BlackBerryJuice

Yeah, a little bit. I carry my weight in my inner thighs and right under my butt, it's kind of annoying. I still have some fat there, but part of it is definitely loose skin. It kind of sucks, because I decided to improve my diet in hopes of getting rid of some of that, but since I know some of it is loose skin, I'm aware that no matter how well I eat and how much I exercise, it still won't look the way I'd like it to look. But yes, building up muscle in that area will help somewhat. Last year when I got down to my lowest weight (136), my butt was remarkably flat and totally saggy, and it even hurt to sit! I've been doing Crossfit since and have built up my butt a LOT. I found some old profile pix from last year the other day, so I took some new ones, and I can see the difference. You can see I had so much loose skin last summer that there was an actual skin fold under my underwear! Not to mention, my butt actually kind of sticks out now, instead of there being a straight line from the back of my head down to my heels....lol. I look forward to seeing what it'll look like a year from now.

No, I figured I'd just get the drops so I could add that to other dairy products if necessary. I also found I didn't need too much Lactaid, either. It said 5-15 drops per liter (1/4 gallon), and I used 5 per 1/2 gallon and it relieved my symptoms! Does Lactaid milk taste different? Someone mentioned that to me. With the lactase drops, it hasn't been an issue.

You can definitely have dairy, BUT you may find that you've become lactose intolerant. There's a variation in how intolerant you might be - for example, it's very common to be milk-intolerant, but most people are ok with cheese or yogurt. I personally find ice cream to be the worst offender, with milk next. I'm trying to drink more protein shakes lately, and after a couple of days of explosive bathroom trips and searing tummy pains, I finally sucked it up, paid $20 for Lactaid drops, and added them to my milk carton....holy crap, that was totally worth it! I don't have an upset stomach after my milk-based protein shakes anymore.

Osteoporosis shouldn't be an issue unless you have severe reflux and end up on PPIs for the rest of your life.

Yay! A couple of years ago, I donated so many "small" clothes thinking I'd never fit into them ever again....we're talking size 10s....oh, how funny I was. They'd be falling off of me now, but I sure would've enjoyed wearing them in the losing stage instead of buying new ones!

LOL, it's funny you say that, because I also thought of typing that in my post. Then I remembered how freaking annoying it is to get those pamphlets under my door and how Jehovah's Witnesses would ring my doorbell back when I lived in a house rather than a condominium, and decided it was way too intrusive, haha.

That's crazy! And you know the reality is that she will NEVER lose weight without surgery - especially since it sounds like she's in too much pain to exercise. That's really too bad. And to chime in, yes, I've definitely pondered coming up to people and telling them about the surgery. But like everyone else here, I've resisted. Imagine if some stranger came up to you back when you were big - I know I would've, at the very least, thought they were totally nuts to approach someone like that.

Wow, great work on that cholesterol! I'll try this, I like the idea of soaking steel-cut oats in yogurt overnight... I'll repost your recipe in a more structured format, just because I found it a bit difficult to read the way it's originally written. OVERNIGHT OATS 1/3 c rolled oats (not instant) 1 carton activia lite vanilla yogurt or 1/2 c greek vaniilla yogurt 2 T ground flax seeds 2 tsp benefiber fiber powder 1 capful Miralax 2 tsp Barleans Omega Swirl Fish Oil (pina colada flavor) 1 small scoop Protein powder (I use nectar brand vanilla) 1 tsp spenda brown sugar blend Mix all of the dry ingredients in a bowl that has a lid. Add yogurt and stir. If too dry, add a splash of fat free milk or almond milk. Cover the bowl and put in refridgerator. Leave there a minimum of 30 minutes or overnight. Enjoy! Calories Fat Carbs Fiber Protein TOTALS 376 11 48 11 20.3

That's hardcore, lots of extra cardio. Don't burn yourself out. If I were you, I'd lose like half of those morning cardio sessions. It's a lot of working out to sustain over 60 days.

I think you've got it figured out! Fruit is also a good option. Just take it easy with nuts or dried fruit.

In my experience, if you exercise regularly (and challenge yourself), you can eat whatever you want. You'll like it, I'm sure!

You can always really get under their collective skins by saying something like, "No, I don't have any complications! This is totally fine! Can you believe it?! I eat whatever I want, I'm never hungry, and look at me, I weigh as much as I did when I was 18! Isn't this crazy?! I say, it's pretty awesome being me these days! Mmmm, this tastes so good!" I expect lots of pregnant silence in response.....lol.

Definitely! We're going out tomorrow for our anniversary and I was perusing the menu at the restaurant we're going to, trying to figure out ahead of time what I wanted to order. I picked the appetizer, the entree, AND the dessert for both of us, and then I was like, "nevermind....I'll have 1/3 of my entree and we'll split a dessert and I'll be bursting at the seams!"

Why don't you put them in a food processor or blender so that the texture is smoother?

I love chicken sausages! So yummy!

I heard some horror story from a bariatric surgeon I know about a lady who was 1.5 years out and ruptured her stomach en route back from vacation on the plane. She was hospitalized in the ICU here for quite a while. I am not entirely sure of what caused her stomach to rupture, but I suppose the most likely reasons would be eating too much or an ulcer (or combo of both).

I can chug half a mug of Water but then I feel full for a little while until it goes through my system. I can eat ANYTHING without discomfort. Speaking of raw veggies, I just had some radishes....

I'm trying to do the same thing. Cutting down on eating out, no junk food, and dessert no more than 2x a week - and make it worth it. E.g. tomorrow is our anniversary, so we're going out to a nice steakhouse and I'll definitely have some dessert there, because I know it'll be good. But the Cadbury mini eggs hidden in my dishwasher are off limits indefinitely! It's not really a weight thing for me, although I wouldn't mind if my butt leaned out a bit, but I just decided I was not eating well, even though I was not gaining weight. Now, if only my fiance was in the same boat. Yesterday, I asked him to have a chicken stromboli for lunch instead of pizza because it would've saved like 200 calories, and then for dinner, I let him have whatever he wanted - meat ravioli in creamy cheese sauce AND bread - but given how much he bitched and moaned, you would've thought I had him eating lettuce and vinegar all day! I told him he can eat whatever he wants, just make sure to take out a good life insurance policy so I get a nice chunk of change when he has a heart attack at 45!

I would've just gone there with her and sat watching her eat - while getting nothing myself. Might as well feed her weird issues by putting her bad eating habits on the spot.

What kind of exercises do you do with the weights and how much weight are you using?

To add to this: Will you feel deprived and hungry with Jenny Craig - almost definitely Will you feel deprived and hungry post-surgery - almost definitely NOT

Re: losing and losing, all you have to do is add in some fat. Peanut Butter in your Protein shake, avocado in your salad or on a sandwich, full-fat milk instead of lowfat/skim, snacking on some cheese, juice instead of Water, etc. Nothing wrong about having dessert once in a while, either. Re: loose skin - if you lose more weight, you might find that some of it was actually fat. I remember thinking if I got down to 155 lbs, I'd be ripped to shreds. Well, I'm at 140 now and I still have some flab on my butt and inner thighs. I'm sure if I got down to 135, I'd realize I still had some extra fat somewhere.

Why stop now? Keep going. There's no way you're too thin at 189. Your body will stop when it's ready.