aquitenonnymouse

YAY!

Yup. You're eating similarly to an anorexic. Our bodies are in survival mode. I've heard that it gets better!

I had superglue-type stuff on most of my incisions, but no stitches or glue on my drain site. It healed fine- such a small incision.

Yay!

At a few weeks out, I was eating pureed foods, and was told it had to be able to be pushed through a small sieve. I'd think Hamburger would be too dense, and you probably aren't chewing it as well as you think you are!

I LOVE pickled green beans. The recipe I use is from the Ball Canning Blue Book. It's called Dilly Beans, and if you look it up you're sure to find many tasty recipes. Traditionally, Dilly Beans have cayenne pepper, garlic, and dill. Yummy.

This is a great list! I have a slightly similar one, but nothing as big as law school or a marathon!

I started chewing trident occasionally about 3-4 months out from surgery. My surgeon said it was alright as long as I didn't have a habit of swallowing gum, which I never have.

In addition to loosing fat in your feet/ankles, as you become lighter you are not compressing the bones in your feet as much. You may find you have a higher arch as you loose weight from your foot not flattening as much.

Me too! I started as a 12B, and I just bought a 10B that fits (dress shoes). I think in some shoes I'm a 10.5, because lots of the 10s were too small, but the 11s were too big. Easier to find shoes, but not simple yet! I wish 10.5 was a common size for dress shoes, but I could not find 12s in stores before, so I'll deal with trying to figure out what brands fit me in a 10. I just bought my first pair of dress shoes since surgery (6.5 months out), and I was surprised that it was a full TWO SIZES SMALLER! Holy moly.

I'm in a similar situation and am starting this tomorrow evening with my (non-sleeved) husband just to kick-start my metabolism again. I'd describe this as my first plateau too, and I'm 100lbs down and 6.5 months out. I hope the bootcamp worked well for you!

Congrats! You look fantastic!

Ha ha! I called her out in a closet cleaning challenge, and she said she was working on it. :-D

Congratulations!

To a certain extent, if you will have loose skin, you will have loose skin. It will firm up some, but if your skin was damaged from your weight gain, it can't heal itself. It can shrink up some, but won't gain elasticity if it was lost. Light weight training can help, I've heard, so can keeping your skin moisturized, to help the collagen and elastin. The places where you have stretch marks- those are marks of the elasticity of your skin being damaged. I know I'll always have loose skin in those areas, unless I have cosmetic surgery. My calves will be fine, but my upper arms, thighs, belly and breasts will be loose and saggy.

I was really cautious about the dietary progression from liquid to puree to soft.

I have NO CLUE how to build up to it... maybe push-ups to build up the strength first?

I'd wait until you were into pureed foods (watermelon in the blender) or soft foods (ripe watermelon you can bite off the rind).

Thanks for the feedback on that! My cycling so far as been around the 'block' (3 miles), but there are LOTS of hills, and although it takes me about 15 minutes, I'm SO BEAT after the last hill towards my house that I stop there. The last hill is 1/2 mi long and exhausting. Ugh. I wish I had a flatter place to bike! I'll have to try out the capris. Right now I'm wearing my jogging pants, but with rubber bands around my ankles to stop them from getting caught in the chain. It's a little too warm and the baggyness doesn't keep my thighs as close to me as I'd like. Boy, is my butt bonier than it used to be, though! I'm more sore from my pelvis on the seat now than when I was 100 pounds heavier, but at least I don't have to stop to walk up a (moderate or long) hill!

You can mix the chicken flavor with 140 degree Water for broth, but I really like 1 scoop of chocolate Splendor in 1c milk, or vanilla flavor with coffee extract flavoring, or in shakes with a little fruit in a blender. I LOVE

Yeah, I like that I can grab a bar if I think I might be out of the house at meal time and didn't have time to pack lunch.

Oh man, can I laugh just a tiny bit? I had never thought of "wide" sizing.

My surgery group is very cautious. I had 3 weeks liquid, 3 weeks pureed, 3 weeks super-soft foods.

Good luck! 18 lbs, wow!

YAY! That's a great Non-Scale Victory!