DLCoggin

I for one would love to see you start a new thread with what trials they're conducting and any information that may be available on the results of their studies so far. The success of bariatric surgery combined with the obesity epidemic has resulted in millions of research dollars being available that was simply was not there before. Many of the discoveries they are making are fascinating and almost always lead to the search for answers to new questions which result from what they have learned.

Sounds and looks fabulous! I second the request for the recipe!
Paul, I am right there with you. How amazing is this and why the heck did it take us so long to discover it? At almost eleven months out, I can honestly say that I enjoy eating as much or more than I ever did. I love the foods I eat. They are healthy. I'm not hungry all of the time. I don't feel deprived. I truly don't miss all of the crap I used to eat. I'm not suffering in any way. Just amazing!!

I started logging shortly after my surgery so I've been logging for almost two years. I didn't find it difficult to get started. You're excited about the surgery. You're committed. Motivated. But in all honesty, I think everyone goes through a period, sooner or later, where logging gets tedious. I've found it helps tremendously to give yourself an occasional break from logging. For example, I usually don't log when I'm on vacation. There's never any doubt in my mind that I will resume (it truly is addictive), but taking a break is relaxing and a breather from the normal routine. That's what vacations are all about!
Another thing I've found is that the longer you log, the more valuable it becomes. Logging immediately after surgery helps keep you on track following the protocol. But your choices are limited. It's when you're back on a regular diet that logging really starts to shine. And unfortunately, it's when a lot of folks stop logging. It's all too easy to fall into the "I've got this, it's all downhill from here!" trap.
It's only when you progress back to a regular diet that you begin really making your own food choices. You start to understand your new relationship with food. And logging changes that relationship in ways you never imagined possible. You discover that you really are in control. You discover that you really can enjoy that special occasion, that special meal, and get right back on track. Your confidence soars. You come to the realization, often for the first time, that you really can manage your weight. And that's reinforced, every day, again and again and again. For me, that is the very definition of the all- important - lifestyle changes.
Is it easy to make it a habit? I don't know that there's a one size fits all answer to that question. But the reality is that loggers are in the minority. Many start, get tired, bored, frustrated - fill in the blank - and stop logging. Losing weight takes commitment. So does logging. Bypass surgery is a tool. So is logging. Tools are not synonymous with "easy". They are synonymous with "easier". In my mind, the more tools I have, the easier it becomes to reach, and to maintain, my goal. I believe that logging made it easier for me to lose more weight, lose it faster, and maintain my weight. And I think that those who make the commitment will discover the same. Simple as that.

Do you maintain a food log? If not, now is the time to start. You will be amazed at the results. Join us on the thread "Food Logs Discussion". Just enter that title in the Search box near the top of this page on the right and select "Forums" to search. Next to your pouch, logging is the single most powerful tool you can have in your arsenal. Study after study has shown that loggers lose more weight, lose it faster, and most importantly of all, are much more successful at maintaining your goal weight long term. Join us! You're gonna love the new you!!

I'm about half way through the book and it is excellent. Highly recommended. Well written, well organized, easy to read and exhaustive citing of sources for information. There's information here for everyone whether you're considering RNY or two years out (like I am). Great book.

Have you tried Hershey's Simple Pleasures? 30 cals, 2.7g fat, 9.7g carbs. One or two and I'm good to go in the sweet department. I prefer the dark chocolate but the milk chocolate and the caramel are both quite good!

Since having my surgery on October 20, 2011, I have set a "main" goal every year. Year one was obvious, get to the weight that my body wanted to be at. Approximately fourteen months post-op I hit 155 lbs, my weight loss leveled out, I felt great about my weight, about myself, and about what I had accomplished.
Year two. I had read so many times about "bounce back weight gain". Usually ten or fifteen pounds but sometimes much more. I researched everything I could find and there appeared to be no physical or metabolic justification for the weight gain. It was/is quite common, but I could find no science to explain it. So my year two goal became to avoid the bounce back. I established a window of 151 to 156 lbs that I was determined to maintain. I changed my weigh-ins schedule from my year one weekly weight checks to year two daily checks. My weight in year two was seldom below 151 (maybe two or three times) and never above 156.
Year three. As you get further out veterans who have "been there done that" often drop off of the forums. It became more difficult to identify potential "bumps in the road" that were common in the third year post-op period. Then over a period of time I read a number of posts by a five year veteran who repeatedly stressed that maintaining your weight becomes more difficult, m u c h more difficult, after the two year mark. And responses to this member's posts seemed to confirm that many had experienced the same difficulties. Once again I looked to science for an explanation and possible suggestions for avoiding or at least minimizing the challenges. And once again I was unable to identify any credible science to explain the problem. So my year three goal became more of a mental challenge than a physical one. I had lost 130 lbs. And I had maintained it for a year. The goal for year three became to maintain my commitment, and my focus, on following my plan that had resulted in the success I had achieved.
Stay positive. Stay patient. Monitor my weight daily and respond very quickly to weight changes. Making slight increases or decreases in my calorie goal depending on whether I needed to gain or lose two or three pounds. Exercise to my ability. Continue to maintain a food log. The result? I frankly never experienced any identifiable change in my diet, in the effort required to maintain my weight, or in my confidence that I was in complete and absolute control of my weight. No changes. None. Zip. And my weight this morning? 154.2
I only have one problem - I'm at a total loss for a year four goal! Everyone's thoughts, suggestions, ideas or experiences are most welcome!!
You guys have a terrific day and regardless of where you're at in your journey always remember - follow your plan and you're gonna love the new you!

Good day fellow (and former) So. Californians!
dsoprano - Deciding on a surgical solution for obesity is an intensely personal decision. I would not recommend that you (or anyone) go forward until you are confident that it is the right decision for you. In my case, an important part of the decision process was a considerable amount of research. There is a tremendous amount of information out there but it's important to find the most reliable and respected sources possible. I'm sure a lot of folks will have some great recommendations for you. Here are some of mine:
http://www.hsph.harv...vention-source/ (Harvard School of Public Health)
http://www.webmd.com/
http://asmbs.org/ (American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery)
http://iom.edu/Repor...Prevention.aspx (Institute of Medicine of the National Academies)
http://www.wlslifestyles.com/ (This is a digital magazine with an ENORMOUS amount of information on weight loss surgery. Cost is $19.95 for a one year subscription and imho that's a real bargain.)

Do the research. Ask questions. "Talk" to people here on the forum. There are lots of really great folks here and most of us are more than happy to share our experience and answer any questions we can.
Have a great day!!

When I gain a couple of pounds, I reduce my calorie goal by 100-200 calories for a day or two and my weight comes right back down. I've done it many times. But failing to log your food in MFP every day dramatically reduces the value of the log. For example, one of the advantages of a food log is that it makes you accountable to the most important person in the equation - you. Log the good days and not the bad (or vice versa) and you're only getting half of the story. Odds are good that your weight is responding to the half that you aren't logging.
Logging also gives you confidence that you are managing your weight as opposed to your weight managing you. Nothing builds confidence like making a calorie adjustment and then seeing the results on the scale. When you do that three or four times and you see the results every time, your confidence soars. You know you are in control and that is a great feeling. It also works the other way. If your weight drops below the number you have established as your minimum (I have a five pound "window"), you simply increase your calorie goal 100-200 calories for a day or two and you'll see your weight come back up.
One of the strongest features of MFP is the ability to customize almost every aspect of your weight management. For example, you are struggling with sugar. Go to the MFP website and login (you cannot do most customized values from the phone app), go to My Home > Goals > Change Goals and then choose the Custom option.
My daily sugar goal was set (by MFP) to 60g. A few days ago I decided that was too high so I changed it to 40g (20g would be even better but "baby steps" are usually a wiser way to go). Just knowing I made that change increased my awareness. In the last few days I have consciously chosen to pass on relatively high sugar temptations that I was pretty sure would have resulted in my exceeding my goal. So far I have not exceeded my new 40g goal. Perhaps a small victory. But in my mind an important one. And one that has been relatively painless. MFP increases your awareness which in turn encourages you to make better choices.
I believe that it's crucially important to treat not only your calorie goal, but all goals in MFP as "averages". Using my new sugar goal as an example, I want to "average" 40g a day. That doesn't mean that I can realistically expect to never exceed that goal. Special occasions are part of life and often involve food relatively high in sugar. So when (not if) I have a day where I exceed my sugar goal, I simply make a mental note to reduce my goal for the next couple of days and I'm right back on track with my average. As long as you log everything you eat, every day, your weekly summary of all of your nutrition information is a tap away. Divide any given number by seven and you have your average.
Next to the surgery itself, food logs are the single most powerful tool that you can have in your arsenal. Commit to MFP for 90 days, get to know it, experiment with different values for calories and nutrients, and it will teach you the numbers that work best for you and your lifestyle. You'll see the results where it matters the most - on the scale!

Since having my surgery on October 20, 2011, I have set a "main" goal every year. Year one was obvious, get to the weight that my body wanted to be at. Approximately fourteen months post-op I hit 155 lbs, my weight loss leveled out, I felt great about my weight, about myself, and about what I had accomplished.
Year two. I had read so many times about "bounce back weight gain". Usually ten or fifteen pounds but sometimes much more. I researched everything I could find and there appeared to be no physical or metabolic justification for the weight gain. It was/is quite common, but I could find no science to explain it. So my year two goal became to avoid the bounce back. I established a window of 151 to 156 lbs that I was determined to maintain. I changed my weigh-ins schedule from my year one weekly weight checks to year two daily checks. My weight in year two was seldom below 151 (maybe two or three times) and never above 156.
Year three. As you get further out veterans who have "been there done that" often drop off of the forums. It became more difficult to identify potential "bumps in the road" that were common in the third year post-op period. Then over a period of time I read a number of posts by a five year veteran who repeatedly stressed that maintaining your weight becomes more difficult, m u c h more difficult, after the two year mark. And responses to this member's posts seemed to confirm that many had experienced the same difficulties. Once again I looked to science for an explanation and possible suggestions for avoiding or at least minimizing the challenges. And once again I was unable to identify any credible science to explain the problem. So my year three goal became more of a mental challenge than a physical one. I had lost 130 lbs. And I had maintained it for a year. The goal for year three became to maintain my commitment, and my focus, on following my plan that had resulted in the success I had achieved.
Stay positive. Stay patient. Monitor my weight daily and respond very quickly to weight changes. Making slight increases or decreases in my calorie goal depending on whether I needed to gain or lose two or three pounds. Exercise to my ability. Continue to maintain a food log. The result? I frankly never experienced any identifiable change in my diet, in the effort required to maintain my weight, or in my confidence that I was in complete and absolute control of my weight. No changes. None. Zip. And my weight this morning? 154.2
I only have one problem - I'm at a total loss for a year four goal! Everyone's thoughts, suggestions, ideas or experiences are most welcome!!
You guys have a terrific day and regardless of where you're at in your journey always remember - follow your plan and you're gonna love the new you!

I have lost 100% of my weight. Went from 265 to 151. How much you lose and how far you go is completely up to you.. The surgery is just a tool. The surgery will work for you, but you have to work for it..

Thank you for your input. I currently don't have health insurance so when I can get the money to go see a gastroenterologist I will let you know what they say. Thank you again for your help

Regardless of what your weight is doing - follow your plan.
Stay positive. Stay patient. Exercise to your ability. Maintain a food log (next to the surgery itself, the most powerful tool you can have in your arsenal). Stay away from the scales for at least a week at a time and, if you can stand it, two would be even better. For many, goal weights and time lines are at best frustrating, at worst self-defeating. Follow your plan. For however long it takes. Simply go where it takes you. Trust the process. Gastric bypass is the most effective treatment known to medical science for the treatment of obesity and more than 30 comorbidities associated with obesity. By a very wide margin.
Never compare your weight loss to anyone else's weight loss. The fact that your weight loss is different than someone else's weight loss means absolutely nothing. Everyone is different. Allow your body to find its own way in its own time.
Your body will tell you when it's where it wants to be. And when your body is where it wants to be, you're gonna love the new you!

Hi Ginger and a huge congratulations on your success!! Great job!!
I went into my weight loss journey with the idea that my body would tell me when it was at the weight it wanted to be. I never set a goal weight. Intentionally avoided forming any expectation of how long it would/could take. After averaging just slightly under 1300 calories/day for fourteen months, my weight loss slowed to a crawl and eventually just stopped. After several weeks at the same weight, I knew I had arrived at my destination.
Then I had exactly the same question you have - now what? Seemed like a good question to ask my surgeon. She told me that 1) she did not want me to lose any more weight (BMI is/was 22.9) and 2) she recommended about 1800 calories/day for weight maintenance. I felt that jumping from 1300 calories/day to 1800 calories/day was more than a little uncomfortable. So I decided to work my way up to 1600 calories. I changed my calorie goal to 1450 and maintained that for about two months. All the while checking my weight on a daily basis. I had established a window of 151-156 pounds that I wanted to maintain. To be honest, I was somewhat surprised that even though I had increased my average calorie intake, my weight remained in that window. So after a couple of months, I increased it again to 1600 calories. And once again, there was no change in my weight - for about four or five months. In fact I thought I had found my "number" - 1600 calories.
But after four or five months at 1600, I started struggling to keep my weight above my 151 minimum. To this day I have no idea why. My diet had not changed. My calorie goal had not changed. My exercise had not changed. But my weight was dropping. So I increased my calorie goal again - this time to 1750. I have been at that daily goal for over a year now and my weight has been rock solid within my window. My weight this morning was 152.2.
I should note that I am an avid fan of maintaining a food log. I've been logging in My Fitness Pal for over three years. This is a good example of just one of the many benefits of logging. No log is absolutely accurate no matter how hard we may try but I do everything I can to make my entries as accurate as possible. My log was priceless in helping me make the calorie adjustments and then monitor the results in terms of my weight. Without my log, calorie intake would have been a guess. An educated guess, but a guess all the same. Logging is a huge confidence booster!
Congratulations again!!

I am just going to second all the above folks. I was told to eat 5 small meals a day and to sip Protein in between that. I try to follow my gut. The two times I didn't listen to my gut I returned what I ate. After those two smackdowns I am REALLY listening to my stomach. So far the scale has been on a downward trend. Woo hoo! So snack away, small, high Protein or a bite of what you crave. I have discovered that many of my "faves" don't taste good anymore. weird....

Regardless of what your weight is doing - follow your plan.
Stay positive. Stay patient. Exercise to your ability. Maintain a food log (next to the surgery itself, the most powerful tool you can have in your arsenal). Stay away from the scales for at least a week at a time and, if you can stand it, two would be even better. For many, goal weights and time lines are at best frustrating, at worst self-defeating. Follow your plan. For however long it takes. Simply go where it takes you. Trust the process. Gastric bypass is the most effective treatment known to medical science for the treatment of obesity and more than 30 comorbidities associated with obesity. By a very wide margin.
Never compare your weight loss to anyone else's weight loss. The fact that your weight loss is different than someone else's weight loss means absolutely nothing. Everyone is different. Allow your body to find its own way in its own time.
Your body will tell you when it's where it wants to be. And when your body is where it wants to be, you're gonna love the new you!

Carol - wow! Talk about success stories! You are like the poster person for gastric bypass!
It is unfortunate that so many of the vets drop off the forum after reaching their goals. I don't post replies as often as I once did (you can only answer the same question so many times and then it's time for others to take over) but I still monitor the forum on a regular basis and try to help out where I can. I firmly believe that, like a person that has the disease of alcoholism, I will always have the disease of obesity. Whether you're one year post-op or ten years post-op, managing your weight is a life long endeavor. Reading the victories, challenges, and lessons learned by others is an invaluable tool for maintaining my commitment. You never stop learning.
Have a great day!!

I weigh myself daily. It helps me stay on track, especially now during the holiday season.

During the "rapid weight loss" stage of my journey I weighed once a week, even once every two weeks if I could stand it. Daily weigh-ins can be frustrating at best and self-defeating at worst during this stage.
Once I transitioned into the "maintenance" stage, I started to weigh every day for weight management purposes. I established a weight window of 151-156 lbs. My daily weigh-ins give me immediate feedback on how I'm doing. More importantly, they allow me to identify and respond to two or three pound shifts (up or down) immediately. If my weight is a little high, I decrease my calorie goal by 100-200 calories for a day or two and my weight comes right back down. If it's a little low, a 100-200 calorie increase for a day or two and it comes right back up. I've done both many times. Works like a charm. My weight has not been above 156 for two years. It did slip below 151 two or three times but was easy to correct. Today's weight - 153.8.
I've been logging in My Fitness Pal for over three years and it is an amazing tool for truly managing your weight. As opposed to your weight managing you. It puts me in complete control. The confidence from knowing that is priceless. Making a two or three pound correction is a snap. Correcting 10, 20 or more pounds - considerably more challenging.

You've obviously already done a great job Ginger and I think you have a great plan for moving forward into the maintenance stage. I really believe that gradual calorie increases followed by monitoring your body's response in terms of weight gain or loss is the way to go. BMI is a less than ideal measure of healthy weight, especially for those with a higher than average amount of muscle mass. I think your plan to get the body fat analysis is a terrific idea. I've never had one but would be very interested in your experience and what you learn from it.
The rapid weight loss part of the journey was incredibly exciting and rewarding. But the maintenance stage was, for me, where the real fun began. It's one thing to prove to yourself that you can lose weight. It's quite another to discover that you really have made the all important lifestyle changes. That you can eat quite a "normal" diet and still maintain your weight. That you can manage your weight instead of it managing you. That you really, truly, absolutely are in control and lovin' the new you!!

Hi Ginger and a huge congratulations on your success!! Great job!!
I went into my weight loss journey with the idea that my body would tell me when it was at the weight it wanted to be. I never set a goal weight. Intentionally avoided forming any expectation of how long it would/could take. After averaging just slightly under 1300 calories/day for fourteen months, my weight loss slowed to a crawl and eventually just stopped. After several weeks at the same weight, I knew I had arrived at my destination.
Then I had exactly the same question you have - now what? Seemed like a good question to ask my surgeon. She told me that 1) she did not want me to lose any more weight (BMI is/was 22.9) and 2) she recommended about 1800 calories/day for weight maintenance. I felt that jumping from 1300 calories/day to 1800 calories/day was more than a little uncomfortable. So I decided to work my way up to 1600 calories. I changed my calorie goal to 1450 and maintained that for about two months. All the while checking my weight on a daily basis. I had established a window of 151-156 pounds that I wanted to maintain. To be honest, I was somewhat surprised that even though I had increased my average calorie intake, my weight remained in that window. So after a couple of months, I increased it again to 1600 calories. And once again, there was no change in my weight - for about four or five months. In fact I thought I had found my "number" - 1600 calories.
But after four or five months at 1600, I started struggling to keep my weight above my 151 minimum. To this day I have no idea why. My diet had not changed. My calorie goal had not changed. My exercise had not changed. But my weight was dropping. So I increased my calorie goal again - this time to 1750. I have been at that daily goal for over a year now and my weight has been rock solid within my window. My weight this morning was 152.2.
I should note that I am an avid fan of maintaining a food log. I've been logging in My Fitness Pal for over three years. This is a good example of just one of the many benefits of logging. No log is absolutely accurate no matter how hard we may try but I do everything I can to make my entries as accurate as possible. My log was priceless in helping me make the calorie adjustments and then monitor the results in terms of my weight. Without my log, calorie intake would have been a guess. An educated guess, but a guess all the same. Logging is a huge confidence booster!
Congratulations again!!

It's been a challenge for me. On the one hand, I enjoy walking (I really do). But I sometimes have a tendency to get carried away with things which leads to unrealistic expectations. Reaching for goals that are not sustainable in the long term is a sure formula for failure. For me, exercise is the perfect example.
First I set a goal of walking five miles a day, every other day. And I bought a Total Gym at the same time and set a goal of strength training every other day. I enjoyed doing both - for about six months. The walking evolved into measuring my time per mile. Then that became working (hard) to push that time down. And then pushing the total miles up. Then increasing the calories burned. On and on.
The strength training started with very modest workouts (I was concerned about injuries). But that quickly evolved into pushing myself to do more and more. More weight. More reps. More sets. More, more, more.
Bottom line - after about six months I eventually stopped doing both. It wasn't a conscience "forget this" decision. I just found myself skipping one or the other (and eventually both) for all of the usual reasons we come up with for not doing things we really don't want to do. It was frustrating, time consuming, disruptive of a busy schedule. And for all of those reasons, it just wasn't sustainable. Physically it wasn't a problem. Psychologically was a different story.
After about a three month break I knew that I wanted to begin walking again. But I had an honest conversation with myself and realized that my goals had to change if they were to be sustainable. So here are the highlights of the new plan:
My new walking goal is a daily average of about 7,000 - 8,000 steps a day. In the back of my mind I know that 10,000 steps is the recommended goal. And sometimes I do that. Some days even a little more. But I congratulate myself for hitting an average of 7 to 8 thousand. I don't punish myself on those days where I fall a little short. I don't pay any attention to miles. I don't pay any attention to minutes per mile. I don't pay any attention to calories burned. My goal is steps - period. I don't saunter, but I'm not pushing myself to the limit either. Now here's one that has been a real eye-opener. I was at costco one day and when I came out it occurred to me that I could make some progress toward my walking goal for that day with a relative quick walk around the shopping center. So off I went. And in ten to fifteen minutes I added about 3,000 steps to my day's total. A day or two later, I was at the grocery store pharmacy filling a Rx. The pharmacist said that it would be about 20 minutes. Thinking back to my costco excursion, I decided this was another good opportunity to build up my steps for the day. In the process I discovered a small park about a block away from the store complete with a quarter mile walking track. How cool is that?! For the last six weeks, I have walked around just about every kind of store, restaurant, Starbucks and any other kind of place that life takes me. It's quick, easy and it doesn't require that I just drop everything to walk. I'm already "there". Wherever there happens to be. I'm always looking for the opportunity to do a little walking. Sounds a little silly (even to me). It might not work for everyone. But for me, it's been a huge psychological and motivational game changer. Some folks may not realize that walking is "cumulative". Numerous studies have shown that it makes no difference whether you walk five miles at one time, one mile five times during the day, or any other combination. The more steps you do, the greater the health benefit. Walking is walking. It all counts and it adds up surprisingly quickly. I walk for all of the health benefits of walking - circulation, blood pressure, cardio, relaxation, etc. I do not walk for the purpose of controlling my weight (that was never my goal). I no longer record or even monitor calories burned. I don't know or care how long it takes me to walk a mile. Like I said, my only goal is steps. I'm still working on a plan for getting back to strength training. I recognize the importance. I just need to formulate a plan that will provide a similar psychological and motivational boost. I've been thinking about trying daily, short sets (about 15 minutes) that will focus on different muscle groups each day. Probably not as effective as longer sets but, for me, almost certainly more sustainable. And sustainability is everything.
I'm sure there are folks who will read this and be reminded of their own personal discoveries of sustainable ways to maintain their exercise regimens. I for one would love to read about the keys to your success!!

Since having my surgery on October 20, 2011, I have set a "main" goal every year. Year one was obvious, get to the weight that my body wanted to be at. Approximately fourteen months post-op I hit 155 lbs, my weight loss leveled out, I felt great about my weight, about myself, and about what I had accomplished.
Year two. I had read so many times about "bounce back weight gain". Usually ten or fifteen pounds but sometimes much more. I researched everything I could find and there appeared to be no physical or metabolic justification for the weight gain. It was/is quite common, but I could find no science to explain it. So my year two goal became to avoid the bounce back. I established a window of 151 to 156 lbs that I was determined to maintain. I changed my weigh-ins schedule from my year one weekly weight checks to year two daily checks. My weight in year two was seldom below 151 (maybe two or three times) and never above 156.
Year three. As you get further out veterans who have "been there done that" often drop off of the forums. It became more difficult to identify potential "bumps in the road" that were common in the third year post-op period. Then over a period of time I read a number of posts by a five year veteran who repeatedly stressed that maintaining your weight becomes more difficult, m u c h more difficult, after the two year mark. And responses to this member's posts seemed to confirm that many had experienced the same difficulties. Once again I looked to science for an explanation and possible suggestions for avoiding or at least minimizing the challenges. And once again I was unable to identify any credible science to explain the problem. So my year three goal became more of a mental challenge than a physical one. I had lost 130 lbs. And I had maintained it for a year. The goal for year three became to maintain my commitment, and my focus, on following my plan that had resulted in the success I had achieved.
Stay positive. Stay patient. Monitor my weight daily and respond very quickly to weight changes. Making slight increases or decreases in my calorie goal depending on whether I needed to gain or lose two or three pounds. Exercise to my ability. Continue to maintain a food log. The result? I frankly never experienced any identifiable change in my diet, in the effort required to maintain my weight, or in my confidence that I was in complete and absolute control of my weight. No changes. None. Zip. And my weight this morning? 154.2
I only have one problem - I'm at a total loss for a year four goal! Everyone's thoughts, suggestions, ideas or experiences are most welcome!!
You guys have a terrific day and regardless of where you're at in your journey always remember - follow your plan and you're gonna love the new you!

Thanks for your kind words Ms. Mimi! I walk five miles every other day and do strength training on my Total Gym every other day. Lol - at least that's the goal. I probably hit it about 75% of the time. I enjoy doing both but I own my own company and the demands on my time are not always as predictable as I would like. But as I keep reminding myself, you make time for the things that are important. I'm considering making my year four goal a fitness goal. I average just under a fourteen minute mile when I walk. I'm thinking I could probably push that down to thirteen and a half, perhaps a little better if I apply myself and stick with my schedule. The benefits of exercise, not only physically but mentally as well, are over the top. To say nothing of doing great things for your weight!!
Forget about your past experiences with dieting. The bypass quite literally changes everything. Most of us simply had no reference point to compare it to pre-op. You will be amazed!
Thanks again and have a great day!

Was just in the "Most positive post" thread where we all are talking about what we're thankful for. It made me think of this first post I made 6 months ago and how encouraging and knowledgable everyone was. I'm now 6 days away from surgery and really thrilled with this choice and very excited for the future.
So thank you, everyone!