Fenton

But Amanda, what has changed? Nothing. Your clothes are looser, you're feeling better, you know where you are and you know where you're going! The numbers may not be where you want them to be, but you're going in the right direction - hell, you're training for a Triathlon! You'll get the numbers you want in the end. REALLY accept that it takes time, and keep going! There is no other option.

I know what you mean about not really believing it, Christine. It does seem unreal, doesn't it? I'm down, what, 90 pounds in 5 months. Of course, I still feel the same, so... Actually, that's completely untrue: I feel the same SIZE, but I'm now drowning in my clothes, and I walk for miles and am not out of breath, and getting out of a chair is something I do effortlessly, without thought. I think that last one is something I feel particularly acutely - that I'm inside my body again, and my body works.

Oh, and speaking of A-dub, the answer is, of course, "incorrigibly neurotic Diva"...

First off, Mylah: I think the bodybugg is either $9.99 a month, or $99 a year, depending on how you pay. Either way, it's outrageous. As far as the Wii Fit goes, the trick is actually finding them. I was prepared to wait for months - which isn't an issue, because I'm still 54 pounds above the maximum weight - but I just stuck my head in the store as I passed, asked if they had one, and, to my amazement, they did, and I got the last one. I may take A-Dub's advice and try get a little exercise with the boxing.

Yeah, it is awesome. It'll be a cold day in hell before they're including those scans in the banding price in NYC, I tell yuh whut!

Here it is: have a look at this: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f84/see-my-white-light-scan-67733/ Double-click on the picture to see it much larger - it's pretty amazing!

Well, you know that stalls are just numbers, right? The overall thing - fitness, measurements, weight - is far more important. I saw today something called a... White Light Scan? I'll see if I can find the original post, but some chick had herself scanned in 3D by her doctor, and now has a 3D rendering of her body at baseline, with all of her circumferences digitally measured so that she can have a final number for all the different key measurements. Every three months they do another one of these scans, and so the patient can compare not just weight, but also the visual representation of her changing body PLUS have numeric values from her measurements to compare - it's pretty great!

I'm going to cheat! I'm going to go down to 200 lbs, then have some plastic surgery, which will hopefully drop me another 5 to 10 lbs... So, final goal, with an assist from PS: 190 - 195.

Oh, psshaw, WCM! There are no third wheels in this loose collection of high grade neurotics and incorrigible divas, just a handful of wallflowers who're waiting for the right moment to jump in! So.... Guess who got a Wii Fit on his way home??? (Hint: Me)

Others will have better advice on Protein than I will (I bought my protein from Amazon.com, just got simple whey protein in a ridiculously large amount), but I'd recommend that, for the liquid diet, you do what my docs had me do: Slimfast Optima, 6 cans a day for a week. That's about 1100 cals, 60 g protein a day, plus a buttload of nutrients. In NYC they go for a bit less than $9 per six pack, which isn't too bad. I did mostly that for the week before and the week after surgery (liquid diet part). Even now I still like the convenience of the premade drink, and have it every day (as a Protein shake for breakfast: 1 can French vanilla SFO, three heaping Tablespoons of whey protein, one banana, a big pinch of salt (esp for the summer), and two tablespoons of PB2 (powdered Peanut Butter, a quarter of the calories of the real deal, but unpleasantly expensive)).

Christine! Congrats on cracking 250! Next stop: Onederland...

I have big arms and the bodybugg is fine - it comes with two straps, and the large strap could accommodate an arm MUCH bigger than mine. They didn't try and cheapen out over a couple of inches of velcro... As far as Is it worth it? goes, I think that for me, it is. I hate that there's a monthly fee - or a yearly one - that seems just about highway robbery, particularly if you're not logging in any food (I think their food log system blows, btw), and only need to go online to adjust your current weight. But I find it very motivating to know that I've burned less calories or taken fewer steps than I'd thought - I'll go out and do extra exercise to hit my calorie burn or steps goals. Still, I'm quietly outraged about the ongoing web fees. Others who log their food consumption very carefully are probably more satisfied with that than I am. I'm OK with people not spotting my weight loss, and am in no rush to buy more clothes that I'll quickly undergrow. I have a bunch of pants to cover the entire range of my waist's experience, but for some reason I have far fewer shirts, and some of the extra-big shirts I have were handmade for me last year in beautiful Sea Island cotton; I don't want to give them up! So I'm content to be billowing for the forseeable future.

So, success on the scales today: a 2 lb drop! 11 more to go for the Century! 11 pounds in 24 days - I think I can do it... And if I can't, it's still going in the right direction. I hope to hit 90 lost by Monday. No, heck - I hope to hit it by Friday...

I think Sharona's hit it on the head: there should be times of celebration, and not worrying. Those are just four days (I'm NOT going to go back and recount); to allow yourself a little extra on those days is not the end of the world, nor will it break your diet. Unless you let it. You can't mistake an evening of relaxation as permission to abandon your progress; you just have to enjoy yourself, then get back to bizness the next morning. BTW, Sharona - congrats on the nice little drop there!

We are (cy)Borg!

Haha! Congrats, nemesis, you banded pervert! I'm glad things went so smoothly! Are you remembering to walk around? For me, the BM thing went the other way - I was DYING to go, but couldn't! I now take Fiber three times a day (I use Benefiber, or the cheap Benefiber knock-off, which works well for me), and go every other day.

Jeez! Loprofyl, you're almost halfway there! Nice work... And Mike, it looks like you're shooting down pretty damn fast yourself!

Tonty! You have the rest of your life to eat! Avoid the "Last Supper syndrome" - don't treat this week as if you'll never eat again, and just gorge on everything in sight! Many of us had to do week or two week-long liquid diets pre-op (to shrink the liver to make surgery easier); it's a time when you lose weight rapidly, and prepare your body for your new way of eating. Sorry to sound like such a school marm, but you can do a lot of damage to yourself in a week of gorging.

Haha! Yay, Lynn! CONGRATULATIONS! Chica, nice to see you - or hear you - or see you - again. How ARE you dealing with your restriction? As far as dealing with birthdays, maybe you could allow yourself a very tightly controlled calorie bump on those days - say, 1800 instead of 1500 or however you're working. A very precisely limited bump would allow you to "indulge", but keep it on a tight leash.

I think that's true, wcm. I'm still wearing the same shirts I was when I began - 89 pounds ago. They swim around me, but I feel comfortable in them. And I've kept my hair long and beard bushy. The thing is, I'm down 89 pounds, and almost no one has suddenly exclaimed, "OMG, you've lost so much weight!" It gets to the point where I actually wonder whether I've really lost the weight - after all, maybe the scale is broken, and gradually getting brokener! Then I look at my belt, at the imprint from the leather straining at the first hole when the belt was tight, then at the imprints on each successive belt notch as I've gone down, and now onto the new notches I had put into the belt when it became way too big for me. So, yeah, I'm losing!

Amanda, you're EXCELLENT at the support stuff! I'm just talking about what's going on - if you see me start to stall, call me on THAT! But my loss numbers have been pretty good, even with the occasional indulgence. And I'm in the zone... Today, for example, I'm well under 2000 cals consumed, and I worked extra hard and burned 5300 calories - went to a concert downtown, near Ground Zero, and walked all the way home. And that was after walking to and from work, and walking around all day, so, yeah, a busy day of calorie burning! I'm not sure that I'll nail the 100 lbs before I go, but if I don't, I'll be pretty damn close.

Annie, it seems to me that you've got a good handle on what's going on and why. My money says you'll have no problems negotiating this patch...

I agree about the risk of overweighing oneself, but I've been doing that quite a lot lately, mostly because I've had big enough meals the day before that I was worried I might have been affected. I also weigh myself at exactly the same time every weighing day, wearing exactly the same clothes, on the same scale. It does drive me mad that the Bodybugg program won't let you enter a weight more than once a week. I mean, I'm fine with once-a-week entries, but I think it should let you choose the specific date you want to enter that weight!

Welcome aboard, wcm! I'm glad you found us. And Dolores - almost halfway there! NICE WORK!

I have to say that my own MiniGoal progress has been, so far, nothing short of DISASTROUS! It's the time of year we say goodbye to our old trainees, and hello to the new ones, and there's been a series of meals to Celebrate various departures. Yesterday, I had a special farewell lunch with someone I just adore, and we did it up far too right - beet Soup with yogurt sorbet, manchego cheese and chorizo balls, yellowtail with garlic sauce, snails with green Beans, bork loin with apple puree and wilted lettuces, then peach tart. I'd skipped Breakfast (sorry, chica, if it was you who twisted my arm into Daily Breakfasting!), and had a mini dinner, but it was still a calorie hit. That said, my calorie use for the day per my bodybugg was about 4200, so I didn't put ON anything, but, STILL! I'm supposed to be focusing! Then today I brought an abstemious chicken salad only to find that it wsa the ceremonial Last Meatball Submarine Sandwich Day. I had half a sub, and threw away most of the bread. I'm going to a concert downtown tonight; I'll walk there to use up a bit more energy. Argh. Tomorrow should be fine, but Thursday I have lunch with a food editor, at a good restaurant. I shall order wisely: as God is my witness, I'll always go hungry again!