Forsythia

I'm a planet fitness hater. If I am going to go to a gym, I want weights, I want all the cardio, classes and a pool. I also hate the yellow purple and gray color scheme and the lunk alarm. I know its supposed to be for beginners and not intimidating but I feel like it is cheating you by not offering free weights. Because you need weights - in fact I completely disagree with the poster above who says you really only need cardio. The best way to be fit and to help tighten up the excess skin is to lift and lift heavy (I'm not saying it is going to work a miracle, but lifting will help). If you want yoga, fitness classes, and a pool you can join LA Fitness for $30 per month if you are in an LA Fitness state. They don't offer swimming lessons though. When I was a kid, my parents signed us up at the local high school in the summer. Maybe you can do that for the swimming lessons bit? Having said my hate speech, I will say that the PF in neighborhood is clean, has ample parking and is well kept.

This has never happened to me. And I've totally downed a drink mid-meal w/o even realizing more than once. So I'm not sure that it happens to everyone. But it can happen.

I do a 40/30/30 ratio. But I typically get over 40% Protein. I eat closer to 1200 calories on workout days (most days I am in there at least an hour to two, depending on what I am doing). But this is what works for me. Start tweaking - use My Fitness Pal, see what works, what doesn't. Also 30 lbs in 2 months is great. It's not going to magically drop off! It's gonna go in fits and spurts. But it will come off.

Woot. Makes you feel like a boss, right?!

Also, It might just make sense to keep a container of unflavored protein powder in a drawer in your office and just call it a day!!

LOL. You almost caused a campus-wide lockdown, girl!

My surgeon expects me to lose at least 100 lbs due to the surgery. As of this morning I've lost 69 (3.5 months post op - not to mention what I lost pre-op). I'm pretty sure I can blow past that and get down to 150. I'm in the gym 5x a week. I swim, I lift weights, do all kinds of cardio. I take a class once a week. And I track everything I eat. I am committed and will lose this weight. This is my last chance at a normal healthy, diabetes free life. I've spent too many years abusing my poor body. Now is time to own it and make amends.

Yeah but taste. And fat free cheese doesn't melt very well at all. I'll take the trade off for flavor, thanks!

My pre-op diet wasn't liquid and I still lost 18 lbs on it. It was essentially phase one atkins.

@@une nouvelle vie I posted something similar earlier. All throughout the 80s and 90s and early 2000s we had LOW FAT LOW FAT LOW FAT drilled into us and I don't think low fat is the way to go. I've done low fat and it never really got me anywhere. But low carb seems to work so much better. I think a lot of medical organizations are slow to realize change and still recommend a low fat diet as the way to go.

I'm not *too* stressed actually. I'm more stressed about whether or not I have any money left on my flexible spending card to pay for the $50 specialist copay! It's just funny, I always know that his scale is going to be 4lbs higher than mine. So I wanted to be in the low 240s so that his still registered me as being in the 240s. Ya know?! Being in the 240s for this visit is a personal goal of mine based on where I feel I should be progress-wise. Also, I'm sure we all weigh in on our at home scales post morning poop when we are the lightest! My appointment is 4pm, post brekkie and lunch!

I don't generally buy diet foods - especially low fat stuff - low fat foods are usually full of sugar to make up for the loss of fat. But I do try to keep my sugar consumption low. I'm diabetic. I'm completely off my meds and want to stay that way. So empty carbs are things I try to avoid. I have no issues eating full fat cheese, but I don't want to drink my calories (other than my morning Protein shake) for the most part. Just make sensible choices.

Often when someone asks for me to keep them in my prayers will frame my response as "I will keep you in my thoughts". I don't pray - I am not religious. But that doesn't mean that I'm not wishing someone well or hoping for swift recovery or whatever. Prayer is just not my thing. No beatings from me

I'm not a big selfie person (I much prefer pictures of me with other people). But I will say that now that "Let me take a selfie" song is stuck in my head. THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, SANDY!!!

I'm starting to feel and see bones. Like, collar bones, and I can feel my spine in the neck area (I seem to be losing from the top down and from extremeties - fingers toes lower legs and arms). My wedding rings no longer stay on my fingers. And my calves, which were already pretty muscular and not fat, have gotten an inch smaller - from 16 inches to 15 inches. It is such a weird sensation, feeling bones and seeing results. I guess the swimming is really working my shoulders/upper body and legs. Don't get me wrong, there is still a lot of flesh around my bones, but the weight loss is getting noticeable. People who don't know I had surgery are asking what I am doing. I tell them I log everything I eat and go to the gym 5x a week for anywhere from an hour to two hours depending on what I am doing that day (this is all true - they do not need to know I had a surgical assist!). I'm creeping up on my lowest adult weight - 239. I was 244 this morning. The smaller clothes I bought are getting too loose. I have a couple of work out tops I got from Old Navy that used to cling to my tummy which now drape gracefully - it won't be long before I need to get an XL instead of an XXL.. Hell, the concept of clothes draping gracefully on me is whole new sensation. When I was 312 or 320 or 335, there was never graceful drape. There was tugging and layering. Looking in the mirror and feeling like crap. Now, there is possibility. I know I've got a long way to go, but I feel like I've come so far already. Tomorrow is my 3 month follow up with my surgeon. I am interested in seeing how is going to assess my progress. I think he will be pleased. I've lost right around 70 lbs from my program start weight. He thinks I can lose 100 due to the surgery. I have every intention of surpassing that number.

I've spent 31 years being fat. Since I was six. That is a long time being fat and seeing that fat girl. And even though I am down from a size 26 to an 18, I still see 300 plus lbs in the mirror. My dad, also a big guy was all like "OMG ANDREA YOU DON'T EVEN LOOK THE SAME!!" He's very funny and straight to the point. But he's never lost a lot of weight. It is just difficult to reconcile less fat me with the super fat me I was used to. I might go see the psychologist at my program to work some of that out as I get even smaller.

To add on to this, as a collective nation, we have been "Low Fat-ed" death. Over two decades of people pushing low fat diets. Low fat foods which were stuffed with sugar and carbs to compensate for the loss of flavor. I also do not bother counting fat content at all. I eat a high Protein diet, and try to keep the carbs down. Fat falls somewhere in the middle and you'll find will moderate itself if you are keeping high protein/low carb. I'm not saying it's cool to eat a bucket of lard, but the way our brains have been conditioned to see fat in foods as bad is mind boggling to me. Fat in food does not equate to weight gain.

Take care to stir the powder in AFTER you take your liquid off the stove. If the soup gets to a boil the protein powder will curdle. So heat your soup up, let it cool for a minute, then add in your unflavored powder. Also, the unflavored powders really do taste like nothing. I use Jarrow labs (I like to put a scoop in my iced coffee), but there are plenty of other brands out there.

So tomorrow I go to my surgeon's office for my (belated) 3 month follow up (Not my fault, the man only sees patients on Tuesday afternoons). As of this morning I am at 244 lbs. Which means his scale will weigh me at 248 because it is a jerk. LOL. i plan on wearing the lightest clothing item I can find in my closet to counteract this. I don't know what it is about the official weigh ins/office visits that turns me into some kind of paranoid freak. But on the bright side, I get to leave work early and can make it to the gym before the PM rush.

Only 40?? You started at a much lower BMI than a lot of us. Don't knock your loss!

I was on liquid for two days in the hospital. Purees for a week, soft solids for a month and cleared for general food after that. So yes, this depends entirely on your surgeon's plans.

The first couple weeks post sleeve I would get a pang that hurt. Not, double over and cry hurt but it was uncomfortable to say the least. After awhile it went away. Things are swollen and angry in there. Give it a little time. Once the nerves heal a bit that pain should diminish and then go away.

I have fine curly hair. I've not noticed any unusual loss. I'm 3.5 months out so far. I do eat a lot of red meat. But I don't know if it's that or just luck. I do not take any special hair/nail pills nor have I changed my hair routine. If anything I am harder on it since I swim in a chlorinated pool 2x per week.

Touch base with your nutritionist. I know sometimes it is hard to eat with the restriction of your new tummy, but you need to make sure you are following your surgeon's guidelines. At one month my nutritionist suggested I should be eating between 800 and 1200 calories a day. On the days I go to the gym I get closer to the 1200 calorie range. One rest days, closer to that lower end. I think we all have days of doubt where we get on the scale and see it go up because of Water retention due to hormones or we slip and have a bite of a cookie and think it is the end of the world. And we think if we stall out that the sleeve must be broken. The sleeve isn't broken and will do what it is supposed to do. Your body just needs to adjust and sometimes resets itself by holding on to weight for a few days (or even a week or two - I had a 12 day stall two weeks after my sleeve). Keep on drinking your water. Walk as much as you can every day, get your 60 grams or more of Protein.

If you eat chicken, go for thigh since it is juicer than breast. Breast has tendency to be dry sometimes. I did a lot of lunch meats. Graduated to a chunkier chicken salad. I don't eat tuna salad but that is also an option if you like it. eggs, cheeses, Eggs with cheese (okay in my life anything with cheese really). Protein cheerios/multi-grain cheerios (my nut said you could eat your Cereal with milk, but check with your program to be sure).