Robyn Owens-Miille

I'm 6 months out and can enjoy it. I popped a mini bag of orville redenbacher smart pop yesterday, let it cool and put it in a sandwich bag and slipped it in my purse. I enjoyed my healthier popcorn while my hubby & boys enjoyed the butter drenched bucket at the movie theater last night. Please don't yell at me about cheating the theater; we still paid $20 for 3 drinks and a bucket of corn. I wanted a treat I could enjoy without going crazy off my diet.

Doc said nothing but walking for first month; then I was free to do whatever. I was just in such poor physical shape that I couldn't have possibly done more than I did in the beginning.

I have lost a significant amount of hair (pretty darn thin on top- think old lady thin hair). At 6 months it's just coming back in.

I go to a small gym that is owned and operated by a church. Everyone must be fully covered and appropriately attired! Lots of "normal" bodies here and quite a few larger than normal ones too. walking (first month post-op) water aerobics (month post-op to about 2 months) treadmill & recumbent bike (2-3 months) elliptical & weight lifting (currently go 4x a week, do 30 minutes on elliptical and 45 minutes weight lifting) yoga (just starting) kickboxing- love it! but the instructor got hurt and they canceled the class for now Zumba- just not my thing (I think it's still lack of confidence that my body can really move in those ways!)

Get the plain, non-fat and add your own sweetener to it (splenda or whatever you use).

Why is one chicken wing and several small bites of dessert a failure? You didn't do this to deprive yourself! You did it to learn to control what you eat and you did!!!!!!!! You know that it wasn't an ideal day and you're not gonna eat that way tomorrow. To me... THAT IS A SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!! Potlucks are hell for me as a recovering food addict. This time of year is sooo hard to not go crazy.

Don't let it get to you. I'm officially at -102 pounds and someone said to me today, "I can really see your weight loss now." Uhm, ok. How do you even respond to that? I've lost the weight that an average 12 year old boy weighs and you're just now noticing???

I use the Mission carb control whole wheat tortillas as my pizza base. I put a little sauce, turkey sausage, thin sliced mushrooms and mushrooms and little low fat cheese and pop it in the toaster oven. It's fun playing with my food now!

Make sure you're getting the Isopure Zero Carb products to avoid all the sugar.

Don't buy a ton now. Your taste buds will change after surgery (or at least they're likely to) and then you could be stuck with a bunch of Protein you can't stand. Look for samples of products.

stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, losing toes (or worse), kidney failure, loss of eye sight, knee replacements, hips replacements.... I'll take my gamble on loss of ghrelin over all the side effects of being super morbidly obese, having high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and diabetes.

I was told to up my Protein, take my Vitamins and wait it out. At six months I'm proud to announce that I have peach fuzz coming in!!! I was about to buy a wig!!!

I put 2-3 chicken breasts in my small crockpot, cover them with salsa and let them go until cooked. Shred them and then store them (fridge for some, freeze the other). Once you heated up your portion, add in some non-fat greek yogurt, a few black Beans, a few kernels of corn and it's a wonderful soft mexican flavored dish. turkey chili is great. pork chops baked in low-fat Soup until they are super soft was one of my first soft meats. don't get bored! That leads to straying from the plan. Play with your food to make it healthy and flavorful.

The G2 has far less food color than the regular gatorade. Ask your doc about it.

It's gross!!!! (But I will admit to being super sensitive to the whey Protein taste and smell). I made my own. I was super sensitive to milk products post-op so I used almond milk. sugar free Jello pudding mix, 1 cup of almond milk (wal-mart has one that has more protein than others), You may need more after you mix it up but pudding won't set up if you use the full amount that the box calls for. 2 servings of Protein powder. Mix it all together until nice and smooth. I still make this up in different flavors. My current favorite is non-fat greek yogurt, vanilla flavoring and sugar free cheesecake pudding mix. You can add beneprotein into an individual serving to help up the protein even more.

Do you use shakes or solid food to increase your protein?

So... if I don't take my Vitamins first thing in the morning, I find myself forgetting to take them throughout the day. I'm a Nurse manager and find myself running from crisis to crisis and meeting to meeting. Rarely do I get quiet time at my desk. Can I take all my vitamins together???? I know I have to separate my Iron and my omeprazole from other stuff. morning: Chewable MVI Citrical petities x4 Viactiv chews x2 (hubby bought them for me so I'm taking 2 a day just to use them up but still taking my citrical too) d3 5000 IU Biotin 10,000 mcg b-complex with Vitamin c b-12 sublingual afternoon (empty tummy) Ferrous Sulfate bed-time omeprazole

Money is tight right now so I went on e-bay and found a DDP yoga video for people with 50+ pounds to lose. I don't see if for sell on his site currently so it may be older. It's still sealed and comes with a fat burner video too. I will probably order the full set after the first of the year when income will be better.

Heaviest weight (May 2012): 340 Surgery Date May 30, 2012 Weight on day of surgery: 325 Current weight: 242 New Years goal: 220

I cheated too! I ate chicken out of a chicken soft taco because I thought I was going to "die" from not having anything but Protein shakes and Clear liquids. I think it's a pretty normal thing as we're probably all food addicts. I doubt your doc would be terribly surprised. Good luck on your surgery.

Forgive yourself and get back on plan. You're not perfect and you will make mistakes going forward. Don't beat yourself up and don't use it as an excuse to blow a whole day/week/month/etc like we used to do. "Well, I've done bad today so I'll just eat bad the rest of the day and get back on track tomorrow." Get back on track immediately instead of letting the bad habit grow and take root. chicken is low carb so you should be fine. The overall diet is what is most important. Some docs achieve the same liver shrinking results by doing a longer, no carb diet rather than the liquid diet. Good luck!

I saw this on facebook. I desperately want to learn yoga for flexibility (I have none) but I cannot kneel on my knees due to previous injuries (even at -98 pounds). How much does DDP depend on knee-based positions?

Love it!!! Congrats!!! Buying "women's clothes" is a hard habit for me to break. I was at a resale shop recently and tried on some LB clothes in a size 18. They fit everywhere except the boobs (you could have put 4 of me in there and still had room). I never realized just how big they cut their clothes in the chest. So... tried some misses 18 & 20 tops and they fit. OMG!!!! I was wearing a 28W-32W in tops just 6 months ago. I guess no more LB, Avenue or Catherines for me! woohooo!!!!!

Remember... you just had all the nerves in your stomach severed! They have to heal in order to feel resistance. That's why it's so important to measure your food and eat slowly at this early stage. Don't risk your suture lines. I promise, you will feel resistance again (and it's hurts like heck!!!). My sister puked for 6 days after her surgery. I never puked once. We're all different. Follow the plan... it will work.

I picked up a new pill case that will actually hold everything and I'm going to take it to work with me. I'm a Nurse manager so hopefully no one freaks out about pills on my desk. I think it will help a lot taking everything but the Iron and omeprazole in the morning. I will do the iron at dinner time and the omeprazole at bedtime. I had to upgrade my pill case to hold all my vitamins!!!! My pill case used to be full of meds for diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol (9 meds!).... now it's full of Vitamins.