blackcatsandbaddecisions

I have a latte with nonfat high protein milk. I bring it to work in my thermos and it usually takes me an hour or so to finish. This always keeps be full until lunch. I am a huge fan of my nespresso and milk frother! All I have to do is dump the milk in a jug and press start and it does the heating and frothing for me while I chase down kids. Also over the years I’ve saved so much money vs going to Starbucks.

I swear my two year old wanted nothing more in life than to headbutt mama’s stomach when I got home from the hospital. Congrats on your recent surgery!

I get that low carb is very polarized right now- I will say my 4 month pre-op diet was low carb, and it worked to get weight off prior to surgery. It was never intended to be long term, but I recognized I had a serious problem with limiting intake of carbs and particularly sugar. I also needed to drop weight so I could be healthier for surgery, since I was close to a 50 BMI. Low carb diets can be effective. I’m sure some people can maintain them long term because that’s how they like to eat. Me, I’m enjoying using portion control now and having fruit and vegetables again. Doing a short term “unsustainable” diet did not ruin my life, I’m not wildly binging out of control now or starving myself. Some short, older, sedentary people will have very low calorie needs. I don’t think any of us are in a place to judge someone. I have to remind myself sometimes that I am almost a foot taller than some women on these forums, so of course my food intake doesn’t look like theirs. There are also 20 something very tall men here who exercise every day. I wish I could compare myself to them, but no dice! Everyone here is on their own journey and we are all going to need to find what works for us. Let’s leave the person alone who wants to eat carbs and enjoy them, but similarly if someone wants to go low carb, that’s their own business.

5 months! I doubt that many if any people are reading this, but I want to keep this as my first year record regardless. And if anyone is reading this, I’ll be checking in every month! Current weight- 217.8. I lost 12.6 lbs last month, and I’m fully back into my wedding ring set. I have for sure bought too many clothes. I am at least trying to get them second had, but still it’s impossible to think about actually being below an xl. I’m starting to buy a L in some styles like sweaters. I’ve sold pretty much my entire old wardrobe, but having to get all new bras, underwear, etc is quite expensive. I’ve been doing great with rowing, still being lazy with running. Exercise is clearly needed at this stage to keep the weight loss going. I still have 52 lbs to go to goal! Non scale victories this month- I was able to volunteer for an all day vaccine clinic where I was walking nonstop and my feet didn’t hurt and I wasn’t exhausted after. I can cross my legs when I sit down! My jawline is back, and I only have one chin. My legs feel muscular and I have biceps! People are commenting nonstop on my weight (and to be honest I’m kind of over it) and I have a ton of new clothes that I’m excited to wear. This next month, I’m looking forward to (hopefully!) losing another 12 lbs, which would get me within a handful of pounds of being OVERWEIGHT! I know I say it every month, but I gotta start running to get some cardio in as well. It’s crazy to think that 5 months ago I had checked into the hospital by now and was waiting for surgery. July 5 marks my one year of dieting- I won’t be at goal by then, but I’ll hopefully be close.

I’m down about 120 lbs and I’ve not noticed any wrinkles appearing. I use a ton of moisturizer and daily vitamin c/tret. I used to have forehead wrinkles years ago even at my heaviest, but that’s why I see a nice lady every 4 months for 15 units of dysport 😉

I’m a devoted coffee drinker- I drank coffee 3 days after surgery and have continued ever since. I have a latte for breakfast every day and a cup of coffee in the afternoon. I’ve never had a problem, but I tended to have a cast iron stomach before surgery, and that’s held true after surgery as well.

His YouTube videos are great, he explained a lot of stuff that I found really helpful. Good suggestion on his book, I’ll have to pick it up.

I have just gotten a cup of soup or an appetizer. Not interested in bothering a waiter with details of my surgery, plus I echo others sentiments that the kids menu is usually fried or bland garbage. I worked food service in the (distant) past, and I agree that so long as I think the person wasn’t gonna complain about me, I could not care less how much of their meal they ate. Leave a tip, don’t leave a mess, and the waitstaff will be happy with you every day of the week.

I made a lot of changes about 4 months pre-op and I’m grateful every day that I did. I also kind of felt like having an upcoming surgery made things have a deadline so it helped me focus and not put things off indefinitely. If you read through some threads here you’ll see the two week diet and the post op period are so rough for many people who make no lifestyle changes prior to that. If you made changes in the months prior then it’s one less huge lifestyle adjustment at the time of surgery. It sounds like you’re on the right track!

True, I might! I’ve been active here for about a year but a hardcore lurker before that. People on the whole seem pretty reasonable here, with a few exceptions of course. That being said, my favorite threads are as follows: Op posts up a plea for help, they are having problems and need people’s assistance. Many people, including successful veterans, offer suggestions. Op becomes defensive and states that there’s no way what has been suggested will work and nobody understands them and what they are already doing is perfectly fine. People point out they posted a problem and asked for help. Op criticizes everybody and then vanishes into the ether, never to be seen again.

One of my rules post-surgery was that I needed to stop using food as a “reward” for myself. I’m not a dog or a toddler, and it really has created some bad habits. So far I’ve been pretty successful at it, with the exception of nonfat lattes. I figure if some espresso and nonfat milk are the worst that I do I’m doing pretty well. I love your idea. There’s a lot more to life than food, and there are many more enjoyable things out there than mindlessly eating all the time. I think you’re setting yourself up with the right mindset, and post surgery success is hugely dependent on that!

So my marriage is a lot shorter than some here (15 years) but in my experience trying to avoid an argument only works when the thing you are ignoring is kinda petty and you’re overreacting. Like, it vaguely pisses me off that my husband keeps moving the damn bath mat, and that he wears his dirty work shoes on the carpet. But I let it go because at the end of the day, it’s not that big of a deal. If he said something about me in front of someone else that I felt was inappropriate? Oh, he’d be hearing it. But I tend to be a pretty assertive person in general, both before and after weight loss. OP, I applaud you for fighting for your marriage. I recommend however that you fight for a marriage that will make you happy and will work long term. You can’t fight for a marriage that involves you hiding all your feelings and feeling uncomfortable with the person you are sharing your life with. My husband has definitely called me on some shit I’ve said over the years. Did I always agree that he should feel the way he did? No, but it’s not about me agreeing with his feelings, it’s me acknowledging that he does feel that way and me deciding to not do that again because I love him and I don’t want to make him unhappy.

I have been selling my old wardrobe on poshmark and using my proceeds to buy new stuff on there. There’s a lot of great stuff. Shipping can be brutal but if you find someone selling a lot of clothes you like you can bundle and just pay one shipping fee for multiple items. That being said, have I bought too many clothes in this size when I am still 55 lbs to goal? Yes indeed. I kind of went a bit crazy when I hit straight sizes and got to shop at the stores I’ve always admired but could never fit into. I’m consoling myself with the thought that I can just sell them when I size out again. But I work in an office, and I can’t wear size 26 pants when I’m actually a size 16 now. No belt in the world is going to make that fly.

Nobody! seeing human train wrecks online is amusing and a distraction from the in real life ones I can’t mute.

I stalled around that point too, then eventually dropped weight quickly after the stall broke. If you’re eating the right number of calories for weight loss then don’t worry, your body has to give in eventually. It can just be stubborn sometimes!

I have 10 years of data on my fitness pal showing me that every time I stop weighing myself routinely then I have a dramatic spike in weight. I’m very head-in-the-sand about weight gain, so I know I have to keep an eye on it. Normally I would be a once-a-day weigher, but since I’m in active weight loss right now I’m trying to limit it to 2-3x a week. That way I can (usually) see the scale drop at least a little each time and I don’t drive myself crazy with fluctuations.

I had a sleeve, 4 months post op, I take daily Bariatric multi with iron B complex Vitamin d I don’t have any prescriptions, and I did great with my blood work checkup last month. I eat a pretty varied diet- I have fruit and vegetables as well as protein. So far so good.

For “comfort” eating I’ve also tried to replace that with tea or coffee. Hot beverages are very soothing to me and always have been. I have recently replaced my wardrobe- trying to buy used, and cheaper items on clearance since I’m hopefully just temporarily at this weight. I can see how online shopping could get addictive though, so I’m trying to be mindful about that. I have made a lot of sales on Poshmark for clothes- if you have “known brand” stuff like Lane Bryant, Torrid, etc you can generally sell stuff there. I like that they take care of postage and everything. I’ve made about $600 in the past few weeks- which I’m slowly chipping away at getting a few new things. Being able to dress nicer for my business casual job is really rewarding. I’m trying to think of things that are actual hobbies and not just time wasters to take up the space that food used to occupy. Going on hiking trips with my family, home improvement projects, gardening now that it’s getting nicer, knitting, quilting, reading, etc.

Ruthpets I’m also 5’10 and seriously people do not understand how different heights of people affect clothing size. When I was in those sizes I looked great. It’s the same people who think that anything over 150 for a woman is inconceivable. I will have you all know that my goal is my birth weight- 9 lbs 6 oz or bust!! I’m gonna fit into that duck onesie again and I’ll just be the ultimate weight loss winner for life. 🎉

I’ve been able to tolerate pretty much everything at 4 month post op. I eat fruit and vegetables including lettuce frequently, I have spicy food, coffee, etc. I’ve not tried soda, I’ve never liked it and sweet beverages are not only gross but the quickest way to bypass your restriction and start gaining. My doctor said to avoid bread and rice so I’ve not bothered with it. Tbh I don’t have room in a meal for it anyway- if I have a curry I can just eat some vegetables and protein and then have enough left over for a few more meals, forget wasting space on rice! I think a lot of the problem is that there is so much you can have but probably shouldn’t from a weight gain perspective. I’m not drinking while I’m losing but when I get to maintenance I’m looking forward to having a half glass of dry white wine every few weeks, like I used to. Candy is such a huge problem for me I don’t know that I will ever effectively find a way to work it into my diet again. Based on how I react to other stuff I bet I physically could eat it, but it would completely undermine what I’m trying to do here. Some things may be better left in the past.

Thanks! About half of that was in the few months before surgery, but I’m counting it. It’s true that our bodies have certain points they want to stay at. I feel like my body would love to settle around250ish so it was a bit of a struggle to get out of that range. Meanwhile I feel like I barely saw the 230s, I just flew right through those. I suspect I’m going to have another stall around 200. Historically it’s another set point my body has liked to sit at. But I’m looking to get to 165, so I’ll keep plugging away.

Bufbills- great job!!! Aroddy- I know what you mean- I feel sometimes like I’m racing against the clock. I still have over 60 lbs to lose to get to goal, and i know the farther out I get the harder it is. I have to get more consistent on exercise as well. Mswillis5- you made maintenance! Congrats! Yes, the head games are real. I also feel like I didn’t understand the effort and expense of replacing all my clothing. I am confused about my size, what to buy, etc. A good problem but still daunting sometimes.

I got so many soups! I got containers of soup from the deli section of the grocery store. And I got soup from Panera as well.

We mostly have eaten takeout, due to Covid, but we have eaten on a patio a few times ( as weather permits). I’ve just made sure that whatever restaurant we are going to has something on the menu that I want and can have, and if my family is getting takeout from a place that doesn’t have what I can eat, I just have my own stuff that I make. I’ve had soup, curry (no rice, just eating the vegetables and protein), protein skewers, and salads. I can never eat it all, but that’s the whole point of the surgery. My best advice is to be pickier about restaurants, and when there’s nothing for you at a particular place then don’t go, and make peace with what you have at home. One big thing I’m trying to focus on is to not let food be central to my life. Obsessing over what I wanted to eat, what other people were eating, what food looked good, etc took up so much of my life pre-op. The biggest change I wanted to make was to stop letting food play such a central role in my life. I’m not pretending that “it’s just fuel” because there’s a lot mixed in socially, culturally, etc., but it needs to be a part of life, not life itself.

Anybody still here? How are we all doing 4ish months out? I’m currently down 113 and selling pretty much every article of clothing I own on poshmark. Looks like I finally found the secret to decluttering, just don’t fit into anything you own anymore.