JulieNYC

Officially back to normal food. Hated the low carb thing. Maybe if I'd given it a few more days I'd have gotten past the lethargy/headachy stage, but 5 days is all I had in me. I ate a zone bar (30g carbs, 20 g protein) for breakfast, went for a short run (4 mi) and I almost feel human again.

Yep -- I'm officially off the low carb. I was feeling like crap and couldn't put my all into my workouts. I know it's a great diet for some, but it's not for me. Back to the balanced diet I go....

Ugh. No scale movement today. I guess you can't expect it to move every day....So far, the low carb thing hasn't really paid off. 1 lb in 3 days and I have the worst headache. I'm going back to normal food if this doesn't work for me shortly. I can eat 600 cals/day in balanced food and feel great. But 1,000 cals of low carb and I'm all headachy and can barely finish my runs. Seriously, I'm not going to do this much longer. Dawn, do you have yak tracks for your shoes in all that freezing rain? I've been looking for some (we've been having bad weather too, proportionately), but the stores have all been out of my size....

I'm feeling great, Paulax. Yes, my incisions have been healed over for quite a while, but for one TINY place right in back. It's healed over in that it doesn't bleed, but it's still kind of white and yucky. It's only about the size of a pencil eraser and it doesn't hurt, so it's not a big deal -- I just wish it'd hurry up and scab over. I'll be 5 weeks out on Thurs. I'm a little more tired than normal, but I actually think that's because I've been low carbing more than because I'm still healing. Might have to quit that. Don't know why I put so much stock in an arbitrary number on the scale. I'm sure I could find a scale somewhere that said I weighed 136!

Well, for better or for worse, the bloodwork is done. We'll have the results tomorrow. COME ON 36!! The scale flickered on 139 this morning before settling back into 141.0. Usually when that happens, I drop within a couple of days. Can't explain it -- maybe my scale has premonitions. Losingjusme, surgery is December 20th, if I get the "go ahead" (knock wood). Juli, you're welcome to wonder about my boobs any time -- full disclosure on this forum! I'm quite curious too to see how they're going to turn out myself. haha. Hopefully I'll be getting them next week. CAN'T WAIT.

We're getting "gummi" gels, 250 cc's. That's not very big -- I'm only looking to be a small C (I'm down to a small B/big A). Dad (ok, it's weird to say that, but whatever!) really thinks I should go 300 or 325, but I just don't. I want to stay small, just fill them out a little.

5 to go! Come on, goal!

I keep getting "You are gaunt -- quit losing weight" from my father (the plastic surgeon). It's just not possible that I am gaunt. I am still 5 lbs overweight by the charts. I'm not quite 5'2 and I weigh in the 140s! That can't possibly be gaunt. A guy friend at work, whom I date a little from time to time, but nothing serious, took me to lunch a couple of weeks ago to tell me I was OCD about weight loss and should really stop losing. He's right in that I am OCD about weight loss, but geeze, look what I've gone through to get this close to goal. GOAL IS MINE, darnit. Yeah, it's annoying. On the flip side, there's a secret thrill to me for people to worry about me getting too thin. But I don't think that's a real problem I have to worry about in the 140s at my height.

First of, WOOHOO Betty for being on track even while in Vegas! 2 lbs is awesome. Yes, Betty, all I'm eating until I get to goal is low fat protein and low carb veggies. Today I had 2 lattes (I'm an addict), a can of tuna with LF mayo, pickles and broccoli, a 100 cal pack of almonds (not so low fat, but I needed them for my run), and 2 packs of string cheese. I also ran 14 miles. Goal is MINE, darn it, MINE. COME ON GOAL. (Of course 3 days ago I ate 2 donuts, so it's not a perfect system, but I'm trying to hang in there as long as I can with this low carb thing).

For those of you who don't follow my PS thread, I can't stand it not to post this pic for added self-motivation (I guess I think I look hot -- haha!)

OK, here we are, FIVE POUNDS TO GO. The low carb helped me with a pound and a half overnight (I completely know it'll come back when I start eating carbs again -- I don't care -- I just wanna see 136 even if it's just for a second.) Dancing bananas for every pound. :Banane25::Banane45::Banane22::woot:

Went out tonight. Never thought I'd have thighs that could pull off this style dress.... Dad said the magic number is 36 -- whatever the blood test is, we want the result to be 36 or above to be able to go forward with the surgery a week from Thurs. Come on, 36!

OK Guys, pardon my "French" but SCREW THIS MESSING AROUND. I'm going for GOAL and I'm going for it NOW. I've decided to low carb it for a few days and see if I can take off these SIX POUNDS I have until goal. I've never low carbed before, so I bet my body will respond to it (with water loss if nothing else). And it's the weekend and even though I have to work, I can get in a LOT of cardio over the next few days. GOAL GOAL GOAL. I'm going to get there in the next 2 weeks -- mark my words! So, ladies, what are we going to do to celebrate when I make it?? Are we going to have an e-party??? I need something to look forward to!! Woohoo!!! Cheer me on. SIX MORE POUNDS!!!!!!! Hell, I'm giving MYSELF some dancing bananas for motivation!!! :Banane10::Banane10::Banane20::bananajump::eek::Banane18::Banane28::Banane28::Banane17::Banane17::Banane49::Banane49::Banane48::Banane48:

Honestly, Karey, I love the arms more than anything. I really thought the scar would bother me and I almost didn't have it done -- my Dad really talked me into it. I felt my arms weren't THAT bad, all things considered. And, bad as they were, I could have lived with them the way they were. I wasn't that self conscious before. Well, at least I wasn't until I got my marathon photos back where I was sleeveless and running and my arms literally had WAVES of skin on them, in motion. That freaked me out a bit. Anyway, I'm so glad I had them done. The scar is kind of cool, almost, and where it's placed I almost never see it. You really have to try to angle your arm just right -- it kind of falls in a shadow. I would wear a sleeveless dress with no hesitation. I'd have to hold my arm in an awkward position for anyone to really see it, and even if they did, it's not so bad. I can tell (knock on wood) that when it flattens out in a few months, it's going to be no big deal at all. I guess I'm warming up to scars in general, which is good since I'm going to have so many of them! Well, I think I'm going to LOW CARB for a week (or until my surgery on the 20th) and see if I can get to "goal" -- goal being the "normal" BMI of 136 that the charts say. It's almost become a game for me. I'm bouncing between 142.8 and 143.2. I've never low carbed before, but I don't care if it's water weight or real weight -- I just want to see the numbers go down 6 lbs. I can't believe I'm SIX POUNDS from goal!

Of course you can come to Barney's! I can't believe I've never been. One month today was my surgery, so here are some pics. More to come on the thigh lift. I couldn't figure out the angle to take the butt shots and I didn't have time to give it. 2 weeks from today I get rid of the crepe skin on my inner thighs, assuming my bloodwork clears on Monday! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

I eat 1/2-1 cup, usually closer to the 1 cup. I find if I'm making the right food choices, I can barely get in 1,000 cals on that. I don't know how I'd do it on 2 oz, but I support anything that works!

Eficka, For what it's work (probably not much, haha), I'm totally with your doctor. Lower your calories. Increase your cardio. Trainers get it wrong when they encourage the formerly morbidly obese to eat more. Low calories and high cardio leads to the very best weight loss in 99% of us. Woohoo! Go Eva!!!

If that's the way you feel, then book the panniculectomy and do it NOW. No sense in waiting. By the time you recover from it and are ready to run, you're going to feel so great that my true opinion is that you're going to wind up setting a lower final goal anyway. So you'll do panniculectomy, then arms, then LBL. I know you think you're going to be happy in the 180s, but my opinion is that you'll get there and the 160s will call your name. I've seen that happen to so many people, including myself! I truly thought I'd be happy at 160. That wasy my firm goal. Now, the 30s call my name and it won't surprise me one bit if I'm not satisfied until the 20s (keeping in mind I'm much shorter than you, of course). Go on and do it. Getting rid of the pannus is the best thing ever (as long as you truly recognize the esthetics aren't the same as a TT -- but the flapping will be gone, which is what I think you're after). Check out lots of pannus vs TT pics, ok?

MimIN, Oh I SO KNOW what you're going through. I promise it's going to change. You may not come out quite as curvy as you like, but at about week 3, your body will completely change again, if it's like mine. I think my waist was swollen from the trauma, so it made it doubly bad in terms of feeling boxy. Now, my butt is definitely flatter than I'd like. That's just part of the deal with massive weight loss, I think. But the curve of my hips and thighs came back in week 3. Hang in there. I remembered the transition period of not being happy with the results when I had my TT, so I was prepared for it with the thigh lift I just had and I'll be prepared for it again when I have inner thighs in a couple of weeks (she says to remind herself).

If the doctor supports it, and if your expectations are reasonable (meaning, you get that this is almost certainly an interim step) I say go for it. In all reality, losing, you'll need the LBL at goal anyway, you know? The issue is really whether you think it's worth the money and surgical risk to get rid of the pannus now. It WILL make the LBL easier, so it's not a complete loss in terms of surgical efficiency. The only other thing to consider is recovery time. That is important. Meaning, you're only 50 lbs from the weight you could do LBL, correct? You could buckle down and lose 50 lbs in 3-5 months -- you really could. You'd have to sit out of running for at least 6 weeks and probably 2 months before you're back to full steam with the panniculectomy. So option #2 is (1) go on and set a date for the arms that is 2 months out. You can lose 20 lbs in that time. By the time you're recovered from the arms, you'll be able to lose 20-30 more lbs within 3 more months, which takes you to LBL time. What do you think? I'm starting to think the latter makes sense, but I support you wholeheartedly with whatever you decide.

Hey yall! Thought I'd break in here for a minute and tell you my recent "couch to 5K" story. Basically, I did couch to 5K back last Jan/Feb (at about 250 lbs) and ran my first race in Feb (at about 220 lbs). I repeated at least one day of most weeks twice, but not as many as you'd think. Also, every time I was really dreading one of the bumps, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be (on the contrary, some of the bumps I didn't think would be so bad, actually were). All that culminated in me running the NYC marathon in November in 4:23. Woohoo! So, then I had PS (thigh lift and arm lift) and had to sit out from all exercise for exactly a month from my last run (which was, essentially, the marathon). This week, I'd planned to come back to couch to 5K to get back in shape before my second PS later this month. The good news? I didn't need to do couch to 5K again! My first run back was hard, but by the second run, I felt as strong as ever (maybe a LITTLE slower, but I could certainly run consistently for long distances without needing to take walk breaks). Anyway, just wanted to tell you guys how great you're doing and to let you know that if you stay with this for life, even with small setbacks like I had last month not being able to run, you WILL get to goal and stay there. I know that's as big of a component to my (forthcoming) maintenance as the band itself. GO RUNNERS!!!

Me too Paulax, we're twins! 6 to go!

Tracy, Boo's right, you do look AMAZING. I hope the whole world is noticing. They'd be blind not to! Boo, 8 miles is FABULOUS. If I were you, I'd concentrate on adding distance and not worrying about speed. Once you find "your" distance (I predict you fall in love with 1/2 marathons), you'll train for speed. Find the distance first. Seriously. Well, my weight dropped 3 lbs overnight! Go scale go! It's the right time in my cycle and with the recent return to running, the scale gods were kind. I've gotten smaller in the last couple of weeks, so I feel like they're real pounds. I'd like to lose 3 more before Dec 20th, though that might be asking for too much. We'll see....

I think you're right about the bra-line fat making the difference between us, Enterprise. I had that taken out when I had my BL, so my arms were probably simpler. What kind of compression garment are you getting? I've been using men's compression socks, like you'd wear on an airplane if you had circulation issues, with the ties cut out. They work pretty well, but don't go up into the arm pit, which, ideally, they would.

Oh Eva, I'm so glad you checked in with us. We miss you! Are you not eligible for a fill? I know the approach to fills is different where you are, but just wondering if that would help. The book you're reading sounds like a great step as well. Hang in there and let us know if we can help. Maybe set a December exercise goal?