Krestel

Im almost a year out and I can definitely share in your thoughts but am already sure it was the best dern thing Ive done. I wonder why I didnt do it sooner. Im almost 6 foot and was over 325 pounds so it has been a huge relief to get to the size that I am now. I can now fall down without majorly hurting myself and it hurting like a sob. As for the maintenence phase, I share the same concerns. I have hit my first milestone at 176 lbs and am trying to stay here for a few weeks or so in order to see how much I can eat and stay at the same weight. I still want to lose just a tad more though.

Walk...walk...and walk No seriously that's what I did and *still* do. 45 min every day which is about 10,000 steps. It's something that I could do at my highest and lowest weight and with the right clothes, I could do everyday. So I couldnt say to myself that I couldnt do it due to the weather. THE most important thing is to do something that is SUSTAINABLE! If it's not something that you can do everyday or every other day...then dont even go down that road. You will only feel guilt about it later. As for skin, there are lots of factors about how your skin will react and bounce back (or not). These are beyond your control completely...even if you are tone or not. Look at obese2beast on youtube and you will see what I mean. Dont let "toning" be your one more thing to worry about. Focus on the rest. Like I said, I walked...and it really helped me get ready for the surgery both physically and mentally.

I wouldnt say that I have cheated per se since im not super strict with food anymore after reaching my biggest milestone, but yeah, Ive still lost weight after having a "large" day of food. I think it's my bodies way of saying that I "need" more calories. Still, when I look back over my food journals, my "large" days arent so large but more less structured (since im at home right now) than they should be.

For meals, I stuck to chicken and veg. My favorite was (and still is) a seasoned chicken breast with either steamed brocolli or aspargus with just a sprinkle of fresh parmasean. I also drank protein shakes for breakfast and lunch which made me feel surprisingly full.

About a year out here and Im still having problems in this area and have checked fiber etc as well. Ive started using Senna which seems to be doing the trick. Ive no idea if there are any long term problems with it but havnt been able to check with my doc due to lockdowns etc.

From the whole death perspective, my sister did die of overweight and it in fact is on her death certificate. She threw a blood clot due to obesity which gave her a heart attack. It was her death, that made me reallt take a look at my own health and weight. Miss food...hahaha....I still have pretty much same foods I did before but in MUCH smaller portions. Im not the bottomless hole i was before. BUT even a year out, im still re-learning about my body and Im not finished with learning how to eat correctly. Yes, it can come back, but that is part of the journey as well.

You might want to try a sweetener instead. Believe it or not, they have lots of fiber oddly enough. So you get at least a little more..-

Yeah! You go! Those things feel soooo good. For other non-WLS people, they have no idea how we mentally have fought with those things. The whole blood pressure cuff almost killed med at my highest weight. BUT The further along I am with my goal as well, the more I need to think about non scale related goals. So it's great to hear that others are doing so as well. It's wierd to get that into my head. I also after 11 months I am starting to "see" my new body. I sometimes wonder if the full body mirrors Ive seen have one of those slimming effects that they do when they curve the glass a certain way.

I so hear you. I tend to make small handmade pizzas in the oven to satisfy my craving. That and pizza-like egg fritatas as excellent as well. Chips..well..im gonna try to do red beet chips in the oven soon. I miss crunchy salt snacks. Bread...well..bread is my soulmate who abuses me, so I try to stay away from it other than high fiber stuff once in a while.

I had a bit as well, but like you it's vert fine and lots of it, so noone really noticed anything but me. It started growing back almost immeditately and refilled out without any problems. So keep in mind that it could be just you who is seeing it.

Ive been randomly watching all of Youtube. hehe

I totallt agree. I ate McDonalds for the first time since my surgery last year and it wasnt anywhere near as good as I suspected it would be. Apparently, once you get away from fatty, salty, processed foods for a while, it seems like the body resets the tastebuds. I watched a tv show before that talked about it taking up to about 6 months for a product (in this case cereal) to lower sugar and salt so that customers adjust to the taste. Foods are really engineered to get us stuck on them.

Low blood pressure has become a way of life for me. I always have to get up slowly (10 secs or so) or Im on the floor. I think this is from dropping weight so quickly and hope it will get better when my body gets more used to the change over a period of time. Ill keep you posted.

I gave up diet coke before my surgery as well and boy did it make a difference. Oddly enough, diet coke is too fizzy for me to drink, but the carbonated water at home is just fine. I think it isnt as fizzy. BUT getting off 95% sweeteners (natural and man-made) really helped with craving sweets

Im sitting in the same position but wanting to go to Japan. Think of it this way, it gives you more time to save up some money. Why not start up a virtual vacation and plan it in detail? Save all the sites, videos etc and make yourself the perfect vacation. Worse comes to worse, you are more than welcome to come visit me in Sweden (once this all blows over) and walk to your hearts content. I have plenty of space here for peeps and vacationing here is quite reasonable if you have someplace to stay. Stockholm isnt anywhere near as hot as Spain during the summer and we have the Midnight Sun! PS I also work for a school.

Im almost 11 months out and I eat a bread that has chia etc in it in order to get more fiber. It's rather small but since it's rather moist, I really like it. I use it to get more fiber since im still having constipation problems.

Thank you so much for the explanation. This really explains why some docs say no to it and others dont really care when it comes to unflavoured carbonated water-

Hehe, I'm 10-11 months out and I still have that problem. It's just us getting up too quick. I hope that after my weight stabilizing for a while that it changes. I talked to my doc about it and it's quite normal. We just have to get up slowly or stand in place for a few secs before continuing on.

Yeah, I so hear you guys on that one. Sometimes i forget now that when I "screw up" it's not even anywhere close to what it would have been without the surgery. I sometimes think that Ive overeaten on some days and when I look at my food journal, it's just that ive eaten a small bit more. Obviously, I dont want to keep that up, but it's reasuring that my body tells me now instead if having no feelings before.

Oddly enough I have problems when I drink a diet coke directly from a bottle. I think it's because it's bubblier than what my Soda Stream does.

On the other hand, I have carbonated water every day. We make it ourselves with a Soda Stream and it's not flavored. So it's not got sweetener or anything in it that makes it "addictive" in any way. I just like it for the less sweet taste and freshness. Keep in mind though that Im 10 months out definitely dont recommend this in the beginning.