BurBur

It's been two years since I was able to get out on my kayak and today my husband and I got back in the Water. I love my kayak and it felt so good to paddle again. We did seven miles and this picture is taken from Hollywood Beach not far from my home. (Not in Hollywood!) The sea lions were everywhere and we even had some pups following us around. That's the break water behind me at the mouth of the Channel Islands Harbor. It's good to feel good again!
And yes!!! It's a pink kayak! I love it! My paddle is pink too, but the picture got landscaped and cut off when I attached it. Bummer!

It's been two years since I was able to get out on my kayak and today my husband and I got back in the Water. I love my kayak and it felt so good to paddle again. We did seven miles and this picture is taken from Hollywood Beach not far from my home. (Not in Hollywood!) The sea lions were everywhere and we even had some pups following us around. That's the break water behind me at the mouth of the Channel Islands Harbor. It's good to feel good again!
And yes!!! It's a pink kayak! I love it! My paddle is pink too, but the picture got landscaped and cut off when I attached it. Bummer!

It's been two years since I was able to get out on my kayak and today my husband and I got back in the Water. I love my kayak and it felt so good to paddle again. We did seven miles and this picture is taken from Hollywood Beach not far from my home. (Not in Hollywood!) The sea lions were everywhere and we even had some pups following us around. That's the break water behind me at the mouth of the Channel Islands Harbor. It's good to feel good again!
And yes!!! It's a pink kayak! I love it! My paddle is pink too, but the picture got landscaped and cut off when I attached it. Bummer!

It's been two years since I was able to get out on my kayak and today my husband and I got back in the Water. I love my kayak and it felt so good to paddle again. We did seven miles and this picture is taken from Hollywood Beach not far from my home. (Not in Hollywood!) The sea lions were everywhere and we even had some pups following us around. That's the break water behind me at the mouth of the Channel Islands Harbor. It's good to feel good again!
And yes!!! It's a pink kayak! I love it! My paddle is pink too, but the picture got landscaped and cut off when I attached it. Bummer!

It's been two years since I was able to get out on my kayak and today my husband and I got back in the Water. I love my kayak and it felt so good to paddle again. We did seven miles and this picture is taken from Hollywood Beach not far from my home. (Not in Hollywood!) The sea lions were everywhere and we even had some pups following us around. That's the break water behind me at the mouth of the Channel Islands Harbor. It's good to feel good again!
And yes!!! It's a pink kayak! I love it! My paddle is pink too, but the picture got landscaped and cut off when I attached it. Bummer!

I am six months post op. I've seen my weight loss begin to slow and it scares me. I'm eating way better than I ever have and the surgery has helped me to do this so much, but I worry about how it will be next year and the year after and so forth. At the moment, my mind and habits feel solid and I want to believe I will be able to do this, that this is the new normal for me, but what if it isn't? Ahhhhhh!!!! I want to hug you and tell you it will all be okay...for you...for me...for all of us, but I can't say that with absolute certainty. I watched my father fail with his bypass surgery and other friends have failed as well, or so it seems. I can tell you this though...my father would have ate himself to death and I think I would have too. He's a big guy, but he's still with the world today and 74 years old. He didn't get exactly what he wanted from surgery, but that is still success in my book. Maybe I won't be my dream self, but I don't think I'm going to expand beyond 475 lbs ever again. My dream is to get to 200 lbs. and consider some skin removal surgeries at that point. I might not ever get the exact self that I want, but I'd like to adopt a different look on eating. Even at my current weight which is still very high...I can tell you I don't hurt anymore and that thought alone makes me cry a little with joy.
My kindred friend: you may not have your dreams full filled exactly to order, but there is still success to Celebrate. If you could love yourself for that, forgive yourself for slipping up, you can move forward in the direction of your choosing. It is so scary, humiliating, frustrating, demoralizing to not be the YOU that you ordered up in your mind when you signed up to butcher your body, but it's never ever too late. You have options and choices. HUGS! Look for and embrace support where ever you can find it.

You are both so sweet! It's the phrase I tell myself anytime I feel a little case of the "ickys" coming on. And darlin', my struggle is no harder than yours or anyone else. It's just different and I have a super great attitude about it all (most of the time ). It only gets better e'ery day.

Eeekkk!!! Stephen King wrote a book about this and a scary movie! "Thinner!" I do like the suggestions already of adding a few nuts to your diet. It does work and not a terrible deviation from being healthy. Raw almonds. You can even experiment with soaking them first. Supposedly it makes them better for you.

The microwave and oatmeal HATE each other. I've done this too! Oats every where but in the container I put them in. I do over-night oats now. Basically you add the liquid to it the night before. I use little canning jars with lids. Next morning they are perfect! Just google recipes for over-night oats. Don't know the products from this site at all. But you can just get rolled oats and add Premier Protein (vanilla) for the liquid and there yat go, Protein and energy in one little cup.

@Sadie24304 did you feel like the Bariatric Pal was coming to get you? 😛From a distance it sounds hilarious but having to clean it up, you weren't giggling too much,were you? There you are , hungry to the point of hangry and the microwave and oatmeal are conspiring against you! This is the kind of thing that will happen to me too.

I was amused to read through all of these comments. Honestly, what I really read about was a bunch of people being "normal!" A little wine at a wedding, a diet soda here and there, "a" slice of pizza, a square of cake at a party! Handful of Goldfish. You reckless beast! This is okay, right? We didn't get to be morbidly, sickly, obese behaving this way. It was whole bags of chips consumed without thought, large slices of sugary deserts, giant plates of restaurant foods consumed with ease along with endless breads and appetizers, buffets, fast food trips on a daily bases, half a pizza in one sitting (whole pizza?) Oh, the awful things we did to ourselves that brought us to this point in our lives. I've spent so much of my life feeling bad about my choices I don't want to anymore. I actually feel good about myself when I walk away feeling just fine about having a taste of a treat my husband is having. Once a week we light a fire outside in the pit and we make a s'more. I enjoy the whole process, get it all ready and take 1 maybe 2 small bites and hand the rest of it off to my hubby. We go to dinner a couple times a month and I order up a drink..(something lite on sugar). I take responsibility for it, I watch my calories, I savor my indulgence and if the scale isn't moving than I know what I have to do.
I guess my point is...don't hate yourself for doing normal things. What you did before wasn't normal.
My confession! I had my best friend over, she brought a bottle of vanilla smirnoff. I had some sugar free orange junk to add into it. Tasted like orange creamsicle. We have a lovely spa out back so her and I marinated in it all evening sipping our drinks and laughing. Next morning I found my clothes laying on the grass and our husbands were telling some ridiculous tales about us. The fire department even showed up because apparently our fire pit was burning a little too bright that evening. It was fun! I felt normal. I didn't turn into a raving drunk or eat like a maniac there after. I woke the next day, did my work out, cleaned my house, ate all things healthy and had no regrets. Well, finding my clothes laying about the yard was not a happy discovery.
Don't forget to still have fun!!! Cheers!

I'm so proud of you! My best friend runs 5-8 miles every day and I want to run with her sooo bad. Too heavy still, but I'm pushing my endurance on an elliptical stepper right now. I hope so much I will be able to put my footies on hard ground and run some day soon.

I was amused to read through all of these comments. Honestly, what I really read about was a bunch of people being "normal!" A little wine at a wedding, a diet soda here and there, "a" slice of pizza, a square of cake at a party! Handful of Goldfish. You reckless beast! This is okay, right? We didn't get to be morbidly, sickly, obese behaving this way. It was whole bags of chips consumed without thought, large slices of sugary deserts, giant plates of restaurant foods consumed with ease along with endless breads and appetizers, buffets, fast food trips on a daily bases, half a pizza in one sitting (whole pizza?) Oh, the awful things we did to ourselves that brought us to this point in our lives. I've spent so much of my life feeling bad about my choices I don't want to anymore. I actually feel good about myself when I walk away feeling just fine about having a taste of a treat my husband is having. Once a week we light a fire outside in the pit and we make a s'more. I enjoy the whole process, get it all ready and take 1 maybe 2 small bites and hand the rest of it off to my hubby. We go to dinner a couple times a month and I order up a drink..(something lite on sugar). I take responsibility for it, I watch my calories, I savor my indulgence and if the scale isn't moving than I know what I have to do.
I guess my point is...don't hate yourself for doing normal things. What you did before wasn't normal.
My confession! I had my best friend over, she brought a bottle of vanilla smirnoff. I had some sugar free orange junk to add into it. Tasted like orange creamsicle. We have a lovely spa out back so her and I marinated in it all evening sipping our drinks and laughing. Next morning I found my clothes laying on the grass and our husbands were telling some ridiculous tales about us. The fire department even showed up because apparently our fire pit was burning a little too bright that evening. It was fun! I felt normal. I didn't turn into a raving drunk or eat like a maniac there after. I woke the next day, did my work out, cleaned my house, ate all things healthy and had no regrets. Well, finding my clothes laying about the yard was not a happy discovery.
Don't forget to still have fun!!! Cheers!

I was amused to read through all of these comments. Honestly, what I really read about was a bunch of people being "normal!" A little wine at a wedding, a diet soda here and there, "a" slice of pizza, a square of cake at a party! Handful of Goldfish. You reckless beast! This is okay, right? We didn't get to be morbidly, sickly, obese behaving this way. It was whole bags of chips consumed without thought, large slices of sugary deserts, giant plates of restaurant foods consumed with ease along with endless breads and appetizers, buffets, fast food trips on a daily bases, half a pizza in one sitting (whole pizza?) Oh, the awful things we did to ourselves that brought us to this point in our lives. I've spent so much of my life feeling bad about my choices I don't want to anymore. I actually feel good about myself when I walk away feeling just fine about having a taste of a treat my husband is having. Once a week we light a fire outside in the pit and we make a s'more. I enjoy the whole process, get it all ready and take 1 maybe 2 small bites and hand the rest of it off to my hubby. We go to dinner a couple times a month and I order up a drink..(something lite on sugar). I take responsibility for it, I watch my calories, I savor my indulgence and if the scale isn't moving than I know what I have to do.
I guess my point is...don't hate yourself for doing normal things. What you did before wasn't normal.
My confession! I had my best friend over, she brought a bottle of vanilla smirnoff. I had some sugar free orange junk to add into it. Tasted like orange creamsicle. We have a lovely spa out back so her and I marinated in it all evening sipping our drinks and laughing. Next morning I found my clothes laying on the grass and our husbands were telling some ridiculous tales about us. The fire department even showed up because apparently our fire pit was burning a little too bright that evening. It was fun! I felt normal. I didn't turn into a raving drunk or eat like a maniac there after. I woke the next day, did my work out, cleaned my house, ate all things healthy and had no regrets. Well, finding my clothes laying about the yard was not a happy discovery.
Don't forget to still have fun!!! Cheers!

I was amused to read through all of these comments. Honestly, what I really read about was a bunch of people being "normal!" A little wine at a wedding, a diet soda here and there, "a" slice of pizza, a square of cake at a party! Handful of Goldfish. You reckless beast! This is okay, right? We didn't get to be morbidly, sickly, obese behaving this way. It was whole bags of chips consumed without thought, large slices of sugary deserts, giant plates of restaurant foods consumed with ease along with endless breads and appetizers, buffets, fast food trips on a daily bases, half a pizza in one sitting (whole pizza?) Oh, the awful things we did to ourselves that brought us to this point in our lives. I've spent so much of my life feeling bad about my choices I don't want to anymore. I actually feel good about myself when I walk away feeling just fine about having a taste of a treat my husband is having. Once a week we light a fire outside in the pit and we make a s'more. I enjoy the whole process, get it all ready and take 1 maybe 2 small bites and hand the rest of it off to my hubby. We go to dinner a couple times a month and I order up a drink..(something lite on sugar). I take responsibility for it, I watch my calories, I savor my indulgence and if the scale isn't moving than I know what I have to do.
I guess my point is...don't hate yourself for doing normal things. What you did before wasn't normal.
My confession! I had my best friend over, she brought a bottle of vanilla smirnoff. I had some sugar free orange junk to add into it. Tasted like orange creamsicle. We have a lovely spa out back so her and I marinated in it all evening sipping our drinks and laughing. Next morning I found my clothes laying on the grass and our husbands were telling some ridiculous tales about us. The fire department even showed up because apparently our fire pit was burning a little too bright that evening. It was fun! I felt normal. I didn't turn into a raving drunk or eat like a maniac there after. I woke the next day, did my work out, cleaned my house, ate all things healthy and had no regrets. Well, finding my clothes laying about the yard was not a happy discovery.
Don't forget to still have fun!!! Cheers!

I was amused to read through all of these comments. Honestly, what I really read about was a bunch of people being "normal!" A little wine at a wedding, a diet soda here and there, "a" slice of pizza, a square of cake at a party! Handful of Goldfish. You reckless beast! This is okay, right? We didn't get to be morbidly, sickly, obese behaving this way. It was whole bags of chips consumed without thought, large slices of sugary deserts, giant plates of restaurant foods consumed with ease along with endless breads and appetizers, buffets, fast food trips on a daily bases, half a pizza in one sitting (whole pizza?) Oh, the awful things we did to ourselves that brought us to this point in our lives. I've spent so much of my life feeling bad about my choices I don't want to anymore. I actually feel good about myself when I walk away feeling just fine about having a taste of a treat my husband is having. Once a week we light a fire outside in the pit and we make a s'more. I enjoy the whole process, get it all ready and take 1 maybe 2 small bites and hand the rest of it off to my hubby. We go to dinner a couple times a month and I order up a drink..(something lite on sugar). I take responsibility for it, I watch my calories, I savor my indulgence and if the scale isn't moving than I know what I have to do.
I guess my point is...don't hate yourself for doing normal things. What you did before wasn't normal.
My confession! I had my best friend over, she brought a bottle of vanilla smirnoff. I had some sugar free orange junk to add into it. Tasted like orange creamsicle. We have a lovely spa out back so her and I marinated in it all evening sipping our drinks and laughing. Next morning I found my clothes laying on the grass and our husbands were telling some ridiculous tales about us. The fire department even showed up because apparently our fire pit was burning a little too bright that evening. It was fun! I felt normal. I didn't turn into a raving drunk or eat like a maniac there after. I woke the next day, did my work out, cleaned my house, ate all things healthy and had no regrets. Well, finding my clothes laying about the yard was not a happy discovery.
Don't forget to still have fun!!! Cheers!

I was amused to read through all of these comments. Honestly, what I really read about was a bunch of people being "normal!" A little wine at a wedding, a diet soda here and there, "a" slice of pizza, a square of cake at a party! Handful of Goldfish. You reckless beast! This is okay, right? We didn't get to be morbidly, sickly, obese behaving this way. It was whole bags of chips consumed without thought, large slices of sugary deserts, giant plates of restaurant foods consumed with ease along with endless breads and appetizers, buffets, fast food trips on a daily bases, half a pizza in one sitting (whole pizza?) Oh, the awful things we did to ourselves that brought us to this point in our lives. I've spent so much of my life feeling bad about my choices I don't want to anymore. I actually feel good about myself when I walk away feeling just fine about having a taste of a treat my husband is having. Once a week we light a fire outside in the pit and we make a s'more. I enjoy the whole process, get it all ready and take 1 maybe 2 small bites and hand the rest of it off to my hubby. We go to dinner a couple times a month and I order up a drink..(something lite on sugar). I take responsibility for it, I watch my calories, I savor my indulgence and if the scale isn't moving than I know what I have to do.
I guess my point is...don't hate yourself for doing normal things. What you did before wasn't normal.
My confession! I had my best friend over, she brought a bottle of vanilla smirnoff. I had some sugar free orange junk to add into it. Tasted like orange creamsicle. We have a lovely spa out back so her and I marinated in it all evening sipping our drinks and laughing. Next morning I found my clothes laying on the grass and our husbands were telling some ridiculous tales about us. The fire department even showed up because apparently our fire pit was burning a little too bright that evening. It was fun! I felt normal. I didn't turn into a raving drunk or eat like a maniac there after. I woke the next day, did my work out, cleaned my house, ate all things healthy and had no regrets. Well, finding my clothes laying about the yard was not a happy discovery.
Don't forget to still have fun!!! Cheers!

I was a high starting weight. September of 2017 I weighed 475 recorded by my PCP. My surgeon had a very aggressive goal for me to lose to 380 before surgery so out of desperation/necessity, I counted calories, ate little and did what I could. On surgery day I was 386, nearly 5.5 months later. I'm fast approaching 6 months post surgery now and have had lots of issues with my tummy that have prevented me from eating and or keeping food down. I weighed yesterday and was 308. Somewhere in my day dreams I entertain the idea that I've lost too slowly. My expectations were crazy though! I thought I would lose 20 lbs a month until I was slim! I thought I would be well into the 200 lb range by now. Time is so antagonistic! I've waited so long to get the help I need and I just want to blink my eyes and see a new body each time! I know it's a day dream though. When I see the nutritionist she does this "in body" check and can calculate a fairly good estimate of my BMR and my metabolism is super crap now. So...I try my best to eat good things, to eat reasonably to move more and to be honest with myself and I know the weight will come off.
I try to think of things I'm proud of all the time. This helps me to refocus and not sink into despair about the speed at which things are moving for me. Lately, I've been cooking lovely dinners for my husband and son that are healthy and delicious. It makes me happy to see them eat better along with me and I feel like I'm being a better person. I don't make them suffer or anything lol. The challenge for me is to actually make something they like and I'm so proud of this. I think if you can find something that is hobby-like that supports your new life change, you might be able to deflect some of the worries you have. Cheers.

I got to put my wedding ring back on--it fit! My husband put that on my finger when I was 19 years old and we had a whole life in front of us. We will have our 25th next year in June!

I got to put my wedding ring back on--it fit! My husband put that on my finger when I was 19 years old and we had a whole life in front of us. We will have our 25th next year in June!

I got to put my wedding ring back on--it fit! My husband put that on my finger when I was 19 years old and we had a whole life in front of us. We will have our 25th next year in June!

I got to put my wedding ring back on--it fit! My husband put that on my finger when I was 19 years old and we had a whole life in front of us. We will have our 25th next year in June!

Yes! You still plateau. But! Due to physical restriction and easier hunger and craving control (this may not be true for everyone) you can pass the plateau and keep on going. Lots of people have posed the question you have about "couldn't I just keep losing without surgery?" Sure! But, if you have considered surgery than you have also considered that you might not be able to help yourself entirely on your own. I would count up all the yo-yos you've done in the past, consider your age, any health problems, how much you have to lose and begin to think about where your heart and mind is from there. I always believe that surgery is a last resort which was the case for me when I finally pursued it. Four separate times over the last 24 years of my life, I lost as much as 100+ lbs and regained plus more. That doesn't include all the half ass attempts where I lost 30-50 lbs on 3 month crash diet fads. I wanted a tool to help me change for good. Do you think you need a tool to change for good?

You are doing extremely fast! Also, with 20 lbs/month just imagine what would happen to your skin?! You would tangle in it while you walk :))

When my kid's turned 18 !
Just trying to brighten things up a little bit. Hope you don't mind.