Sheribear68

Oh no! Please let us know how you’re doing as soon as you can

All my insurance company was concerned about was the BMI. It had to be at or over 40%. If I’d had serious comorbidities, 35% would’ve qualified

Okay, so I was logging my food for the last couple of days (I’m the worst at falling into the habit of logging regularly and find myself playing catch-up a lot) and I realize that I fall into so much repetition in my daily habits. Now I’m not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing, but I’m also thinking that for the best chance of long-term success variety and broadening my palette will be important. I’ve always considered myself a bit of a foodie and love trying new things. I’d love to have a thread here where we all post our fave new recipes or types of foods that we’ve discovered and modifications to previous “unhealthy” foods or dishes to help with weight loss and maintenance along the way. Lol, a girl can only eat so much cottage cheese, tuna packs, and boiled eggs before she gets really bored of her new diet! I’ll start with a new find of mine for the week: These “noodles” are awesome. For the first time since February, I got to have something that reminds me of pasta. So far I’ve eaten them twice. I’ve made “ramen” with beef bone broth, hot garlic sauce and these noodles. Then I made beef “spaghetti” with low carb marinara, lean ground beef, onion, mushrooms, and these noodles. Both dishes were so satisfying and I’m so happy I found this at my local grocery.

Lol, didn’t read GT response before posting mine. 😂😂😂😂

I found them in the produce section of my local grocery store. They were where the regular tofu is kept

Oh no, I think you’re doing fabulous and I’m so happy for it. I’ve gone through a bit of a slump again and I don’t know why. Back up 1 pound to 186. 😭😭😭😭😭😭 Time to rethink seriously what I’m doing Starting today I’m cutting out almost everything except protein and I’m bumping water back up to 96 ounces (lately I’ve been lazy with the water and was getting around 64 ounces in. I’m also going to start an hour daily on the treadmill In addition to Pilates. I’m not even 5 months out and still over 30 pounds away from goal. I’m starting to get scared that I’ve already hit another stall.

First let me say I’m sorry you’re regretting surgery. Secondly though, I’m completely stumped as to why anyone who has had bypass would think they could ever have things like rice or pasta ever again. I had to come to terms with forever giving up certain kinds of foods BEFORE I decided on WLS. So I knew going in that I would forever have to cut my ties to bread or pasta or refined sugars.

Yep. I went over 5 weeks at the same weight from month 3-4. Now I’ve started losing again, but maybe at the rate of 1.5 pounds weekly. I’m slightly disappointed, but gonna keep on pushing forward as going back isn’t an option

Okay, so I’ve got a question for you guys here. I’ve been doing (most days) a 16:8 or 18:6 and I’m 4.5 months post sleeve. I’ve been logging fairly regularly on these days and I’m usually between 50-65 grams of Protein in my eating window. I’m also somewhere between 600-750 calories and keep the carbs under 25gm daily. Because of my restricted time to eat, I find it is so much easier to stay hydrated because I’ve usually had at least 42 ounces of Water before I eat my first meal of the day. One reason I love doing this is that it gives me structure and I desperately need structure right now, but I’ve lost so slowly over the last 8-10 weeks that I’m wondering if I need to change my routine. My definition of slow is I’m averaging about 6-7 pounds per month which to me seems slow as I’m still in my honeymoon phase. My current weight is 185 Surgery date weight was 246 Goal is between 145-155 and I’m 5’7”

The answer to this depends on your individual situation. Even though I had what I considered co-morbidities, my insurance absolutely refused to pay unless I was at or over 40% BMI. If.... at ANY time in the process I weighed under that number, I would be automatically disqualified and would have to start the process from the beginning— assuming I weighed heavier again. I was right on the cusp, so I had to endure maintaining for 5 months. If I had lost even 6 pounds from when I started it would’ve been “too light” I mean, this procedure is so important that it’s silly to miss out on a lifetime of health over a few measly pounds. I wanted so badly to clean up my diet pre-surgery and I had to be completely on top of what I weighed before I dared go in for an appointment. One time during the holidays I had been sick and lost a few pounds and I actually went in for my appointment wearing ankle weights under my jeans. That being said, I couldn’t go into losing weight mode until the day I had my surgery class because that day was my last weigh in. At my clinic, we have surgery class 16 days pre-surgery because our Doc wants us starting on the low carb liver shrink 10 days pre surgery and then pure liquid diet for the last 3 days pre. That was a VERY rough transition and I wish I’d have been able to start eating better more than 10 days before.

Thanks so much! I absolutely adore all of the wonderful people here and the good vibes and support we get.

Even before the fat layers start to go away, the feeling of being always cold hits. I had my surgery in February and thought at first I was reacting to the cold that was everywhere, but now it’s late June and it was 108 here yesterday with the heat index. I was running errands all afternoon and got slightly sweaty while going up 2 flights of stairs carrying groceries to my daughters apartment, but I was actually comfortable. comfortable in over triple digit temps. 😱 In a way, this kinda freaks me out because now I’m afraid I might get overheated and not feel it.

Okay so I have no “after” because I’m slightly more than halfway to goal, so right now I’ll post “before” and “halfway there” pics. I still have about 40-ish pounds left to lose. The first set of pics are from the holidays when I was weighing between 250-255. This last set was from a couple of weeks ago on my 4 month surgiversary when I was weighing 189. Lol, I’m currently at 184 today.

Okay so I’m late to the party, but here is my $0.02. 10 years ago I lost ALL of my hair when I was on chemo for TNBC. The single biggest risk factor for any kind of cancer is obesity. Eventually chemo ended, the hair came back (it was really weird hair for the first year— it was frizzy and a bit orange) and by 12-18 months post-Chemo, nobody would’ve known I was bald as an egg previously. I’m 4.5 months post sleeve, and I’ve noticed some thinning— especially around my temples and on the top of my scalp and it’s slightly annoying because I’d rather not cut my hair until I hit goal and don’t feel like emphasizing my face until then. If it thins much more I might have to cut it. Another side effect from having breast cancer is 2 reconstructive surgeries and scarring, etc. the side that got the radiation is much firmer than the unaffected breast and at the end of the day there’s only so much plastic surgeons can do. 🤷‍♀️ I’ve also got stretch marks in various places across my thighs, abdomen, and upper arms from rapid weight gain and pregnancy. My skin prior to surgery totally was a wreck to start with. I wanted to go into this detail because I’ve already experienced all of these things you’re worried about, and I was morbidly obese! How I look at it now is I can have all these issues and be fat, unhealthy, unhappy, and at continued high risk for cancer recurrence, or I can be fit, fabulous, and happy and decide later if I want/need plastics for excess skin. Honestly the plastic that I want most of all will be Lipo on my thighs. Even when I was in my 20’s and weighed at or under 135, I HATED my thunder thighs and I had massive cellulite even when I was a size 4/6. *sigh Edited to add... I’ve lost 61 pounds and have gone from a size 22 to a size 14 since February 6th.  

Maybe if I were within 15 pounds of goal weight I could understand these people, but I’m a full 50 pounds from where I spent half my 20’s in. If I were to hit 10-15 under my goal range (which is between 145-155) then I would probably be “too skinny”. Lol, I’m 185. That ain’t even close!

Okay so even though it’s a bajillion degrees outside today, I made the “ramen” again for lunch. What I do is take a packet of the bariatric cream of chicken soup and add a scoop of beef bone broth. I run 8oz water though my Keurig then stir in some little torn up pieces of seaweed snacks (the wasabi flavor is full of awesomeness). Then I take my angel hair tofu, rinse in a colander form 30-60 seconds, throw in a bowl and microwave for about a minute. I don’t care if it’s wet because I’m gonna throw it into the broth anyway. I also added a dollop of wasabi (not pictured) into the cup to give it some pep. All in all, I’m only able to eat about half at a time, so it serves me 2 meals during my eating window. Each half gives me 14gm protein, 90 calories, 5 gm carbs.

Omg guys. These are great tips. I’ve got to run to the store later and get some more and can’t wait to try the dry fry technique

Thanks!!!, Omg, can’t wait to go buy this now.

“I will not do burpees, I will not do burpees.....” Okay, so I did 10 of them. Now I’m slightly nauseated because I haven’t had breakfast yet and my morning coffee was sloshing around in my stomach. 🤣🤣 Will have to think hard on the side question. Right now I’m having difficulties coming up with something.

Amazing work Anna! I’m thinking the closer you get to hitting 100, you’ll slow down. Enjoy this ride because we’ve put so much hard work and time and energy into it. Right now I’m in a weird place. I’m not “fat” anymore, but I’m definitely not anywhere close to the thinnest I’ve ever been. People keep telling me I don’t have much more to lose, but the size 14 and 185 pounds I weigh tells me a different story. I know for a fact my body can be healthy when I’m in the 130’s so it’s quite frustrating to weigh 50 pounds over that and continually hear, “you better slow down and not lose much more or you’re gonna disappear”. Just yesterday I saw a customer I hadn’t seen in months (she had moved away but was back for a visit with family) and she was genuinely horrified when I told her my goal weight was to lose at least another 30-40 pounds. I dunno, maybe I’ll start to feel worried I’m losing too much if I ever get below 140, but with the slow rate that I’m losing I know I’ll be completely past the honeymoon phase timeline. 🤷‍♀️

Honestly I hate gyms, but I’ve fallen in love with my Pilates studio. Today was day 2 of back-to-back classes after work and when I finally got there, I felt a feeling of general well-being come over me and all the stresses of the day left me the longer I was there. Heck, I even enjoyed groaning out loud with the rest of the class when we were told we were gonna hafta hold plank for 2 minutes.

Nice topic considering I’ve got a wedding to attend July 4th and there will be a champagne toast. I’m thinking as long as I sip slowly I could probably get away with sipping on 1-2 ounces. Besides, if my sleeve gets full on that, I will for sure not be tempted by wedding cake

I’m also 4 months post sleeve and I second what gaby says. The first 2 weeks post sleeve I felt like someone had punched me hard in the solar plexus every time I swallowed. Didn’t matter if I drank slowly or faster, it just hurt really bad. From weeks 2-4 that feeling had settled into a vague discomfort and after the first month I can’t recall it doing that ever again. Now I still get pain if I try to chug more than 4 ounces at once or If I drink too soon after eating, but it’s a different kind of pain

Mountain climbers and burpees are of the devil. I used to have a t-shirt that said “buck furpees”.

Okay so this is today. Typical eating pattern for me. My only “meal” before 11am is coffee, but I put a solid 4 ounces milk in it so it’s a very protein-ish coffee. 🤣🤣 I’m backwards most days. I don’t eat til 11am on average and it’s a very small “meal”. Example: I measured out a whole cup of the cottage cheese, but got full after about 2/3 of it so it went back into the fridge. By 1:30 I was pretty hungry so that’s when I got out my leftover steak and salad and then I did 2 Pilates classes tonite to I was starving when I got home and had yet more leftover steak (because we all know how far leftovers stretch now) and some broccoli and some simply wonderful and amazing tofu noodles that my husband turned me onto this week. Turns out he’s had these tofu noodles before and we tried them tonite and OMG.... you can almost fool yourself that you’ve got actual spaghetti on your plate!