wcdaniels

I've had a Quest bar every day since I was about 2 months out. Over 99% of them have been chocolate Brownie.

It's pretty tough, but it's habit now. I do drink right up until it's time to eat, but then I wait my 30 minutes. The worst part is when I'm eating something spicy. I've had to tone down my hot sauces, because I have to wait too long to drink, and I can't eat a piece of bread to help calm things down. But I am definitely ready to drink after those 30 minutes.

At a week out, it's definitely in your head. The first six weeks were tough for me. It was great to move to each stage, but it quickly got old as I wanted real food. My doctor advanced me to the full bariatric diet after 6 weeks, and it has been much better since then. It'll get better, but it will also take time. As bad as it may be for now, you'll get through it.

If you have a desk job you may be fine. I could've went back after 1 week if I had to (I'm a HS teacher), but I took 2 weeks just to be safe. You'll be tired at first, but as long as you don't have a lot of physical activity, and no complications, you should be fine.

Sandy's right, you should be very pleased, but not getting enough Protein could definitely be behind your problems. My office says women should get 60-80 grams a day.

Every year I take my wife and daughter out to dinner, and they year my daughter is insistent that we're going to a pizza place. So, I'll have one bite of pizza on the crust, and then have cheese and toppings from 2 or 3 slices.

Are you a member of a gym? At mine, the weight machines have instructions right on there to tell you how to use them. Plus, because they're machines instead of free weights, you're sure to have the right form as you do it. If you're looking more for something to do at home, a set of dumb bells can be very versatile and really help you out. You can do different types of curls, lunges, and other things. Just look online. You're doing great with your weight loss, but you'll burn even more fat by incorporating weights. Good for you!

It has helped with my arms and most of my legs, but I have just too much around the gut are and on my inner thighs. I don't think there's much I'll be able to do to help with this loose skin.

I'm also a fan of the Salvation Army and Goodwill. Usually pants are no more than $4 each, and often much less. I get myself a few pairs in my current size (currently 38, down from 48), and a couple in the next size down, to use to try on in the future, especially when the scale stops moving. In high school, when I was at my peak of fitness, I wore a 34 waist. I'm about 6'3", and I weighed about 210 at that time.

The easy way would be to keep eating ourselves to death. There's no question doing it through diet and exercise alone is the hard way, since only about 5% of people keep the weight off, but that doesn't mean that getting surgery is the easy way. After 20+ years of dieting failures, for me, I'd say it's the smart way.

I'd rock a bikini, but I just can't decide on the right style.

I know how you feel. It's awesome to know I can go into any store and buy something now. I still shop at the big and tall stores, because I need Tall shirts, but they usually have tons of stuff on clearance if you need XLT like I do. I just bought 5 polos for $8 each!

I can't believe how cold I am now. I used to be the type of person who NEVER wore long sleeves in winter, and even liked to sleep with the window cracked open in freezing weather. Now, I don't think I've been warm at all unless I'm in the shower almost scalding myself.

Have you had your appointment yet? Just curious what the nutritionist said. I know you posted a few days ago that your doctor is satisfied with your weight loss, but I understand your frustration. I generally get about 900 calories a day, and my nutritionist said that usually she would recommend that I get up to about 1200, but since I was still losing, not to worry about it. But if I stop, try and add some calories. It sounds like you're doing pretty well, although the Christmas cheating wasn't great of course. If you're not already, log everything you eat with something like MyFitnessPal, to make sure your Protein and calories are truly accurate. If we're just estimating, we often get things wrong. If possible, you may want to try and increase your exercise more frequently. It can even be something simple as doing your weight training 6 days a week, with 3 days of upper body, and 3 days of lower. This will make sure you are getting the fat burning benefits pretty much constantly. Good luck!