Sheribear68

Thanks everyone for the advice! I’m storing away all of the tidbits and will get through this transition. Reached out to my former therapist and we are staring the process to go through my insurance. Hopefully we will be able to work together again soon. She did text me and tell my my pre-therapy assignment is to focus more on quantity rather than quality of food for a few days and see what that looks like. My biggest fear right now are all of those triggers. I know I need a plan to live with these demons and I’m working on it. One day at a time

This look is VERY sexy. Love how you put clothing together. Jeez, I need lessons from all of you artsy, put-together ladies. I’m like the most conservative person (read boring) dresser I know and losing weight hasn’t fixed that.

Well that answers that question then. Lol, I’m veeeeery long-waisted, which is awesome to make my tummy look slimmer, but not so bueno when it comes to things like rompers or jumpsuits. Damn

What stinks about my local group is meeting times only 2x monthly and right now they’re during work shifts that I can’t get out of. Every now and then my schedule rotates, but I can only get to support group 2-3 months out of every year. Also, they ( understandably) cater to pre-surgery patients and about 95% of the program isn’t what I need for it to be now. I’m admittedly looking hard for a local support group bc this is getting more and more difficult.

I have to admit that as I’m sitting here sipping my morning coffee, I have zero plans to add in any kind of starch today and I don’t know how I feel about it. I’m seriously considering contacting my insurance and seeing if I can get approved for a few sessions with my bariatric therapist. Right when I had gotten to my 16 weeks with her, my insurance deductible reset and the cost was going to make me choose between that or Pilates. I’ve got some more $$$ in my HSA account now (surgery in February drained the account) and I’m thinking I can now afford the $400/month for at least a couple of months before the account is drained again. I’m thinking I really need help in this transition.

Wow! So this really gives me a much- needed lift today. My mood today has been kinda “meh” bc after posting my planned calories for the day, I couldn’t finish all of my protein shake or even half my p3. In fact, I was so disgusted that I couldn’t get my calories in that I took a pity pic. lol, there it is at my work station—- the sad remainders of food I couldn’t eat. At least I did go with the cottage cheese first and finished it. Anyways, I’m starting to think that my body really isn’t ready to stop losing yet, which is kinda disappointing (yes, you read that right) because my mind is really over losing and I’m very happy with how I look and I’d love to be able to just get to maintenance, ya know?

When I grow up I want y’all to pick out clothes for me and dress me every day.

This is a serious NSV for me now whenever I go to the spa. I used to never be able to close the robes there and so I would have to hang around in yoga pants and t-shirt waiting for my treatments. Now not only can I hang out in their robes, I can belt them easily

Yeah, so I planned out 660 calories today with >100 gm protein. First I could only drink 1/2 my protein shake and then didn’t eat all of dinner. All in all I maybe got in 560 calories but tomorrow is a new day

Here is today’s OOTD Loving my new SIZE 8 ankle pants!

*sigh* Even when I plan out how to get in extra protein, I’m STILL struggling to get in 800 cal The “before” is what I originally planned to eat today. Even with adding in 1/2 cup cottage cheese (which will be the limit on what my sleeve will be able to hold alongside a p3 pack) it’s still not much more. Least the protein is good.

Lol! Lately all of us seem to be saying is that clothes are too big. Oh the irony of the bday suit also being too big....

Glad to hear this! I just hit GW last week and now I’m transitioning to maintenance. From what I read, many people will still lose about 6-8% more of their excess fat after goal, so I’m planning on about 10 more before it settles in.

I remember being so incredibly stressed out after surgery bc I couldn’t eat anything. I literally had an 800 calorie week during week 2, so please don’t stress out getting in much besides water at this point. I know everyone touts how important protein is (and it IS!) but trust me, you can go a few weeks without and you’ll be fine. If the new tummy isn’t ready for even shakes, then wait a couple of days. The shakes will still be there. I had a complete and utter aversion to any kind of sweetened protein shake. It was so bad that I turned to plain milk (fairlife bc of the higher protein levels) and that’s what I primarily used the first month to get my protein in. Cottage cheese (starting week 3) was also a huge go-to for me as it’s a “slider” and it’s very protein rich. You’ll get this: go slow and easy and listen to your body. You’re absolutely doing the right thing by focusing first on water.

Don’t worry, it is pretty common sometimes. I had my surgery 2/6/19 and probably during week 2, I logged just 810 calories.... FOR THE ENTIRE WEEK... I remember being panicked and emailing my NUT 2-3 times with my food logs (or lack thereof) and she reassured me that many people have this issue. 8 months later I’m at GW and I don’t have any obvious deficiencies I lost 23 pounds in the first 12 days, then lost 2 more pounds over the next 24 days. It freaked me out, but at the end of the day I had lost 25 pounds in 5 weeks which is absolutely in the normal range. The first couple of months are super weird and our bodies are really confused and the scale will seem bipolar. Ride it out. Get in water and protein and it will even out. Everyone will have a slightly different journey.

Okay so I have news for you: That shirt doesn’t fit.... it’s TOO BIG. 🤣🤣🤣 Congrats, bc now you need a newer,smaller one.

Yes! I know there will always be issues with getting enough nutrients which is why ultimately I chose sleeve over bypass even though I was risking GERD issues. Fingers crossed that I will continue to NOT have reflux issues, but only time will tell. The few times since surgery that I’ve allowed myself foods from my pre-surgery lifestyle, I did have some extra GERD, so it’s an excellent negative feedback loop to remind me to stay on program so I don’t mind that. Still waiting the results from my DXA scan. I’ve never had issues with osteopenia in the past so mostly I had it done to get a baseline for the start of maintenance. Re sizing: I’m not 100% sure where I’ll look best. Currently I’m somewhere in the 8/10/medium range depending on cut, brand, and style. I wouldn’t mind dropping 1 more size to be 6/8/looser fitting medium but I do worry about looking gaunt. The last time I was a size 6 I was in my early 20’s so therefore I was young. Being 30 years older and being that same size will be interesting because who knows how it will look? For now the plan is to take it on a monthly basis and see where this all goes. The FFF (former fat female) in me cringes at the thought of putting back on any unhealthy weight so I’ll continue to be diligent in logging all my macros and making absolutely sure vitamins don’t get skipped.

It’s a seriously weird dilemma. That being said, if I lose even another 15 pounds, I’m still in the normal BMI range so I won’t panic. What I refuse to do is intentionally overeat—eating over my BMR- so if it takes me another 2-4 months to get to that levels then I guess I continue to lose. Right now I’m seriously happy with 800 calories/day and it’s actually something that takes planning for me to even get to 800. If I were to not pre-plan and log food I almost always come in around 500-600 daily. One thing I’m doing now though as I figure out how to transition is to ditch the more aggressive IF and stick with nothing more restrictive than 16:8. I’m even going to plan 2 days this week to open my window to 10 hours. Pretty sure I can do a protein shake in the morning without compromising my water too much

Omg, I think you should get it. It so suits your personality.

Got the dress at clothes mentor. I love going there 1-2 times monthly just to see what fun things they have. Wednesday I’m going to go and shop for jeans,jackets, and boots.

Thanks! I have a stretch goal of 145, so I can weather the inevitable “bounce” that everyone talks about. I’m 100% happy with where I am, but don’t wanna end up any heavier than I am today

Yes! And both of us being in the “senior” age group works for us IMO. We’re old enough to understand that this was going to take hard work and dedication.

I just now hit goal weight at 8 months, 5 days post-op. Okay so I missed goal by 5 days, but got there. The most important part for those of us over 50 to keep in mind is that it might take longer, but we CAN get there in due time. Now I’m striving for my stretch goal, which is another 10 pounds gone. Honestly if it takes me 3 more months I don’t care. I’m at goal and I’m ECSTATIC about it.

Re snacking: I’m going to continue what I’ve been doing for the last couple of months, except trying to add in a bit more volume/calories per meal than before. By that I mean I’m adding extra grated cheese on the salad mix and/or adding higher fat cuts of meat This is how I’ll start to add in 200 extra calories daily rather than add in another eating slot. Snacks don’t work well for me so far because all that seems to happen is my volume vastly decreases and I don’t “make it up” during the meal Besides, I still can’t force myself to eat outside my timed eating window most days. It just feels too weird

Nice to see you here Recidivist. guys. Im OFFICIALLY a maintainer now. hit goal this morning.