Remmy75

Between home and work my 2 week pre-op diet was hellish. At work when my coworkers would be bringing in food to eat for lunch, I went out and took a walk and got outside. At home when my wife was making dinner I also went out for a walk. It really helped me to just get out and do something active so I didn't make myself crazy. I know its winter but hopefully its nice enough to get outside and do something else. It really helps with the energy and head hunger too!

Just some advice that has helped me get thru this phase. Stop looking to food to make you happy. Most of us had food addictions of some sort before surgery and food was a comfort and feel good mechanism. You really need to wrap your head around the whole eat to live and not live to eat mentality. That way you're just putting fuel in your body and not eating to make yourself happy. This has been a hard thing for my wife and I. No matter what was happening good or bad we could always go out and eat and all was better. We have an argument and we would go out to lunch the next day to a favorite place to talk it out and enjoy a good meal. Now it just causes me stress because I am like no I brought my lunch I need to eat healthy. We had to find new ways to communicate and relate. Once you are able to accept that food is not to make you happy but instead there to make you live, then you can get past nothing tasting good. I swear the old me would never eat the same thing 3 days in a row, now I can make something and make a weeks worth of lunch out of it and I am happy cause its healthy and fills me up with the Protein i need.

Even as a guy I lost a shoe size. I was 13 wide and now I am 12 regular.

I had my sleeve on 9/28 and I am always cold too. I was the guy who was always hot and wore short sleeves year round and slept in my boxers only. Now when I get ready for bed i feel like i am putting on more clothes so i don't feel cold all night long. My wife laughs at me cause she says I put on more clothes to go to bed than I do to go to work. I bought a fleece and keep it at my desk at work cause there are days when I am absolutely freezing.

For me it was when i dropped my on the floor and i leaned down between my legs and picked it up off the floor without an issue. It wasn't till i was done that i realized what i did. Before I would have had to wait for the car to stop get out and then get it. And no i wasn't driving, i was a passenger!

I usually say something like I lost a 3rd grader. Then people start to wonder.

As others have said, check the menu ahead of time. That takes a lot of stress out of the process. My wife usually picks cause I just don't care anymore and she always looks for places that have small plates. So you can get a small plate for like 4 or 5 bucks and that's plenty for dinner. My wife found a Japanese fusion tapas place that does small plates and we got like 4 small plates and I took a bite from each plate and was happy that i got to try different stuff and was plenty satisfied. We also discovered that our favorite Mexican restaurant put small plates on their menu and I can get like a taco with small rice and Beans for like $6. Instead of the $20 that I use to spend on an entree. And it still takes me 2 meals to finish my order. Even my wife has started getting the small plates. So our check went from like $60 with food and drinks to like $25 when we go out with our daughter.

When I play with my dogs they will grab onto my wrist with their mouth and that was never a big deal. Well the other day the dog grabbed my wrist and it hurt cause he got all bones with his teeth. I was like you gotta go easy on me buddy, I don't have as much padding in my arms.

For me it was all about distracting myself from times when I really wanted to eat. Even now as long as the weather is not to miserable I take a walk at lunch time. When my coworkers are bring back all this good smelling food I can't eat, I go to the park down the street and walk around the lake for my 45 min lunch break. It is good stress relief and gets me some exercise and I am not thinking about eating. The councilor I saw as part of my surgery prep called this time active meditation. It's a great time to think about how far you have come and think about the next steps. You can think about all the good you have done for yourself and all the great things you can do when you get to where you want to be. The last think they told me is that it's all about replacing bad habits with healthy habits. If you absolutely have to snack then have a good snack. Eat a piece of string cheese instead of a cookie. That's what I do. Its Protein and I peel it in little strips and eating for like 15 minutes. I make it as long a process as I can for maximum satisfaction. I think about how I would shove 10 Cookies down my throat instead of this. It's all about retraining your brain and body.

I was sleeved on 9/28. I am down to 244. My biggest NSV so far is that my wife and I went to Old Navy the day after Christmas and we hit the clearance sale. I got a pair of size 36 wool dress pants for $5. That was so amazing to get new clothes and pay so little. I got like a whole new wardrobe for the cost of what 2 or 3 pairs of pants use to cost the old me. My wife and I are working with a personal trainer 2 days a week and we do yoga 1 day a week. We are doing really good. Hopefully soon we will be in good enough shape to join the group exercise classes.

I thought I would never get out of the 250's. I felt like i was stuck there forever, then I finally eeked into the 249-247 range and bounced around there thru Christmas and new years. Well this morning I stepped on the scale and 3.5 pounds gone and I'm 244.3. I know the whole time I was losing inches cause shirts that I had that were sorta tight were suddenly not tight anymore. Some times you have to look at where you losing in other places besides the scale.

I think food Network is scared to get back into the weight loss themed show. Does anybody remember Juan-Carlos Cruz, the calorie commando? He was charged with trying to have his wife murdered. Maybe they worried that losing all that weight makes us less than stable! By the way I watch food network all the time. I see stuff and think man I would have loved that food but man is that nasty how much food is on the plate. It really gives you perspective on how much food you use to eat versus what you really eat now.

Just start slow and see what works for you. I started with cottage cheese and greek yogurt. They are both good blasts of Protein. Then I added in some scrambled eggs. Then I made egg salad too and that was tasty.

Just remember its not a race to the finish. Stay the course and you will get there. You know what you need to do and keep at it! have been hovering between 250 to 253 the past couple weeks. I have been bouncing up and down. I have finally started working 2 days a week with a personal trainer to lay the foundation to join her group exercise classes. Well I stepped on the scale this morning and it was 249.3. I wanted to cry cause I was so happy to get out of the 250s. I haven't been at that weight since I was 18.

I am not quite 2 months post op and I am down 70 pounds from my starting weight in May. People are starting to notice that I have lost weight. I saw a girl I work with for the first time in like 6+ weeks between my time off and hers and when she saw me all she said was holy crap your thin. I see it sometimes other times I don't see it. When I put on clothes that actually fit and aren't too big, then i really see it. So mostly I see it when I go to work as I had to buy some new work clothes as I couldn't fudge it anymore and its crazy.