BigViffer

Tomorrow is my 1 year anniversary and the 18th is my 1 year follow-up appointment. I was hoping to get closer to my stretch goal of 200 in time for that appointment. I had pledged to myself that I would double down on my gym workout to achieve said goal too. Wouldn't you know it, I caught a bug and have been laid low since last Wednesday. Dammit! Obviously I haven't been eating properly, lots of Soups and fluids but not much Protein. And of course no gym time. I finally felt well enough to come to work today and went to the gym just to walk on the treadmill. I weighed myself like normal and I am at 214. Better than a few weeks ago, but far shy of that 200 I was hoping for. I am convinced for the most part that I will not hit the 199 mark unless I sacrifice muscle and I am just not interested in that. Don't get me wrong, I will look great for my 1 year picture, I'm just grousing that the sprint to the finish turned into a stumble!

Ask and ye shall receive! http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/185975-before-and-after-gastric-sleeve-surgery-photos/page-97#entry4083529

Aw hell, one more picture. Just because.

Looking back I don't understand how I didn't realize I was so fat! This is from today just after my visit to the gym. 1 year and 2 days since surgery. According to my surgeon's scale, it is a 112lbs difference since surgery. According to the gym scale it is 116lbs. But like someone else on here said, that's just a BM waiting to happen! I can honestly say that the entire experience has been perception altering. I did not realize how much pain I was truly in on a daily basis. Most of my aches and pains are gone, high BP issues are gone, and the awful feeling when my blood sugar was too high is gone as well. Truly the best thing I have ever done for my health.

Well I had my appointment and got a glowing review from my surgeon. I brought with me my complete 2015 food diary along with my weight graph, nutrient percentage charts, and etc... I also showed him my revised tables for 2015/2016 with month over month comparison. Ever since I first showed him my data he has been excited about reviewing them. So I tend to bring more and more each visit. My official weigh in was 218.1lbs. Just 4 days before I was at 214! After discussing that, he said he believes that my weight has bottomed out and now I will fluctuate around where I am now. The lowest I ever got was 213. So a 215-225lbs range looks to be where I will maintain if I keep being good about my diet and exercise. Another topic that came up is BMI. I wanted to get tested to see where I am and he said he thinks that I am down to what he called essential fat. I am lean enough that the fat I have is just what is needed. Damn. That means the excess I see is all skin. He estimates that I am 17 or 18% BMI, which is good. But to be sure, I would have to go to another place and pay for it. He said that it was around $25, so I think I will go ahead and schedule that. All in all, it was a decent appointment. He said he wished that he had more patients like me that took advantage of this surgery and took it as serious as I have. That made me feel really good. Then he thanked me for letting him be my surgeon! Now that made me feel great!

@@mollyk26 Damn! You look great!

@@OutsideMatchInside took the words right out of my mouth. I use the Casein Protein to bake muffins. There are some recipes out there for Casein frosting too. Have one of these in the evening as a treat every once in a while.

Quite honestly, this question comes up all the time and in the end it is always the same answer. It's up to you. If you make the change for the rest of your life to eat clean, get out and move and become active, and take full advantage of this tool; then you will not gain your weight back. If you want it to be a magic trick or miracle pill that makes you skinny and you can eat junk like we do now (or used to) and make no change to your life... then yes, you will gain the weight back. Now if you fall into the latter category, I don't think you will get much sympathy from anyone. Here or in real life. If you fall into the first category, you will gain self respect and confidence and that will carry over to all aspects of you life. Professional relationships and personal will only be able to improve. The people who are toxic in your life will show their colors quickly, but you will be able to finally brush them off and focus on the ones who are there for your benefit. This surgery is a life changing event that can have incredible results. If you are brave enough to commit to it that is.

Thank you all for the encouraging words, compliments, and of course the reality check. Yes I have come a long way and yes I was being silly in hoping for an arbitrary number on a scale versus just generally being healthy! However, it would have still been kind cool... I'll see if I can't post up a new beefcake picture in the Guy's Room Before & After thread after my appointment.

OK men, I have to come clean about something. I have participated in an activity that I do not believe Jack Palance nor John Wayne would have approved of. (And I am pretty sure we can all agree that those are the epitomes of manliness.) I have been hitting the gym pretty hard and frequently and I had a fellow gym member tell me that I should consider a yoga class to stretch out the muscles I have been punishing for the past 10 months. "Yoga? But I'm not a hippie. I can't stand patchouli nor sandlewood and I don't hug trees. And I am certainly not 'poofy'." It took me about 2 months after our conversation for me to consider it. After a particularly strenuous session of deadlifts, I was pretty damn sore and I just wanted to work the muscles loose. Thats when her words popped back into my head. So I looked up the calendar at my rec center and attended a yoga class. I will tell you, I felt odd and out of place. Everyone there knew each other but they were all polite. Everyone did their stretching before the serious stretching of the class started. I just kind of stood there with my thumb up my ass because I don't know the first thing about yoga. The instructor arrived and got right into it with the hippy talk. Spirituality, expanding your awareness and so on and so forth... Then we start moving. She would say things like, "Now we are getting into our child pose" or "Come into the Downward Dog" and even a Warrior Pose. At first I was snickering, but as things became more strenuous I actually started to sweat. And muscles started to burn. Legs started shaking and arms trembled. By the end of the class, I was pretty well spent. But I felt really good. Nice and loose! I was in a good mood just like I do when I have a good workout. I came home and told my wife about the class and that I surprisingly enjoyed it. Then the next morning came. I could not move. I think rigor mortis set in. It took the entire day of walking and stretching to get back to a semblance of normalcy, but I can tell you that I did not go to the gym that day. However that following day I went back to the gym and had an even better workout and did not feel as sore as normal. So I believe that yoga may be a good idea after all. So much so that I actually did it again tonight. Thats two weeks in a row and I think I will continue to do it. So in closing, even if you think it is lame or poofy or even hippy, maybe try it out anyways. It can only help you and you may even turn out to enjoy it. And if that isn't enough, Yoga pants. Think about it.

No worries, this isn't a sensitive subject so women may post in this thread. I only posted it in the Guy's section to increase content here. Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

What I find funny is that I haven't even been focusing on my arms. Chest, back, and shoulders are my main interests. But my arms are definitely showing the most change. WTF?! Sent from my phone, please forgive brevity and misspelling

According to my surgeon, no. If you adhere to the food plan given to you, you most likely wouldn't be able to do it anyway. According to my fitbit adjustment, I would have to eat around 3000 calories to break even and there just is no way I could physically eat that much unless it was lard fried bacon pastry puffs! That being said, After you hit your Protein goal for the day, you might want to focus on complex carbs for energy. Grape Nuts or bran flakes are good, prunes and apricots too. That will help keep you regular with such a dense protein diet.

Had a moment in the gym changing room where no one was around, so I thought I'd take an updated picture for this thread: Today was arm day and I was completely spent by this time. Guys, quick tip - when you think you are done, bust out the bands and go as fast as you can for as long as you can. That's how you finish a workout! Sent from my phone, please forgive brevity and misspelling

I know this video isn't new, but I saw it again today and I can't help but giggle at it: Come on, you know you feel this way sometimes still!

I'm right there with you. I didn't so much binge, as I had what I viewed as a "last meal". Hot sausage gravy over a fried in butter egg and 2 biscuits. I can still taste it if I think about it. I have not tried a biscuit nor any gravy yet, but I have tried bread. It clumps up so bad it is an awful sensation in my throat. I now have no desire to eat it again. Better to leave it as a fond memory.

Damn dude, you look awesome. Jealous of your results! Sent from my phone, please forgive brevity and misspelling

At your stage, I found that if I was tasting something that I had a preconceived idea of flavor, it was off or tasted wrong. Try getting something you have never tried before. I bought "weird" Soups and now I can't get enough of them. For example, my favorites are by Pacific; Cashew Carrot Ginger soup and Red Curry Lentil soup. Never tried either one so I had no idea what they would taste like. Tons of flavor and I couldn't say that they tasted wrong since they were new to me. Oh, and the lentil soup has protein! Add unflavored Protein powder to it and the curry hides it well.

Well it finally happened, I made it to my originally stated goal and the one that my surgeon also agreed upon. I've so looked forward to this that I had built it up in my mind as a momentous occasion that would be a auspicious event and streamers and confetti would rain down from the sky while a baptist church chorus sang hallelujah. Well that didn't happen. My stall before hitting goal had lasted 6 weeks and I thought for sure that would make the victory all the more sweeter, so I didn't mind the stall. I just kept on keeping on and working out. Then on the 22nd when I did my weekly weigh in it finally happened. 218 lbs, actually 2 lbs less than my goal. Know what I felt? Alright, cool. Then it hit me, "Wait a minute, that's under goal. Why aren't I whooping and hollering?!" I am at the weight I was before I met my wife, some say that I look better than I ever have. (the grey hair makes you look distinguished!) My health is better than it has been in a decade. And I personally feel better than anytime that I can remember. This is what I wanted, this is what I asked for help in achieving. So why am I not elated? I think it comes down to now that I know what I have accomplished, I think I know what I am capable of. I want more. I don't just want to be thinner and healthier. I want to be able to do the things I have never been able to do, even before I got fat. I want to be able to do a pull up. Just one. I want to have a chest and not any moobs. I want my wife to suck on her teeth and look at me like a piece of meat! So that's the new goal. I figure it took 308 days to get here, so I'll give myself another 308 to get there. So for posterity sake, here is the beginning and current pictures: Fat Paul circa May 2014 And healthy Paul 12-22-2015

I used to get cold sores relatively frequently as a teenage and young man. Mine were almost always related to the level of stress I was under at the time. But the older I get I have noticed a direct relationship between fucks-given and number of cold sores. So if you are currently stressed (which would be understandable), it could be the cause as well.

You should be able to find it at any grocery store. If you are looking for sugar free maple syrup, it's in the aisle with the pancakes. Torani syrup is in the coffee aisle. I know that Meijer, Kroger, and Walmart all stock them.

Just came across this and I am a regular Protein cake eater! Matter of fact, that is the only way I use the Protein Powder now. I don't like to drink it for some reason. I don't measure anything though, I go only by texture and I also only do it for 20 seconds. It comes out like a lava cake. My personal favorite is as follows: ProtiZyme - Peanut Butter Cookie 1 scoop http://www.vitaminshoppe.com/p/metabolic-nutrition-protizyme-peanut-butter-cookie-2-lb-powder/9m-1005 spoonful all natural peanut butter Dip a fork in baking soda and only what stays on the fork tines goes in. (I don't want it airy.) Hazelnut creamer. Just enough to make batter. Since I don't measure the peanut butter it's a trial and error thing at first. Now I can do it just about perfect each time. Stir all of that together in a coffee cup so that it is a thick batter. Like a brownie more than a cake. Microwave for 20-ish seconds. Comes out cake like on top and gooey inside. If I don't make that one, I almost exclusively use Gold Standard powders and they all taste great. Just change the creamer for whatever I think will pair with it best. I only use the peanut better in the recipe above though.

I have found that it gets better. I started a thread a while ago about the same subject. You should check it out and see if any of it resonates: http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/343777-guys-room-is-everyone-else-overly-emotional-or-am-i-just-an-ae/

@@JamieLogical I found it humorous that after hearing avoid salt for 25 years my surgeon told me to start hitting the salt! But I don't like the taste of salty food anymore! Oh, I almost forgot... now that I no longer drink diet soda, my sodium intake is next to nothing. Well, comparatively speaking.