Globetrotter

If I were really hard on myself, I'd be at goal already! =P

Hi all, I am close to goal, 15 from surgeon's, 40 from personal. I exercise regularly, 4-5x per week, 1-2 hours at a time. I get in between 700-900 cals on average, 70+ grams protein, and 30-70 grams carbs a day on average. How can I shake things up to get over this last hill and get to goal already? I've heard that nutritional needs change when you get closer to goal and that how you lose weight changes as well. Should I increase calories, decrease? Reduce carbs, increase? Increase exercise? My exercise is currently yoga, TRX, dancing, and treadmil/elliptical. I have been stalled for 50 days.

Hello all, I am a year and a half out from surgery, still 15 lbs from surgeon's goal, 40 from personal. I have only just been bitten by the running bug in the past 2 weeks and I want to do it correctly. I got overexcited and committed the classic beginner's blunder by trying to do too much too fast with too little knowledge. I'm doing intervals on the treadmill and my knees hurt so much! I'm limping when walking and my gait during running feels like it must be dreadful. Any insights for the newbie? Also, how best to eat, run, and lose weight as I am still so far from goal?

As of last week I've added in some daily cardio as part of my yoga-trx-dance routine, 20-30 minutes of running intervals on the treadmill or cycling on the stationary bike, we'll see what that does, as the scale hasn't budged in 6 weeks =( I'm still 40 pounds overweight so this is just spirit-crushing. And as my cardio has increased, so has my desire for sweet and salty! The other day I sucked all of the salt off of a bag of roldgold pretzels and purposely drank a third of an icy cold Coke - and I've never been a soda drinker, even before surgery. I have a pair of boot cut cords from JCrew in a size 12P, I have now been wearing them for THIRTY POUNDS, and they still fit the same, just a little looser. Talk about demoralizing!! At this rate I'll have worn them for 50 lbs before they are baggy. wtf.

I would love to give up all carbs that aren't an intrinic part of whatever protein I'm eating. I'd also like to give up all sugar/added sugar/sweeteners beyond stevia

Hey Diva - could you give an example of an average day's workout and food for you? I haven't lost in 44 days and am 3 lbs up from my lowest and I practice yoga, TRX, tango, and walking 4x a week. Today I had chicken caesar salad for brunch, and will have kebob chicken for lunch and tuna w/2 rye crackers for dinner, plus lots of mint tea (no sweetener) and probably a small piece of dark chocolate. I will jog/walk 3 miles this afternoon and do a round of elliptical.

Definitely Coops you are in my thoughts. And I hope that there are outlets for your grief other than food, for me personally when I am sad it is a struggle to not binge on bad things. I haven't lost weight in 41 days, I'm 3 lbs up from my all time low, my clothes are like sausage casings, but a dance partner last night asked if I had lost weight because I was "looking skinny"!!!! The first time in my life I have ever heard that word used anywhere near a reference to me, bless their heart! Gotta love the optical illusion of plaid =/

Well Coops, you are still doing better than me! I feel like a tick about to pop, and I'm still 15 lbs away from goal, and I seem to be gaining weight hand over fist, even though my eating has not changed. I REALLY get your frustration!

My pants are like sausage casings, my thyroid is normal. =(

I do low carb, less than 30 is ideal. If I eat the kind of food that is low carb but not necessarily low calorie then I set myself up for a gallbladder attack.

Sure 2 lbs of that is bounce - water, constipation, bloat, whatever. But that is 4 undeniable pounds, despite daily exercise and between 800-1100 cals per day. I am really distressed.

I have gained six pounds, clearly I am one of the unfortunates who cannot deviate from <800 cals. A week of 1000-1100, 6 pounds. I'm stricken.

Tera's whey organic fairtrade dark chocolate whey powder is the best. Add some hemp milk, some Click mocha protein powder, some SF syrup, some SF whipped topping and a tap of cinnamon - put it in one of those ceramic cups made to look like a to-go paper coffee cup, and NOBODY can tell that it isn't some calorific concoction from starbucks! =)

That is the MOST toxic, psychotic, narcissistic, passive-aggressive BULLSHIT! Man, that really pulls my trigger. F***ing people who actually secretly (or not so secretly) delight in your fat vulerability because it makes them feel better about themselves! And should you upset the status quo, they really flip out! They desperatey NEED for you to stay unhappy, to better congratulate themselves on being superior!! fuuuuuu** that shi*.

Tuesday February 7th, 2012 - B: Earl Grey tea latte, "London Fog". 1 cup 2% milk, vanilla syrup. 2 oreos, 1 small cinnamon sugar doughnut, 1 chips-ahoy ='( greek yogurt, walnuts L: chicken pickle roll ups, Protein shot D: sauteed chicken, brussel sprouts snack: pink lady apple multivit, coq10, essential woman oils Water (hot decaf herbal tea)

Big Luvs 4 all! =) @Lila21, definitely I will take you up on the offer, let's be anti-sugar buddies! Now that I have finished my morning tea latte I will not eat or drink anything for the rest of the day that contains added sugar, and the sweetener I use will be stevia. Tomorrow, nothing remotely sweet unless it is a fiberous piece of fruit.=) @Coops, I know it sounds like I am being hard on myself but I'm really not hard enough! Fretting isn't the same as doing, and I need to do. I kind of scoff at the notion of someone my size being "addicted" to exercie, but I only feel good about myself and positive about my weight future during exercise. Of course, during yoga I can get terribly upset because my f***ing gut is still in the way.>:[ I really have got to look into finding a good deal on a juicer, I think 2 weeks on juice and protein shakes would be an excellent reboot. =)

Hey guys, I'm starting to distrust myself. When I still had faith that I would lose weight, when I saw it coming off steadily at a pound every other day, I was so sure of myself and my sleeve that all manner of evil foods could pass under my nose and have little affect on me. Now, I can't be trusted, and that makes me sad. Also, even though the scale hasn't moved, I just feel fat, and no it isn't TOTM. Sigh. I ate bread over the weekend, and carrot cake, and lemonade =( Is my only choice to empty my house of everything and go back on liquids? I'm starting to have a sweet tooth like never before in my life, always I have been a savory/salty snacker, I never even liked carrot cake! =( =( I know I'm slumping big time, my house is a filthy mess, I'm not putting any effort into my appearance, etc. etc.

oh yeah, I'm also going to bring back a post-op behavior that I have not done in nearly a year, not drinking while eating and waiting 30 min after eating to drink, to get maximum fullness and time-in-stomach for the food I eat.

@ MeginNOLA - I have wondered that, but there is still definite pudge on my body, not just muscle and skin but real fat, around my gut, my chest, my thighs, all over. I know that I do have and will have plenty of skin and tissue that will need to be removed through total body contouring which is why I am perfectly fine with a goal weight of 130 +/- lbs, since I know I will lose an additional 10 lbs in skin easily. @ Coops - day one and I've had an Oikos with walnuts & stevia, 4 oz of deli sliced lunch meat smeared with fat free cream cheese and rolled up, and .... a handful of cinnamon M&M's =( =( =( I don't know WHY I ate them, I just WANTED the sugar/chocolate/crunch/sweet. =( Did the double work out last night, doing yoga & tango back to back tonight, gotta push the Water, have only drunk 1 cup of tea so far =/ My food for the rest of the day would have included; a Protein bullet, a serving of pumpkin seeds, an apple, a chicken breast & brussel sprouts, but now I will have to cut out the apple and the protein bullet because of those effing M&M's =( I was really looking forward to that apple. =( Oh well, tomorrow. Now, water water water water!!!!

Aww, thanks for the cheerleading Coops! =) I know that here, amongst my people, I am not fat but out in the "real" world, for my height, yes I am overweight. BMI still has me as fat, and even surgeon's goal (150) will still have me as "overweight"! I have already created a new food plan for tomorrow in my tracker for 1070 calories, yikes! I arrived at that number using a BMR calculator. When you are eating good foods it is tricky getting in all those calories, yet staying in the right range of carbs v protein. Tonight I have TRX and BodyFlow (combination tai chi, yoga, & pilates) and will have some greek yogurt for dinner. I have a friend that just today offered to show me how to run properly so I may be incorporating that as well. Saying no to my tastebuds is going to be difficult, I think there may be some psychology involved there, fear of deprivation? Stimulating my tastebuds in lieu of something else I really want but aren't getting? Hmm. Funny Coops, I too have hit 164! After some horrific gallbladder attacks that left me wrung out of all bodily fluids, I hit 164.4 and am currently about 165 something. It is time to go back to my roots and banish these white-flour carbs and starches, kick out the white sugar that has crept in, start weighing everything again, and drink that water!!!! I am going to stay on the 1000+ calories for seven days (starting tomorrow), I will weigh myself tomorrow morning and then not again until day seven, and see what happens!

So here I am, back in the Forum, still one Slow A** Loser =P. It is the sweets that have gotten me, specifically the sweet carbs. I have been known in the past 6 months to eat a Payday bar, a snickers, a doughnut!!!! Certainly this hasn't helped matters but, I have always been a slow loser, just never this slow. I don't do much cardio even though I move a LOT - yoga, pilates, TRX, tango. So, how to frickin lose my last 40?!! GAH!! Obviously, stop it with the junk food, increase my water, change up my work out to include more/better cardio. But what about my calories? I have always been low cal, 850 or less. The one thing I've never done is go high cal for a concerted period of time, say 1200 for a week. I'm afraid to go that high. WHY have I had to fight for every ***ing pound, since day one?! F***!!!! I'm just so tired of being fat. 18 months later and I'm STILL. FAT.

UPDATE: It's well over a year since I started this thread, wow! I have remained a frustratingly slow loser and am now averaging barely 1-2 lbs per month, still hovering around 800 cals, still exercising 1-2 hours a day, 5 days a week. I am not to goal yet. The one thing I have never done in the year and a half since surgery is to go high calorie -1200- for a concerted period of time. I'm simply too afraid of what might happen.

I would very much like to hear responses on this issue as well, I am a year and a half out and am on the hunt for ways to jump start my weight loss again and have become interested in juicing.

Hey everybody, Globetrotter here, long time no post! As some of you may recall, I returned from deployment one year ago this month. Life has been a whirlwind of adjustment ever since and I have become a stranger on our forum. In the year that I have been home I have lost "only" 40 lbs, bringing my post-op weight loss to 130 lbs. I am 18 months out from surgery and am still not at goal, which is just so frustrating and demoralizing. I am 15 lbs away from surgeon's goal and 40 lbs away from personal goal. Anyone who remembers me here knows that I have been a slooow loser from day one, always fretting over it, but now it really has slowed to about one or two pounds a month. In the last 7 months I have lost only 15 lbs. I exercise at least 4 days a week, for several hours at a time. A typical day of exercise for me includes a TRX class, followed by a yoga class, followed by 2 hours of tango. I still eat a lot of Protein but I will admit - I eat s*** now. I have allowed myself to eat french fries, chocolate cake, alcohol, whipped cream, bread, etc. I am incredibly lucky that, a year and a half out, I still do not have real hunger, but my tastebuds rule. I have fallen off the path my brothers and sisters, and I know that falling away from the Forum has NOT helped. I've got to get to goal folks, I've got to. I am 5'3" and 164 lbs, I am still fat. Yes, I am active, yes I look 100x better than when I started, but my chub still prevents me from running that mile, from achieving that yoga pose, from enjoying those killer stillettos longer than an hour. I plea for your help in returning me to the fold and helping me across that finish line. I didn't know if there is a place in the forum now for long term sleevers, a place to discuss the changes in metabolism, the challenges of acheiving goal after the first year when you've beena slow loser, all that. I look forward to hearing from you. =) Globetrotter

I am a year and a half out from surgery (still not to goal) and have had sudden attacks of colic. The surgeon wants to take my gallbladder and I am reluctant, I am afraid that it wil affect my quality of life and or slow down my continuing (at a snail's pace) weight loss. Thoughts?