heynowkc

Love this. I do this a lot too. While I do a lot of Water aerobics I definitely don't stick to the same routine and always "feel" like something different every day. So it makes sense that I also have never really experienced a "stall" to speak of. Mostly just slow weeks. I've had a week or two where I felt like I didn't lose "anything" but when I later would go back and actually look at the numbers, it wasn't a total stop in loss. I am just over 5 months out so I am sure there will be stalls and some speed bumps as I get closer to goal, but as of right now things keep dropping. I'm excited to see where I am at the end of a year. Would love to hear how you're doing now!!

@@WasBigInMaryland Wow!!! Congrats on that success!! I was 491 at my highest and 422 on surgery day (Dec 17 2014). I weigh in tomorrow for my weekly weigh-in and am hoping to hit 322 (100 lbs down from surgery!) this week. After that I have 3 more weeks until my 6 month anniversary so I can't wait to see how the next three weeks go! Crossing my fingers! May I ask how long ago you had surgery/how long it took you to get down to 220?

Wow! @@Brandie Harris that is awesome!

I pretty much eat leftovers every day for breakfast and lunch if I'm going to work. Sometimes it will be the same leftovers, and sometimes two different kinds of leftovers from the night before. My mother calls this weird. I don't think it's that weird though!

@@craigcu I tried to find you but wasn't able to. There's no way for me to say that I'm searching for a username and not a person's first and last name so all these "Craig CuXXX" names come up. Cunningham Cullens Cummings etc.

How often do you work out? Do you have weekly goals? What type of exercise do you do? Walking? Swimming? Strength? Cardio? How does it work for you? Does it help with weight-loss slows/stalls? I want to know everything!

I was able to add you under the connections menu option!

Also had surgery in December. I still get cravings when I am on my period. My period has been out of whack ever since having surgery though, so it seems like I have to deal with this every other day. NOT FUN! I don't think that craving sweets on your period has anything to do with ghrelin though. Maybe have some atkins bars or other protein-type snacks around that will help during those times?

Now that I am almost to the half-way point I figured I could share some pics. The before pictures were taken the 2nd and 3rd week of October and the after pictures were taken this weekend. I've lost about 158 lbs so far between the two months before surgery and post-surgery. I have to clarify. These are not the greatest pics of me!! Haha. The before pic with the pink shirt is so horrible because I only took it to weigh in at dietbet one morning. I had woken up late that day and threw on some clothes (no bra) and ran downstairs with my scale and had my mom take the picture. It is pretty much the most unflattering photo of me ever taken!! And the purple-shirt "after" pic was taken after I'd just gotten done with a 5k (that's post 5k hair after I just took my ponytail out!). I had my mom take my pic so I could text my friend to show her that my race t-shirt "sort of" fit.

@@kickboxlvr Nice. Looking good! (Even if you posted in the wrong place!)

I guess it's high time I answer my own question! Thank you ALL for your valuable input! This thread seems to be helping a lot of people. I am four months out from surgery as of last week. Pre-Surgery In the 2.5 months prior to surgery, I was doing an hour of Water aerobics anywhere from 4-6 times/week, and adding in 1-2 strength training sessions on top of that. That, coupled with a healthy ~1200 calorie diet kept me losing about 7 lbs per week on average. Post-surgery I'm sorry to say that I never really got back to that routine. Everyone says you should walk for your exercise, especially in the early months. So that's exactly what I was doing, walking around 3 times a week, with occasional water aerobics (1-2 times per week when I could get to it.) Since my weight loss has slowed (not stopped) in the past two months to about 2.5 lbs / week, (sometimes slightly more, sometimes less) I decided to mix things up and as an experiment went back to my pre-surgery workout routine. I actually did 7 ~hour-long water aerobics workouts last week. I lost 7.3 lbs! I know it's only one week, but I've decided to FORGET the walking as my primary source of exercise! It does nothing for me! I'm sticking with water aerobics one hour 5-6 times per week or more as I find time! As for WHEN I work out. Well, because I'm taking classes, I kind of have to go with whatever the schedule is at my gym. But I am excited to get to any early morning (5:30 AM) classes (I took 2 this past week.) that I can manage because if I work out early in the morning there are less distractions (social events, feeling tired from the day, traffic etc.) that will keep me from working out in the evenings. I commute, so time is precious!

I started out in a very tight 34. I am down about 150 lbs from highest weight last October and I just tried on a 26 pair of pants at the Avenue last week and they fit, but I didn't buy them. I am hesitant to buy clothes unless I absolutely need them! Luckily a huge number of my work pants were those stretchy boot cut ponte pants so I can still wear those, I just need to hem them! I think I might go ahead and buy a few pairs of 24s in those, and then hopefully once I get down to a 24 I can wear those for a long time too! Probably not as long as I have made these 34s last though! Shirts are another story. I have no real clue what I wear because shirts vary so much from store to store. Something that's a 2x in one store is as big as a 4x in another store! I will say that I have really narrow shoulders and a big belly so that makes buying shirts, erm... complicated? Haha. Sometimes a shirt won't fit around the middle so I have to go up a size, but then it is practically falling off my shoulders! I hope this ratio will even out over time!!

I don't take that long to eat but I do chew my food very carefully. Occasionally if I am distracted I might forget. But it only takes one swallow to realize my mistake! My capacity is still around 3-4 ounces of solid food (actually it's more like 3-3.5 depending on consistency). There are times when I feel full on less though. This is about where I was when I started back on solid foods and began measuring the weight of what I was eating. I am only 4 months out as of a few days ago though. The process of eating very slowly is still something I truly struggle with. I am not sure how important this is in the long term, but I constantly remind myself I need to do it. Putting it into practice is much more difficult.

I have made this before. Definitely agree that you should boil the cauliflower with broth (I use vegetable bouillon) to add more flavor! I also put a few cloves of garlic in with the cauliflower. It cooks along with it and then blends up with it for a garlic flavor. Instead of string cheese I use a half a cup of sour cream or a half a cup of buttermilk. Yum yum! I bet any kind of cheese would work. Like maybe some lite cream cheese even. Now that I am on normal foods (4 months out) I have used this to make Shepherd's pie! It works really well!

This seems normal! I had only 2 weeks notice so I was completely out of whack those first few days after finding out my surgery date. I was nervous/scared mostly because I usually have a lot of trouble with IVs and such. They did have one false attempt to get me but after that the whole experience was fine. Just be prepared and think.. it will all be over soon! (And then the next journey begins!)

Good luck! Hope you're feeling good in no time!

I think after the first day or two on the liquid/pre-op diet you will be fine. I think those first couple of days are pretty mentally/physically challenging but then you kind of get used to it. Good luck. Being prepared is the most important thing. And you can always pretend to chew with sugar free jello! Haha.

My instructions are to have three meals, plus two Protein "snacks" (a bar or a shake) per day. No matter what shakes I drink I find them to be nauseating, so for a while I switched to the bars (Quest bars) and was eating two of those a day, or occassionally a bar plus a shake a day. (Premier Protein Shakes.) But I'm just finding it too hard to get all of my protein in when I just do the bars so I'm switching back to shakes at least once, if not twice daily. I'm not super happy about it, but I just don't know any other way right now to get enough protein in. Some days it works out, but other days if I'm not paying attention I'm way under goal. Did anyone else find it too hard to get enough protein in when they don't drink shakes? (Or am I the only one dumb enough to have cut out shakes at all?) One thing I haven't tried is making smoothies or adding fruit to my shakes. I may have to start trying some recipes soon because I dread the shakes like you have no idea.

This is so great. I think the goal of one 5k a month is awesome! I feel like I should do the same thing! Haha

My HW at the beginning of October was 491 and my weight on surgery day (Dec 17) was 422. I am sitting just under 350 right now almost 6 months from my HW and feel I have hit a slow down (not a stall) my only advice is anecdotal and that is that my weight loss slowed when I began eating two Quest bars a day instead of two shakes. I really think the sugar alcohols are to blame and am transitioning off of them doing only one a day or every other day until they are gone. I feel in the past two weeks it has really helped. We will see what this week brings. I am finishing the ones I have and then only using them in a pinch. I may PM you later as I do not have facebook and would love to keep in touch!

I had my surgery just before our winter break this past December (I work at a college library). So I didn't have to go back for 2.5 weeks. I wouldn't have felt good enough to go back after a week, but would have been fine to go back after 1.5 or 2.

A friend here recently linked me to a video where the mythbusters tested what happens if you drink diet coke and then eat mentos. The mentos did nothing, but the carbonation in the diet coke alone blew that stomach up like it was the motherfreaking fourth of July! SCARY! I definitely wouldn't recommend any kind of carbonation at all, especially after seeing that!

@@Stevehud Oh thank you for that recommendation. I am going to see if I can try them out!