PollyEster

You got me again! Yum 😋
Now, how does one make a creamy vegan chipotle sauce??

I still watch television and see the actors as "other." In my head, they are thin, normal people and I am still obese. This is how I've perceived people for the past 20 years. Them, a tribe of normal people. Me, a very fat outsider. Every so often, I must remind myself that I look like them now. Normal. They are no longer "other." But the thoughts linger.

If you haven’t seen the New York Times article detailing the long term outcomes of former contestants on reality shows such as The Biggest Loser and My 600lb Life, I strongly recommend reading it here.
Also worth reading: obesity specialist Dr. Arya Sharma's thoughts on The Pedagogy of Obesity Reality Shows. (The paper by Emma Rich (referred to in Dr. Sharma's article) is attached, for those who don't have access to Pubmed.)
I haven't watched these, or any other "reality" tv show. In my view, this type of programming is voyeuristic, transgressive, and entirely exploitative of individuals who are, at best, deeply troubled and extremely vulnerable: the modern day equivalent of the Victorian freak show.
Rich2011Health.pdf

Roasted veggie salad with avocado, roasted Tomato salsa, and creamy vegan chipotle sauce. I ate just over half. A few spoonfuls of dessert, two hours later: raspberry nice cream (just raspberries and bananas).

This looks savoury-licious! There are SO many meat alternatives available in German supermarkets compared to Canada. Your lunches all look yummy, too.

Roasted veggie salad with avocado, roasted Tomato salsa, and creamy vegan chipotle sauce. I ate just over half. A few spoonfuls of dessert, two hours later: raspberry nice cream (just raspberries and bananas).

Roasted veggie salad with avocado, roasted Tomato salsa, and creamy vegan chipotle sauce. I ate just over half. A few spoonfuls of dessert, two hours later: raspberry nice cream (just raspberries and bananas).

This looks savoury-licious! There are SO many meat alternatives available in German supermarkets compared to Canada. Your lunches all look yummy, too.

Roasted veggie salad with avocado, roasted Tomato salsa, and creamy vegan chipotle sauce. I ate just over half. A few spoonfuls of dessert, two hours later: raspberry nice cream (just raspberries and bananas).

Roasted veggie salad with avocado, roasted Tomato salsa, and creamy vegan chipotle sauce. I ate just over half. A few spoonfuls of dessert, two hours later: raspberry nice cream (just raspberries and bananas).

If you haven’t seen the New York Times article detailing the long term outcomes of former contestants on reality shows such as The Biggest Loser and My 600lb Life, I strongly recommend reading it here.
Also worth reading: obesity specialist Dr. Arya Sharma's thoughts on The Pedagogy of Obesity Reality Shows. (The paper by Emma Rich (referred to in Dr. Sharma's article) is attached, for those who don't have access to Pubmed.)
I haven't watched these, or any other "reality" tv show. In my view, this type of programming is voyeuristic, transgressive, and entirely exploitative of individuals who are, at best, deeply troubled and extremely vulnerable: the modern day equivalent of the Victorian freak show.
Rich2011Health.pdf

If you haven’t seen the New York Times article detailing the long term outcomes of former contestants on reality shows such as The Biggest Loser and My 600lb Life, I strongly recommend reading it here.
Also worth reading: obesity specialist Dr. Arya Sharma's thoughts on The Pedagogy of Obesity Reality Shows. (The paper by Emma Rich (referred to in Dr. Sharma's article) is attached, for those who don't have access to Pubmed.)
I haven't watched these, or any other "reality" tv show. In my view, this type of programming is voyeuristic, transgressive, and entirely exploitative of individuals who are, at best, deeply troubled and extremely vulnerable: the modern day equivalent of the Victorian freak show.
Rich2011Health.pdf

If she is lethargic before she ever gets to the gym, that is a sign of a possible anemia problem (iron and/or B12) or a possible dietary problem - low carb dieting can do that to some people (we all do it to some extent just by virtue of the low calorie levels we are maintaining to lose weight, but some take it to extremes in the belief that it helps weight loss.) As AZhiker mentions, six month labs may point to something (she has had them done, right? if not, do so,) and if nothing shows there, than maybe a talk with an RD (dietician) can point the way. After around four months, I added some complex carbohydrate ahead of a workout to improve my endurance (a snack of high complex carb, moderate Protein and low to moderate fat was recommended.) I was running into a wall after about an hour in the pool and that helped it quite a bit, but I had no problem getting to the gym in the first place.
Most of us have lots of energy, usually from a couple of months post op, from losing all that weight, so something is abnormal here. Get some things checked out with the professionals before looking for some miracle product.

Has she had her 6 month labs drawn? Iron levels and hemoglobin would be good to know. If everything is good in the labs, she just needs to get moving, whether she feels like it or not. The more one moves, the more energy one has. The hardest step is the first. Does she have a step tracker? That can be very motivating. Working up to 10,000 steps a day is kind of fun once you have a little tracker buddy to count for you.

We NEED to see these creations please ❤

i struggle with this as well. Ive been in maintenance now for a couple months and i still dont feel as if im where i need to be. i think a lot has to do with the extra skin for me. Part of me feels like it keeps me strict on myself though. So maybe its not the worst thing. Fear of going back is the worst part about all of this for me.

That was me, too. I always saw myself as overweight, but not really obese. Now when I look at old photos I am mortified at how fat I really was. Now it is hard to envision myself as anything but large. I went from a 24 jeans to a 10, and am very comfortable with that. I did save some old jeans and it is really pretty horrifying to think that I could now fit TWO of me into that pair! What has helped reframe my new size is looking at other people at work who wear the same sized scrubs as I do. I used to wear 2XX and now wear small. It has helped to see other people who wear smalls, also, to realize that my size is the same as theirs. It still seems surreal at times, but the small scrubs don't lie. I really am that size. This daily reinforcement has been a positive reality check for me.

PollyEster......................................................................................................................................whew so on point ! I loved it so much I am sharing it today on a webnar that my surgeon is having. Whiel reading this I felt a pow to the worry of this procedure and life changes. Thank you !
loridee11 I am doing a vegetable per week I have never eating before. I realized I lived a lifetime of limited vegetable usage. I am learning to try and live and learn. Thank you all

Ditto! recipes definitely worthy of the effort... Our favorite GO TO dessert. Cannot wait to see more of your Chaplin inspired creations. Your tart post magnificent. Thank you for sharing it with us. ;]

We love pics of food here, btw...just saying.

Veg kebab with red onion and I made tzatziki again. Spiced it up with Rad el Hanout spice mix for kebab. Unfortunately I didn't have any flat bread in the freezer left.

Enjoying today’s lunchtime salad outside! Such a beee-uuuu-tiful day 🥰
166 calories

food for today. Still have my muesli with soy skyr at work because French fries with bell pepper sauce were calling yesterday, lol.
Sandwich with vegan cheese. Junk food but the Wilmersburger tastes. Some almonds based spread to make it less dry.

What ms.sss said. From what I've read, it's pretty common for body dysmorphia to reverse after bariatric surgery. When I gained 110 lbs in 2 years and went from being average weight to morbidly obese, I went through the exact same thing. No matter what women look like, we tend to judge ourselves critically 😥
New outfits—particularly in colours and silhouettes I never would/could have worn when I was MO—definitely are helping me accept and learn to appreciate what I see in the mirror now. But I still purchase everything (online) in duplicate: 8's plus one larger size, usually a 12, "just in case" the 8's are suddenly somehow too small 😶

I’m not sure that there are any one-size fits-all solutions in terms of changes to make outside of the basic top ten guidelines listed by every single WLS surgeon, manual, book, and website. Those top ten are a given, based upon the outcomes of hundreds of thousands of bariatric patients. Beyond following those basics, each person is going to discover, over time, an individual approach that’s based entirely upon their genetics, personality, and history – plus current relationship – with food and eating.
This is why I love what summerset said about abandoning a fixed mindset and embracing a growth mindset. Obesity is a lifelong disease that is treated, but not cured, by WLS, so there needs to be ongoing evaluation and readjustment in order to keep the disease in remission.
In practical terms, what this means to me is that to be successful for life, I’ll need to frequently evaluate what I’m doing to determine what’s working and what isn’t. Obviously I’ll need to continue doing the things that work, i.e. the bariatric top ten. But equally important is examining what’s not working, determining what all the contributing factors are, then evaluating my actions based on those factors and figuring out the adjustments needed in order to make the that shift so that the treatment continually evolves with the circumstances of my life at any given point in time.
So: ongoing frequent evaluations, then adapting, adjusting, and pivoting as necessary. What those changes and tweaks are will be different for everyone.