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Thats awesome. You can make a killing! My Kid was an avid collector too when she was little (as avid as a 6-8 year old can be, lol). But she only kept the cards that she deemed "cute". She gave away the rest. Rarity and value be damned. 😂

The colour of those shoes make me want to eat them. Love it. I wanna see you in the jeans too, please! I have tried on many a wide leg jean and I have not yet found one that DOES NOT make me look short. Are those jeans flowy or stiff? Inquiring minds want to know. P.S. I did get a couple more items delivered (clothing-wise) but they aren't so very flattering and are likely going back (one of my bad habits is not returning mail-delivered stuff that I don't like out of sheer laziness - or distaste for return shipping costs - and I end up giving them away or donating it. sigh.) But yeah, modelled pictures, please!

I have a dress in that exact shade of green and shiny material as the first link...so thumbs up on the colour, lol. I think it would look great with a some matte bottoms That faux wrap dress is gorgeous! I am now contemplating getting the short-sleeve version in grey! Does it have a back slit? Pictures with it on PLEASE!

“I’m the Holiday Armadillo” is my all time fave episode. That, and “Pivot!!” still make me laugh out loud even after watching them a gazillion times. 😂😂😂😂

Pan fried a few chicken breasts for my salads for the next few days. Then proceeded to fix this ginormous salad for my meal. Obviously my my eyes were hungrier than my stomach. 275 calories for the entire ginormous bowl’s contents. Will have the rest later: FullSizeRender.mov

Just before pouring mixture in the pan, I remembered that I missed adding Skor bits into the batter so grabbed it out of the pantry and shook some in. Realized it was actually crispy fried onions when I put the canister away and saw the Skor bits container still on the shelf. 🙄 A had as cracking up when he took a bite and said, in his best Joey Tribiani impression: ”Chocolate, good. Onions, good. This: GOOOOOOOD.” 😂😂😂😂😂 Spoiler Alert: It wasn’t that good. In my defense, Skor Bits and Crispy Fried Onions look very similar: edited to add: BFF said to expect a label maker for christmas 😂😂😂😂

+1 A (food) treat every day is not a treat. It's your regular diet. treat /trēt/ an event or item that is out of the ordinary and gives great pleasure. "he wanted to take her to the movies as a treat"

There was an active member on here a while ago who started a group akin to what I think you are describing. They do face to face zoom meetings a couple times a week. You can try messaging her via this forum, but I am not sure if she checks it very often. But it wouldn't hurt to try: @FluffyChix. Good Luck!

Ugh, I hear you on the poop issues. I had a heck of a time trying to figure out a system to keep constipation at bay in the early months. I took Benefibre in my morning shakes and drank LOTS of water. Going 7 days without a poop is pretty long (and am assuming very uncomfortable!). Milk of Magnesia usually helped me if I hit 3-4 days poop-less, and if it went beyond that I'd use a glycerine suppository. Re: those 5 lbs, its likely the majority of this is all the retained "stuff" in your colon. I have been known to drop 3 lbs after an especially large poop. Good Luck!

If u aren't on them already, maybe a B12 supplement could help?

I also can’t stop baking brownies!! This is the 4th batch I’ve made in the past week and a half (btw, batch #3 was a bit of a fail...accidentally put in crispy fried onions...but that’s another story, lol) Anyhoo, here is a pic of today’s batch: Roasted Cashew and Skor bits Fudge Brownies. I made it with real sugar and everything. I ate one 1x1inch square piece: 159 calories

I can’t stop making guacamole (thanks to Costco, who has been having avocados on sale for weeks!) Baked & seasoned pita (equivalent to 1/4 a pita) and homemade Guacamole (about 1/4 cup): 134 calories Ate it all!

The smaller you get, the less calories you require. Depending on our current height, weight and activity level, you may need to either decrease your calories or increase your activity to ensure you remain at a calorie deficit. The bigger the deficit, the faster/more weight you will lose. Good Luck!

20 lbs in 3 weeks can be done, if you are just starting out, but would def be on the challenging side. If you are at a higher starting weight, it will be "easier" than if you are at a lower starting weight. What is your height/weight? If you go all liquid (low cal, low carb shakes, for instance) you would be able to drop quite a bit...it will mostly be water weight, but a pound is a pound is a pound, I guess. Though I suspect your doc is just looking to see you display some evidence of self-control and commitment to the process as he is still only asking you to lose 20lbs vs 25lbs (the original 20 + the 5 that you gained). If your goal is to lose 20 lbs, try to put in an honest effort to drop your daily calories NOW. I'd normally say move/exercise more, but this may make you hungrier, plus weight loss is more about food intake than exercise level anyway, so just keep it simple for now. Good Luck! P.S. I lost 11.8 lbs in the 2 wk pre-op diet. I am 5'2" and was 235 lbs at the time. If you are taller/bigger, your numbers will likely lean higher.

K, not sure what is in YOUR vitamins, and how you are taking them, but: Iron tends to cause upset stomach. If your multis have iron in them, consider finding one that has a lower amount. Taking certain types of calcium tablets will cause upset stomach if you don't have anything in there...if this may be the cause, you can try taking them after you eat....or during. (I used to take my morning calcium with a tsp of greek yogurt...did the trick.) I started taking calcium chews midway through weight loss phase...goes down just fine on an empty stomach AND delicious, lol. They are about 10 cals each, though.

Sushi grade tuna used in poke, ripe avocado and cooked veggies are all considered soft foods for the purposes of a soft food diet. For the purposes of a post-op Bariatric diet, however, there may be other things to consider. Just from a calorie perspective, any added oils/sugar to the fish or veggies and the avocado itself is high in calories. If you have the requisite rice, it is nutritionally inferior to other choices in relation to the volume it would take up in your tum, plus it's pretty carby (if you care about that). Sooooo...short answer is yes, the food items you mentioned are soft foods and are generally allowed for a soft food diet. P.S. i love me some poke too, lol

I always had a water bottle on me and set a timer on my watch to remind me to drink.

Hair loss is almost a given for most people during drastic weight loss. Mine started falling out at 3 months, and kept going until I was done with weight loss phase (7 months post op). I'm 2+ years out now and its all back. I'd say the new growth after the losses are about 6-7 inches long now. The one weird thing though is that the new hair has more curl/bend to them than what I'm used to. Which i don't mind at all, lol.

I definitely reduced my alcohol intake during weight loss phase (maybe 5 or so the entire time, and not even full servings).

Usually, the first 2-3 days are the most challenging. Hang in there, and your body *should* get used to it and it won't be as annoying. Try to stick it out to the end of day 3 at least...otherwise you may have to "restart the clock". Of course, this only deals with the physical responses, any mental ones will have to be dealt with accordingly. Suggestions: drink some water, go for a walk, take a shower, do some chores, do a jigsaw puzzle, meditate. Good luck!

MyFitnessPal (this screenshot was from the web version, but i use it on my phone the majority of the time) As an alternative, I’ve read many others use Baristatic App

This is also my second holiday season. Am Canadian, so my first big holiday event after surgery was xmas 2018. I don't remember it being too, too, difficult, but I do remember making sure that my couple fl oz of wine I served myself lasted basically the entire night, due to a really bad dumping experience about a week or so prior. Here is what I ate that day. I would have been 2 moths post op. At the time, it was a "big calorie day", comparatively, at least. In all, i was perfectly happy to be around fam and friends rather than stuffing myself with food like I did before.

SMOKING: I started smoking again on vacation last sept after being smoke free for 11 YEARS. I said it would just be on vacation, which led to just finish this pack I brought home with me, to just while its warm outside, to basically smoking as if I never stopped all these years. Slippery slope indeed. I made 2-3 attempts to quit during the past year+ but if I'm honest, I haven't tried so very hard. Am still smoking. DRINKING: On paper, apparently I am an "excessive drinker" now. I was a "social drinker" pre-wls, maybe 3-4 drinks a MONTH, max. This slowing started increasing since last summer, to where I was drinking maybe 2-3 drinks a WEEK by Christmas. Always when I was out, or at a party. Now (especially since pandemic started) I drink pretty much everyday, and at home. According to literature, "excessive drinking" in women is when 7 or more drinks are consumed in a week. Yep, that's me. On paper, based on what I've been reading, I just barely fit the criteria of being a High Functioning Alcoholic. Barely, but I do fit. Am still drinking. OBSESSION PREOCCUPATION with food: This one I don't consider to be too damaging, but it is a little eyebrow-raising. I think about food probably 1/2 of my waking hours. The things I find I spend ALOT of time on and/or get actual pleasure from: spending time looking at food pics, organizing the pics and Urls based on interest, planning and shopping for meals, cooking/baking, plating food, taking pics of the finished product, watching people eat it, smelling it, reading an ENTIRE menu to the last detail often multiple times, ordering off said menu, having Food Network on TV as my background noise. Actually EATING the food is very low on the enjoyment priority scale. Sure I'll eat/taste something if I deem it "worthy", but more often than not, I'd rather do any number of the former things instead. Am still preoccupied with food.

I probably paid about $5-6K-ish (Canadian dollars) for the TT part of my surgeries (I had 3 that day! : TT, arm lift, breast lift). OHIP paid for the panniculectumy portion of the procedure, and I paid the rest (muscle tightening & lipo). I see you are in Ontario too, so this can be an option for you as well! Discuss with your surgeon. As far as recovery, I will not lie, it was pretty rough (a lot of it was self-inflicted though...I wasn't the best patient in terms of listening to my doc about what I should/shouldn't be doing)

Well, I got a Tummy Tuck last winter, so that definitely helped some! If you look at the pictures prior to Dec 2019 (i.e., <= Day 385 in the pic collage), you can see that I for sure had loose/wrinkly skin on my abdomen and inner thighs. One of the unexpected benefits of the tummy tuck was that is smoothed out my thighs some (my backside is a different story, lol) In terms of exercise though, I started doing more than walking at about 3 months: I started out with 1-2 hours a week of various types of activity (zumba, hot yoga, bouldering, tap dancing, etc) as well as maybe 30 mins total of some very sad weight lifting a week (I hate weight lifting/strength training with the fire of a thousand suns). On top of this, I continued with my daily morning walks that I started on Day 1. By month five, I was doing about 2 one-hour classes a week of some cardio activity, + half-walking/half-running for about 1.5 hours a day + 15-20 minutes of strength training on one body part or another (still hated it). By the end of weight loss phase I was full on running at least 5km every day (sometimes twice a day) + the dreaded 20 minutes of strength training (why do i do it since I hate it so much, you ask? because it works. dammit.) Also threw in some class or other once or twice a week. Today (2+ years out), i'm alot lazier since end of last year: After the months long recovery of plastics from last December, and then the beginnings of Covid-inspired laziness in March, I am really only running about 3-4 times (min 5 km at time) a week now, 20-30 mins of strength training maybe 2 times a week, and ZERO classes. I have noticed the difference in energy levels since the reduction (mind you, there are probably other factors to this, but still). Sorry this was so long. I tend to type (and talk) LOTS. 🤣