February 2024 Surgery Buddies?

[gracesmommy2 35]

On 5/2/2024 at 8:03 PM, RonHall908 said:

6 hours ago, BlueParis said:

Here are some of me, pick tracksuit is 2 weeks post surgery, brown dress is yesterday.

Oh. @BlueParis you look wonderful and gorgeous! 😁 I know you need to lose more for your health/mobility issues but just crossing my fingers over here that I can one day be like you ( minus the boobs, cause that would take alottttttt of plastic surgery for me! 🤣) After losing and gaining weight for over 30 yrs, mine pretty much look like deflated pancakes! Sorry for the visuals 😝

[gracesmommy2 35]

Ok guys, y’all have made me feel the need to get on the pic train. Unfortunately, I don’t think I have any from my highest weight cause like many of you guys have said y’all have done, I definitely avoided pics. I’ll have to start taking some now so I can have progress pics too! 🙈

[NickelChip 1,250]

I swear, if this stall doesn't break soon...

I did some research and found that indeed, 3 months is a common time for a stall to hit. It's just frustrating to see that nice downward trend come to a halt, especially when the "experts" tell you the first 3 months are the fastest weight loss. It really is a marathon, isn't it?

Here's what my weight has been doing the past 30 days:

[RonHall908 131]

53 minutes ago, gracesmommy2 said:

Ok guys, y’all have made me feel the need to get on the pic train. Unfortunately, I don’t think I have any from my highest weight cause like many of you guys have said y’all have done, I definitely avoided pics. I’ll have to start taking some now so I can have progress pics too! 🙈

Take pictures of yourself, even if you're not comfortable sharing them. You can go back and see the progress yourself. My brother took a picture of me just before I went back to prep for surgery. The difference in almost 3 months is great to look at and know there's progress even if it doesn't feel like it is. You talked about visual of what your body looks like. I can tell you, that's happening to me, maybe not so much of the boob thing. But my inner thigh and belly is all over the place. As not so attractive as that looks. The thing that keeps it all positive is when it the scale doesn't move. My clothes seem to fit better. I'm in 35" waist jeans for the first time in 24 years. Looks for the small wins.

Edited May 4 by RonHall908

[NickelChip 1,250]

Totally agree with @RonHall908. I didn't like photos, but I made sure to take some at my highest weight for reference because I wanted a record of it to look back on.

And I'll go ahead and share this little comparison I made for my "half-way there" milestone:

[RonHall908 131]

1 minute ago, NickelChip said:

Totally agree with @RonHall908. I didn't like photos, but I made sure to take some at my highest weight for reference because I wanted a record of it to look back on.

And I'll go ahead and share this little comparison I made for my "half-way there" milestone:

You look Great!
A few weeks from 90 days out and your halfway there. That's a great accomplishment. Congrats!
I think I figured out my stall phases. I'll stall for 2 or 3 weeks, then lose a few pounds. Stall again... rinse and repeat. That seems to be how my body is reacting. The Doctor in the online support group I attend, said our body believes it may be heading to starvation. Because of the mal-absorption of having Gastric bypass. So it has to adjust, I think these stalls are the adjustments. At least that seems to be the phases my body is going through. Again you look great!

[NickelChip 1,250]

Thanks, @RonHall908! I should probably say, the 48lbs lost stretches back to last summer when I was at my highest ever weight and started incorporating the Pound of Cure guidelines into my daily routine. I lost 13lbs just with that over about 6 months, and then I lost about 13lbs more during the 2-week pre-op diet. So 26 of it was pre-op and 22 is post-op. Which kind of feels weird. I thought the surgery would ramp things up, but it feels like it slowed things down! I know there's a lot more going on metabolism-wise that will make it easier in the long run to lose more and keep the weight off, but it still can do your head in sometimes trying to balance expectations and reality.

This is also the weight where I plateaued during my last serious weight loss attempt, right around losing 20% of my starting body weight. I know that research shows that most people can lose 5-10% of their body weight, but once you get to the 15 to 20% mark your body usually rebels. I assume that may be what's happening here as everything has to readjust, and the surgery changes will eventually make it possible to push past that plateau where I couldn't do it before. Fingers crossed!

[LisaCaryl 96]

I love all the pictures. You all look fantastic!! I have been taking pictures monthly, but I can’t share them unfortunately because I wasn’t thinking about sharing them with anyone aside from my sister. I’m doing it in sweatpants and a bra. I’ll have to look back and see if I can find some pictures of myself recently before surgery and take one now.

[RonHall908 131]

2 hours ago, NickelChip said:

Thanks, @RonHall908! I should probably say, the 48lbs lost stretches back to last summer when I was at my highest ever weight and started incorporating the Pound of Cure guidelines into my daily routine. I lost 13lbs just with that over about 6 months, and then I lost about 13lbs more during the 2-week pre-op diet. So 26 of it was pre-op and 22 is post-op. Which kind of feels weird. I thought the surgery would ramp things up, but it feels like it slowed things down! I know there's a lot more going on metabolism-wise that will make it easier in the long run to lose more and keep the weight off, but it still can do your head in sometimes trying to balance expectations and reality.

This is also the weight where I plateaued during my last serious weight loss attempt, right around losing 20% of my starting body weight. I know that research shows that most people can lose 5-10% of their body weight, but once you get to the 15 to 20% mark your body usually rebels. I assume that may be what's happening here as everything has to readjust, and the surgery changes will eventually make it possible to push past that plateau where I couldn't do it before. Fingers crossed!

I've been impatient because I lost 79 lbs. leading up to my surgery day. About 39 lbs. From surgery to today. In nearly the same time frame. I was expecting more weight loss after surgery. It's moving in a positive direction, as long as it keeps doing that surely good things to come. 😃

[gracesmommy2 35]

@NickelChip I agree! You look great. WTG! And my weight loss graph looks very similar to yours over the last month also except I stalled a little earlier than your recent one and am now back losing again after a little more than 2 weeks. Just keep on keeping on, you’ll get over the hump. 😉

[gracesmommy2 35]

3 hours ago, LisaCaryl said:

I’ll have to look back and see if I can find some pictures of myself recently before surgery and take one now.

I just took one today @LisaCaryl in leggings with my shirt tied up at my wait so I could see lol. We’ll see if I have the guts to post it when I take one next month. 😝 😂

[BlueParis 117]

So I'm home! I'm 72.5kg (159lbs) this morning so I've made it halfway to my goal like a true @NickelChip twin.

I'm home until Thursday when I fly off again but It's going to be a hectic few days ( and I don't even want to think of all the laundry I have to do!).

Thats means that in the last ten days since I was home I lost 1.7kg or 3.74lbs which is less bad than I thought.

@NickelChip The travelling is hard, I'm usually in hotels with client meetings and lunch and dinners most evenings - I tend to tell them I'm intermittent fasting so manage to skip one meal. I'm not against eating in my room in the evening but do prefer to be out because I just hate the amount of time I spend shut in hotel rooms and prefer to profit from the ambiance of wherever I'm staying. It's just such a massive change for me because I've always been a social butterfly out and about where ever I go ... I went to an international school ( well multiple international schools - I was an "Expat Brat / Third culture Kid") growing up so tend to have acquaintance to visit most places too, or have a random packet to give someones cousin/friend/old neighbor and food and alcohol have always played in a big part in that for me. Eating alone inside isn't really my thing.

I've actually got an airbnb for Athens because it's a longer stay so should be able to cook in the kitchen there, and I reckon there will be better salads, but it's a good idea to keep a tub of hummus and crudités in the fridge, I'm not a great fan of yogurt berry combos, but might try... I have perfected my smile and head tilt for when people I meet say "oh my god thats so lucky you get to travel so much" 🙂

@gracesmommy2 I'm not a fan of chips but could go for edamame! I come from a family of tall thin women with massive boobs - I'm the shortest ( and fattest) by quite a bit, I'm 5 ft 6 and my sisters, aunts etc are between 5ft8 and 6ft and probably have BMI's round 20....

So even when I was skinny I've always had massive boobs, I was a already a double F at 14 when I was 110lbs. When I was up at 200lbs and over they got to ridiculous proportions and I'd have deep dents on my shoulders from my bra straps digging in the whole time. I'm happy they're getting a bit smaller but hope I don't loose too much and that they don't head too far south .. but if they do ..that's what good bras are for. That said I am lucky because they've never caused back pain!

Do take pictures if you feel up to it - they are good to look back at to see progress, you too @LisaCaryl ... I'm sure one day you'll like to look back at them!

@Briss72 @Noelle74 @Eighmmie How are you getting on?

[gracesmommy2 35]

3 hours ago, BlueParis said:

So I'm home! I'm 72.5kg (159lbs) this morning so I've made it halfway to my goal like a true @NickelChip twin.

I'm home until Thursday when I fly off again but It's going to be a hectic few days ( and I don't even want to think of all the laundry I have to do!).

Thats means that in the last ten days since I was home I lost 1.7kg or 3.74lbs which is less bad than I thought.

@BlueParis

Glad you get to be home for a few days at least and I think that’s a great weight loss! I’m happy for you. 😁

just wanted to throw these roasted edamame Beans out there for you if you can get them. I find the multi flavored 24 pack on Amazon to be the least expensive way to get them (about $1/pack). I know they aren’t cheap but I really like them and they’re like 100 kcals and 11 gm of Protein in a tiny little .9 ounce package. They may be salty for some but I love them!

[NickelChip 1,250]

@gracesmommy2 Thanks for the suggestion! I've just ordered a 10-pack of the sea salt flavor. I love anything that is small and Protein packed.

[gracesmommy2 35]

2 hours ago, NickelChip said:

@gracesmommy2 Thanks for the suggestion! I've just ordered a 10-pack of the sea salt flavor. I love anything that is small and Protein packed.

Yw! Hope you like them. @NickelChip 😉 just an FYI in case you ever want to try the other flavors, the sea salts are my faves but neither the buffalo nor the Sriracha is overwhelming in flavor nor are they spicy IMO.

Edited May 5 by gracesmommy2