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Sorry I can't give you advice from someone who has done this. But I'm sure if you talk to your bariatric team and a nutritionist about your concerns they will help you come up with a game plan. I would think that if you develop a healthy lifestyle including an exercise routine that kind of excessive weight gain in pregnancy can be avoided. Don't go eating crap food again just because you're pregnant and "eating for two".

I personally think aiming for my high school/college weight (which would be the“ideal” weight) is ridiculous. I’m 58; almost 59, I’ve had 3 kids, quit smoking 20 years ago and had breast cancer. All 3 of those factors played into my weight gain in some fashion. I’m a Grandma now and my body is simply not the same as it was in the 70’s and 80’s, nor will it ever be. I’m realistic and I’m fine with where I am. I’m at my low normal 40-50 year old weight. I honestly wasn’t sure I would even achieve where I am. I feel fortunate that I did and I don’t take it for granted. *my height is rounded up here, I’m 5’3.5” Not everyone can achieve ideal weight ranges for a variety of reasons. Statistics show people who have surgery can expect to lose 60% of their excess weight, they aren’t failures. I have no idea why this struck a nerve with me, but it did.

My surgery is scheduled for May 9th. It has been a long journey, and I am over the moon. I am 48 and married to my wonderful husband for 20 years (June 27). I have never been thin but was always healthy and athletic. My body was beautiful, and I never had any issues. My husband has loved me and supported me at every size I've been. I have two amazing sons. One who is heading off to college this fall, he is 17. My other son is 15 and a sophomore. My husband is active duty USARMY and like both my sons, wrestled when he was young. All three of my "guys," actually four (my 90-year-old father lives with us after my Mom's death last summer) guys are in great shape. I am tired of being the fat one on all of our family photos. I do avoid photos, but every once in a while one sneaks in. After menopause, my weight gain has increased, and I have not had success losing weight using the tools that worked for me in the past. I have other health issues that are impacted by my weight gain. My Mom passed away on May 11th of last year. She was only 72 but did not take good care of her health. As I sat with her in her hospital room after all life support was removed, just talking to her and telling her how much I loved her, I promised her that I would take care of my dad. I promised I would take care of myself better and that I would lose the weight. She could not talk, but I know that she heard me. It is so fitting that my surgery will be almost one year to the anniversary of her death. I know she will be with me.

So the play we went to last night (Defending the Caveman) was absolutely hillarious. We were supposed to go to dessert with some friends afterwards but we were all too tired so we skipped it. However, since I didn't eat much for dinner so I could save up the calories we had to stop something to eat. I got a mushroom and tomato omelette from Denny's and only ate about 1/3 of it. Today I had part for breakfast and part for lunch. Then I decided to check and see how many calories there are. HOLY COW in the entire thing there was 725:scared2:. WHat in the hell do you do you put into an omelette to make it have 725 calories? So I decided that weighing 1 time per month was just not going to work for me. I need to make sure that I am not doing something wrong. I knew that I would be worrying the entire month that I was going to see a weight gain. At least if the scale goes up during 1 week you can quickly catch anything that is going wrong. However if you wait an entire month, that could be a few pounds. So I weighed and I was down another 1.5 pounds to 172.5.:biggrin2: Nothing much else to report here. I need to clean my house. It is terrible right now. The BF doesn't really care, but it is driving me nuts. THat is my task tomorrow!:wink_smile:

All this talk about clothing sizes...does anyone else have THIS problem: my legs are probably a size 16, but 16s won't go around this ball of fat/skin that hangs down in front of me! I have to buy 18s (and they're TIGHT, but keep me from eating crap) and then they're loose on the legs! Same thing with dresses...have to buy the bigger size for my damn tummy, but it's loose everywhere else! Now I blame this pannis (technical term) on my 12 1/2 lbs. baby (and subsequent large babies) and just a little on my weight gain so sometimes I think I DESERVE to have this "badge of honor", but I'd sure like to have some pants/jeans that fit properly! I'm not having trouble with holiday treats...but I do make fudge for Christmas and ALWAYS have too much of that...maybe I'll do something different this year? ...... nah, I'll just work out more! :-)

Congrats on your weigh in lindaa! :tt1: I'm sorry your vacation didn't go as you hoped. :tt1: My weigh in is tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to it. I can feel myself more bloated than usual. Changing my diet to include more good fats is probably part of the problem, but I have other things going on as well. The increase in humidity has changed my allergies. I now have a rash from my perfume so have to stop using that. It's not because it's a new fragrance, the bottle was almost empty and I was about to buy more. My chest and inner forearms have lots of little red spots, similar to heat rash. My hair is still falling out, but I don't expect that to change overnight, only now it's gone curl crazy as well. :thumbup: I look like William Shatner in his bad perm days. :smile: Thank goodness I have an appointment this morning to fix that problem up. I just feel fat today. It's not just in my head. My tummy is bloated and my feet are swelling at night. It's not Aunt Flo because I'm mid-cycle. I'm blaming the weather. :tt2: I'm afraid to get on the scales. I'm afraid not to get on them. If I get on them and I've gained more than 3 lbs I'll be depressed. If I don't get on them I'll continue to live in denial and make more excuses for myself in order to excuse any weight gain. *sigh* I know I've eaten more this week to try and get the good fats in. I need them. I know that. What's scarey is that I shouldn't be afraid to have gained 3+lbs. I know I shouldn't. But I will be. I'll be afraid it's the start of it all unraveling. I know I can't eat like I used to last year. It's just not physically possible. But I'm still afraid of gaining it all back one pound at a time. I've been working really hard on my head health. It's been working well. Up until today I think. :tt2: It's not good for me to beat myself up. I stopped doing that. But today....... *sigh* I wish I could sleep through days like this and only wake up on the days that I have more energy than a 3 year old. :tt2:

Couple of things! Thank God I found a cooker! My BF loves to cook, (now if only I could train him on healthy things!). Sometimes we fight about who gets to cook dinner. One of the many things that I will miss when he goes to night shift. However, there are certainly a few qualities that I am not going to miss!! I eat pizza every once in a while, but just 1 piece. It is funny (though not a license to eat pizza daily) but every single time I have eaten pizza I have dropped at least 1/2 pound the next day. I will get to the suspected reasoning behind that later in the post. Stay tuned for a science lesson. As for your lunch. The reason you may be starving is that all of that food is on the mushie side. For me the only way that I can stay full is to eat very solid food. I had a chicken burger for lunch with some peas and that kept me from 10:30 until 2:30 before I was starving again. Now I just had some of my chicken and three bean chili and it will last me until dinner around 6. I have given up yogurt and cottage cheese because 20 minutes later I am hungry (no matter how tight my fill!) Yep and I finally have a mom that I can honor! So how do I get up. Shear determination. I needed to get my lists together for my students so they know if they are failing or not and I was motivated because if they have not met the standard then I get to make them have lunch detention. It was a good reason to get up! And yes I am crazy. I don't usually have a problem getting up early, as long as I can go to bed early. Alright here is my best impression of a biochemist! WARNING THIS IS HIGHLY SCIENTIFIC:thumbup:, BUT YOU MIGHT GET SOMETHING OUT OF IT! I got some help from a biology teacher. For anyone reading that has a degree in biochemistry and can add to this please feel free. This is just what we came up with in the 20 minutes we were talking! 1. There are 3600 calories in 1 pound of fat. Calories are not something that you can touch. It is the energy stored in the food. To be more specific it is stored in the bonds that hold the chemicals in the food together (carbohydrates, fats, proteins). 2. When you eat the food the body has special chemicals (called enzymes) that exist in your cells that can break apart the different nutrients that we eat. Those enzymes are like little kids playing with legos. They take apart one structure and build something else. In the process of breaking down the nutrients that we eat, energy is released. That energy helps fuel other chemicals whose job it is to transfer then energy to where it is needed. One of the places that it can take it is to the storage chemicals. There job is to take the energy and some of the parts of the nutrients that we eat and make fat molecules to store for future energy needs. 3. When we exercise our body has three places that it can pull the energy from to keep our muscles going. The first two places run out of stored energy VERY quickly (like in just a few seconds). Then our body starts burning the fat stored in our bodies. Just like those enzymes we talked about earlier break down the fat in our food, they can break down the fat in our bodies. Only this time the energy goes to help repair our muscles or to heat up our bodies or to make sweat! The biggest part however goes to fixing our muscles. 4. When we exercise we cause little tears in our muscles (its a good thing) and our body needs to use some of the broken down nutrients to fix them. So here is why I think that we hold onto weight a when we exercise so hard for several days in a row. First, our body feels the need to replenish some of the fat that it burned that allowed us to workout. Just like everything in biology the system (our body) likes to stay the same. So our bodies think that they have lost something that is necessary and keeps trying to replenish it (our fat molecules do not look at the number on the scale and do not look in the mirror:lol:). Also, when we keep exercising so hard our muscles keep getting torn (very small tears) and so the body is not as efficient at keeping up with fixing them. When we take a day or two off, the body goes into full fledged repair mode and it takes a lot of calories to completly repair those muscle tissues. Therefore during the days that we stop exercising our bodies are still working and using up those excess nutrients at the same time that the body has STOPPED storing the fat. Hence we see a weight loss. 5. Okay are you going to gain 1 pound if you eat a pound of food? Yes and no. If you were to drink a gallong of water and not go to the bathroom but step on the scale you would see an 8 pound weight gain. But that would be the same if you just held the water in your hand and stepped on the scale. But that weight would NOT be fat weight which is what we are concerned about. Once you go potty the extra weight of the water would go away. However, if you did eat 3600 calories worth of food you would gain 1 pound of fat, because your ezymes (the little lego building chemicals) would have enough energy to build 1 pound worth of fat. :mad: 6. Now if you don't eat enough calories your body does think that it is going to starve (not get enough energy to make more nutrients). You will not lose fat because it will take the energy to build them in case for some reason you have to stop eating all together. This is why you could live for 3 weeks without food, but only 3 days without water. But did you know this? If you did not eat for 2 weeks, your body would not break down as much fat as it would muscle. Protein (what your muscle is made of) is easier to break apart than fat is. Plus your body is trained to STORE fat for future energy use, so why would it take it apart, when it worked so hard to put it there in the first place! Alright my head is going to explode and I need to get to the gym, so I had best sign off. I hope I didn't overload anyone. I am not responsible for painful memories of school, science class, or any other adolescent memories!

I finally found some time to write about how I got into this mess to begin with. It's a very long story told short, believe it or not, I know it looks long already, lol, but I did cut out a lot of unimportant stuff, I wanted to focus on things that were direct contributors to my weight journey. I hope you enjoy the read I was still skinny in my young adulthood, when I met my husband 15 years ago I was at about 115 lb. As we dated we would go out a lot but I never worried cause I also worked out a lot, yet one day I noticed weight creeping up (my x-small clothign felt too small). Doctor diagnosed me with hypothyroidism and that took a while to get under control. When we got married a year later my weight was about 140 and I started worrying. Felt huge and tired and disgusting, so we decided to move to Florida in hopes of being able to spend more time outside and helping me to get back in shape. That backfired, cause I didn't realize the severity of daily levels of humidity in that state. I was miserable outside and sweating more than I should, just for being out there. I did join a gym, but somehow my motivations were shut and although I liked to spend time at the pool or splashing around in the gulf of Mexico as I had to keep upgrading my swimwear from x-small to large size I also lost confidence to wear it out. My body was changing and I didn't like any of those changes, while my thyroid kept getting worse. We also were trying to get pregnant and that seemed to be very frustrating and put additional toll on me. Eventually I was informed I wont be able to have children, cause of other issues within my body. We accepted the fate and on top of 2 older cats we already had we decided to add 2 kittens. About a month after that I got pregnant (and I was at about 160 lb then), and my doctor worried about me a lot, reminding me that it will be a tough ride and I will have to see him often to make sure all is good, cause I was in high risk category of losing the baby, especially towards the end of the term. I took it very seriously and easy on myslef, but kept active as much and as smart as I could. Unfortunately problems started appearing very soon. First one observable and related to rapid weight gain due to pregnancy (I was also showing very early on) was pain in my feet, both of them. I noticed it while durning my morning jog/walk time on the track behind my house. It was my heel spurs pain that went on undetected for months. Then I started having problems with my hips, did PT for it, but since I was pregnant I didnt have any x-rays done. I was recommended to take it all even easier, to rest a lot, do simple exercises but not to overdo it. Then other pregnancy related issues popped up, like gestational diabetes, preeclampsia and I was eventually put on bed rest. Weight only kept creeping up and when at one point I took a longer look in the mirror I cried, cause I didnt recognize the person in it. I was about 250lb shortly before delivery, felt miserable and unable to do anything to help the weight, my sole focus was to make sure I can carry to term. With preeclampsia my doc didnt actually want to wait till my due date and suggested earlier c-section, cause that condition was dangerous for me more than for the baby. Since I was also breastfeeding my baby I coudlnt go on diet asap, nor deal with the heal spurs the way my doc suggested (I had only one cortisone shot in both feet - which was super painful and did relieve some pain, but cause it was meant to last for few months and wore off after 3 weeks I decided not to go through that pain of it anymore). Finally when I could I started dealing with those spurs and signed up for nutrisystem delivery. I was doing ok, and moved onto the steroid treatment of my feet, but as it failed and the doctor knew I had already suffered enough we decided to get on the track for foot surgery. That's when my husband announced his office will be closing and we were faced with a decision to either stay and look for another job or move within the company (relocation) and keep the employment. With 4 cats, new baby and my health issues we thought we cant afford to lose the income or insurance, but on the other hand we had just refinanced the mortgage in our house, and did a lot of major renovations, including new windows, new AC system, pool and backyard upgrade (basically making it safer for the baby, adding a safety fence and replacing existing concrete with nice pavers). So we were in a catch-22, either way we'd chose to continue we'd lose a lot of money, and in the still very unstable market then (my son is 7 now) having a steady income won over huge losses from sale of the house. After we moved my search for a foot doctor started and it was a painful process, not only cause I was still hurting a lot every time I walked, but also cause of the type of doctors I happened to come across. After a year of seeing 3 different ones I gave up and thought the universe is against me. With nutrisystem I came close to 200 lb but never under, and as I continued to have my food delivered to new place I saw that it eventually wasnt helping me at all, so I decided to quit it. Then as I became less and less mobile cause of pain and weight gain I also became a recluse, didnt want any pictures taken, avoided family gatherings and descended into the world of online gaming and constant snacking. Finally 3 years ago I had some eye opening facts presented to me, as my weight got close to 300 lb and I was moving out of the pre-diabetes stage. With my reg doctor we tried to fix my diet and habits, but the foot pain prevented me from most activity, it got so bad that I had to line up chairs between sofa and bathroom so I could make it there. That was no way to live, another huge wake up call was that I wasnt fitting on my son's school bus to get him strapped in (he takes the short bus cause he is autistic - and that diagnosis was also as if someone was putting up more obstacles in my way to recovery, my full focus - or whatever was left of it, cause I wasn't really myself anymore - went into trying to help him instead of helping myself). During the year of work with my doctor I slowly changed my diet, and although I didnt lose any weight I also didnt gain anymore, but other problems came to light, like sleep apnea and high blood pressure. I finally had to also do somethign about my feet, and took it very seriously to find a doctor that will want to operate on them and I finally got lucky. She had actually listened to me, and only suggested one type of therapy that I didnt try before - laser, but when after a few weeks the results were not what she expected we moved fast track into surgery. I had one foot operated on before thanksgiving 2 years ago, and the other before christmas (chose those dates for 2 reasons: 1. cause my son woud have time off from school and hubby some vaction too and I could rest post op, when I couldnt really walk much at first and each foot was beign kept for safety in a postsurgical boot, 2. another "good" excuse to not join any of the family events). Those surgeries gave me a green light to living, but as I started walkign again I noticed other problems I had no idea about their severity before, cause I was never up long enough to notice. My lower back was a mess and my knees were useless, I couldnt kneel at all, not even on the sofa while leanign over to reach for the blinds behind it. My life was pretty much a constant pain ever since pregnancy, and I felt liek trapped in a vicious cycle: one step forward - 2 steps back. I also didnt take many of the pain pills, cause they didnt really help much, and when I took the harder ones I was basically sleepign all day and I coudnt do that either cause I had to be awake for my son, besides sleep apnea was affecting my awake hours enough and often when my husband came home I was asleep on the sofa. It was a really tough time, but very slowly I was making some progress. Eventually it was a conversation with my doctor which made me realise that my problems can only get bigger if I can't lose any weight, and staying at or around my current number (I was fluctuating between 285-298lb) wasnt an option either, so she strongly suggested I looked into bariatric surgery. I finally did so a year ago, Nov 2016 and cause my insurance then didn't allow for the surgery to happen without a monitored and documented prequalification process that was supposed to take 6-8 months, I did some research to find better insurance and get accepted when I was ready to go through with it, after completing one sheet of steps. Ironically cause getting some of those required appointments was very time consuming I ended up having my surgery done 9 months after initial visit, but I was glad to have spent that time researching it thoroughly and learning about how it actually works. To think back then I struggled with the thought that it was an easy way out, lol, there is nothing easy about it, it takes commitment, discipline and a complete lifestyle change, but I knew I had to do it, I coudln't live like that anymore, avoiding people, family, having trouble to keep up with personal hygiene, and most of all not being able to assist my son when he needed me - that hurt me the most of all the pains I ever had. So here I am now, 4 months post op and feeling great. I'm still having some pain, mostly in my knees, but also in my hips and back. I had finally taken the x-ray of my hips and the reason for my back and knee problems emerged, and am currently working with 2 doctors to treat it. Still not there health wise, and not skinny yet, but feeling hell of a lot better then a year ago and a world of difference from 2 years ago. I'm glad to have had people in my life who inspired me, guided me and made me want to see the beauty of life at the time when I was ready to give up. Also ironically I met some of those people while playing those stupid online games. Isn't life funny that way? I guess in the end all that happens in our live is somehow fated, and we are constantly faced with choices, and its only up to us what we chose to do. I'm happy to be alive and to be here, and am looking forward to skinny and healthy me2.0 Thank you all for reading, I did write this once before and cause of a misclick I lost all progress right before posting it, and since the site didn't save what I typed I didn't feel back then to type it all up again. Today I used wordpad to save the story as I write it Lesson learned

FYI - while I may be nationally ranked in my age group in my sport - I also have a resting metabolic rate of 1100 cal per day to avoid weight gain (had the study done a few weeks ago - my resting heart rate is generally about 45). I generally do not eat what I burn, but do work out to burn about 800-2000 calories a day - So on those days I boost my protein and carb consumption usually with supplemental shakes pre or post workout. However, on Saturday, I did fence a tournament and burned about 3000 calories. I had takeout chinese for dinner that night - but ordered shrimp with broccoli and ate 4 shrimp and a bunch of broccoli over about 1/4 cup of brown rice. Certainly whether to eat out or not is up to you. I eat out at least one a week. I've learned to manage - it has taken time. Best wishes to you.

You completely confuse me jsrico... your posting shows that you've lost 13 pound since surgery.... that's awesome. I've only lost 9. Sometimes weight plateaus... but, even one pound back is better than what you normally would weigh. If you continue to gain... call the doctor. Weight fluctuates... even the weather can effect that. Never mind water weight... gaining muscle, PMS...... I think you've done great!!!!!

I gained 30+ pounds in 2018; 1. because I stopped taking diet pills after 20 years of taking them off and on, 2. I was in an accident and sustained a pretty bad back injury and mild head injury - couldn't walk at first so exercise was limited; 3. My mom got critically ill with ovarian cancer, I was her caretaker - she died in December; and if you want to add more stress - 4. My husband and I were both unemployed for about 5 months last year, after moving to Florida for his new job (which didn't work out because the project he was relocated for got put on hold and they no longer could afford to keep him). So - by the time all of that was said and done, I was already 25 pounds heavier. I decided for my back pain, depression and general health I wanted to explore this surgery. So I did gain about 5 pounds just to hit the BMI mark because I knew once I stopped those diet pills my weight gain was really just starting. I did have to be self-pay, but overall I'm sooooooo much better now than I was a year ago in pretty much every aspect. I start a new job this month (well, my old company is hiring me back - very generous), which I'm so happy about having quit my job last year to care for my Mom. There is so much more to this whole background/story, but anyway, sometimes you have to do what you have to do! I know now I made the right decision. We are also buying a new house so I'm out house shopping pretty much all day these days after being renters for almost a decade. Things are good in my life, no complaints. Sounds like you made the right decision too... So happy your sleep apnea has improved! On another note - I love salads and have no problems with lettuce. Spicy food seems to be a problem for me.

Hello hello... just checking in. Not much to report except a weight gain. Now up to 270... been bouncing around that for a while. I am incredibly anemic and find it hard to keep my levels up and think that I may just have to have iron infusions for the rest of my life. I'm vegetarian and I am just wondering if my stomach has become injured after the sleeve leak and then the RNY... I don't think I can absorb iron. I've been on Saxenda for a bit, but it's not doing a lot for me, except maybe keeping my weight stable, which is good I guess! I'm thinking of going on Wegovy when it's available. Apparently it's low on stock because people love it so much. How is everyone doing? I'd love to hear how everyone is. Anyone else having issues with keeping their vitamin levels up? @Goody222 you look amazing! You must feel great! Well done!! Love to all xxx

I've gained about five pounds over the last month, which has nothing to do with eating differently around the holidays. And I'm totally comfortable with my weight gain. I went on maintenance a couple of months ago after hitting a low of132, eight pounds below my goal. I started consciously eating up to 1,500 calories a day to stop losing. I went up to 135 and stayed there for several weeks. I started adding even more variety to my diet, no longer avoiding carbs and fats as if they were poison. I've now settled in at a range of 139-141, which I consider a good weight. I no longer look quite as gaunt as I did at 132 and I feel great. The challenge now is to stay here. It's still a bit of trial and error. Happy new year to all, and congratulations on our upcoming first anniversary!

I'm not taking anyone with me, but I am having surgery on Thurs and not coming home til Sat, so Fri night at the hotel is really the only time I'll be alone. Hopefully I'll meet other people with surgery date around mine when I arrive. What does the incision look like? I'm used to not letting DH see me nekkee very much, since the weight gain anyway.

Dear PRBrooksie---I was at our support group meeting Monday, and a very wise person said not to compare your loss with anyone else's. I look at these posts, and I know it's true! I've gone through periods of weight gain, no weight loss and weight loss with the band, times when I needed a fill and times when I thought I might need less. Honestly, you'll just make yourself crazy if you try to parallel your weight loss with anyones. It's odd. Until a week ago, I was frustrated without adequate restriction. I was kicking myself for my lack of control and wondering if I wasted my money. Now that I have just the right restriction, the cravings and compulsions for food just stopped. I think they'll come back and I'll be dealing with issues again, but I've decided that all I can do is deal with today. And the first thing I ask myself is if I need a fill, since that worked so well once I got it restricted enough. Then I ask myself if I've planned and cooked my food so I dont' have to impulse eat. Have I rehearsed what to take with me when I travel in the car. Have I thrown out contraband. Have I exercised, gone to support group, etc. But for me, number one is the fill issue. I have been such a total failure at even controlling my eating for a single day in my life. I know I need the band to do it's job or mine just isn't possible to do at this stage. I too ate until I PBed at times because I didn't get that sense of being full...but it doesn't happen with my new restriction. If I let myself, I'd go crazy with envy of Angela, down 33 pounds without a fill. Instead, I'm committed (on my good days) to be happy for others, and then figure out what I need to do. My new motto is "There are no problems that are bigger than me." It's a matter of sticking with the problem solving in this complicated new journey we are on. My heart is with you.

I went today for my pre admission testing at the hospital... I have never been happy about a surgury before. I just can't wait to get on with things. My dr never even asked me to do a pre surgical weight loss, I have been doing a pre surgical weight gain. I called today to see if I missed him saying that, and they said no.. see you on Wednesday! I am glad everyone is going well. Keep it up! Misty

I know how stressful it is waiting to find out if the insurance will pay for the revision. My dad is currently waiting for his approval after having his band removed due to slippage, they denied him the first time because his BMI wasn't high enough yet. It's really sad how he has gained every pound that he lost back because he is hungry all the time. His lapband surgeon has been no help what so ever, and still has his picture up as a success story, sorry I just ventured off topic there. Good luck on getting a decision soon, I also have PCOS, and know how fast the weight gain comes and how hard it is to get off.

Re: Protein shakes. I have been trying them and cannot stand them. I was sleeved the 24th and went for my 2 week appt yesterday. Dr put me in the hospital overnight because I was dehydrated. I assume that will mean a weight gain because now my wedding ring, which was loose, is a little tighter on me. Oh well, I feel so good today compared to the last 5 days.

I only lost 1/2 pound this past week but am not unhappy as I'm down 16.5 pounds in 5 weeks since surgery. Like the "other" Tom's doctor, my doctor doesn't expect extreme weight loss with the band. His expectations are about 1 pound per week which is a MUCH healthier way to lose than dropping drastic amounts at one time. I too am diabetic but since surgery have maintained healthy blood sugars without any medicines at all. A couple of the meds I was on for diabetes caused weight gain but they want you to lose weight to control the diabetes. That was one of the reasons I opted for the band. I knew losing weight would help control the diabetes and I could get off, or at least reduce, the number of drugs I have to take. I get filled next Monday. Now, if I could get the doctor's office to get the disability paperwork correct, life would be good. As it is, my employer paid me for hours that have now been denied so my check at the end of the month is going to have those hours removed which means I won't get squat. HAPPY NEW YEAR! At least I don't eat as much so the grocery bill isn't as high. <G> Tom

I'm frankly not surprised that you've gained. No activity. Meds. Probably depressed. That's certainly a recipe for weight gain! I have Lupus, and I know how meds can put the pounds on...as can inactivity. Maybe a strategy at this point is to begin thinking of being stuck as a temporary situation, and rehearsing how you're going to get back to exercise and good eating soon....and how the weight is going to start coming off. A wise person on this site said that this is a marathon, not a sprint, and that helped me. There will be setbacks, cheating, things to deal with. We certainly know that from dealing with illnesses too. Start thinking about this as just a temporary bump in the road and expect that there will be others. Life keeps coming at us. Hang tight, dear. We're with you.

I did my annual “go into the front closet and try on all of the winter coats” sort just now. Usually it’s a depressing exercise that means trying on 10 coats, none of them buttoning or hanging exactly right, pulling out the two that are somewhat manageable, and then vowing to buy something better-fitting at a sale. I then have to keep all of them on hand, to account for weight gain or the day I wear a bulky sweater. This year every single one of them fit. Four immediately went into the donate pile for being too big, three others went into the resale pile for just not being as flattering as I’d like, and three look FANTASTIC. Better yet I’ll likely be able to wear them all season, since as I lose weight I’ll wear more sweaters/layers, so if they fit over a tank now we’re good. I am astounded by how straightforward and affirming that was. Again: this is how average weight people go through life? They just do things like sort through winter clothes without feeling depressed for days after?

Oh Nicole - there are soooo many variables for your alleged weight gain - hormones, fluid retention, clothes, building muscle.....and the list goes on and on. There's a few things you can do to combat this...First, weigh yourself consistently, that means rely on one scale (at home or at the docs), weigh yourself first thing in the morning, and don't weigh yourself more than once a week. This will help with your mindset! You're doing much better than I am...heck, I just finished a handful of Doritos and I'm not drinking nearly enough water...call yourself a success and next time, take a hammer to "fix" the scale at the doc's office!

Janet -- the pizza. I didn't eat the whole thing. I had the little pieces of sausage, ham, hamburger, and the cheese. I chewed and chewed and it took me over a half hour to eat the top of a piece of pizza. I had a little bit of crushed but it didn't sit well so one bite was enough. I guess I've been eating the top of pizza for quite a while and I don't think of what others will imagine when I say I ate pizza. Karri -- I'm so sorry that you were crazy busy today. I would be comatose by now if I had been at work at 4:30. And you went to the gym. Now I really feel like I should have walked tonight. What's a little bump on the head when you've been going for 15 hours. Super super you. Phyl-- I know that if I had weighed in after noon I would have a weight gain. A HUGE weight gain. I would not feel bad about that. Next week if you weigh at the same time you'll be able to see a difference. If you are still seeing the same weight in the morning that you always have, I wouldn't take that weight gain as gospel. I say NO WAY!! Also if it is hotter you may be drinking things with more salt. I know it is a huge craving when I am overheated. On the plus side....I'm freezing so being warm right now sounds pretty good. I'm sitting here watching the biggest loser. I recorded it so now I can skip all the stupid commercial. There were some great things about the mental issues this week. I need to really think about this mental stuff. I need to start really thinking about it and making it a bigger priority. Good night all. See you all tomorrow.

<p>Laurend--It's good that you're out. Thanks for the pillow tip. </p> <p> </p> <p>Another word about taking the easy way out. I've been thinking about people saying this, and I just can't get over how ridiculous it is. I think of it as taking the permanent way out. Look, if your pool were leaking, would you drain the whole thing, stick gum in the hole, and refill it just to have to repeat the process endlessly because your method just wasn't working for the long run, or would you have a professional come out and fix it once? Why should we have to stay on the diet, lose weight, gain weight treadmill forever? Why not just let a professional help us do it once and for all? Besides--as far as taking the easy way out goes--why do people use lawn mowers, and edgers, and automatic sprinklers, and blowers to make their lawns look nice? Because those are the right tools, and they make the job easier. Even if it were true that surgery is the "easy way out," why would that be wrong? You only have to rake a big lawn once to know taking the easy way out and buying a blower is pure common sense.</p>

Good morning ladies! I just finished my breakfast. 1/2 cup of kashi! I haven't had kashi in months. I still have to say I love it. You all are going to get tired of telling you all how much I love food. I can't believe I went so long with the problems I had. I didn't realize while going through it, how big the problem had gotten. I'm hoping that the up in cals doesn't kick me into weight gain. Hopefully I was in starvation mode and my last couple pounds will drop off in return. I've got a million things to do on the computer today so I'm not going to stay here. I'll check back in. I'm leaving tomorrow night after I sub all day so I'm hoping to get my packing done today too. I probably shouldn't have said I would sub tomorrow but I'm so excited to get back into school. Okay...running away. Have a great day everyone.