Babbs

As a fellow slow loser who is still losing at 15 months out, I salute you!

food should not be our enemy anymore. Make food your nourishment, a necessity, an occasional indulgence. If you're tracking your intake, make those bites of stuffing part of your daily calories. No harm, no foul. I eat right 90% of the time. That's why when I do over indulge the other 10% of the time, I feel no guilt whatsoever. See how that works?

I started drinking soda about a year out. The carbonation bothered me before that. I have a Coke Zero almost every day at this point. I does take me a couple hours to drink it, though. Usually by the time I finish it, it's lost most of its carbonation. But I have found I CANNOT do beer anymore. Just doesn't sit well. It makes me really sad because I used to love craft beer.

This is just perfect. Food SHOULD NOT be our enemy anymore!

@@smcbee79 Your nerves have been cut along with swelling in your remaining sleeve. I'm sure your full signal is not being felt yet for those reasons. Make sure you're still measuring out portions instead of trying to eat until you're full. It's just a good habit to get into, and you really should only eat until satisfied, not full. It does take a little practice to get used to not stuffing ourselves. Remember, just because you can, doesn't mean you should

What you're going through is completely necessary and normal! Don't stress! It happened to most of us at the same time post surgery! Google "Three Week Stall" and it will explain everything. Like @@jane13 said, stay on course and embrace the stall! It's supposed to happen

Woo hoo! Have fun and Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving you crazy lady!

Happy Thanksgiving!! We all have SO much to be thankful for!

When I woke up immediately from surgery, I'd say the pain was a 6 or 7, just on the right side where I think they pulled the remaining stomach out. Once I got drugs and was all settled in, it never got past a 2 or 3. Just getting up and down was the only time I was ever uncomfortable after that. At home it was never more than a 1.

Also, Google "5 Day Pouch Test". People who have struggled with gains years out swear by it!

Have you tried going back to liquids again for a few days just to "reset" things? I hear it's great to flush things out and get a little more restriction back. Chances are, you're eating too many carbs and sugar right now, and the reset will help wean you off again and reduce your cravings and hunger. Or you can go back to basics like in the beginning....protien first, then veggies. Low starchy carb and low sugar, and LOTS OF Water. I think you've maintained really well, and are just going through that normal 10% re gain most go through around the 2-3 year mark. Make a commitment to get back to the basic rules for bariatric surgery and I think you can get right back where you want to be Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving!

Told you! I had some complications, but the surgery itself was easy peasy! I'm glad you're doing well! Take it easy and Happy Thanksgiving!

I was a little over 3 months out from surgery last year, so Thanksgiving was not too big of a deal. I could literally only eat spoonfuls of food and be full. I think I had a nice loss of like 3 pounds that week because I had a few more carbs than I normally did that day Now at 15 months out, I can eat a little more than a few spoonfuls. I can also graze with the best of them, so I'm really going to have to watch that this year. But I'm sticking to my plan mostly. Turkey, veggies and a sweet potato instead of mashed potatoes. I may have a bite of pie if I've got room. We shall see Happy Thanksgiving!!

Slider foods are foods with no particular nutritional value that we can seem to eat a lot of and never get full. A lot of snack foods like chips, crackers, cookies and popcorn are slider foods.

I would love for you to try this, and post your results. The Cottage cheese Test Purchase a container of small curd low-fat cottage cheese. Begin the test with a full container of cottage cheese, and perform the test in the morning before eating anything else. This will be your Breakfast on that day. Eat fairly quickly until you feel satiated, but not overly full (less than five minutes). Note that the small soft curds do not require much chewing. You are eating rapidly so you will fill the pouch before there is time for any food to flow out of it. After eating your "fill" of cottage cheese, you will be left with a partially eaten container that has an empty space where cottage cheese used to be. Measure the volume of cottage cheese you have eaten by filling a two cup (16 fl.oz.) measuring cup with Water. Pour water into the container of cottage cheese until the water level rises to the original top level of the cottage cheese. The amount of water poured into the container is the functional size of your pouch.

It's probably normal for you both. You just had major stomach surgery, and your stomach has a line of staples going the length of it and is now 85% smaller. So yeah, things are going to hurt while it heals. But yes, call your surgeons if you feel it's not normal pain for sure

So much THIS ^^^^

Then stop eating anything fried? Fried food isn't good for you anyway.

Pretty much already covered above why I was thankful for my many stalls, but can I just say I'm thankful to @@Inner Surfer Girl for always being such an inspiration to so many of us?

Your typical day will look VERY different from a maintenance typical day! I am eating up to 1400 calories a day at 15 months out. You won't be able to eat that many for quite a while You will probably be eating 600-800 calories for many months. I upped my calories to 1000 at around 7 months, then slowly increased until I hit 1200. Now I'm increasing a little more for maintenance. You just physically won't be able to eat that many until some time passes and healing is complete My typical day is still very low starchy carb, high Protein and mostly clean. I DO still have a Protein shake every morning just because I find it more convenient. I eat lean meats, veggies, and fruits and try not to eat processed food. I mostly stay away from crackers, bread and Pasta. I'm very sensitive to carbs, and will crave them more and gain weight when I eat them. I've gone off the rails with them a couple times, so I had to scale back a little. That's just me. Like VSGAnn says, others mileage may vary

You know the guys we used to watch on TV who would try to balance as many plates on their faces as they could without breaking them all? Yeah, maintenance is kind of like that. It's all about balance. In other words, finding the perfect amount of calories where you're not gaining or losing anymore. I'm trying to figure that out right now, but I'm still losing slowly. I hear that's pretty normal up to the first 18 months, though. I'll get it dialed in. It's also about holding yourself accountable, like @@AvaFern said. I, like her, weigh daily. I'm a believer in you can't measure what you can't see. But I know some who rely on how their clothes are fitting. In my case, I will have a 5 pound buffer, and if I go over, it's back to work and back to the basics. Others find if their pants are getting too tight, same thing. Back to work and back to basics. Although I'm VERY new to maintenance, it's actually kind of boring. No more excitement of seeing the scale consistently moving down. No more being motivated to work out and watch what you're eating with the reward of seeing the scale go down. People get used to seeing the new, thinner you, and the compliments fade. It's just....living life now. Exciting, hu? You will have to find new motivators to help keep you on track. Mine is clothes (so shallow, I know) and how I feel when I work out consistently. Also, using the tool given to you to manage the every day stresses of life that can derail us eating wise. You'll figure it out. Just like I will And people think losing the weight is the hard part. Ha!

Awwww. How precious of him! You'de better tell him thanks! What a sweet guy!

I'm just curious...have you not had surgery before? Surgery takes a toll on the body for many reasons. That's why as a rule, it takes AT LEAST 6 weeks to recover from pretty much any surgery. This surgery is even trickier because of the lack of calories. So yes, being tired is a normal reaction to recently having major surgery. As each week goes by, you should be feeling less tired and have more energy.

Oh, the cigarettes. I actually contemplated, just for a split second, buying a pack today. Now that I'm in maintenence, for some reason I've been wanting to pick smoking back up. Well, I KNOW the reason. It would keep me from wanting to eat! But I like being able to breath when I run, climb stairs, etc...so there's that.... As far as your surgery, yeah you need to stop trying to lose for now in anticipation of the prolonged liquid diet. Of course you COULD do milk shakes if you feel you're getting too thin