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Heading to Miami for the Ragnar Relay (200 mile run from Miami to Key West). I am so excited! My relay legs are 5.9, 3.5, and 2.7. I don't have to run in the middle of the night, thank goodness!

I may be doing the Ragnar Relay this weekend as a substitute for an injured runner. This race has been on my bucket list for a long time, but I never thought I would be able to do it. You race on a team with 12 people. This one is from Miami to Key West. OMG... I am so freakin excited!

Thanks!

You're welcome! I hope you're feeling better today!

My goals are the same for February: Run: 60 Walk: 60 Bike: 30 Total: 150 So far this month: Run: 6 (Goal: 60) Walk: 3 (Goal: 60) Bike: 0 (Goal: 30) Total: 9 (Goal: 150)

Thanks! I have a weird habit of taking pics of what I'm running in. Here's yesterday's run for the Best Damn Race 10K:

Here's a good site that explains stalls: http://www.dsfacts.com/weight-loss-stall-or-plateau.html#.Uu1OPX-9KSN

Wouldn't attach. Trying it again!

Thanks so much! Weather was pretty good for the race. 60 with slight fog. I overdressed a little bit. Didn't need long sleeves, but I woke up so cold this morning. Still getting used to not having as much padding! Set a PR for the race. 1:12 and 11:27 pace. I was even in the 10:00s for the first mile! Felt really good. Good luck on everyone's runs this weekend! Outfit for today:

Try a bunch of different fluids. Early on it was easier for me to drink warm drinks like tea and Unjury chicken broth. Also, mix gatorade with water and try it. Sometimes you need to add a bit of flavoring to break the tension of plain water. Drink small sips. Don't worry too much about protein the first weeks. You must get your fluids in or you will become dehydrated. Think of it as taking medicine. Set a reminder on your phone for every 15 minutes. One to two ounces every 15 minutes will keep you from being dehydrated. You may have more swelling than average. Don't be afraid to call your doctor and ask him what to do.

You've lost 65 pounds!! You should be celebrating that! Stress and negativity will get you absolutely nowhere. You need to find things to Celebrate. Did you take your measurements? If not, start now. Even when I wasn't losing, I saw a decrease in inches. As to why you haven't moved to a smaller size, the larger sizes take a lot more pounds to lose out of. For example, when I started I was in a size 20/22 pant (and squeezing into them because I didn't want to buy anything larger!). Because I was squeezing into them, I didn't change to a smaller size until I had lost 40 pounds. Now, the sizes are much closer together. I can lose 10-15 pounds and move to a smaller size. I think if you accept from the start that you are going to have stalls and whooshes (times when the pounds fall off), you'll be a lot happier that you had the surgery. Are you seeing a therapist? I used food as a coping mechanism, as a pick-me-up when I was stressed. When I no longer had that as an option I started to feel anxious and a bit depressed. That coupled with the release of hormones that were stored in the fat that I was losing resulted in depression and anxiety. My therapist was able to help me find more healthy coping mechanisms. I was a slow loser and felt lucky if I lost 2 pounds in a week. I figured that I didn't gain it all at once, so I wasn't going to lose it quickly. I also have Hashimotos (thyroid autoimmune disorder), which affects my metabolic rate by about 10%. It also helps to look at the actual numbers for how you lose weight. I would guess at your weight that your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is about 1,800cal/day. If you are eating 600 calories, your deficit is 1,200 cal/day. Calculating that out for week would result in 8,400 cal deficit for the week. One pound equals 3,500 calories, so you would probably have around a 2.4 pound loss for the week. If the number is higher, that means you are losing Water weight. The first few weeks of the pre-op diet the majority of what you are losing is water. You can go for about 3 months eating 600 calories without it affecting your metabolic rate. After that you need to start increasing your calories. That happens pretty naturally with the surgery as after 3 months you can eat a bit more. I wouldn't factor in exercise unless you are really exceeding an hour threshold. For example, I ran 10K today, which burned around 1,200 calories. I may eat an extra 500 calories to compensate, but I probably won't see a huge loss from that. You also need to make sure you are getting enough Protein. My minimum requirement is 60g, but I try to hit 70-80. What happens if you don't eat enough protein is that your body will start using your lean muscle mass for fuel. That will result in fewer muscles. Muscles increase your metabolic rate, which is why you should make sure you get your protein for the day and why you should start some type of weight resistant training. That can be done at home using your body weight for resistance. For my program I have never counted calories. The only 3 things I ever concerned myself with were protein (60g+), water (60ou+), and exercise (60min). As long as I did those three things every day I had steady losses. Stalls are frustrating, but really nothing to stress about because we all have them and there's very little you can do to stop them. Lastly, here's a really good article on why we stall: http://www.dsfacts.com/weight-loss-stall-or-plateau.html#.Uu0i3X-9KSN It should be mandatory reading for all WLS patients!

Here are a few. I'm about 185 in most of these.

My dog hates pills! Dontcha hate autocorrect?

Met all my goals for the month. Think I'm going to have the same goals for next month since it's a shorter month. Run: 60 (Goal: 60) Walk: 69 (Goal: 60) Bike: 30 (Goal: 30) Total: 159 (Goal: 150)

You've really done well for a month after surgery! I started at 265. It was pretty easy until the 190s, which I was in forever and now can't seem to move past the 180s, but I'll make it sometime. I really try not to stress at all about how fast I'm losing. I wanted to feel better and I do and I wanted to be able to run and I did a half marathon last week. Everything else is a bonus!

Running the Best Damn Race 10K tomorrow. Hoping it's not going to rain! Got my corral placement for the Disney Princess Half Marathon. There are 25,000 people in the race. They put everyone in a corral based on submitted times for previous races. Then they start the corrals every 10 minutes or so. I'm in corral I, which is about in the middle of the pack. Hoping the weather isn't going to be too hot or cold. You never know in Florida this time of year. It was 55 here yesterday and it's going 80 tomorrow.

How tall are you Stacy? I'm 5'11" and I think I can get down to 170. The lowest I've ever been was 155, but I was paddling outrigger canoes in Hawaii every day, so I don't think I'll ever get there. My goal is 175. I'm at 185 now (bouncing around from 181 to 185 the last month). My body is proportional and I'm wearing almost all size 12 and large shirts. My arms are pretty big, if it weren't for that I would maybe be a medium in some things. I can wear a size 10 in some pants. If you're 5'11" or less I think your goal is very reasonable. Depending on your height, once you get under 195 or so, you should be in regular sizes. I think I was in a 14 at 195.

Couch to 5K is a training program that, if you follow it you will be able to run a 5K when you finish. It uses interval training, meaning that you will run for a certain length of time and then walk (and repeat). It will start slowly, running for 45 seconds and walking 90 seconds (the times will vary depending on which program you use). To follow the intervals, there are many phone apps available that will coach you through the plan. I used Run 5K by Felt Tip Inc. There are many others. There's a long running thread called "Started Couch to 5K today anyone keen?" that you're welcome to join in with all of us. Good luck with your running! I started the program in February and finished the program in September (I had a month or two that I was sick) and ran my first half marathon last weekend.

That is awesome! That's exactly what I was telling myself 6 months ago! (I'm 48 as well!) Are you running out of energy to run more than 30 minutes or is it lung power or legs? If you really want to run for longer, try decreasing your pace by about 20-30 sec per mile. What's your current running pace? I went back and looked at my runs on MapMyRun and in August I was running 3 miles, Sept - 4 miles, Oct - 5 miles, Nov - 6 miles, Dec - 8 miles, Jan - 13 miles. I also looked at my average 5K pace for each month (I am pretty slow, but improving): August - ~14:00, Sept ~13:45, Oct ~12:45, Nov ~12:00, Dec ~11:30. My pace was 12:35 for my first half marathon on 1/17/14. The biggest increase in my pace came when I started running with a running buddy I met through a RunDisney Facebook group. She was running faster than me and I was running further than her, so we really helped each other improve. The longer the distance you run, the more adding a mile seems like not much more effort. The difference in how I felt running 9 and 13 miles was almost identical. I was tired and I wanted to quit, but it really was mostly mental.

Because of work and illness I only ran 4 times in December! I don't think you'll lose any distance unless you go for longer than 2 weeks. The treadmill can be effective, just increase the incline to 2%. I've only been running 2 days a week for the last few weeks, but doing a lot of walking. Not feeling any different during my runs, in fact, my body has fewer aches.

Short 5 mile run (it's hard to believe that a 5 mile run is a "short" run nowadays!) and 2 mile walk today. Running the Best Damn Race 10K this weekend. Should be a fun race in my hometown. Disney Princess Half Marathon in 3.5 weeks! My running anniversary is in a few weeks. I can't believe that I've been working out regularly for this long. Biggest success has been preventing injuries by slowly increasing miles, not over striding, and of course wearing good shoes. Met my running and walking goals for the month, planning on getting on my bike tomorrow and Thursday. Run: 60 (Goal: 60) Walk: 66 (Goal: 60) Bike: 15 (Goal: 30) Total: 141 (Goal: 150)

Have you had your vitamin D levels checked? Low levels can cause body pain.

Short run today and a pretty long hike. Also biked 22 miles on Monday, but most of it was downhill (from the top of Haleakala), so only counting the 1 miles that I pedaled. Run: 55 (Goal: 60) Walk: 56 (Goal: 60) Bike: 10 (Goal: 30) Total: 121 (Goal: 150)

I like the Unjury chicken soup. It was the only thing that worked for me at times. I also really like Premier Protein from Costco or Sams.

I started the couch to 5K program a year ago and ran my first half marathon on Sunday. Running every day when you first start is really hard on your body. I recommend every other day and cross train the other days by biking, lifting weights, or swimming. Always have at least one day of rest a week.