I had surgery last September. But now that I'm down to 179, I was able to go down the stairs, walk all the way to McDonalds (and get an unsweet ice tea). I don't know exactly how far it is, but here's my route. I walk down my stairs, across the courtyard to a little road that goes to the front of the condos. I walk to the right and go past my condos on the right, past Amelia St. which is a short block, past the big beehive apartment complex to the Walmart access road. This road goes behind Autozone and the big post office on Longpoint. I walk to Walmart and take a break at some picnic tables they have out in front for about a minute or two. I walk across the parking lot, through Taco Bell's parking lot and cross the street at Longpoint and Wirt. From there it's past the bank on the corner to the McDonalds. Sat and drank my ice tea and when I left to walk back, I didn't stop at all. I'm going to use MapMyWalk to see how far I went.

I can cross my legs now. And also can sit cross-legged on the floor or the couch. I have also noticed that it no longer hurts to go up or down the stairs. And now people are starting to tell me I look like I've lost a lot of weight. And scale finally said 180 down from 240 to start.

I am down to 181. As soon as I get down to 180 the next goal is 175. In NSV, I've discovered that I can cross my legs again and sit cross-legged and going down the stairs almost doesn't hurt at all. Going up the stairs is getting easy and I've stopped having sudden knee pain for no apparent reason. I walked a quarter mile or so to Longpoint from my condo, took the bus downtown, walked a half block to the train, walked two blocks and back.

I made a recipe the other day that I found on the internet somewhere but can't find again. But here's what I did: You take 1/2 cup or low-fat bisquick, 1/2 cup low fat milk and 2 eggs. Mix and put a tablespoon into each cup of a greased muffin tin, top it with 1/4 cup of filling of your choice and then top with another tablespoon of batter. For the filling I took about a tablespoon of Smart Blend butter, added a couple of tablespoons of soy flour and then a cup of skim milk and let it thicken up a bit. Then I added a drained can of chicken and a drained can of mixed vegetables (green Beans, peas, carrots and potatoes). I also put some oregano and a little salt and pepper. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Here is a fancier recipe- one serving is 2 muffins, has 189 calories http://recipes.spark...?recipe=2052483 Servings Per Recipe: 6 Amount Per Serving Calories: 184.3 Total Fat: 7.7 g Cholesterol: 109.7 mg Sodium: 216.7 mg Total Carbs: 5.2 g Dietary Fiber: 1.0 g Protein: 22.6 g

I don't know about your doctor, but I was told that they would do the surgery even if you lost all the weight beforehand if you still wanted to have it. I was told we are approved based on our condition when we start and the fact that we have either not been able to lose weight - or in my case, we have lost weight in the past, but gained it back and have not been able to maintain weight loss. I also met someone who had lost almost down to her goal while waiting to have the surgery and did not have the surgery and wished they had because they promptly gained back most of it.

Kohls IS a regular store. She says she is too small for women's sizes and has to shop in the regular sizes at the same store.

Ok, I haven't lost any weight for a couple of weeks. But today I noticed that my size 7 panties are getting lose. And I'm down from size 24 to size 18.

I still snore, but I think maybe the apnea is gone. I no longer wake up tired or with headaches. I don't use a CPAC although I was supposed to get one before the surgery and I didn't, and now I've lost 55 lbs, when I get down a little further, maybe 160 or so if I'm still snoring, or if I find that I'm in a stall for too much longer, I'll see if I can get another sleep study to see if I still have the apnea. I know not enough sleep can affect weight loss and if I need to get the CPAP I will.

I would check that they have the same Vitamins. I read somewhere on this board that the gummys don't have one of the B vitamins and that is why they don't taste as bad.

I had lost down to 175 in 2009 before I went to Guatemala and then gained up to 240 before my surgery and even then when I went up Volcan Picaya I was not in good enough shape to get all the way up without help and opted to rent a horse to go the rest of the way. And then near the top they told me it was too steep for me to ride the horse the rest of the way and I would need to go on foot but I took one look at where I had to walk up and decided I really couldn't go any farther. I imagine that I probably would have made it all the way up if I had been near my goal weight of 130 lbs and I felt embarrassed that I had spent $6 to go and then $12 to rent the horse and still wasn't able to go all the way up to the top of the volcano. .

When did your doctor say you could drink caffeinated beverages and when did you? ..... exercise? ....drink alcohol? .... smoke cigarettes? ( I am sure the doctor would tell you not to start again.) .... smoke marijuana? ... anything else?

Hadn't thought of that but I don't have any belts from back then because I never wore anything but stretch pants. But I do have one pair of pants that did fit that only had a stretch waistband - if I didn't get rid of it yet - and it barely fit so I could stretch that out and measure to see what the measurement was. Or I could take an old size 9 pair of underwear and stretch them out to see how big around the waist they are. I'm pretty sure I have at least one of those laying around.

Since Everyone is posting their measurements. I wish I had taken my measurements before, but at least I'll have these so I can reference them when I'm closer to goal and on a plateau- or if I don't get off this plateau I'm on now. Weight 185/187 I go up down 2 lbs. 4'11 1/2" One daughter and one granddaughter. Sleeved 9/26/12 was 240lbs My measurements as of today Neck 13 Chest 43 Bicep 13 forearm 9.5 Wast 39 Hips 46 Thighs 23 Caf. 15.5

My doctor said to split them if they were over the size of an M&M, but I'm not sure how long after surgery he wanted you to do that, since I only had Singular and that's about the size of a tic-tac.

I drink decaf tea when I'm at home - but when I'm out and about I go by McDonald's and get unsweet tea which is not decaf. As far as carbs being a no-no, it's impossible to avoid all carbs. I was actually told you should be eating 60-80 grams of Protein and about twice as many carbs, and to keep the fat down to under 5 grams a serving of anything that has fat. That works out to between 720-960 calories from protein and carbs. Generally, everyone should keep their fat down to less than 30% of total calories.

You might say that it will only take one time to break it, but different things go down different. Say I'm fine eating chicken and refried beans, but you add a tortilla to that and it might not go down so fast and easy.

Been there done that. Sometimes, I just get the hiccups, sometimes I throw up and other times I'm just really uncomfortable for a while.

I'm also thinking if you were craving some fruit pie of some kind (I'm thinking cherry pie, my favorite) you could open a can of sugar free fruit of some kind and use that as a filling.

They originally told me it would be 6 months and then I found out my insurance had just changed it to 3 months. So I only had to diet for 3 months.

I never buy sugar and when my skinny boyfriend asks for sugar, I just hand him the Splenda and he can't even tell the difference. If he thinks it would be good with sugar, just hand him the Splenda.

What?

I don't really know, but to tell you the truth, I didn't bring myself to puree anything. I ate soft stuff and I chewed it twenty or more times. I had all those things except the shaved ham. I also had Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup. My doctor said I could have it, but expected me to blenderize it and I was not about to. Just chewed it to mush before I swallowed it. I made my mouth the blender. It was fine.

Congrats. I was sleeved September 26th, had absolutely no problems and have lost 55 lbs so far, a little slow but I feel like I will be close to goal by the time a year is up.

Today we are having whole wheat spagetti with shrimp in marinara sause. I take a cast iron skillet and brown onions, green peppers and garlic and add a little oregano in a very little bit of canola oil. Then brown some shrimp and then I use canned or bottled spagetti sauce (I am careful to get low sugar - most of them have very little fat already.) Then I open a can of mushrooms and add that too.

I still use tortillas but I've never really liked flour tortillas and can really only eat one or 2 corn ones now at the most. I do however, make refried beans with very little oil and with added onions, green peppers and garlic. I use grapeseed or canola oil instead of shortening or lard. I have about a half cup every other day or more.