PHASE: Limbo - What did you do differently?

[MisforMimi 760]

So, I've finished/passed my 6-month physician monitored weight loss. Yay! I've had my initial consult. Yay! I'm scheduled for my 1st NUT appointment and psych eval (Nov 10 & Nov 11 respectively). Yay! I'm looking for a surgery date of early 2015. Yay.

NOW WHAT????!!

I don't have the "pressure" to loose weight for my insurance company, I'm not gaining weight but I'm not as careful as I was before. I'm a little terrified of the holidays coming and my 2 week liquid diet would start for another 2 months.

The only reason I'm waiting for the start of the year is so that my flex-spending can pick up my out of pocket costs which would be about 15% and since my spouse is not working, we don't have that kind of cash laying around right now. And taking 3 weeks off during the holidays would be not so kind to my team (at work).

I don't want to start the liquid diet too early and burn out......

Thoughts?

What did you do during this time???? Its 11 weeks till the new year. The anticipation is killing me!!!

[MBM1Forever 107]

I am having surgery early January too. I would look at the weight loss like this...the more you take off now, the better for surgery, your skin elasticity, and your overall health. You will feel a bit better while you wait and lose more once you have the surgery. I am concerned about the holidays too. I have been told that I cannot gain, so I have that added pressure. I have lost 14 lbs since this summer, so I am pretty glad for that.

[Jonathan Blue 311]

I would recommend trying to stay as active as possible in the next few months. Building up your cardiovascular endurance will go a long way in reducing the risk of complications with surgery. The stronger you are the better. With that being said, I would not worry too much about a number on the scale. It is a guide, but far too often we get obsessed with the number. Try instead to be in the best shape you possibly can be. As far as diet and the holidays, I recommend cheating lol. Let me clarify this a little. Stick to your plan through the week or a set number of days, work out hard and eat right. Then once a week or on holidays, allow yourself a cheat meal or a cheat day. This will allow you to enjoy the holidays without regret and also begin ticking off some items that may be on your food bucket list. These are foods that wouldn't be good for you or wise to eat post surgery. You will be surprised how little you want them post surgery. The funny thing for me was I did my surgery the beginning of November last year and would need to miss Thanksgiving. One of my bucket list meals was a thanksgiving dinner with the family.

Keep up the hard work. Your surgery will be here before you know. Once you get through this and the surgery itself, the hardest part of your journey is over. From there its time to still work hard, but you can begin to enjoy your new body. You will very quickly discover how amazing your body truly is. I am so excited for you.

If you have any questions or I can help you out in any way at all please let me know. You can contact me through one of the links below.

Jonathan

@Fat2FitBlue

Blog: http://wakingupfromh...s.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook...ealjonathanblue

[MisforMimi 760]

@@MBM1Forever, Congratulations on the 14lbs! maybe we can be buddies then since we have around the same size and having the same procedure around the same time.....

[MisforMimi 760]

@@Jonathan Blue

Dude congratulations! You're a friggin rock star! You are so right, I need to keep going but allow myself a few cheat meals....I have a few restaurants I need to show out at but I don't want to loose my gains or gain my losses LOL... I'm hoping to get on this Crossfit train when I'm cleared after surgery...for now I need to up my walking....LOL...I'm excited to check out your blog

[MBM1Forever 107]

@@MisforMimi I would love to be buddies. I need all I can get!

[winning_by_losing 107]

As already mentioned, I'd heavily recommend sticking with what has been working so far and bump up the exercise as much as you can tolerate.

Any lean muscle you build now will help increase your metabolism and help you lose faster post-surgery. Since we tend to lose lots of muscle along with the fat along that journey, the more muscle you have going in, the better off you'll be.

While I was going through my pre-surgery classes I started practicing everything they taught. I gave up the caffeine months before I had to, stopped drinking with meals, started making meals take the 20-30 minutes, increased the length of my workouts, etc... I really feel those early changes helped me a ton so that once I had the surgery I was already somewhat accustomed to the new lifestyle and it wasn't a big shock. I also attribute hitting my goal at just under 7 months out to being so strict with the plan both pre and post-surgery.

Not that there is any scientific research behind it, but I know quite a few of the folks in my classes had "food funerals" and "last meals" etc... and the few that have attended support group meetings have complained about how slowly they are losing after surgery.