ryan_86

Sometimes what you eat matters in terms of comfort. Keep track of what you're eating when you feel overly full and see if there's a pattern. For instance, I can't comfortably eat more than about 2 ounces of beef, but I can eat 5 ounces of chicken.

Back when i started this process, I made sure everyone knew it was about health, not vanity. And that's true, it was mostly about health. But it's also about vanity. I want to look good! It's another way of feeling good, and I have every right to feel good about myself and if that makes me vain, so be it. It's not that anyone has said anything, but I just have had this sense that it's not socially okay to do this for the sake of appearance. But sure it is. Why not? I feel good. I look good. I want to look better. I'll do what I want and need to make that happen, and I'm going to stop apologizing for it.

I am 8 months post op and more or less at goal. I eat a protein bar or shake every day for breakfast. Lunch is chicken or turkey, a little no fat cheese, and a small tortilla. Sometimes I make it a salad instead of the tortilla. Dinner is typically the same, but I do indulge now and then. Today I had part of a turkey club and a few fries. I have a protein bar in the afternoon, and usually a protein shake after my dinner around 8:30. Occasionally I'll have some berries or nuts as a snack. When I really want something different, I'll have a part of a waffle or a piece of pizza, but rarely. I average about 1400-1500 calories a day, 140-160 grams protein. That's more protein than most sleevers, but I lift weights four times a week. Occasionally I get a craving and occasionally I indulge it, but I'm satisfied most days. It comes and goes a little - some days I'm hungry and eat could eat more, others I get full quickly. I've found the key thing is to plan ahead and measure. Measuring keeps me from overeating since I'm always eating a predetermined portion.

I also have a broken coccyx, and it hurt more after losing weight. I recently had a nerve block done and it's much better.

I survived largely on puréed tuna, canned chicken, hummus, and protein supplements.

I was exhausted for a while when I was about where you are. I think it's to be expected. I'd take any dietary advice from a counselor with a grain of salt - she's a counselor, not a doctor or surgeon or nutritionist. I think your calorie level is about right for your size and where you are. If you're still losing weight, I'd keep doing what you're doing until your doctor tells you otherwise. But I'd talk to your surgeon and nutritionist. Also consider asking for bloodwork orders to check your vitamin levels.

Berries, pistachios, protein bars, protein shakes, protein chips, string cheese, rice cakes, the occasional cookie.

Yes. I've never used it. I've found most restaurants pretty accommodating, even ordering off menu when I just want the entree and not the sides.

My pain management doctor did tell me that an intermediate step would be manual manipulation of the bone. It seems my coccyx is bent, and prior to resorting to surgery they would try to straighten the bone manually via the rectum. I think I'd rather not. But I say that now...

I just had an injection around my coccyx. It worked for s couple days. The thought of removing it is not as foreign now as a month ago, but first I'll try another injection. A pain management doctor administers the injection in a clinic. Wasn't very comfortable but not as painful as anticipated. Hurt more later just from soreness. But if it fixed it, because everyone is different, totally worth it. I found the knee pillow became more comfortable the more weight I lost. I think it's just a thing to get used to.

Add a tablespoon of cocoa powder, a tablespoon of stevia, four ice cubes and put it in a blender. Makes a reasonable approximation of a milk shake.

I was never on diabetes meds. I take a blood pressure med for headaches but had to scale back the dose because my pressure was getting too low. I have good lipid numbers for the first time since high school, but they're not great. I'll probably be stuck on the statin forever thanks to my genetics.

I couldn't find any soft foods I actually liked. I mostly stuck with shakes, pudding with protein powder, and tuna salad pretty much until I was back on regular food. Since it's been variations on ground poultry - in a salad, on a tortilla, Chinese style, on its own, with fat free cheese, without fat free cheese...

My nutritionist told me not to worry about the sugar in fruit so long as I don't over indulge. That said, I only eat it when someone else has it around, like a bowl of grapes on the counter. I'll probably eat more of it in the summer. Frozen berries and protein powder or milk, for instance. Perhaps some type of fruit smoothie, which I've never been good at making.

I've been in a steady downward spiral for about a month. I've been way too busy at work, searching for a home, haven't lost an additional pound, am struggling with eating too much, and am just generally stressed. I took a couple days off, and they were nice but here I am again. I never had the post-surgical hormone explosion I've read about. I'm wondering if this is it. I am anxious and depressed and tired all the time. There are a number of things bothering me, but they're not new, and I don't know why they'd be a problem now and not any other time. And one of those things is my body. Funny - I'm more unhappy about the extra flab around my middle now, at 163 pounds, than I was a year ago at 285. I feel fat. And no, I don't have time to see a therapist. And yes, I'm on Wellbutrin and Xanax.

I don't have a lot of extra skin, but what's I've founded is that general looseness of my skin had led the remaining fat to settle/sag lower, so even at 162 pounds I still look heavy in the middle and flabby in the thighs. So I lift weights multiple times a week with the goal of building strength and mass. Weight training can add mass to fill out that extra skin, but It's a slow process, though. Adding inches of muscle requires a lot of dedication and time (years). But you feel great and look great. Even adding 5 pounds of lean mass is a major achievement (think of five pounds of hamburger - that's a lot of muscle mass to add to a human body). It's especially effective for arm, thighs, and the chest and back. It can't, however, help much around the midsection as that area doesn't bulk up the way the others do. In a couple years, I may consider a body lift to get rid of the extra skin and remaining fat.

Chocolate is good.

Waiting for plane to take off. Seat isn't as small as I remember it. I don't know what everyone is bitching about. Got plenty of room.

I never really understood the relationship between carbs and hunger before surgery. Since surgery, and 124 pounds down, I get it: refined carbs make you hungry. They satisfy me for about 15 minutes, then my blood sugar goes back down and I'm hungry. That's not to say that I never eat them. I think I eat too many, in fact. But I know they're not a solution to hunger, and some I just skip entirely.

I take prevacid and have for years. It was well controlled prior to surgery, and I don't have any GERD since the surgery.

Pain isn't so bad. You won't need all the meds they give you. You can, and must, walk a lot after the surgery, but no strenuous activity for six weeks. Don't lift more than ten pounds as that places stress on the internal incisions. I was tired for about a week. I'd be fine and then instantly need a nap. I took three weeks off work but could have done two if I had need to. I was bored by the end of three weeks.

I've had a similar experience on an airplane. The flight attendant couldn't see my seat belt was buckled, so I had to lift up my gut to show it was. Humiliating.

Yeah, but frustrating.

So here's a question I've always had. When I lift, I tend to focus on volume. By this I mean picking a weight and sticking with it for a given number of reps, even if that means breaking sets into smaller pieces. For example, I may start out doing leg extensions with 100 pounds intending to do 4 sets of 10. First two sets, no problem. Next set, I get to 8 before failure. Next set, 6. Next set 4, and finally 2. I got my 40 reps. It took six sets instead of four. I don't think I've read about this technique anywhere. They all say, or the ones I've read say, to pick the weight you can complete every rep of every set on. Personally, I like my method because it takes me to failure more often. I don't do this for every lift, but I do it for maybe half of them, and it depends entirely on the lift. It's not a plan - I up my weight from the last week by 5 or 10 pounds and go at it. If I can do 4 full sets, great. If I can eek out my total reps in smaller sets, great. If it's apparent I'm not ready for the weight increase, I go back to the lighter weight and try again next week to increase poundage. I do my best to keep my form consistent, but I know I'm not perfect on the last rep or two of a set. Maybe there's a name for this. I think of it kind of like a reverse pyramid, but the reps drop rather than the poundage. Maybe this is a terrible or counterproductive approach. I'm curious what experienced lifters think.

2 pounds from goal. Same place I've been for a month.