BCs 1000

Yes! I pick up a dress in my size and look at it and think there is no way I can squeeze into that! And then I step in and do up the zip with ease. So surreal.

I would love to pop over to pick up a few things, but 12,000 km is a long way!

@@vsgSarah3 You have done an amazing job hosting these challenges and the motivation would have added to countless pounds lost. Thank you for all your effort, I can see this would be a huge amount of work for you. You don't need to hand over the baton. Another member will find the motivation to start a Thanksgiving or Christmas challenge down the track. I would love to say it will be me, but with work, study and a tribe of kids, I barely have time to post my weight. I know you have kids of your own, so again I want to thank you for all of the effort you have put in and the time that has been taken away from your family to help all of us. Thank you very much ​

131 this lovely Monday morning. Feel free to see my ticker as I have now entered..... the HEALTHY WEIGHT RANGE

I finally found sugar free maple syrup [emoji3]. There is a heap of food I read about on this forum I can't get here. I wonder how much customs would let me bring back on the plane...

Do you have a recipe for cottage cheese pancakes? TIA

You need to follow your own NUT/Surgeon's requirements. I make sure I always hit my protein goal which is set at 0.6grams per 1kg of body weight. This is different to what others have posted as their protein goals.

I don't have a sweet tooth, at all, so in that respect, I am not concerned about artificial sweeteners leading me to a sweet food binge. But a low calorie crunchy salty snack would be extremely dangerous for my WL success. I have tried it before and it has set me off on a frantic search for more salt and crunch. I can see how diet soft drink could be dangerous for people with a sweet tooth. The closer I get to maintenance, the more this journey becomes individual.

Avoiding diet soft drinks is not part of my Surgeon/NUT's plan. The only thing mentioned is to take it slow as it can cause some people discomfort. And totally contradictory to what others have posted that their surgeon recommends, the book I was given to follow, The gastric sleeve guide (Australian publication), recommends using a straw to reduce contact with your teeth as the acid can damage them. Diet energy drinks are recommended to only be used in moderation as the high caffeine may increase your heart rate and blood pressure.

The weight loss will catch up with you and there will be a moment when you realise there is something you can do that you were not able to do before. Then there will be another one, and another one.... I guarantee there have been huge limits on your life that you were not even aware of, it had just become your normal. Once you get to this point it will spur you on and your perspective on the worth of your surgery will change. Everything is better for me now. How I walk, how I sit, how I sleep, how I drive, how I play with my kids, what I do with my spare time, how I breathe. Hang in there, all of the positive outcomes are just around the corner.

No change. 134.

Thank you for your post. Another crunchy, salty addict here too. I am going to try the music too

I suggest you weigh yourself only once a week at the same time each week. There are too many fluctuations that occur naturally for daily weighing to be useful. I remember early on the lbs seemed to come off very slowly, but they really do add up quickly. As time goes on you won't be continually thinking about the surgery you had as other things take over attention as life moves on. It is a bit like pregnancy. The first trimester feels really slow. The third goes by so fast and before you know it your baby has arrived.

Can you remove some of the tempting food from the house? I know living with family means you can't get rid of it all. I am not into sweet food at all, but starchy Snacks are my weakness. I try to avoid ever having them in the house, but am ok with chocolate or iceblocks as I know I won't touch them. I think what you are facing is just part of the journey and it is so individual that you need to find what works for you. Hopefully someone posts something that rings true for you and sends you in the right direction. Best of luck.

Dr took my blood pressure today, 88/63

Yes, yes yes... everything in my closet is brand new, even my shoes!!!! Every morning I look at all of my beautiful clothes and have so many good choices of what to wear. Before I used to put together an outfit that looked the least worst.

134lbs this Monday morning. And TMI, but a bloated week this week, so didn't expect a loss.

Why has your protein requirement dropped. Mine is at least 100 grams for life, no matter what I weigh. My surgeon based it on my highest weight and explained that my body is not going to respond well unless I get that much because it will think I am starving.NUT calculates on 0.75g per kg of weight.

This is very interesting. I wonder if pre surgery I was Protein deficient. Even during periods of pre op life when I logged, the focus was only on calories. I had never given protein intake a second thought. Probably didn't help my already out of control appetite. As a vegetarian, meeting protein goals post op has been like a full time job. I have learned a whole new way of meal prep and can make some awesome mock meat now. One of the million advantages of losing weight is that my minimum protein goal has dropped to 45g per day, so much more manageable and most days I easily exceed that.

In a previous thread this video was posted which I found very informative

Woo hoo!

I do 30 day shed and shred. That will help build up your stomach muscles, but you can't exercise skin away. It does tighten up somewhat after time.

I am about your age OP and apple shape, so most of my weight was around my tummy. It now looks like a giant deflated balloon. Very unattractive, but only my husband and kids see it. And I am going to live beyond 60! If I were single and on the dating scene I can imagine it would bother me, but as it is, it is ugly, not uncomfortable or painful, so I will be keeping my skin.

137 today. Thanks Sarah. Fitting for the Memorial Day challenge, today is ANZAC day which honours the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), who fought at Gallipoli in World War I and pays respect to people who previously or currently serve in the armed forces.

I found with lentils that the protein gram for gram was too low for me to eat enough quantity to meet my protein goals. I can still only eat about half a cup of food. I used to live on lentils and chickpeas preop. As my weight decreases, so does my protein goal so I hope I can have them back in my diet preop.