lauraellen80

I'm discovering that I'm apparently a total basic white girl. Since getting near goal, I love to wear long sweaters with scarves, skinny jeans, and boots. Just stick a Starbucks cup in my hand and call me Becky!

Have you had your thyroid levels checked, @@bellabloom? Maybe you have hyperthyroidism.

I've always bought a lot of my basics at Kohls and Target. I really like Loft and was excited when I was able to shop there again.

I'm almost 7 months out and below goal. My daily menu looks like this: Breakfast: 1/2 packet of lower-sugar oatmeal made with Fairlife skim milk 1/2 scoop of vanilla Protein powder stirred into the oatmeal 1 Morningstar Farms veggie sausage link or, if we go out to breakfast, I'll get a Denver omelet and eat about 1/3-1/2 and give the toast and most of the home-fries to my husband or, if I know I'm going to be going out or eating a more carb-heavy meal that day, I'll have a Protein shake My commute to work is about 25 minutes, so once I get there I have: 2 cups of coffee with Torani sugar-free syrups and some Fairlife 2% milk Lunch: 1 ounce turkey pepperoni or chicken breast or tofu 1 light string cheese or Babybel My NUT wants me to start making my lunch a little more substantial, so I'm working on throwing in some veggies & hummus, a few baby dill pickles, making little salads, etc. Mid-afternoon snack: 1 ounce cashews, pistachios, and almonds with 1-2 prunes OR 1 ounce roasted chickpeas with 1-2 prunes OR 1/2-3/4 of an apple with 2 TB natural almond or Peanut Butter DInner: Varies--in general, something that includes 2-3 ounces of protein (meat, soy, Beans, dairy, etc), 1/4 cup non-starchy veggies, and sometimes 2 TB of a starch (potatoes, sweet potatoes, quinoa, low-carb tortilla, etc.) Evening snack: 3/4-1 cup of Greek yogurt with added Protein Powder topped with 1/2-1 ounce of salted caramel and/or dark chocolate almonds OR topped with 1/8-1/4 cup low-sugar, high protein granola OR 1/2-1 protein bar (usually Quest) OR, if I need more fluids or have eaten a lot of carbs that day, a protein shake

Every time I go to put on a pair of my size 4 jeans, I have a moment of panic that they are not going to fit, that I somehow gained back all my weight overnight, or that I dreamed the weight loss in the first place and am still a size 20.

My surgeon allowed caffeinated coffee after 1 month post-op. I usually have about 2 cups per day. I either make it at home or work and add a couple tablespoons of 2% Fairlife milk and some sugar-free Torani syrup, or if I'm out I get it at Wawa (a convenience store here in PA) and add some vanilla soy milk and a Splenda packet. I just had my 6-month appointment this morning, and all my labs came back great, so it doesn't seem to be doing me any harm!

Over the holidays, I've been trying to make myself sip on a bottle of water anytime I am tempted to snack at parties and stuff. Then I have to wait at least a half hour after I finish to eat something and often the urge has passed by the time I can eat.

One friend of mine saw me in September after not seeing me since March or April (sleeved in mid-June) and said, "Is it just me, or have you lost a f**k-ton of weight?" I replied that no, it was probably closer to half of a f**k-ton so far. It was very funny. I do get a little uncomfortable when people ask me how much I've lost... partly because I am embarrassed that I had over 100 lbs to lose in the first place! I mean, of course everyone knew I was fat, but they didn't know just how fat I was.

Hahaha! I'm excited that I could wear a purple dress now without looking like a giant grape.

To quote Dan Savage, "DTMFA." (Dump The Mother-F****r Already)

You're not the only one. I commented in another thread that I am convinced that all the size 6 pairs of pants I now own--actually, size 4 as of yesterday--must be mislabeled. No matter that they are from different stores and are different brands and styles. I still assume that I'm the fattest person in the room most of the time. I'm still afraid when my husband picks me up or pulls me onto his lap, worried I'll hurt him. Logically, I know that I'm smaller... But my gut feeling is still that I'm fat. And of course a lot of it is giving our minds time to catch up with our bodies.

I'm 6.5 months post op. I currently take water aerobics/toning classes at the Y about 3 times a week, yoga once a week, and I try to walk my dogs most days for 30-40 minutes. I have a Garmin fitness tracker, and I try to get in 10K steps per day.

I like to make cold spinach dip with Greek yogurt in place of the sour cream/mayo and serve with raw veggies instead of bread or crackers.

Oh, and if you are missing the crunch of crackers, I recommend trying cheese crisps. You can make them yourself (shred some cheese, place in little piles on a baking sheet, and bake until crispy) or be lazy like me and buy them at the grocery store.

I sometimes make "hot chocolate" by heating up skim Fairlife milk to 140 degrees and then stirring in a scoop of Syntrax nectar chocolate Truffle flavor. And maybe add a pump or two of sugar-free salted caramel or peppermint syrup. Never tried mixing it first and then heating! But I have to say, the lemon or orange flavored ones gross me out even when they are cold. Hot... blech! To each his own, I guess!

My surgeon's guidelines allowed crackers or well-toasted bread fairly early on, but I don't remember exactly when, because I chose not to go down that road. I was cleared for "all" foods at six weeks, but with the caveat that I should be careful introducing bread, Pasta, and rice as those things can be hard to digest post-op, and they can hinder weight loss. I'm 6 1/2 months post-op, and I have not tried rice or pasta at all (I have had bean pasta a couple times). The rice I haven't had because it doesn't add enough nutritionally to be worth it to me, and because I'm afraid of it being painful. The pasta I have avoided because it's a trigger food for me (there are still times when I swear I'd sell my soul for a bowl of mac-and-cheese), and I'd rather wait until I am well and truly settled into maintenance mode before I try it. I've had crackers on two occasions since surgery--two multigrain ones topped with some really yummy cheese at a wedding about a month ago, and two Triscuits on Christmas Day with some buffalo chicken dip. I also had two small tortilla chips to scoop some queso dip on Christmas Eve. Definitely not something I plan to have on a regular basis. The only bread I've had has been a couple tiny crusty bites at restaurants, when it was freshly baked and there was a fancy flavored butter. I had a couple small bites of stuffing on Thanksgiving. I occasionally have 1/2 of a low-carb tortilla as the "crust" for a homemade pizza, or cut into triangles and baked into "chips."

It seems like just yesterday that I was all excited that my size 20W jeans were too big... But today I bought a pair of size 4 skinny jeans!

My surgeon has not given me a goal weight, either. His PA just gave me the average "excess weight lost" percentage range (60-70%) as an idea of what I could expect to lose. That would have put me between 165 and 175, which is still obese for my height (5'2"). Initially, I chose 145 lbs as my personal goal even though I would have still been in the "overweight" category, because it's a weight that I felt OK at in college, and I simply could not wrap my mind around being any smaller than that. But once I really started losing post-op, I revised my goal to 135 lbs, which put me at the top of the "normal" weight range. I'm now at 128.8, just a few pounds heavier than I was in high school! I had to postpone my 6-month follow up until after the holidays, but I'll see what my surgeon has to say then. @@WL WARRIOR - Where did you find the info about working towards a "set point"? Does Dr. Weiner have a website, or has he put out a book? I'd be interested to learn more!

I got myself back on track yesterday--had a protein shake for breakfast; 1 oz. turkey pepperoni, a piece of light string cheese, and a prune for lunch; 1 oz. of cashews for an afternoon snack; 1/2 of a hummus-crusted baked chicken breast and 1/3 cup of Greek green beans for dinner with a very small piece of high-quality chocolate for dessert; and another protein shake for my evening snack. And had lots and lots of water to drink. Weighed myself this morning, and I'd dropped the 4/10 of a pound I'd gained, plus another 2/10.

I do 18th-century living history, both as a hobby and part of my job. I wore a pair of lightly boned stays, laced loosely, about 7 or 8 weeks post-op, but only for a few hours. I wore my fully-boned stays for a weekend about a month later with no issues. They are boned with German plastic artificial whalebone. Like @@AvaFern mentioned, wearing a corset after being sleeved will reduce your stomach capacity even more. I have found that I can only manage 1/2 a Protein bar when I'm wearing my stays and have to be even more conscious of taking small bites and chewing thoroughly, or I feel rather urpy.

To chime in again and reiterate the point that others have made--we may feel like we went totally crazy and ate a ton at Christmas, but when you look at it from the non-bariatric point of view, it's really insignificant. I came downstairs this morning and whined to my husband about gaining 4/10 of a pound over the past few days, and he looked at me, rolled his eyes, and said, "I gained six." And then I checked to see how many extra calories I'd actually consumed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day... 350. Over two days. That's it.

I feel you. I didn't make the best choices over the past couple of days, and I'm up almost half a pound this morning. I'm having a protein shake for breakfast and may just do a day of shakes to reset myself. The important thing (and I'm saying this to myself, too) is to not think, "well, I blew it... guess I'll just keep eating crap now!"

I have no idea what size bougie my surgeon used on me--I think to some extent it's dependent on your anatomy and your build and how big your stomach was to begin with. I would guess that they used a smaller one on me, a short-waisted 5'2" female, than they would on a guy who's 6'2" and built like a linebacker.