BigViffer

I guess I should mention that I am 2 years out. I am hitting 150-200 grams of protein a day. You won't always be limited to 2 ounce meals. There will come a time when you are able to actually eat about two cups (by volume not weight) of salad.

If salad dressing is your main concern, try your hand at making your own. I'll take fage greek yogut and flavor it with any marinade I think would go well with the salad I am eating. The marinades have very little in the way of calories because they use no thickeners.They are mostly spices and vinegar. The yogurt takes the place of the thickeners and mayo base. You can also make your own ranch dressing mix and blend it into plain yogurt. It's mostly buttermilk powder, garlic, dill, parsley and a few other things. There are tons of recipes online for yogurt based dressings.

Excellent follow up question! They are difficult to digest in the fact that they take longer to break down than something as insubstantial as regular lettuce. If something like kale, mustard greens, collards and/or turnip greens are not chewed thoroughly enough to break the fibrous portions down to a more easily digestible consistency, you will pass undigested foods through your intestines and bowel. So while the food took up precious real estate in your stomach (or pouch depending on the surgery), you will reap no benefit to the consumption. I do not believe any sort of discomfort is associated with it. I do know that they will not cause constipation. As a matter of fact, they would help with keeping one regular. Regular lettuce could cause the explosive watery stool that leaves us unable to leave the house with any confidence. No joke!

Iceberg lettuce literally has so little nutritional value that it is a waste of space. They only time that eating it is a good idea is when you are constipated. For some reason, iceberg lettuce goes through most of us like fat through a goose. If you really miss salads, learn to love kale, spinach and other dark hearty greens. Even then they will be in very small portions. They are very fibrous and can be difficult to digest in the beginning. But they are at least nutritionally dense and worth the space they take up.

@@chilet071 wow... you are beautiful! Congratulations on all of your success.

@@FabFemale Damn! You look great!

Hey! We had the same starting weight! But you are taller than I and you beat my 1 year weight loss. I didn't hit my goal of 220 until about 15 months I think. Congrats!

I don't know, you look like a young Sam Jackson. Dude, you should totally be Nick Fury for Halloween. Or Maybe Luke Cage!

@@BigTink2LilTink - holy shit dude... you know the difference between you and me?? You make this shit look good. I'm not goin' gay for you or anything, but you look like you belong on the cover of a GQ. Real proud of you man.

Like this kind of beast? Sent from my phone. Please forgive brevity and spelling.

lol, I don't know about all that. I prefer the term Silver Fox!

@@AnAnole - holy sh¡t dude... Your surgery date was in April of 2015 and you look like that now? Man, I thought I was dedicated but you put me to shame! I started at 330 and my lowest weight was 198 and now fluctuating 200-205. I have a metric fück-ton of skin hanging off where my moobs used to be and my belly. You seem to have been spared that indignation. Walk tall dude, you are kicking ass.

Had a good gym day today. Snapped a pic and impressed even myself! Don't let anyone ever say you can't build muscle on a bariatric diet!

Thought I would update my current picture with one from the gym today. Here is me at my heaviest, around 330. Today was chest day and there was a moment with no one around so I sneaked a picture. Maintaining at around 200. Sent from my phone, please forgive brevity and misspelling

My normal gym has the weight room closed for remodeling so I have taken a break from weight lifting and started focusing on cardio. Averaging about 8 miles on my lunch hour. I usually leave the cardio room looking like this: The good news is that with the extra cardio I've been doing, I'm down to a size medium shirt... It sounds weird even typing that. I'm even in a size medium underwear, but I shall spare you all those pictures! Sent from my phone, please forgive brevity and misspelling

I'm just glad someone finally came out and said the truth about childbirth. They always say how beautiful it is and perfectly natural blah blah blah.. I've always thought it was like The Exorcist; but instead of Linda Blair sitting up and puking, it's your vagina. Leave it to you to be the one to describe it as honestly!

ohmigosh, ohmigosh... *puff-puff*... my belly... it's killing me from laughing! BWAHAHAHA! ....ouch ouch ouch...

When you are composing your post, above the text entry field there is a small icon that looks like a square with a mountain and sun picture. Click that and paste your URL into the bar:

Yikes? I think you mean YOWZA! You look great, don't ever don't that. Sent from my phone, please forgive brevity and misspelling

I haven't posted many pictures in this thread since I am more active on the men's forum, but this is not exercise related so I thought it fitting here. I just got back from a motorcycle rally in SC/TN (the Deals Gap area). I had just an incredible time I cannot even put it adequately into words. Everything was easier and more enjoyable. I didn't hurt everywhere after a day of riding hundreds of miles around the mountains. The before picture was from May 2013 and the recent one exactly 3 years later. Surgery was 15 months ago. Seriously the best thing I could have done for myself.

Wow, incredible! You look fantastic. Sent from my phone, please forgive brevity and misspelling

Woah... Seriously, that's one helluva transformation. You need to take some yoga so you can get your arm all the way behind you and pat yourself on the back! Sent from my phone, please forgive brevity and misspelling

Wow! You're gorgeous girl! Congrats on your accomplishments and I props on all the hard work.