gamergirl

I assume we're no longer talking about Ross dress for less?

We can do ground beef very easily. Almost too easily. But a hunka meat is tough. I end up cooking a lot of seafood which I now love because it doesn't hurt, has low calories and tons of Protein. When I make chicken it's either in the crockpot or the pressure cooker so it's soft and moist. I am not a steak fan so the next time you get the craving, I wonder if you're just craving the taste of beef? In that case ground beef or crockpot beef stew might do the trick safely. Again, it's been so long since I had steak you could be laughing at my suggestions but hey I'm trying to be helpful

Yes supermans. I'm starting with just lifting my top half. I don't know what it's called in English but there's a yoga thingamajig that starts that way. I have a plan. Much to no ones surprise, I have overthought this. I figure planks are a step toward push-ups. Partial supermans are a step toward supermans. That exercises my core, my arms and my back which biking and walking do not. This way, I can sneak little bits of strength in before my RA catches on to the fact that I'm actually exercising and decides to flare on me. Muahahahaha! Seriously I am learning to go much slower than I'd like but it's better than doing nothing due to a flare. I will def try leg extensions now that you mention it. I feel some ab exercises coming on too. Slowly, slowly.

5 miles biking, 1.16 walking day 4 of planksgiving where I did 40 seconds so MTD: Miles: 11.16 Plank: 126 s Partial Hyper extension: 40 s C25k : bok bok bok (chicken noises) I think I'll add hyperextension to my goal. I mean, I'm on the floor to plank anyway, may as well do something else while I'm there. With my dang knees getting on the floor is hard enough. Don't want to waste it Edited to add my walking which I forgot.

I'm so glad you posted this! I think sometimes we're all so afraid of eating because in the old days, if we ate, we put on weight. Now, our brains haven't adjusted to the fact that we're eating so very very little, that we can't try to be too stringent with ourselves. The weight loss will stall if we do that. But what's really great about your story is that you didn't throw up your hands in the air and mentally give up, you talked to your doctor, came up with a plan, and now here you are Congratulations!!

I work from home so I don't "bring" lunch but I do travel and have to carry food for that day on planes etc. Here's what works for me for travel and also some things i used to carry for work: 1. Jerky. Never spoils, can eat for snack 2. Lunch meats. I know they can be high in sodium and nitrates but they're easy to eat and portable. 3. Baby bel cheeses of different sorts 4. Edamame 5. Little chicken or beef meatballs that have been cooked so you can reheat at work. 6. Leftovers from dinner. When I used to work in an office outside, instead of putting away leftovers in the fridge, I'd pack two lunch boxes and we used to eat those for lunch the next day. 7. Hummus with veggies (if you can eat veggies now, I'm still not there) 8. Omelette made the night before and rolled, cut into slices. 9. Boiled shrimp 10. Boiled eggs with some mayo on the side 11. Chicken salad 12. Egg salad 13. Greek yogurt 14. Almonds if you're allowed nuts 15. Egg quiches made in muffin tins Hope that helps!

we love minecraft! We had a server set up in the house and we'd all get on it, skype my son in Austin and play for hours.

I cook with plain a lot but I haven't eaten in plain in a long time. Maybe it's time to go back to that, or add Torani sf syrup. Good idea!

Butter's post got me thinking. I think the difference between our generation and that of our grandparents is that many of us are aware of childhood obesity and actively guard against it. I have two boys, 23 and 13. The first one is biologically mine and the second one is mine through adoption. Both their dads are thin, esp the younger one's birth father who is Kenyan and seemed very tall and skinny in his pics. But the younger one, although he didn't eat too much, wasn't getting enough exercise and was living on bread and Pasta and cheese. So we needed changes. i was raised by a mother who couldn't spend as much time with me as she thought she should. So she spent money on me instead. I didn't want the stuff, I wanted her time and attention. It taught me early on that love is about time with our loved ones, and about giving them what they need, not what we can give easily without making any change in our own life. Exercising doesn't come naturally to me. But when we thought the younger one needed to be more active, we all went swimming more. When we thought he didn't get out of the house enough, we all went walking. When the kids were eating all the junk we had in the house, we stopped eating it ourselves so that they wouldn't see it around in the house. Let me tell you, when you're tired and just back from traveling or stressed, and want to just be left alone to read your book, getting up to go swimming is a PITA. Three hours gone with swimming showering etc. But if we didn't do it, we could hardly insist he should. That, to me, is how I love and nurture my kids. They do love me a lot, but I don't stress about being popular with them. I stress about being fair to them, and giving them their share of the family''s resources which includes time and attention from everyone to whomever needs it. Also I think that competent kids are happy kids. The type of happiness that comes from achievement on their own, from capabilities they build, that stays with them lifelong. It can't ever be matched by cake-happiness. So if I have a choice on the type of happy I try to get for them, it's the "I'm loved, I'm capable and look what I just did" type of happiness. Not the "my mom feeds me" happiness or the "i can do whatever I want" happiness. Sorry for the long post. I'm avoiding the real work I need to do and this thread is so dang thought-provoking!

Congratulations! Can I ask, when you say a switch flipped, what changed? More hunger? or other stuff?

That's funny I'm doing the opposite. I'm feeding everyone much healthier food and much smaller portions because I see how little we need to survive. I had a house guest and I am sure the poor man was hungry the whole time because we thought we were giving him huge portions but they were only huge for us 2 oz eaters. I literally had to make him a Peanut Butter sandwich AFTER dinner one night! Poor guy.

I've heard a LOT of vets talk about this. I think at 6 months the sleeve is healed. Swelling is down, capacity has often doubled from where we started. If you have a cup of capacity and choose to fill it with chips, then as you can imagine, a cup of crushed up chips have close to 500 nutritionally bankrup calories or thereabouts. In contrast, if you do 1/2 c Protein, 1/4 c veg and 1/4 complex carb, you're doing considerably less damage if any. From what I understand, the increased capacity makes smart choices that much more vital. Additionally, most of us have lost a lot of weight by then. So let's say you've shed 60% of your excess weight, now your caloric requirements are necessarily lower. So you should be eating less, but suddenly you can eat more. Rut roh. Having said that, there are many, many examples of people who have continued to lose well after 6 months so it's not like the sleeve "stops working". It's just a tad tougher from what I can tell.

What he said. I'm so frustrated with having to read all the labels, compare the sugar from the milk to the sugar they added, then divide by a log factor of the Protein and multiply by the square root of the ounces, and then face Mecca, throw salt over my shoulder before randomly choosing one that I've stopped eating yogurt that much. And I used to love greek yogurt. Now they seem to label everything Greek yogurt and the protein amounts all vary. What is up with that? Sucks.

congratulations! you look great.

Did my husband pay you to say this?? He was so mad at me that I cut my head off. My son said where's you head?? And I told him I chopped it off. How else did he think I'd lost 40 lbs? You're right. I know you're right. I will work on it. all I see is my double chin and my uneven skin tone and my thinning hair. Sent from my iPhone using VST

Of the 90 days since surgery, I've been stalled for at least 39 of those. It just drops for a while, and then it stops, and then it starts again. I keep doing the same thing, and my body decides when to let go and when to hold. We can't control the rate of loss. We can only control whether or not we stick to the plan so keep at it and determine success not on weight loss, but on how well you're following your plan.

You know before surgery I'd look at other people's pics and wonder if I would ever get there. I was sure I'd fail. I STILL worry about that. Every morning I think, maybe today is the day I'll stop losing weight. I do stall/pause a lot, but it's unbelievable. It's like nothing we've all ever done before to lose weight. You'll be here before you know it and if you're like me, you will have such a thankful heart. Hope is a wonderful thing my friend.

Not only did I stay candy free on Halloween--many, many PB cups owe their lives to me not scarfing them--I am also having to abstain from eating junk food during Diwali which is a huge festival in India. Take all the junk food you love. Throw it in a big pile. Give yourself permission to eat all of it whenever you want. THAT is Diwali. And I can't do any of it. I kinda felt sorry for myself yesterday but decided to Celebrate the fact that I hit 60 miles in October, I hit half way to goal today and I planked for 30 seconds now. So I guess life is about trade-offs, and I traded off. Sigh.

I hope it helps some enablers too. I mean theres no shame in it to some extent. We were raised to think food is love, and feeding is nurturing, and tough love is no love. To have to go against that is part of our post-sleeve training as well. I SO want to tell my husband not to lose too much weight. Yes me! the one who knows weight loss is a personal journey. It's so hard for me to not want to feed him constantly. I still sometimes struggle to find ways to Celebrate that don't involve food. And when people are upset and beating themselves up, we all so want to be comforting and helpful and to make them feel better about themselves by saying "it's not that bad". This is all different to how we were raised to show and express love.

wait..you have ANOTHER surgery? I hope all is well.

Oh no! So sorry to hear. Hope someone can help you.