katesuccess

How cool - I too am a fellow member of the Gym Rat club! I'm finding i love it as well. And yes - a great personal trainer makes ALL the difference! I saw mine tonight and did my body composition (we do it every two months) and in two months i'm down from 41.6% body fat to 34.45! I'm so happy! My thing i don't think I ever did before (at least recently) was tonight--I was walking through the kitchen and put my hand on my waist and felt my own healthy body there, instead of rolls of fat, and thought to myself, "I like my body"... I even said it out loud. Twice. I don't think i've ever said or done that before!

Hi @@AvaFern, et al. I have seriously great morning Protein shakes - since you don't do chocolate much, ignore the second one. First fave is just like Starbucks Frappucino: In a ziplock baggie I combine unjury vanilla Protein powder, my 3 tsp of benefiber, ½ cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or nonfat cow's milk is just as great), two pumps of SF Vanilla Torani syrup, 2 pumps SF Caramel Torani syrup and a double shot of espresso. I zip it up, shake it to mix, and freeze seven of these each week of non-winter (see below for my winter drink!) Then in the morning I just take a baggie out of the freezer, crumble it into the blender and i'm GREAT to go! Holds me all morning, gives me a boost and I have a slushy Starbucks like thrill. Maybe i'm just easy, but this tastes fantastic. Winter drink - it's colder and rainy in the Pacific Northwest in the winter, so each morning into my magic bullet goes: 6 ounces unsweetened vanilla almond milk (regular nonfat cow's milk is great too) a scoop of chocolate injury Protein powder, 3 tsp benefiber, two pumps SF peppermint Torani syrup, (add SF chocolate syrup if you like the flavor more intense) and then blend, microwave one minute while my double shot of espresso is making, combine and enjoy the better-than-Starbucks Peppermint Mocha! It's fabulous!! Love those flavors, and I also mix vanilla shakes with SF Orange (cold - think creamsicle), warm OR Cold vanilla with SF caramel (YUM!) or vanilla warmed up with SF Almond also good warm or cold, but it's my favorite evening protein boost to make a hot half one with the almond before bed when i'm still short on protein for the day. Marvelous. Happy blending! Kate

Still at 186, but it's been a really lousy week, and the cookies are chasing me. Sigh...and several have even caught me. I know I can do better this week though!

Oh my gosh! You look stunning!! What a great find on a gorgeous woman - and I sure hope you get the job. Keep me posted - i'll be thinking of you and hoping they see the potential and passion you offer.

Nov. 7th: 199 Nov. 14th: 198 Nov. 21st: 195 Nov. 28th: 192 Dec. 5th: 190 TODAY Dec. 12th: 186 Goal Weight: 185

WOOHOO!!!! GO Ava! :DCongrats - that's fabulous news pretty lady. Revel in it today before worrying about anything else. Just enjoy. And you ARE fancy! Kate

I love being able to wear shoes with a little more heel now that I have lost 100+ pounds, also I too am loving wearing the skinny fitting pants – especially from Chicos. I am also very surprised to hear myself say that I love my running clothes – even in the rainy Northwest Winter. Close-fitting but not tight, and I look good in them now. And I refuse to wear all black ones too! So the final thing I say I am enjoying wearing color - I used to own so much large shapeless black stuff, I almost cannot stand it now except for my skinny black pants of course. my best advice is to try new things you never thought you could wear, and get rid of the baggy stuff – at least get it out of your closet until you take it to Goodwill or resell shops. It is so incredibly great to look at one closet and know that everything in it really fits! You can do it too!

I have to say, you might be surprised at how well your body responds to, not everyone has the same post weight loss sagginess, especially when they start out young and with as low a BMI with you have. I'm 53 and began at 289 with a BMI of 48.5 almost 8 months ago. I have been working a lot, and now I run three days a week and hit the gym three days a week, and at my six month check back (which only happened last week) The doc said she was amazed at how little saggy skin I was having and how good it was. Absolutely I wish my thighs didn't have those little wrinkles where they look deflated, and I definitely wish my breasts didn't sag soooo low and flat-like, but my stomach saggy isn't too bad and even though my butt is nearly flat now, there's no wrinkly saggy stuff on it. My arms have always been an area I was super insecure about because they were so fat, and I have never worn a sleeveless shirt my entire adult life. At Thanksgiving though I did! And although they are not perfect, they look slim and well toned, and I am very proud of my 100+ weight loss! Since you are 25 and starting out at a lower BMI, please don't assume you will end up looking awful or absolutely have to have plastic surgery. You might be pleasantly surprised -- just get moving and in weight training, lots of hydration, and lots of firming lotion. Everything all the other posts recommended basically. Luck on your upcoming appointment. Kate

Way to go Kim! Now start getting in a multi Vitamin morning and night until you can check back with the WLS team maybe. B12 is almost always recommended too, and can give you energy. I found myself getting depressed after a long stall about 5 to 6 months out, and I contacted my doctor because I recognize the depression symptoms from some years back. I'm now on wellbutrin because it isn't known to have a weight gain affect, and seeing a counselor a couple times really helped. I am thrilled for you that you made the call – and that you got on this site to reach out for some help. Smart woman! You can do this, even though it's hard. You go girl! Kate

Check out "the world according to egg face" website and pinterest. She is amazing and has LOTS of great fun lunches with treat feel in her very cool laptop be to boxes. I bought two and now LOVE opening my fun lunches. She also has fabulous and 'legal' chocolate treats, like cannoli made in a strawberry with one end dipped in shaved chocolate. I add up maybe 20 calories each and they still have protein. She also had WLS and has made a great site from her learning. Check it out, it'll save your lunch time blues...and breakfast, dinner and dessert!

Congrats on your success - I was sleeved a month or so later. I also had a terrible and long stall at about 6 months. Of course it makes us frustrated and so i was less vigilant about getting enough water and staying away from chocolate once that stall hit three weeks! Then back on track and started losing again, though more slowly now too. As for water and food - STOP! If you can anyway. It makes a huge difference for many of us. Be sure not to have a glass at your place, or if in a restaurant have the waiter take it away. I know it's more pleasant, but try try to shift away. I find drinking a big glass before my mean (and waiting 5 minutes or so) helps me be less desperately thirsty during the meal too. Good luck - and i hope those last pounds come off soon!

I'm most irked that with less arm, shoulder and back fat, my sleeves are longer and the shoulder seams are now almost two inches lower down than they are supposed to be - which is when i retire the shirt. A good thing weight loss wise, but hard to see so many nice things only recently bought have to go!

My rear, chest and thighs have also all deflated, and it's sad. I've been looking at swim tops to wear with spandex shorts because my thighs look like they just had babies, I swear! Breasts hand sooooo low, and butt? What butt? My daughter (personal trainer) looked at me the other day and said, "My lord - you have NO butt!" And I'm here to tell you, I run three days a week AND workout hard in the gym three times a week and squats are definitely prominent in the workout--to no avail. Although, if I weren't doing them maybe I'd be concave?! Actually, it's flat, but not at all sagging or droopy, so i'm grateful for that at least. With all this slipping and sagging though, i'm still THRILLED with the body i have now that's 100 lbs lighter than when i started my pre-op diet. No cute butt or sexy DDs will ever in the world be worth going back there. saggy and happy, Kate

My grocery store carries sealed packages of smoked salmon strips - a whole package is 4 ounces, so I divide in half as my special treat food--SO good! Certainly individual yogurt is on my list, lately loving Dannon Greek Raspberry chocolate and Caramel mocha flavors, or plain over a bowl of pre-cut up fruit which I almost always have at the ready.

Hey - @@MarieMarie -- that's fantastic! Congratulations!!

I wore so much black as a heavy person, and NO bright colors, hearing my moms rejoinder that "Black hides a multitude of sins" playing over in my head, so now that I'm finally down 100 lbs (45 to go!) I bought a great red blazer, and got TONS of compliments! Such fun. Also loved shopping a consignment store today and got a white winter jacket--another color I'd not wear back then. I still want to wear one of those cute close fitting workout tops, instead of avoiding anything that clings and shows my jiggly middle!

I'm 190 today, which is frustrating as that is up one pound from yesterday, but I suppose beef for dinner usually does that to me--moves slower somehow? Oh well!

When I finally got below 200 I wanted to Celebrate with this darling (expensive!) red Kate Spade purse, but decided a heart rate monitor was more practical, and I really needed it - so practical too! My daughter (who's also my personal trainer) informed me that rewards aren't supposed to be practical and she thought I should have bought the purse. She has a point, but it was SO red, which of course I NEVER wore at 289 pounds, right? I "hid" in black and navy mostly. I kept eyeing the purse, and during a recent stall I started cheating a bit with buying a couple of chocolates here and there, eating a treat more often than I should for my plan, and typically I'd be at the checkout stand and succumb, slipping it into my purse for later. I recognized that a horrible habit I was returning to, and made an appt with a counselor and stopped myself from the reward/stall/shame/treat cycle I could see was slipping back into my life. Then the purse went on sale....and after two trips back to see it (did I mention it's expensive?!) I finally bought it today, deciding it will be a Chocolate-Free purse! It's bold and red and happy, and in the grey wet northwest winters, anything that bright and happy has no business being a place for me to hide chocolate or feel like I need to eat anything secretly. Nope--not gonna do it! So the purse is nicely gift-wrapped in my car, and I'll open it for Christmas and enjoy knowing it's entirely joyful, bold and beautiful...and so am I. Kate

We're also a couple whose kids are grown and gone. Im 7 months postop and just this month my husband has started loving my breakfast shake Unjury protein powder - yay! So we each make our own, but I buy larger quantities of it. Lunch we each make our own but I usually shop and he's trying to eat healthier. Dinner I said I'd cook a "real meal" for dinner for us twice times a week, and it's what I need to eat and he goes along with it (adding starch always) but sometimes - like last night - I make an old favorite of his that i'm not going to eat at all, in this case tuna casserole. Though this time it was really super slimmed down with very little added fat and more veggies. Other than those two nights, we're happily on our own for dinners unless we go out together, which is maybe once a week on our day off. I love not having to spend that extra hour each day thinking and cooking! I also keep a goodly stash of pre-portioned frozen meals for myself that I can just grab and thaw each night. Fun thread - nice reading what others do too.

You might try using a powdered protein, and mixing it with a bit less Water - also shaking it instead of a blender - it makes mine stay more liquid and less shake-like, and so easier to drink down. Someone posted a water bottle they'd marked with 2 hour markers and refilled at midday to get it all in. Said it really helped. I did okay but it sure was hard to get all that water in AND Protein drinks. Keep at it, you can do a little bit better every day! Also a couple times early on I set my alarm to wake up early and drink a half shake, then went back to bed and had the rest when i woke up for real. Sounds goofy, but it game me one more time slot to get something down. Have you tried the hot chicken broth/soup flavor? Or making your protein drinks warm Way easier for me to get down warm things early on than cold! My stomach just sort of clenched at too cold for a while, but now it's fine. Might be worth a try. I just warm my chic and vanilla ones up or make with hot water - but there's also a good hot cocoa one you can order. Good for you getting the 30 in though - fantastic! Kate PS It also was good incentive to me that I'd heard it helped prevent hair loss from being so bad if I got more in! Vanity...

When you don't dread wearing dress shoes (heels) the whole day - because they no longer hurt your feet from carrying so much weight. When someone who just saw you three months ago gapes and says "Oh my gosh - what did you do??" LOL.

Thanks @@VSGAnn2014! It's part of my current internal work to sort out the good difference between that sort of reward and pleasure and the sort that I'm tempted to do with a piece of chocolate or other thing i've chosen not to plan to eat on a given day. I'm finding the past week has been good in avoiding that, yet the couple weeks prior was awful. I love reflecting back on the choices that lead to one versus the other, and (as you say) healthy thought process and then what are just my old impulses to feel good for a moment by eating with little thought at all.

i was sleeved april 29, and have lost 84 pounds since surgery (276 starting to 192 today) - SO happy! several bad stalls though, and they get depressing, even though i'm awfully happy these days and proud of myself. I love having so much energy and that I finally really like exercsing...wow, did I say that?! Great to see how well everyone is doing. I'm really incredibly glad i did this, and VERY grateful for this terrific online community. You guys rock! Kate

Hey - cool @@imsoglad56 !! You got it to post - i'm impressed. I love looking at them too. And not just because they always 'fit' either - hah hah! It's funny how careful I've been to be sure it's large enough to feel in scale with my size, and now I look at one and think it's a little small...until I see it on my shoulder in the mirror and realize it looks really large! Such fun to find these surprises though. Losing this much weight opens a whole new world of purse possibilities!!

I love all of these ideas - great incentives too. I posted mine recently under topic "My Chocolate-Free Purse" (under rants and rave) before I saw this thread. I bought a red paten leather Kate Spade purse I've been eyeing forever, and would never have bought pre-weight loss because i was always too afraid to stand out in something red - might draw attention to all those pounds so artfully hidden under shapeless black clothes, right? I'm not opening it until Christmas, since my daughters are part of gifting it to me too. I'm so looking forward to it!