AEdoesRnY

I make myself a bistro/bento box type thing - kind of like the starbucks ones if you're familiar with those. I bought these glass tupperware with three compartments to use. I put one or two roll-ups of deli turkey and provolone in the larger compartment, and then I mix up the other two. Sometimes a hard boiled egg in one and grapes in the other, or carrots in one and hummus in the other, or I'll mix and match those options. If you want more ideas for what to put in a protein bistro box there are a lot of ideas on pinterest!

I feel like there’s more of a difference than these two pictures show (besides the outfit and the lighting I don’t see a whole lot different between the two), but I’m getting close to a 60lb difference between these two pics and can really feel it! The first is from one or two days into the two week pre-op diet and the other is from yesterday. Fishing for compliments and reassurance! 🤗🤗🤗

Love this thread and can’t wait to add my own pics when I get home tonight! You’re all such amazing inspirations - you help me make it through the plateaus without losing it too much!!

I have an IUD, so before surgery I didn't have a period at all. Once a month I had maybe one day of very light spotting, but other than that nothing. Since surgery, my cycle has come back and I've had 1-2 days of my period each month. The first month or so it was a little irregular, but since then it's been pretty steady!

Mine wasn't Keto rash, I thought it was at first but it turned out to be something different. Good luck!

I had this rash!! Go see your primary - I used nystatin and it cleared up over the next few weeks!! It's a pain but it'll go away!

Challenge Starting weight: 226.1 Current weight lost: -56.3 Losing or maintaining weight: Losing Fitness/exercise goal: Go to gym three times per week, close "Move" ring every day on apple watch, close "Exercise" ring at least 4x per week. Hopefully a bunch lol! Check in: Diet plan is going okay, I'm still struggling a lot with snacking and making good choices for dinner. Debating whether to start trying out some intermittent fasting type plans, but have to do some more research on it before committing. One of my goals since I've started working out finally is to try to increase my water intake. I've been doing pretty well with hitting 64 oz of fluids daily, but often a lot of that is non-water (protein shake, milk, iced tea, etc.). My new goal is to start with definitely having at least 64oz of specifically water every day, and then move up to having at least 80oz of water every day. I'm thinking of being high maintenance and getting another water bottle...I have one 32oz bottle for home, one 32oz bottle for work, and then I'm thinking if I get one more that's something like 16oz or 20oz I can keep track of hitting 80. But then I think I'm being a hoarder with too many water bottles lol! I've started working out and it's been GREAT to be back in the gym. I had a few free sessions with a trainer from when I signed up, and between those and going to some classes I feel like I've been more effective when I go than I had been before. I'd love to start working toward jogging a bit/running a little before the end of this challenge, because beign able to do running/jogging is one of my primary weight loss goals!

Haha, I kind of thought that might be the case but figured if anyone would be weird like me it’d probably be someone on here!

Oooh, I like this idea! Arizona sounds especially nice bc Minnesota is being dumb and already 20 degrees and snowy 😡

They’re my only pair of jeans right now, I have to go out and buy some more but haven’t yet! It’s hard to believe that they’re so baggy now because they’d been my “goal” pants for at least a few years!

I'm a little over a month in to having my apple watch and I LOOOOOOVE it!! I'm kind of obsessed with the activity rings, and still learning all the other cool stuff it can do!

I’m considering leaving behind my long standing Fitbit tradition in favor of an Apple Watch. I tried the Fitbit versa but had to return it after it kept glitching and malfunctioning, even after I got a replacement. I’ve been wanting an Apple Watch for a long time and am leaning toward going for it, and I’d love to hear from others who have one! Do you have an Apple Watch? Are you glad you purchased it? What are your favorite features/functions? Are there ways it helps you with your WLS process? Is it worth springing for the GPS+cellular option, or is the more basic one enough?

My sister's reaction was "hahahahaha wtf" when I shared this with her, so maybe trying to shove a blanket in my pants isn't a sane reaction to "hmmm these pants feel baggy"?

So I just got home from Old Navy where I just bought three fitted dresses in size XL (OMG YAY). As I've been starting to hit the low end of my usual places - Lane Bryant, Torrid, etc. - I'm realizing I have NO IDEA where people buy clothes. I mean seriously, besides Target and Old Navy, where do people get clothes from?!?!? I have shopped at plus size stores since I was in 8th/9th grade (i.e. for just about 20 years/my whole adult life) so I really am at a loss as to where to go to find clothes once I'm no longer in the plus section... Did anyone else have this existential crisis when they hit this stage? Where do you even go to get clothes now?!?!?!? HAAAALLLPPPP!

I haven’t had anything like that, I’d talk with your team bc it sounds serious! Congrats on your amazing progress! I had my surgery in July as well and I’m 20 lbs behind you when I include my two week preop loss too! Wow!

Thanks! I just wanted to make sure there wasn't a way to officially join it!

Dumb question that was maybe already asked - is there a way to "join" the community forum or do we just bookmark it to see it on MFP? Thanks!

My coworker who was my real-life WLS inspiration had bypass when she was 21 or 22. I'm 31 and had mine a few months ago. I think there are plenty of people who get bypass in their 20s!

What are your thoughts on ryvita vs Wasa crackers? Curious if you’ve tried wasa and prefer one over the other!

I just added @greentealael and am hoping to join the challenge even though I'm late to the party! Hoping to help myself get back to tracking because I've been less disciplined lately both in terms of food and hydration. Thanks for setting this up, I've never done a MFP challenge before!

Here's the email I sent with the subject line "Ground Rules (so far)". I sent this email to my sisters and parents about a week and a half after surgery. My family lives far away (I'm in MN, they're in NYC, New Orleans, and Oakland) which is part of why I approached it in email. So these will, I’m sure, be ever evolving, but just a few quick things that have occurred to me so far: - NO commenting on my weight loss unless I initiate. I reserve the right to be prickly about it - it’s a complex thing and if you haven’t read the Roxane gay article yet then do and I’ll keep bringing it up over and over. I will at times send you things like “wow look at the difference” or “wow this fits”. You may respond to these in a celebratory whatever way, but under no circumstances are you to initiate such discussions. - NO “I’m so proud of you” or “you’re a hero” or “you deserve it” or “just think about how amazing it’ll be to be ____”. It annoys me and mildly pisses me off for a variety of reasons ranging from highly legitimate to petty but still there. - NO “oh I’ll have liquids only in solidarity” or asking for dieting advice. I’d love to talk about cooking and food and nice meals or whatever, but my thing is bound to be enormously different from what you are doing/needing/trying and I don’t want to be treated like guru or whatever, don’t want to have to advise. Again, I may initiate this but you don’t get to. Sorry! -FEEL FREE to ask me how I’m doing generally and check in and stuff, just keep it general and not too pointedly about weight loss. That’s what I’ve got for now. THX!

I have a very similar relationship with my parents regarding my weight. There are home videos of me as a smiley 3 year old in which they make that smile disappear real fast by making comments about how big my tummy is and how it's something I have to work on...and it only continued on a similar track from there. I accidentally told my parents about my surgery a few months before hand because I wrote a text to my husband saying "I kind of want to tell my mom about surgery" and somehow mistakenly sent it to my dad instead. Once they knew/as part of the phone call follow up to the text, I set VERY clear limits on any discussions about the surgery. I told them that I was sharing this information with them now but it was NOT an invitation to discuss it, and that they were under NO CIRCUMSTANCES to initiate any talk about it/reference to it/etc. etc. I'm amazed by how well they actually were able to stick to those parameters. My mom actually ended up coming out to be with me/take care of things after surgery so my husband didn't need to take time off work to be home to help me out. After surgery I sent them and my sisters guidelines again. I can find the email and share it here if that'd be useful. The gist of it is that no one talks about my appearance/weight loss/surgery/etc. unless I bring it up first. They needed some reminders every once in a while but it's helped me a lot to set those groundrules with them. I needed that because the history with my parents and sisters is SO fraught when it comes to weight. Don't tell them because you feel guilty, just tell them because you want them to know. If you don't think they can stick to ground rules you set then it might make more sense not to share with them. Best of luck in making your decision about what to share/when/with whom!

Thanks for all of your responses! I look forward to trying out all of these new places, but I know it's going to take a pretty major mindset shift to change how I approach shopping but hopefully it'll be fun and exciting along the way (and not include me spending WAY too much money...).

I definitely had this the first month or so, especially when I was in liquid diet stage/pureed stage and I was consuming protein shakes like premier and basically nothing else except water. My bad breath issue has DEFINITELY become less of a thing. Not sure if it's just my body getting used to things or that I am eating real foods, but it was temporary for me!

The chocolate is the only flavor I like, I can handle vanilla or caramel if I HAVE to but they're way too sweet in an artificial tasting way, so I'd rather avoid them if I can. Costco doesn't ever have strawberry or any of the other flavors, so I just stick with the chocolate which I do like a lot. Haven't noticed any difference with my last case though!