courtoomp

I have fat fingers. I will *add to the post if I think of anything else concrete* Amendment 1---lose weight in fingers? :-)

I love this thread. I am so sorry to hear about your loss. Your positive outlook is beautiful and healthy. It'll happen when it happens. :-) My goals by my 28th bday July 1: 1. Work out 5 days a week HARD to be able to keep up with my fit friends in the gym 2. Size 10. I am a 16 now. I don't know how much weight this is (I am 5') 3. Have logged I to mfp every day 4. April kayak and hiking trip I want to keep up and even lead! How I'm gonna get there: 1. Make training appointments and workout buddy schedule. If I'm accountable I will go. And paying someone helps get me there! 2. Log everything even that tiny bite of brownie and even if it was up overestimating my calories. Keep Protein >65, carbs <50 on average, 64oz Water 3. Congratulate myself for all accomplishments and forgive myself for my mistakes. Thanks sleeve of steel for this post. I will admire if I think of anything concrete. Courtney

I am trying to keep my carbs under 40 a day but that leaves me with no Fiber. Anyone subtracting fiber from carbs to get net carbs instead? I can't even eat a Quest bar bc it takes up all my carbs... But it's so much fiber. Nut isn't available right now so I'll just take the group consensus on this! Thoughts? Thanks

Didn't even think about stalling weight loss. Wonder why...maybe bc you do end up having more carbs. Thanks for the insight

Same thing! Good question. There are three parts to digestion: smell/thought, chewing, in the belly/real digestion. Your acids get going beginning at the smell and thought. But continuously trying food and spitting magnifies this process and add to thy chewing, further gettin your salivary and gastric juices going. Just what I remember from GI in school. Haha

I've done it once or twice. I did it in the beginning after surgery when I was so starved physically and mentally. I took bites of sausage I knew I couldn't swallow...I chewed and spit it out NAND you know what, it settled my craving. I do not do this now nor do I advocate for ppl to do it, but if you happen to just forgive yourself and eat something yummy you can have! (For me that sausage I ate was a no go but I went and had some bacon flavored refried beans after and was ok)

Yuck. I can't stand fat free dairy. It's like a sin to me. I do reduced fat everything except I do drink skim milk and ff fage Greek yogurt. Some stuff that helped me: scrambled egg wit milk in it and our some spicy stuff on it to waken up your taste buds! Made a three bean chili Soup and puréed it...from William sanoma and is delic!, making your own tuna salad is also really good cause you can put in the flavors you like. PB2 mixed with some greek yogurt or with some low sugar jelly. Good luck!

I use a bento box! It's the best and has its own lunchbox to carry it and to put an ice pack. I pack it every morning with some of the following: Homemade tuna salad (tuna, ff Greek yogurt, sriracha, celery, capers, touch of mustard) 60cal cheese stick wrapped in low sodium turkey Greek yogurt with low sugar strawberry jam Hard boiled egg Cottage cheese with salsa Toasted almond slivers It's fun to use and soooo helpful! Maybe I'll get some chopsticks too to slow me down even more

Now you're talking dirty to me!

I'm the same!! I will have like 400 cal and I look and its already 7pm. And my stomach is like Courtney don't do this to me again! I swear trying to have 800 cals of just lean Protein is pretty damn hard. I think it's funny how restrictive this is when I look and just 2.5 mo ago I binged daily. I guess struggling to eat a couple extra hundred calories isn't so bad!

Sounds like gallbladder to me but we will see next week. Let us know please. At least if gallbladder there are fixed (meds if not too bad, obv surgery but an easy one). You're going to be fine. Will think of you.

Have you dropped more weight recently? And how light is light colored stool? White? Clay colored? Spots of white? Haha poop is fun to talk about even if what you're going through is def not fun.

It scares me too! I haven't gotten past mid-800s but when I upped it to 650-800 I started dropping weight again! I kinda figure what is the risk? If you're not losing anyway worst that happens is gain a pound or two and realize that wasn't the answer. Haha easier said than done! :-)

You taking any pepto bismal or anything? Light or clay colored stools can also be from a bile duct obstruction (gall stones..do you have your gallbladder?) The abdominal pain accompanying this stool color change concerns me. Is the pain constant or come and go? Is it sharp? Worse with meals...if so what kind of meals? Radiate or move anywhere like to your back or shoulder? You need to go to the doctor and they can do some scans to visualize your stomach an gallbladder to see if there is an obstruction.

Just made this after getting this great champagne dill mustard from whole foods: 4 oz chicken (I used about 2/3 white, 1/3 dark) left over from a costco rotisserie chicken 1/4 cup 0% Greek yogurt 1/8 cup low fat mayo (can eliminate if want) Tablespoon delic mustard of your choice 1/2 small onion chopped and soaked in cold Water for a few min 1/8 cup Toasted almond slivers (make this so delic) Teaspoon of garlic powder Black pepper and salt to taste Serve with a little fresh arugula bc it's spiciness is so good with the mustard. And serve alone or on Melba toast. I'll make 3-4 meals out of this This would also be great with: A little cider vinegar Fresh herbs (parsley, cilantro, terragon) Raisins A little hot sauce Enjoy and share your fav chicken salad recipes! Anyone have a good healthy curry chicken salad recipe?

Thanks y'all. I will try the chia seeds. And just have the protein bars when I'm in a pinch. Try to get fiber veggies but hard bc can barely finish my protein!

Check out Emily Bites website. She has these lasagna cupcakes that use wonton wrappers. Soooooo good and my niece and nephew said they tasted like pizza. I used 99%fat free turkey instead. The biscuits are a nice idea though and prob about the same calories as 2 wontons

I was really struggling with calories and carbs at first. I am five and a half weeks out. I'm doing better now that I am eating protein dense foods. I find if I focus on getting 70+ grams of protein, for me that's between 600-800 cal and 40-50 carbs and 25ish grams of fat. My doc said this is perfect as long as I'm losing...and as long as I feel strong. He said not to worry about the calories as much as worrying about proteins and carbs...you can only eat so much tuna and chicken and yogurt and eggs!

Sure thing Amanda. It's good to spread the word of relatively common problems like acanthosis Nigricans and hidradenitis. I'm not saying you couldn't have blackheads and hidradenitis but if blackheads are the only symptom then it's unlikely. Something I forgot to mention is that with hidradenitis you can get weird thick raises (described as rope like) of the skin. However most people get draining abscesses. I'm sorry you have to deal with this painful and quite frankly...annoying condition!

You look awesome! What a drastic change...and your hair looks fabulous too. Keep up the great work!

Hidradenitis is basically a disorder of your sweat (apocrine) glands. Basic blackheads are unlikely due to this condition as with hidradenitis you have painful swollen abscesses. Another poster said acanthosis Nigricans. This is likely especially if you have or had insulin resistance (diabetes, PCOS). Look up pics. It occurs at folds in the body (neck, under arms, inner thigh). As for prevention if you're dealing with complications of good old fashion chub rub: Vaseline, baby powder, keep the area DRY. I have even put deodorant down there to diminish sweating and always change right after working out.. Haha kind of a fun topic!

Pretty much what you've been doing...with a few more calories! Oh...new jeans! Oh...a party! Oh...nude photos! Congrats!

Looking ahead...did that help at all? Feel free to ask questions and maybe I can at least point you to some good online resources.

I'm in medical school and I can tell you basically what that means but of course your doctor will know much more. Renin is made in your kidneys in response to low blood flow through your kidneys or to too little salt going through your kidneys. Renin in turn stimulates the production of aldosterone (through a semi complicated pathway)...and aldosterone has a big role in how much salt (and therefore water!) your body keeps vs excreted through the kidney and released as urine. If you have hyporenin then your kidneys, for whatever reason, are not making renin, which means you cannot make aldosterone, which means you lose salt and can become very dehydrated (hypovolemic) with low blood pressure and such. Aldosterone is also important in regulating potassium, an electrolyte, in your body. Wonky levels of potassium can lead to heart problems. You can see just how important renin and aldosterone are for your body. What kind of symptoms have you been having and how is your doctor proceeding with treatment? Symptoms that occur commonly with too little aldosterone (which in your case is caused by too little renin being released from your kidneys) are: fatigue, dizzy with standing, racing heart, urinating a lot, craving salt, always hot. I wish you so much luck. It's enough to go through this surgery without more health issues popping up!