Hi February losers! I know we've got a great group in the pre-op sub forum, but now that we are on to week two, thought we should start the thread over here too! I see a few other Feb stragglers around so hopefully they can join here too.

I had my surgery on Monday 2/3. I'm down 10.5 as of one week. Not sure if this is a normal amount or not. I'm not getting in much calories, but do get in Protein of at least 50g per day (need to up this) and all my Water. I have a drain which still causes me pain. Other than that thing, I'm doing good on my incision and recovery. Today I start back up work, but thankfully it's from home and I just have to work on a laptop or computer.

So looking forward to the losing phase of this journey with you all and learning and growing from each other.

Edited February 10, 201412 yr by kimr

I have lost 78 pounds in 6 months now but 126 since I started Slimming World 4 years ago. It won't mean much to you all but I got my 9 stone award last week! I also now have a personal trainer coming to my house to do exercises sitting down

Congratulations Claire! I know what a 9 stone award is. That is absolutely amazing - you should be very proud of yourself. Can I have a 5 stone award please? (You've made me think - when I was in my teens and twenties, I weighed 10 stone - so I've lost half a person.) We may have slowed down but 78 lbs in 6 months is great (I've lost 72). Keep working at it.

Also well done on hiring a personal trainer - your physical strength, mobility and well-being are as important as the weight loss. Good luck - I hope you feel stronger soon.

Yes I live in a suburb of Rochester called Pittsford. Upstate New York is lovely - we have Lake Ontario to our north and the Finger Lakes to our south - that's wine country. We're only 4 hours from Toronto - I'd love to have you come visit next year.

Edited August 8, 201412 yr by JanetteH

Just needed to share my news!!! I finally hit ONE-derland! Down 91 lbs since January 1!! Praise God!

happy again!

Just needed to share my news!!! I finally hit ONE-derland! Down 91 lbs since January 1!! Praise God!

Congratulations Dreamingbig - you look fantastic. That is a goal I'm also aiming for - just 11 pounds to go 'til I get into the Ones - haven't been there in 25 years.

BTW after the pep-talk from my PCP about people starting to fall back into old habits around 6 months, I brought out the food scale and measuring cups again this week and tried to stick to the original plan. I lost 3 pounds!! Haven't had that kind of success for a long time. I ate out several times and just ordered sensibly and ate half the food - I wasn't a maniac about measuring but clearly my idea of a cup and the measuring cup's idea have begun to get more and more different Anyone else discovered this?

Edited August 10, 201412 yr by JanetteH

Dreamingbig

That's AMAZING!!!.. congrats on your hard work.

Small victories are the best!!!.. as silly as this sounds to other non-surgery friends...to us that has made the decision to have the surgery it means alot...

I can finally put on a pair of knee high boots and they fit over my calves! !!!.. I almost started crying.

(Yes I know there are boots with wider widths but they were not as cute or easy to find)

I have lost 78 pounds in 6 months now but 126 since I started Slimming World 4 years ago. It won't mean much to you all but I got my 9 stone award last week! I also now have a personal trainer coming to my house to do exercises sitting down

Congratulations Claire! I know what a 9 stone award is. That is absolutely amazing - you should be very proud of yourself. Can I have a 5 stone award please? (You've made me think - when I was in my teens and twenties, I weighed 10 stone - so I've lost half a person.) We may have slowed down but 78 lbs in 6 months is great (I've lost 72). Keep working at it.

Also well done on hiring a personal trainer - your physical strength, mobility and well-being are as important as the weight loss. Good luck - I hope you feel stronger soon.

Yes I live in a suburb of Rochester called Pittsford. Upstate New York is lovely - we have Lake Ontario to our north and the Finger Lakes to our south - that's wine country. We're only 4 hours from Toronto - I'd love to have you come visit next year.

Hi Janette,

Well you are doing great too aren't you! The awards come in half stones so you are almost at your 5 and a half stone award!

Your area sounds lovely and I can feel a trip to New England and New York state coming on, in which case it would be great to meet you in person if/ when we do that. I am sure that it will be when not if, but we also want to go to Yellowstone and the Rockies soonish. As long as we do not exhaust ourselves with this trip coming up next week that is! I would love to meet you.

Take care

Claire

Hi,

Dreamin you are looking so great, well done. Ryn I know what you mean about minor or non scale victories, they mean so much, and boots are important. So you are ready for the winter now. I can now cross my legs on some chairs, it has never been heard of before, I am amazed!

Has anyone else got a little alien living inside their stomach, causing mayhem and the most amazing drain sounds? The problem is that it causes food not to go down well at all, and often I have to abandon meals at the start. It makes me feel slightly sicky and things can get stuck and then there is the diarrhoea and parping. All not very attractive and it seems to go on for days on end. Even drinking water can start it off and what happens next is so unpredictable. Not good news for our long road trip coming up next week, anything could happen! Hopefully it won't but the diarrhoea hits very fast and I need a restroom fast, and I mean fast.

Has anyone ele got an alien like mine? None of the people in my British group have, am I unique? I really hope not and that someone has some suggestions. If not I will have to call in ghostbusters or Sigourney Weaver.

On the up side the weight loss is slower but continuing (though goodness knows what it will do while I am away), I am doing sitting down exercises, and as I said I can cross my legs. All my clothes are too big and if I have them taken in they still don't work and look too big, I am getting ready to sell them on eBay, I just want them to go to a good home really because these things are difficult to find and I have been building up my wardrobe for some time. Then an excuse to shop, but what size am I? All very confusing but what a great problem to have.

Take care all of you

Claire

Edited August 11, 201412 yr by clairec

Dreaming, congratulations! That is huge, way to go. I hope I can join you there in a few months.

Claire, I do not have that alien, sorry. Can you talk to you doctor about it?

Hi Kim,

It seems unusual here, both the alien and the frequent and urgent diarrhoea. On the other hand I don't seem to get the dumping syndrome and on a good day I am very versatile about what I can eat. Other days nothing works. I am seeing the dietician a few days after we get back so I will ask her.

Thanks for getting back to me.

Claire

Thanks y'all!! I will say that I too seem to have a little alien...I begin to hear and feel him not happy and have to immediately get up from the table and wait...sometimes I yak...sometimes I'm ok... It's not fun though and I really never know which way it will go.

HI all!!! I haven't really written much on this forum but I read all of your stories and updates daily. CONGRATS TO ALL OF YOU!!

With almost hitting my 6 month mark- I have not lost any weight in the past 2 1/2 weeks....WHATS UP?! Has anyone experienced this lately? Is this the end?! LOL. Have I only lost 50 pds and that's it? THAT IS SCARY!

Hopefully some of ya'll have experienced this yourself and could give me some tips, ideas, anything at this point!! I have actually started taking diet pills because I am afraid that this is the end of my weight loss. YIKES!

Again, great job everyone. It is def a process!

Thanks y'all!! I will say that I too seem to have a little alien...I begin to hear and feel him not happy and have to immediately get up from the table and wait...sometimes I yak...sometimes I'm ok... It's not fun though and I really never know which way it will go.

Well at least I am in good company Dreamin! I haven't been sick, thank goodness. It's the unpredictability of it all though that it is difficult. On any day I can eat most things, but I can't eat all of them every day and there no safe "go to" foods when I need to spend most of the day away from a rest room.

I wonder if there is anyone out there with a little gremlin...

Thanks for replying and take care

Claire

Hi Heidi,

I think you will find that most of us have had our times when we do not seem to be losing. My weight loss goes in fits and starts. The thing to do is not to panic and focus on some of the things that are going well, like the little non scale victories and the inches lost. I suppose that we will all stop losing at some point and we have been panicking from the first day of surgery if the scales are not showing a loss on an ongoing basis. There is no reason to think that you have stopped losing now, that would be really very early when everything seems to say that the weight loss might slow down a bit but continue for much longer than this.

We are meant to be able to lose around two thirds of our excess body weight, although for a lot of people this might stabilise at around 50% I have read. A lot of people seem to be doing better than that though, so don't lose heart. You must be due to lose more based on the numbers on your ticker so your body just needs to cach up, which it probably will very soon.

Please don't panic, just stay calm and stop taking diet pills, I am sure that is not good for you. If you have been exercising a lot then muscle build up can be the reason for less weight loss, or even a temporary gain but don't stop the exercise because of that.Sometimes changing what you eat might make a difference, not that you are eating badly but maybe your body might like a bit of a change. I honestly am not sure whether anything really makes a difference really but panicking won't make the weight loss happen again either, it will just make you feel bad.

So that's my advice if it helps at all. Don't panic, stay calm and wait for it to start again. Meanwhile focus on the other victories and advantages of the 50 pounds you have lost.

And well done to you too, you are doing well, you just don't think you are at the moment.

Take care

Claire

Claire - sorry I don't have a gremlin - so I can sympathize but not empathize. I do get occasional & urgent diarrhea but it's not preceded by any extra growling (the growling and the gas are just constant factors in my life now 24/7) I occasionally get constipated too - my poor interior just doesn't know what "normal" is yet.

Heidi - I've stalled twice on my journey so far - once for over 4 weeks. I have 2 contradictory suggestions - the common denominator is make a small change. Last week I went back to weighing and measuring for a few days and found I was eating more than I had been 3 months ago - so I re-calibrated my eyes and this week I lost 3 pounds.

The time before that I did the opposite on the advice of my nutritionist - I actually increased my calories for a couple of days - including more good fats - avocado and olive oil. That seemed to work because it knocked my body out of "starvation mode".

Give one or the other a try - but no matter what you do, know that this will pass and you will continue to lose weight. My other piece of advice is don't weigh yourself more than once a week - daily weight fluctuations can be discouraging.

On the positive side, I see you're in ONEderland - I'm jealous - I haven't reached that yet and it's my next small goal. You're doing great - 52 pounds in 6 months is wonderful.

As Claire says, don't panic and for the love of Pete, stop taking diet pills - they won't help and might do harm.