7carol3

I like to heat up a little bit of pizza sauce and put it in mine. But I LOVE cottage cheese...plain, with fruit, in Italian dishes. I'm almost at my year mark though and I have hit goal and am maintaining. I'm not sure what stage you're at or if you should have pizza sauce or not. Just another idea.

I put Laughing Cow in everything! I mash up imitation crab meat and then mash in a wedge (I use all the flavors at one point or another) of Garlic & Herb and that's lunch folks! I make scrambled egg whites with a little bit of turkey bacon bits in it then mix in a Laughing Cow wedge. So creamy & yummy!!

I have heard this myself, many times. "Don't you think you've lost enough now?" "I think you looked a little better with more meat on your bones." or how about "Your face is really starting to show your age now that you're thin." Ugh! My therapist tells me to take these statements as a person noticing my incredible accomplishment and not really knowing how to approach me about the subject. I guess they think it is flattering to hear I am now too thin? I do try to stay positive about it but part of me thinks it is as unflattering as telling me, at 265 pounds, that I really needed to lose some weight. I do have to agree about the age showing in my face now. I guess that one really hurts because, as they say, the truth hurts!

I'm a November 2011 sleever...

I work at a desk too, 8 hours a day 5 days a week. I don't get a lot of exercise in my job but I work on the 4th floor so I ALWAYS take the stairs. Also, I used to wait until I had a stack of files to file away before I went to the filing cabinets. Now I take them one by one when I've finished with them. It isn't a lot but it is more than I used to do. I also have hand weights and a resistance band in my desk. I get them out when I have some down time. I'm not sure what restrictions you have with MS so I'm not sure if any of this will apply to you. It is just what I do.

I have seen so many people talking on different threads here about renewed sex lives. Love it! Lovin' all of the LOVIN' going on!!

Hang in there! It is rough, let me tell you, but SOOOO worth it in the long run. Look at the big prize, a smaller YOU! There is a man in our area who lost 80 pounds so that he was healthy enough to donate a kidney to his daughter (he was her only match). I swore I could never sacrifice my food, not even for my children's health. Boy, was I WRONG!! I didn't have to save my child, thankfully, I just needed to be here for them so I needed to get healthy. The pre-op diet was just step one. Just try and remember doctor's orders. I just got in my mind that I couldn't deviate from his orders and I followed it. I'm not going to lie, I cried while I was pureeing my Soup and my family was having "real food". No one said it would be easy & people who think WLS is the easy way out are so full of it! Walk a mile (or the many miles we will/do walk) in our shoes and then tell me I took the easy way out!! YOU CAN DO IT!! I was allowed jell-o and popsicles and that helped, at least I was chewing. Are you allowed those foods? That may help.

I too gave up the protein shakes! I eat meats, cheese, nuts...I feel bad listing all these things you can't have yet, sorry! Today for lunch I had a pack of Seafood Snackers that I mash up with my fork and added in a wedge of Laughing Cow Light Garlic & Herb cheese. That's all. In a couple of hours I will probably have a 100 calorie pack of dry roasted almonds. I had Greek yogurt (took me a while to get used to it but now I don't eat regular yogurt) for breakfast. We are having pork chops and green beans for supper, I probably won't get many green beans in and only about 1/2 of the pork chop. I also eat peanut butter, probably more than I should. It's kind of a trigger food for me so I have to be careful. I also each cottage cheese and I eat beans sparingly to ward off gas issues. If i'm feeling snacky I have a Mini Babybel cheese or a light cheese stick. I am almost to my one year mark though.

That is great advice!

That is fantastic news! One of my reasons for having surgery was because my Dad and all of his living siblings have adult onset diabetes. I didn't want that family "tradition" to carry on to the next generation. Take every little victory and pat yourself on the back because, for me, this is such a mental journey as well and we need those pats on the back! My goal is to not eat Peanut Butter today, ha! Oh, and thank you for reminding me about the Turkey Trot, I'm going to check that out!

I totally agree NCsleever63! But I do think that people do treat over weight individuals differently. I can't think of a single thing in my life that hasn't changed, at least a little bit, since I had WLS. I've changed and therefore I am changing the things around me. Nothing drastic so far, other than I have the energy for a puppy now so our family has a new member (since I can no longer have babies, probably a good thing). I'm still with my husband of 21 years but he eats much healthier, as do my kids. Family members come to our house for the YUMMY healthy treats that I make (that no one thought were healthy the first time they tried them). I am much more out going. Funny enough though, now that I don't drink and I am ALWAYS the DD for my friends I get invited out a lot more. I've noticed though that I got hit on (yes even though I've always been married and wore a ring) a lot more when I was heavy than I do now. Ah well, I'm comfortable now...except when I'm naked but I wasn't comfortable naked when I was heavy so I guess that hasn't changed. There, that is one thing that hasn't changed. Ok, done rambling now...

That is very true! Today my favorite thing is being able to drink a cup of hot tea on a cold morning and being full from it. My least favorite thing today is that my "I don't feel like eating" has started to disappear unless I am very busy. My bored eating is coming into play again and it is VERY scary! It is such a mind game we play sometimes!!

That's hilarious!! I literally laughed out loud! One of your favorite things is one of the things I hate. I can't stand it when people think I'm not me. My husband has been the talk of every party/function we go to. People think he is cheating.

Keep up the good work!!

I have always monitored my food. I have an app on my iPhone that I record my daily intake. I started pre-surgery when my NUT asked me to start keeping track and I just haven't stopped. I don't think there is any hard and fast rule about it. It just keeps me sane. I can't imagine NOT doing it now. I'm sure you are doing great!! If there is one thing I could do for everyone who is only a few weeks or months out it would be to help them worry less. I wish I would have worried less myself.

This might sound weird but... today I am thankful for being less wasteful. When I was heavy I would just try and eat everything so I didn't waste food/money. Now that I am thinner I notice that I work harder to make good use of the foods that we have. Like making Pasta sauce with the tomatoes from the garden and pickles with the cucumbers. Trying new recipes that use what I have. I am being less lazy about it. Before if we didn't use bread before it was moldy I would just throw it out and not sweat it. Now I am pro-active and make the family some French toast for supper before it goes bad. My least favorite thing today is saggy skin that acts like my old fat "muffin top" hanging over my pants.

All these fantastic posts about baggy clothes and goal reaching and house buying...makes me smile!! Good job all of you! Pat yourself on the back!!!

I've got some sags and bags I'd like to take care of too!

We should be "Lose It!" friends!! I love it too.

I am going to attempt donating on 9-12-12. I'm a month and a half away from my one year mark.

They have an app for smart phones as well...at least for the iPhone. I'm not sure about Droids. I use an app called Lose It. I really like it. I do use My Fitness Pal for their recipe feature. It allows you to add the ingredients of a homemade dish to find out what the nutrition stats are.

http://www.nutellausa.com/nutrition-facts.htm Those are the stats for Nutella. I think Nutella could make ANYTHING taste better!!!

I have been eating Nutella for about a month. I can't say that it is for the protein and actually I feel guilty when I do eat it. I am almost to my year mark (11-14-11) and I waited until now to eat it. I think, like peanut butter, I will continue to eat it in moderation. It does have some protein in it but the carbs and sugar out weigh it, I'm sure.

This is how I am as well.