ms.sss

Love it.

Holy CRAP. I haven't seen you post pics of yourself in a while. You are positively SKINNY. Are you sure you haven't lost more than 3-5 lbs?!?! Looking GRRRRRRRREAT, Lady. Please, please, please go out and buy yourself a pair of gorgeous, fabulous, drool-worthy 3+ inch heels to show of those legs to their full glory.

At a client site all this week. So I get to play dressup for a few days! I have to admit though that my current run-in with bloat are making these pants feel a liiiiiiittle too tight. I have a pair of leggings in my purse just in case today's lunch busts me out of them...

Oh! just remembered: Bring a pillow or some other soft-ish thing to hug on the ride home. It helps to hold over your stomach and squeeze when going over bumps on the road or when you cough. Or god forbid sneeze.

Yeah. I know you are right. Sooooooo easy just to keep snacking endlessly on that stuff. Thanks to the nuts I'm all bloaty and icky and CRANKY. (Actually I could probably blame the lack of nicotine too. And my period. Oh and the fact that I'm choosing to go alcohol-free for a while). It's a new day today, I've had my coffee and a run (hey! I didn't run yesterday either!!! another reason for the crank probably...) will make a concentrated effort to be cool today. P.S. @FluffyChix: also wanted to give you a thanks for inspiring a quit-smoking tip you mentioned in another thread (it was probably the maintenance thread...) The other day I sat outside with my coffee SANS cigarette and did some deep breathing. While admittedly not as satisfying (yet), it was close. ❤️

Lip Balm and Slippers ❤️

Yesterday, Sun, Nov. 3 Maintenance : 5'2" / 1yr PO Sleeve / 113.9 lbs ...OK. I said it before and I'll say it again: Carbs (esp. sugar) totally take away the skeletor look from my face, and give me fake abs. They also give me bloaty feelings and cramps and nausea , so our relationship can't last. Will have to settle for flings once in a while. I went to town with a Costco-sized container of candied mixed nuts yesterday (which made up over 1500 cals of my intake). I wonder if its because of my quitting-smoking attempt, or my time of the month. Either way, I feel pretty ick this morning, and gave Mr. the container to bring to work. Oh, and I ate a breakfast yesterday for like the fist time in forever. Mind you it wasn't traditional breakfast food, but it was traditional breakfast TIME. lol. 7:30am - salad greens + olive oil + carrots + Candied Mixed Nuts + sunflower seeds 2:00pm - salad greens + olive oil + carrots + cucumber + red bell pepper + Parmesan cheese + Candied Mixed Nuts + 3 squares dark chocolate 5:30pm - salad greens + olive oil + cheddar cheese + blueberries + 1 cup Chili Verde #yum 7:00pm - Candied Mixed Nuts + 2 squares dark chocolate + 1/3 cup raspberry lime sorbet 9:00pm - Candied Mixed Nuts 11:00pm - Candied Mixed Nuts Totals: 2859 cals - 127g Protein - 120g NET carbs - 208g fat

Lookin' good... (and I love a guy who pays proper attention to his sock game )

On my invoice, the procedure is just called BRACHIOPLASTY. The side boob skin removal is not considered part of the arm lift/brachioplasty with my surgeon. It is part of a separate procedure invoiced as BILATERAL BREAST REDUCTION REVISION, which is basically a breast lift with auxiliary breast removal from flanks. My doc is awesome as he is charging me with a revision instead of a first time breast lift (which really is what I am getting but is about 5K less expensive) as I had a breast reduction several years ago, and he is already going to be there doing the arm lift anyway. With that said however, I did speak to another surgeon (who I didn't end up going with) who combined the arm lift and auxiliary breast removal (without breast lift) and he called it BILATERAL ARM LIFT WITH CHEST WALL EXTENSION. He wanted to do it as one continuous incision. Edited to add: Neither my surgeon nor the other fella I mentioned above post patient photos on their websites (I had to go in for appointments to look at their patient results books)

Now this one speaks to me, LOL. It looks very much like the ones I pack for myself every morning...though mine probably has 4x the greens, and half the toppings #yum

How many calories are you taking in daily? Do you know? And what are your macros like? You may be very well "eating lots of carbs, getting plenty of fat, and have even cut back on <your> exercise", but if your total caloric intake is below your BMR then you are going to lose weight. You still have lots of wiggle room for more trial and error and time get used to the idea of eating higher calorie foods. I recall a post I read earlier that you were going vegan? (sorry if its not you!). If you really want to stop losing weight, you could try one or all of these once or twice a day: a whole avocado with olive oil drizzled all over it. sweet potatoes slathered with tahini nut butters by the spoonful handfuls of dried fruit. ...but this is only if you want (or are ready) to stop losing. I do find that for many of those in maintenance , it is really quite difficult to get out of the weight-loss mind set and behaviors (myself included, it took me a couple months to acclimate). It sounds like you are handling it though, your posts don't read as if you are stressing out too much and it does read like you are just taking your time. And that's not a bad thing. Good Luck!

Hmmmm....i would if I could stand cinnamon. When my brother and I were younger we wouldn't touch cinnamon gum nor those valentine cinnamon candy hearts with 10-foot poles. He was/is the only person on this planet I know who agrees with me that cinnamon smells like sneezes. LOLOLOLzz In any case, I'm now finishing up Day 3 of OPERATION QUIT SMOKING, and am proud to announce that I am still firmly on the wagon. Last night I even had coffee with the BFF who smoked* during and I didn't even flinch (okay, maybe I flinched a little). *NOTE: BFF actually was not going to smoke in front of me but I insisted that she not change her own habits to accommodate mine. I want to be able to manage my own issues and not rely on others to do it for me. I was able to hang out with smokers before this current predicament and it did not bother me. I need to get to that same place again. She was the same with my weight-loss/diet-eating early on: she would not eat in front of me or would offer to go to some place that would have diet-friendly menu items that I know she hated. I said I was on the diet, not her, just like I'm the one quitting smoking, not her. (But I love her for the thought, regardless ❤️)

welcome back, @FluffyChix ❤️ *raises tequila shot in honour*

Today, Sat, Nov. 2 Maintenance : 5'2" / 1yr PO Sleeve / 113.7 lbs ...had coffee with the BFF tonite and finally got my hands on some Halloween candy from HER leftover pile (since my own household stash mysteriously disappeared yesterday - I know who you are Mr.!) I'm surprised I haven't dumped, though I do feel moderately ick at the moment. My stomach is doing that gurgly lactose-intolerant rumbling thing, so I know I'm going to have a visit from the poop-fairy soon. Which I actually don't mind as I've been waiting for her for 3 days now... 11:00am - coffee w/ Stevia 12:30pm - salad greens + pumpkin seeds + almonds + can of smoked oysters w/ seafood sauce + 1/4 cup of Campbell's Chunky Clam Chowder (minus the potatoes) 2:00pm - 1/2 cup mixed nuts + turkey jerky + 1 Keto Snaps Choco-Coconut-Fat-Bomb 5:30pm - salad greens + olive oil + carrots + almonds + can of smoked oysters w/ seafood sauce + turkey jerky + 1/3 cup Raspberry Lime sorbet 10:30 - Starbucks Grande Americano Misto w/ Soy + 4 fun-size Reese's peanut butter cups + 1 fun-size Oh Henry + 1/8 moon cake Totals: 2306 cals - 104g Protein - 141g NET carbs - 133g fat

** Mandatory Disclaimer: This is my experience and I neither recommend nor advise against drinking to anyone who chooses to read this. The choice to drink or not to drink is yours, and yours alone, and any consequences or benefits you encounter are also yours and yours alone. ** So pre-wls I drank, and post-wls I still do. I was never (nor am I now) a drinker because I needed something to help me unwind or relax or take my mind off things. I drink because I'm having a dinner that calls for it, or I'm with friends/family and a good time is being had (or about to be had, lol). I guess I'm more of a binge drinker...? Had my first drink (1/4 of a glass of red wine) at around 4-5 weeks. The past couple weeks aside (as I'm consciously laying off the alcohol for a couple more weeks as a PPI-wean-off experiment), and not counting alcohol-laden vacations, I probably have 1 day every couple of weeks where I'll drink maybe 5-6-7 drinks over the course of the evening. And maybe 1/2 a glass of wine with dinner one or 2 days a week. My choice of liquor though is a lot lower sugar than it used to be. The dryest of red wines, vodka sodas, skinny mojitos, straight tequila. Once in a while I'll drink a sugar-laden something or other, but the sugar doesn't sit well with me, so I need to be mindful of that. In terms of volume, I drank waaaaaay more pre-wls. This is likely because I get pretty drunk pretty fast now. I do however, sober up really quickly. Which I think is pretty awesome. For those who have previously experienced the need for assistance in walking out of establishments after a night out, you can vouch for this as an honest-to-goodness super-power. With that said, so long as I feel like my drinking (or any habit, really) is not negatively impacting my physical or mental health, my relationships, work, financial state, or any other important aspect in my life, then its all good. Each one of us should strive to know ourselves and acknowledge what we are capable and not capable of. It would be good to learn our limits so we can stay within them. P.S. I recently admitted that I went beyond a personal-vice limit myself (smoking), and am addressing that issue now. Work in progress... ** Read Mandatory Disclaimer Above **

Yesterday, Fri, Nov. 1 Maintenance : 5'2" / 1yr PO Sleeve / 113.7 lbs ... 9:00am - coffee w/ Stevia 11:00am - salad greens + olive oil + red bell pepper + pumpkin seeds + 1/2 cup of beef stew (minus the potatoes) + 2oz chicharron 2:00pm - coffee w/ Stevia + cottage cheese + blueberries + 1/2 Pure Protein Chocolate Chip Bar 5:00pm - salad greens + olive oil + pumpkin seeds + almonds + 1/2 cup of beef stew (minus the potatoes) + 1/3 cup raspberry lime sorbet + turkey jerky 8:30pm - salad greens + olive oil + cucumber + green apple + avocado + pumpkin seeds Totals: 1819 cals - 145g Protein - 94g NET carbs - 94g fat

No, it's not going to be a continuous incision, my surgeon had said he doesn't do this for a few reasons, the main one being that with a continuous incision, there is a risk that the part where there is a "curve" (i.e., in the armpit) may form a "skin webbing" during healing (and end up looking like the skin at the base between your fingers) .

Now that I think of it, its probably not a transfer thing. I already had it, it was just laying dormant for a while. I've been offered cigarettes a gazillion times in the past 9 years, and I have declined each and every single time. I didn't want it and was scared I would start again in earnest if I even just had one. I think I was flying high on uber-confidence (which I guess is a result of having WLS?), and I believed that I could do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING...including having a cigarette and it being no big deal. Lesson learned. Just because I feel like I can do anything, doesn't mean I actually can.

I'm realizing this is not as uncommon as I thought...I'm surprised with the number of ex-smokers who know thier exact quit date!

I think I'm the same way as well. Once the decision is made, then it's done. I'm pretty sure I made a decision. It's day 2 of being smoke-free and I haven't had any out of control cravings. So far so good....

(sigh) OK. Let's talk transfer addictions. I have a confession and I'm putting it up here for some accountability. It took some time to decide if I would actually post this... Soooooooo...I picked up a bad habit in Italy last month: Smoking. I was an-almost-a-pack-a-day smoker until July 24th 2010 (yup I know the exact day) when I quit cold turkey (it was relatively easy because we had relocated to another country for a year and the cigarettes were EXPENSIVE there). I hadn't had a smoke since then...until a tall dark Italian fellow offered me a cigarette on one of our late night patio-crawls last month and I was all "What's the harm in one cigarette?" Mr. said it was a bad idea. I made the conscious decision not to heed his protest. Mr. was right. It was a bad idea. I said I would stop as soon as we got back home. I didn't. I said I would stop the following Monday. I didn't. I said I would stop after (Canadian) Thanksgiving. I didn't. Then yesterday I got busted by The Kid. She found the empty Tim Horton's coffee cup I've been using as an ashtray on the back porch. Getting a watery-eyed scolding from a 14-year old kid is very humbling. I felt about 2 inches tall. We broke the last 4 cigarettes I had on me (I shamefully admit that I tried to negotiate with her that I could just finish those last 4 and start fresh the next day, it was/is Nov 1st after all - she was having none of that). I also need to acknowledge that Mr. did not hound me to quit. He knows that doesn't work on me from him. But I guess he knew it would work from the Kid, as I could see him in the corner of the room standing with approval as I was getting told off. So now I need to get through the next couple weeks while the nicotine gets out of my system. Mr. asked for the lighter I bought in Italy, under the pretense he wanted to light a candle...um, I know what you are doing, mister. The Kid sniffed me this morning. I see I am now officially on smoke-watch. Oh, and I noticed that the bowl of leftover fun-size-Snickers is missing from the front hall. If I wasn't mildly irritated, I would tell them I love them. Maybe tomorrow. Wish me luck.

My surgeon said it was all preference: If I don't want to see it, choose back of the arm. If I don't want others to see it, choose the inside of arm. With that said, I chose inside-the-arm (coming soon end of December btw, super stoked) because: 1) I have been known to be "hyper-pigmentation-y" and I will likely have thick scars for a while (my WLS scars are still very dark and visible) and I don't want people (both strangers and ones known to me) to ask me: "What happened to your arm?!?" 2) I am also getting skin removal on my side boob, so there are going to be scars under there anyway.

Yesterday, Thu, Oct. 31 👻 Maintenance : 5'2" / 1yr PO Sleeve / 112.9 lbs ...managed to stay away from the Halloween candy...for now. I'm coming after you soon fun-size Snickers...Bwha-ha-ha-ha-ha! 9:00am - chicken brotth 11:00am - salad greens + olive oil + almonds + pumpkin seeds + 3/4 cup of beef stew (minus the potatoes) 5:00pm - salad greens + olive oil + cucumber + cheddar cheese + 3/4 cup of beef stew (minus the potatoes) 7:30pm - 3-4 sips of BFF's vodka ceasar (I logged it in MFP as 1/4 cup) + 3 bites of BFF's poutine (logged in MFP at 1/4 a St. Louis Wings Poutine) 10:00pm - the Kid's leftover "Lunchables" snack pack (4 crackers, 4 turkey slices, 4 cheese slices...she ate the KitKat earlier...go figure) + 1 tbsp peanut butter + 2 squares dark chocolate + 1/3 cup raspberry lime sorbet. Totals: 1435 cals - 74g* Protein - 83g* NET carbs - 62g* fat * Note the macros are wholly inaccurate for this entry as the 7:30pm wings poutine & the 10pm leftover "Lunchables" only had calorie counts in MFP, and no macro breakdowns (and there is NO WAY these things had zero carbs!) *

Hiya @Wendyfm! Surgery in 2014! Another long-term vet! Welcome to the thread! There are so very few of you on here so it's always so awesome when you guys pop up ❤️ (...and I'm looking at you too, @Healthy_life2 ❤️)