Globetrotter

B - turkey cream cheese roll ups X2, 1 hickory farms beef stick L - 2.5 oz tuna w mayo & mustard D - 3 oz chicken, 2 oz shredded cheese S - sugarless gum, hot tea total carbs for the day - 17!! What I wish I was eating? ... B - eggs benedict with fresh crab, a milky latte, english muffin with butter and jam, bacon L - fresh sushi D - croq au vin, hot apple pie, gin & tonic S - aged cheddar, crackers, hummus& veggies, caviar. Hey, a girl can dream!!

I've always tried to keep my carbs below 30g's, per my surgeon's recommendation. A really successful day IMO was if I could keep the carbs in the teens. Lately though they have crept up into the 50's and I have been in a stall for 12 days so I am going back on super low carb and low cal to see if I can shake things up. On vacation though I ate real carbs every day - bakery bread, Christmas cookies, milk, etc - and I lost weight like gangbusters, so, who fricken knows ...

Well, I am in a stall right now, 12 days so far, so I looked up my weight loss stats by month on my online diet tracker. Boy, did I get a nasty shock - I lost the greatest amount of weight in a single month when I averaged 608 calories a day! Here's the breakdown - Surgery 14 July Started tracking online end of August, by which time I had lost 24 lbs Aug - 1 pound Sep - 17 pounds Oct - 13 pounds Nov - 4 pounds Dec - 12 pounds Jan - 6 pounds Perhaps it was because it was the 2 months out point and that's a highwater mark, I don't know. But in the month of September I lost 17 (!!) pounds and though it varied the average calorie intake was 608. As for my exercise, at that time I was strictly doing the treadmill for 30 minutes of gentle walking. Granted, the dates I have to go by are just when I entered loss so the month of sept spills a little into either side so really I probably lost 15lbs rather than 17. The month of December, you will notice, was great with 12 pounds lost and what did I do? Ate what I pleased, rich Christmassy foods, did the elliptical for 30 minutes (most days), didn't track my foods at all. I'm starting to think that the weight training is holding back my weight loss. I know it is guarding against floppy skin and muscles but maybe I'm supposed to save the weights until I've lost the weight??

It's so scary, I've been in a stall for 12 days now and the idea of gaining back or not losing more is a nightmare. I've discovered, to my horror, that protein shakes - protein shakes!!- are sliders for me that create more hunger!! How messed up is that! I couldn't figure out why I have been a seemingly bottomless pit lately until I realized that it started when I started relying on a shake for breakfast. Something about the sweet liquid nature of it just encourages me to feel like I could/want to keep eating. =C =C. A lot of my go-to proteins are turning into sliders, which scares me. Tuna salad, turkey cream cheese roll ups, the protein shakes, boo.

I've heard rumors of people who fall into that category, I think most of us don't like to think about that possibility because it is so so frightening.

They get a bad rap but brussel sprouts are great, just make sure to use only the tiniest ones, cut an x on the bottoms, and steam in chicken broth rather than water. Yum!! You can make a lot of vegetables like mashed potatoes; parsnips, coliflower, turnips, rutebagas. Made like mashies, with butter, greek yogurt, chives, salt and pepper, and they are goo-ood! Cabbage also gets a bad rap but is an amazing vegetable; make vinegar rather than mayo-based cole slaw, braise in a little bacon fat, saute, use as a thickening base for soups, cut a chop with crumbled bleu cheese and slivered almonds (just take your gas-X or beano hee hee). You can also sneek in your greens as wrappers instead of tortillas and as a substitute wherever rice is suggested in a recipe. stuffed peppers, yum ... early spring onions should be around the corner, onion soups are amazing!

B - Protein shake w/ milk, torani SF syrup. Sausage pattie, TBSP scrambled egg white & cheese. L - 4 oz baked chicken breast, 1 tsp balsamic vinegar. D - Cafe Steamers chicken & red pepper alfredo It's at least another hour and a half before I can eat dinner and I don't know if I will make it, my god I want something so bad, popcorn, Peanut Butter, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh.

Corn is a super high glycemic index food, I should basically never eat it, in any form. Which is a shame because a fresh ear of corn in August, barely boiled, dripping in sweet butter and salt, is pure joy. *sniff*

Article in the New York Times. Should clear up some questions ... http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/health/25brody.html?ref=health

Yeah, I'm frustrated and anxious these days, that's for sure. I lost 12 pounds in December and only 6 pounds in January which is devastating. I've been in Iraq (I'm a civilian with the Army) for 2 years now, have no place to live when I return to the States, have no romantic prospects, am still fat, dislike my job, and am over 6 months out from surgery. Clothes don't look good on my stuffed sausage body, my waist calves refuse to lose inches. I am 87 pounds from goal and I am so #$%&&% sick of being so #$%-^%$# fat.

So unfair!! I slacked off last week and this week at the gym, averaging only 3xs per week and not pushing myself for maximum drenching and I hit a mega stall! It's so unfair! There are people on here all the time talking about how they never worked out during their losing phase and yet made it to goal quickly! I have now discovered that the SECOND I stop working out, I stop losing weight. WTF WTF WTF WTF WTF. >=C

I really needed this today. I'm in a frustrated place right now, lost enough weight to realize just how far I still have to go, lost enough weight to realize just how enormous I was and that I am still fat and frantic and frustrated. I need to hear these messages of hope right now. It is terrible to lose 77 pounds and genuinely feel like it's just a drop in the bucket.

Ever since I came back from R&R I have been slipping. My room is an utter pigstye, I've only been to the gym once this week, my eating has become more and more disordered, I'm not styling my hair in the mornings, I have no energy. I can't blame my cycle, as this has been going on for at least 2 weeks and I'm still 2 weeks out from it. I return to the States from my tour in 5 more weeks, there is a lot of anxiety wrapped up in that - finding employment, keeping employment, finding a place to live, still being fat. I've been in a stall for 2 weeks. I average about 850 cals a day, 80g's Protein. My carbs have risen, used to be below 25, now are regularly above 35. Pretty blue right now.

This is an issue also with BMs, having no momentum to push.

Liquid calories are the easiest, make a Protein shake in the morning with real milk, Peanut Butter, banana, and a couple of different chocolate protein powders. Top it off with some SF whipped cream and you've got yourself a protein dense, calorie rich meal.

When I get frustrated still being in a plus size, 16, I try to remember what a pair of 16s would have looked like to my pre-op self, when I was in a 24. I try to remember that I had a pair of 22s that I couldn't get over my hips and that those same pants are now in the bottom of my wardrobe because they are too big to be worn even with a belt. I try to remember all this and not be greedy, but I can hardly WAIT to get into the single digits! I haven't worn a single digit since I was 17!

They stopped carrying my liquid whey isolate protein bullets at the PC so I have to get all my protein from food and shakes and because of this it is next to impossible to keep my carbs under 30 (surg & nut recomendations). I still have no hunger, and for the longest time it really didn't matter what I put in my mouth, as far as taste/interest is concerned, but now for some reasons (I'm 6 months out) now I want to eat a variety of foods, I want to eat vegetables, whole grains, a variety of lean meats, sea vegetables, soups, etc. etc. This probably has more to do with the fact that I'm getting very close to going home and am just so sick and tired of this place and the monotony (sp). I seem to be in a stall, 10 days since I lost anything. I feel like I'm getting sloppy; though I document it all and my cals are within range, my carb count has crept up, and I have had things like popcorn, chocolate, creamer in my tea, whole packets of splenda in my tea, a hot dog frank, chicken wings, basically junk food! I don't want to eat junk food butmy alternative is endless identical chicken breasts, tasteless vegetable medleys, and protein shakes. I didn't work out this morning, feel like a slug.

Even though I ate over 1100 calories a day on vacation and lost 8 lbs in 7 days, I can't seem to bring myself to eat that much now that I am back in my hyper-controlled regular environment. I average about 800 calories a day and yes, my loss has ground to a halt. In 10 days I have lost only a pound.

you can put your tuna, hummus, dip-stuff on sliced cucumbers if you are looking for that crunch, you can bake salami slices till they get crispy, make parmesan crackers. If you want wraps, certain lettuce leaves work really well, and these thin spring roll wrappers that come in dry flat sheets that you soak. I am 6 months in and I do not eat rice, grains, potatoes of every kind, bread, oatmeal, bread coating or bread crumbs. I do not eat these things because they take up too much space, both in my tummy and in my calorie/carb count. However, when I was home on vacation I ate fresh baguette from the bakery, tiny little high tea sandwiches made with bread, sugar cookies, and alcoholic drinks and I lost a ton of weight so, go figure!

Now that I think about it, I might have assessed the mans condition, see if he was really alert or not, and if he did seem to be fully cognisant of himself I think I would have very sweetly said this, "I would think that by the time someone got to be as old as you, that they would learn some manners. Didn't your mother ever teach you manners?"

I was sleeved at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.

The only thing I would say to change up is your water intake, IMPO you need more than a pint. I know plain water can be difficult in the first weeks so herbal (decaf) tea can really be a friend. Plain peppermint is gentle and soothing.

Yes I can! I went to the gym this morning and pedalled fast for 30 minutes on a bike and did a full weights rotation. I thought I would get a good sweat going on the bike but I went 9 miles and barely got damp!

I never had any pain, some discomfort over the first week as all the surgical gas moved out of my system but while I was in the hospital I didn't feel a dang thing - that I can remember, ha ha! Here's to the liberal application of pain erasing drugs!! =)

I feel like a LOSER, and not the good kind! last week I only went to the gym 3 times and today is Monday and I didn't go so, getting off to a bad start this week! =C AND I woke up at the time I was supposed to this morning, I could have easily pulled on my gym clothes and gone but nooo, I turned off the alarm, reset it, and went back to bed - boo!!!! I hope I go tomorrow morning, I will ride the bike till I'm drenched to try to make up for being so lazy!!