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Mediterranean lamb with veggies and salad.. yummy!

Today's fit 🖤

May 4th was my BF’s bday so I took him to a special theater re release event of Star Wars: Rogue One, so I dressed for the occasion. Everyone was completely into it, lots of games, prizes and even a Mandalorian showed up (sadly no pics)!

Definitely a win in my eyes, or more accurately, a near win I walk passed a charity shop every day on my way to work and they've had a dress in there that I've loved for awhile (Light grey stripes with neon yellow stripes). I never bought it because it's a size S and I'm not a size S. Still sometimes never think I could be. But still, I admired it from afar. For months, I've seen it in there next to the neon yellow hot pants (I love neon, but I will never be a hot pants person as I don't like the wedgie feeling) I handed in my resignation a month ago and am moving on to new neon green pastures. So I told myself, if that dress is still there on the last day of work and it's the last time I will walk by that charity shop, it must be fate. So I bought the dress. As my mother would say "just because it goes around you, doesn't mean it fits". She was right. It doesn't fit. Yet. But the fact I can even get a size S to go around me is a victory. Something I would never have dreamed. But it WILL fit me. Not just because I believe in fate, not just because no one else wanted this grey and neon yellow eye sore, but because I've quite literally worked my arse off.

Thanks for clarifying. This may become important if you do go down the surgical route. You didn't say where you live, or what it might look like in terms of paying for surgery, but this may also play a role in your decision-making. What I mean is that if you're in the US, whether or not your insurance plan covers weight loss surgery is an important thing to note. Almost all insurance plans that cover surgery also require some prerequisites that may include a history of previous weight loss interventions. Of course if you're not in the US or you don't have coverage with your insurance plan, then YMMV. @summerseeker makes an important point for you to consider as well. ALL medical and non-medical interventions for weight loss work by reducing calorie intake (for the record, I'm including malabsorption in that bucket since it also reduces the number of calories you functionally have available for your body.) Whether it's surgery, pharmaceuticals, or specific dietary plans, they all work by creating a negative energy balance. With that in mind, it's not so much which is "best" for everyone since they all can work, it's about which is best for you individually to safely lose the weight and keep it off long term.

I should say it's not such a recent issue. I was borderline obese by 2016 weighing 186 pounds (I should have mentioned that). But by 2022 I gained almost 45 pounds in a year out of nowhere. Before that the weight issues was more creeping up on me It went something like this: I was 150 pounds at 18 years old. By 21 I was 160. By 25 I was 180. You get the picture. Something like ten pounds d year gained no matter what. But then at 32 and battling COVID my weight exploded and it wouldn't come off. Nearly a 50 pound gain. I had long COVID and couldn't exercise for five months but didn't eat any different but the damage was done. That weight wasn't coming off for nothing even after I recovered. And it worsened my asthma horrendously. Just the COVID but gaining so much weight. That's why I had no choice but to starve.

For clarity, I purposefully chose not to go down the rabbit hole of discussing diet since you mentioned being under the care of a "nutritionist". (I hope by that you mean an RDN "Registered Dietitian Nutritionist".) None of us here are qualified to promote one way of eating over any other, especially when you have multiple disease states you're dealing with. Let me explain. I'm currently working to become a certified sports nutritionist, and one of the most important things that was drilled into me early on was that I needed to stay within my practice guidelines. This means ONLY physicians and RDs can develop a diet for the treatment of specific medical conditions. If you want to know how to maximize your diet for athletic endeavors, I can help. If you need a diet to help with managing or treating a medical disease, I'm woefully underprepared and will always advise seeking out an RD or RDN. The reality is that dietary options abound, but medical conditions greatly impact not only what your dietary needs are, but also how you respond to various dietary options and even what's potentially safe (or not), for you to eat.

If you opted for the surgery - you would loose weight for sure. BUT once at target you would still need to increase your calorie levels to a maintenance amount. Without much exercise my maintenance level is around 1500 - 1600 cals a day. To eat more I would need to increase my exercise drastically or I would gain. So when you maintain on similar calories, you will gain if what you say is true. If that is so, baritric surgery is not a fix for you.

At the end of the day, no one here can tell you if it's right for you. Keep in mind that obesity is a disease and it definitely needs a treatment plan, just like your other conditions. The right treatment for any given person varies based on a lot of factors, so don't automatically decide yourself what the right treatment should be. The best thing for you to do is seek out a GOOD bariatric center that has lots of options available to you and not just surgery. Personally, my gut tells me that it's too soon to go this route since obesity is such a recent issue for you. I'm not a doctor, and certainly not a bariatric surgeon, but just thinking through how recent this obesity disease is for you, I personally would want to try some more conservative treatments first?

A couple small wins yesterday. Small, but I take note of them and small wins encourage the behaviors that lead to bigger wins, right ? So...this 'un is a two parter. Several months ago, a few weeks before I had taken action to burn off the regains and dig my way back.... I was goofing around on the web... looking through a certain company's website. They make gear that is hobby related. I happened to notice that they also had some logo T-shirts that looked cool. So I ordered two....but ordered them for two sizes smaller than I was wearing then. They arrived and were stashed away with some other clothing, all smaller sizes, that I'd been ordering. The stash had made it's way upstairs to be put away. Soon afterwards... I started putting in the work....burning off the regain and get in better overall health. Kitchen discipline being the first step. Fast forward to yesterday.....laundry day at the hacienda. Grabbed a shower and started getting dressed so I could go knock out some errands. Almost dressed but remembered my normal day off work stuff was on the drying rack. Damn. I spied the stack of smaller sized stuff still in shopping bags....sitting there. Hmmm. Screw it...let's find out, dude...either it'll fit or it won't. Grabbed one of the new cool guy t-shirts and some new flat fronted cargo pants. Cut off tags & peeled off stickers and began to.....WTH !!! This shyt if fitting. Bamsucka. Got dressed and strutted around the room like a bantam rooster....chest poked out....big grin. Small Win Numba One Achieved. While running errands I wheeled into a parking space in front of one of the local gyms I'd been considering. Took my bantam rooster arse up in there and looked around. It was clean, plenty of open treadmills and recumbent bikes...just what I need for pre-habbing my knees. Gonna build up the muscle tissue before getting those suckers replaced over the next couple years. I joined. Small Win Numba Two Achieved. I plan on never having to eat an elephant (although I used to look like I could)......but....but if I did....I'd eat that thang one bite at a time. Thankfully getting healthy may prove to be easier than elephant eating. 🤣