Ava324

I'm 5'6.5" and hippie. Even at 150, I'm in size 10 pants and 8 dresses. I'm 10 lbs from my goal, and I don't see me ever getting under a size 8 in pants. Started at 26/28.

150, which means just 5 away from my Halloween challenge goal and only 10 lbs away from my ultimate goal. That's down 5 from last week. Note to self: sign up for all 5Ks!!

Hello, fellow Ava! This makes a lot of sense for me. I used to get quite nauseous when I wore Spanx for special events, and earlier in the year I heard a bunch of news about it: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/20/spanx-shapewear_n_4616907.html.

For the past month I've had terrible hunger/stomach pains. I've felt ravenously hungry pretty much all day every day. It's been so hard not to snack all day, and it's not satiating even if I do. It's miserable. I brought it up at my 9 month follow-up appointment, and they've put me back on prevacid. It's only been 3 days, and I'd say it's lessened somewhat, but I'm still waiting for it to really work. I'm also trying natural ways to reduce the acid like prebiotic smoothies. Hopefully getting my gut bacteria healthy will help. Anyone else getting constant hunger signals caused by acid? Has anything helped you? Hopefully this will pass and I don't have to battle acid and stomach pains that feel like hunger forever..

Whoa! I did a literal double-take. You look great! Congrats!

Yep! There are how toos and this science heavy explanation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZfMhXsjXeQ. My husband likes it too. Basically you brush your skin (unclothed) with a natural bristle brush in a certain pattern and then shower after. It moves lymphatic Fluid and toxins to your nodes. It's a big part of lymphatic therapy for cancer patients and for prevention. People swear that it boosts their immune system and all sorts of other goodies. Cellulite reduction perk too. I feel better during the day, and it certainly can't hurt.

I have batwings, but they're improving. It may just be that it's reaching the point where it's noticeable, but people close to me recently started commenting on their shrinkage. And I recently started dry brushing every morning. Could be related? Either way, it has tons of benefits and feels great. There are a bunch of tutorials on YouTube.

Even when I'd moved on to yogurt and cottage cheese, I still wasn't feeling full. I couldn't feel my stomach at all. I called my clinic worried that maybe there was nerve damage or something. From what I understand, it takes a while for your stomach to come out of the anesthesia and shock and trauma of surgery. I didn't feel what I recognized as "full" until I was eating flakey fish.

I'm sorry to admit that my cravings for sweets are worse than ever. Raging sweet tooth. My herbal tea can't be sweet enough. I switched to natural zero-calorie sweeteners to be kinder to my gut bacteria, but I crave just as badly. I know there's all sorts of brain chemistry and hormonal stuff going on about it, but I'm just not ready to tackle that beast yet. Soon.

Congrats! You glow.

I'll be there! I'd love to meet up with any other BP members attending.

I just ran my second 5K event a whopping 6 minutes faster than my first (about 4 weeks ago). I'm ecstatic! 39:50, and I could have kept going. My next event is a 4mi race in November. Must sign up for something else before then!

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I'm getting my first tattoo when I reach my goal weight. 15 lbs to go and I've been in a stall for 3 weeks. The waiting sucks, but it's keeping my motivated. I really want to get my freaking tattoo! Lol.

Like @@Fallenangel2904, my chest was really small for my size. I started in a 42B. Two months after surgery I got 38Cs. To save money, I stayed in those two bras as long as I possibly could, but it was getting ugly. I thought for sure I'd have to go down to a 38A or something, and instead, I'm a 34C. 15 more lbs to go, and I'm hoping they won't change much more.

My second 5K event starts at 6:50 tonight. I'm confident that I'll beat my best time (46 minutes).

A bit unrelated, but has anyone else experienced this? Sometimes when I breathe heavy during a work out, something in my neck vibrates audibly. It feels awful. Maybe my Adam's Apple? My trainer had never heard of that before but proposed that maybe even my neck muscles are weak, and things just kinda jiggle around...

I was pitifully weak when I started personal training 7ish months ago. I'm so much stronger now, and it feels great. I love lifting. I love lifting heavy. I love pushing myself and surpassing my personal bests. I love the results! I've felt like a million bucks and so proud of myself. Until today... All that momentum and excitement came to an abrupt halt... I hit a ceiling today during my weekly session. Basically my targeted muscles are strong. My stability muscles are weak weak weak. I can't increase the weights any more, because I fall over. Once the light bulb went off for my trainer and he saw what was and has been holding me back, he had me do some test exercises to see just how bad it is. I can't do lunges. Like at all. I fall over to the side (weak hip flexors). He diagnosed the problem, and we're switching focus until further notice. Fun bad-ass lifting is on pause until my stability muscles catch up. And his solution is agility training. My worst freaking nightmare. I've pretty much been sedentary my entire life. This is the first and only time I'd call myself "active" (I'm jogging almost every day and sometimes twice a day and weight-lifting 3 times a week). I avoided and hated playing sports. I move slow. Everything about how I move is slow, even after losing 113 lbs. For example, there's no way I could jump rope. My body and my muscles just don't move that way on mental command. I couldn't do it now any easier than I could before surgery. Agility training... "Leg day" is music to my ears. "Suicides" makes me want to puke. I dread it beyond how hard and brutal it will be. I'll go from feeling proud and accomplished to being embarrassed by my unfitness. Anybody else share this distaste and difficulty with agility? How about some other type of exercise? I'll have to keep telling myself "Everyone starts somewhere." Just like I made resistance training gains, I'll have to be patient with this. And it's a means to an end. If it improves my stability, then I can bring my strength training to the next level.

Thank you all for your words of encouragement and advice. Seriously means the world to me. My first cardio/agility day was yesterday, and I have to admit, I did a LOT better than I anticipated. I did a lot better than my trainer thought I would. I genuinely have always disliked sports and moving quickly, but I think most of my dread stemmed from the embarrassment of being so bad at it. I'd been overweight to severely morbidly obese since I was 8 years old, so I've spent pretty much all of my life ashamed by getting noticeably red faced, sweaty, and breathless at the slightest exertion. Like so much of fitness, the mental aspect is super powerful. Once I realized I was performing better (daily jogging is paying off I think!), then I actually enjoyed parts of it. I did cross jacks, stance jacks, 1-2-3 Heisman's, power squats, this box/step side hop thing, regular jumping jacks, and burpee lites. The burpees were the hardest for me. The best I could do was repeatedly step back one foot at a time into a plank and stand back up. My homework is to practice those.. Also the side step up hop thing was hard, I think because of tight hip flexors. Each interval was only 30 seconds with 30 seconds of jogging in place between each. I only saw stars for a second. I built it up to much in my head. >< Now that the first time and anxiety is out of the way, I think I'm up for the challenge.

Today: 155 That's -1 from last week. But! Over the week I went up 4 and then down 5. I'll take it!

I just did a quick search and already think this could be it. When I do cave from a hunger attack, my go to has been greek yogurt and a teaspoon of chocolate chips.

I'm going to definitely look into this more. For the past maybe 3 weeks my appetite has been raging. I've felt possessed. I mostly deny these cravings, and I'm not so fun to be around. The hunger pangs are painful. My husband thinks it's because I've increased my workout routines and started jogging daily. I'm thinking now gut bacteria could be playing a large part. I don't know the first thing about creating a symbiotic gut environment..

@@PuraVida37 Love it!!

I didn't try rolls until about 6 months out. I get rice free ones and I substitute seaweed with soy paper. I don't have a problem with seaweed, but I can't just pop the whole roll in my mouth. Taking a bite out of a roll wrapped with seaweed is messy. I find soy paper holds together better. I order a snowcrab and fresh salmon roll this way. Yum!