January Surgery Bandsters Group

[ericaharrod 28]

Hello everyone! I have been keeping up with everything through my email. I am still struggling with my plateau. I have increased my exercise so hopefully that will help. I have a lofty goal considering my current plateau. I would like to lose 18 pounds putting me at the halfway point for my weight loss. That would put me at 65 pounds lost and my goal is to lose 130. Good luck everyone!

[nicole1 92]

So I have been yo-yoing between 218 & 222 for the past 3 weeks. I have kept up my exercise and eaten pretty well & definitely gotten my Water in. So I feel the pain of those who have plateaued. I talked to my trainer & he said this is typical & is what normal causes people to quit their diet or exercise routine. What is happening is I have become a creature of habit. I do the exact same workouts each week with no increase of intensity and I am a picky eater so my food is very consistent. All of this has caused my metabolism to adjust & flatlined. So I have to shake things up. Add some variety & different levels of calories. He suggested to do higher calories one day & lower the next & so one I have to change my workouts. Not just 45 min on the elliptical, but 45 min w/ a 5 pt average heart rate increase. So my goal for the next 7 days is to change things up. Maybe I'll try jogging at the track or try my 1st Zumba class. I will let you know if this helps!! My next fill is not until 5/17 so it is up to me & my will power to make it work.

[JustDoIt130 369]

Oh, do try zumba, it is so much fun! I also do the elliptical- my nutritionist said that maybe on 2 days to do only 30 min elliptical and 10 minutes light weight to shake up the metabolism.

Erica- hang in there! You will get past it. Good goal, stretch goals are good!

Oh my heck you guys, I ate a TON last night. Not a ton in relation to what I used to eat, but we went to Chilis, I chose off the light menu- margarita chicken, black Beans and broccoli instead of the rice. We did a 2 for $20, so DH ordered a ginormous thing of chips and salsa, and I ate a bunch! I did log it all, still for the day just a smidge over 1200, but way more calories than I've eaten in a looong time. And, since we ate out I didn't have time to work out. Oh well, yesterday was my rest day, LOL. But I was surprised I ~could~ eat that much, if you know what I mean? It was from the light menu, so it wasn't gigantic portions but definitely more than 3 oz chicken. I didn't eat all the beans- but obviously not a heck of a lot of restriction going on for me. I did feel it a little at one point where I knew I was eating too fast and it felt funny going down, but not "stuck" by any stretch.

Meredith- I wanted to know about your fitbit- is it just a glorified pedometer? If I wear it all day, then do Zumba, will I be able to tell the calories from just the zumba vs. the rest of the day? I have a really really sedentary job, so just a pedometer would be not really motivating, LOL. How do you use it, how do you like it?

[MeredithMcFee 98]

I'm sorry JDI130, I forgot to get back to you on the Fitbit. First, think of last night as a "treat" NOT a treatment, as my mother use to say to us kids. As a child I never understood what she meant but now I do. :-)

Check out FitBit.com online. I you can say it's a glorified pedometer but it does more. It does count your calories,activities, sleep patterns, etc. I use it in conjunction with MFP as they work together. Re: calories burned, prior to a workout, I check the calories burned so far, then after the workout I take that number and subtract it. "They" say it's pretty accurate. You can go in and add that as an activity with the amount of calories burned on the site. If I were you, try out the site first. You can sign up for the site without buying the fitbit. This way you get an idea if the program works for you in general. A lot of us here found out about it on here and bought it after our surgeries. You can also pull up other people's reviews on here in the fitness section. I love it and knowing I have it on, it makes me work. walk harder, futher whatever. I love seeing the progress I make on a given day. Perhaps it's more mental for me, but it's also physical which is the name of the game.

[horsegirl315 114]

JDI130--the fitbit keeps track of type of activity as well, so you will be able to see, if you do zumba from 7-8 pm, you will be able to see you were most active during that time. I can't remember if you can isolate the time, to see how many cals were burned for that particular hr....I used to be able to do that with my bodymedia armband, which is like a body bugg...that was better than the fitbit imo, but a pain to wear on my arm and over time, made a semi permanent indentation...which is gone now thank God.

[MeredithMcFee 98]

Finally, I hit ONDERLAND this morning! 199lbs and counting down. I wrote a long post on the general forum this morning. However, I did not forget to mention my dear friends here on our January bandsters as it takes a village and without you all and your wonderful advice, suggestions, genuine kudo's here, we don't do it alone. We're a TEAM!!!!

[chrissylu 153]

Yay Meredith! So proud for you!!

[JustDoIt130 369]

CONGRATULATIONS Meredith!!! Good for you!! I am so proud of you.

[amica813 28]

amica813, wow, what was the name of that machine? I'm glad you are feeling better, I haven't had a kick butt workout like that in a LONG time.. I hate that you had pain afterwards, I hope it don't happen again, yes, yes, get that six pack, on second thought get a 12 pack and send me 6

keep us posted.

NJ2NC - I bought a ProForm Activator V7 Vibration Training Machine. The DVD comes with 3 workouts, Upper Body, Lower Body, and Whole Body. The Lower Body is the one that just about killed me. Last night I did the Whole Body and was okay. What's great about it is when you're done working out you can just lay on it and get the massage. The workouts end with a calf massage for 60 seconds which feels GREAT! I plan to take my measurements weekly since starting to see what sort of impact it's having, so I'll report the results here.

[amica813 28]

Meredith - That's fantastic!!!

[amica813 28]

Okay gang, I'm falling back into some bad habits and I need to break them. My hubby bought a bunch of Easter candy on sale after Easter, so the Reese eggs have been calling my name... and I've been responding! I kept thinking, "I'm eating so much less of everything else, I can have some chocolate here and there." But this week, here and there turned into EVERY DAY! I wasn't gorging (like I might have before surgery) but I still certainly didn't need to eat candy every day. I signed back up for WW online and have been tracking my points... this was the real eye opener with the candy. I haven't been using too many points on real food, but the candy was putting me at/above my points daily limits! Time to cut that out!

I really signed back up to WW so I could get my pre-surgery measurements. Here's my BIG NSV - I've lost 2 feet!!!! Based on my pre-surgery measurements and the ones I took this week, I've lost 24.5 inches overall!

So I didn't set a goal with you all last time, but this time I need to! I would like to be at 204 by June 1, that's 10 pounds in 5 weeks. I also want to up my exercise to 5 days a week. I haven't been good with that, but I'm going to get better! My original goal when I had my surgery was to be in onederland by June 21, but I think I'll be past that (just not sure by how much.)

[amica813 28]

One more post, then I'll leave ya'll alone for today! I need some green zone guidance. When I got my last fill, I thought I was definitely there (and almost worried I needed a slight unfill). Since then, I've had a couple of stuck and PBing episodes (not terrible). Now that a couple of weeks have gone by, I'm not sure I'm there. I can still eat a decent amount as long as I take it REALLY slow! The stuck issues have all been due to eating too fast rather than too much, I think. So what do you think? Should I go for another .5 cc at my next visit (5/4) or should I hold off until the following month?

Have a great weekend everybody! One of our friends I haven't seen in over a year is coming up for the weekend, and we're going out to eat with some other friends I haven't seen since pre-surgery. Should be an interesting time!

[JustDoIt130 369]

Amica-,my doc says that I should eat slowly and chew thoroughly, but to STOP at no more than 30 minutes, even if there's food left. So just because you can eat more you still shouldn't. The green zone can take some tweaking I think. Just try not to push it, imho.

Just finished an awesome zumba class!!,lots of sweating! I'm claiming 550 calories, though I think It's probably more.

Everyone have a great Saturday.

[horsegirl315 114]

Amica, first of all congrats on a huge NSV....that's awesome!!!! Second of all...I hear you on the green zone issue, as I am going through the same thing. My dietician always had me under the impression that when you're in the green, and you have eaten enough, you will be physically unable/uncomfortable if you eat any more....while I had a few sticks and a few PB issues the week after I had my last fill, I am by no means uncomfortable if I keep eating slow enough. It sometimes will vary by day, usually the first meal of the day I have to be extra careful...I don't eat Breakfast, so that's usually lunch. I hear you on the candy...I work in an insurance office, with a candy bowl on my desk. I used to indulge in the candy, until I began counting calories after surgery and realized, each mini reeses, mini candy bar, etc is 40 calories or more...and who can have just one?? So forget it, that takes away way too much real food I could be eating.

[JustDoIt130 369]

Amica and Meredith- my doc said to eat slowly but take no more than 30 minutes to eat- so even if you could eat more you don't because your 30 minutes is up.