We are beginning week 4! Many of you have continued onto soft food, some of us are in puree land. How is everyone's incisions feeling? Most of mine are healed, however I have my biggest one not wanting to heal up and it still has a warm to the touch scab. Otherwise I'm quite pleased with how the others look. Better than when I had my gallbladder out!

I need to start working on supplements, I haven't really been doing that yet. I need to go through my paperwork and figure all that out. I keep forgetting to take the PPI granules in the morning. I don't have issues with acid so I seem to forget about it, but I know our sleeves are more sensitive to ulcers so I must remember tomorrow!!

Here is our group tally!

@jajmj (-13)

@devint (-21)

@Sh3iz (-16.5)

@Nicci829 (-15)

@Speeder (-10)

@lylabelle (-17)

@hrhlaurie (-16)

@SingleMom33 (-16)

@WhoKnows (-13)

@@sleevin' it in Jersey (-13)

@barbbcute (-17)

@tiredtwinmommy (-15.5)

@mrsfitzpatrick (-25)

@Monte0828 (-19)

@cnilson (-23)

@SliminDownThick (-18)

@20130527sleever (-17)

If you did not give us your Monday weight I can add it in here. Currently we are at 285 pounds lost!!

What is dry brushing?

Thanks.

Everyone is doing fantastic! How long is everyone planning on being in the purée stage? I think my dr said about two weeks or more. The best tool I've found in this stage is the NutriBullet. My husband went out and bought it for us, and I've used it every day since. I purre fruits and veggies. Made a butternut squash Soup. Healthy shakes for work. It's amazing! I'm going to stick close by that and lots of Beans and soft means like canned chicken or tuna. It all went down easy enough so we will see.

I'd love to hear what others are doing during this phase two of foods and what you guys are finding works for you. Keep it up!! We can lose tons of weight if we just focus and remember our goals. Let's do this!!!

@@devint I'm vegetarian, so I don't use fish oil. There are other sources of omegas if the fishiness is unpleasant for you. I take capsules with oil from algae. They also make me feel a bit nauseated, but only for about three or four minutes, but that's with any pill; there's no smell or taste or anything. The brand is German, but I know you could get something similar in the US.

@@WhoKnows thanks for that recommendation I haven't looked into that before but it makes sense that I should be able to find it.

@@mrsfitzpatrick I am afraid i'm going to wear out my blender by the time this is all done I use it so much! I am on purees for a total of two weeks, which means next friday i can move to soft unblended foods. Honestly, the purees are working out for me nicely, all except the chicken breast i did up was just a little dense and made me feel overfull after only 2 1/2 oz and that feeling lasted for 2 hours. Other than that, i've made hummus, green beans, plums, pears, nectarines, bananas, thick soups and chili and haven't had any issues with anything except my bariatric vitamins go figure. I have had about three or four full liquid servings as i've gone along just to give variety and my tiny tummy a break for a meal (and use up all that i bought before it goes bad.)

Today I did something I haven't done in years… I packed a gym bag and brought it to work with me. I checked out the free fitness center in the basement and the locker rooms (not bad for freebie throw-in) and since the weather is 95F here, walking outside is brutal and it's time to start using gym equipment. Im going down in about an hour over lunch break, wish me luck on cardio!

Last night I was able to weed the gardens, which is a big deal because my husband is fanatic about having carpet-quality grass and then the flower beds looked like something out of the Jungle Book. I also discovered i have a very pesky and bad case of "postural hypotension" so standing and squatting causes extreme lightheadedness/dizziness. It made weeding an Xgames type of sport, but I pushed on with my daughter and got it all done.

Good point !! Hahahahah I will weigh tomorrow morning

Am feeling sad I'm hardly eating but not losing ... I don't understand how that's physically impossible when I'm eating so little

I understand just how u feel. I am eating like two meals a day and a couple of bites at each meal.

Have been same weight 3 days so figure I have to keep tricking my body. Other than vitamins, eating almost nothing except protein and a bit of low-cal dairy.

Clearly, my body believes this is Armageddon and is rallying to save me. Yesterday I took a long bike ride and today I swam for the first time since surgery. Eventually, it will be reflected in my weight but I can tell I've lost inches.

I told my husband it would be ironic is I did lose a bunch of weight and then, some day, need that fat in some post-disaster situation...

For those of you exercising a lot, be sure to get at least 600 calories in. I look forward to exercising but I can barely get 400 calories in so fast so I'm going to wait.

Wish I had been able to have surgery 4 months ago. I'm heading off on a trade show trip. I'm probably the same size as I was last year (I had gained after the summer). So even though I've lost 30lbs I will look no different to anyone. Blah. I'm excited next year I have a big possibility of being very small. But this year still sucks. Oh well.

I expect to do more pictures tomorrow. My weight is right at 240 and I'm trying to remember to take pics every 10lbs. 10 more photo sessions and I'll be at goal!

Up in 4 hours to catch a flight. Should be interesting doing restaurants! Oh boy

Lylabelle I know how you feel! I work for a company in hospitality that focuses on entertaining clients and I, too, have some travel coming up that will require some creativity in the eating department. I am just glad that my first trip isn't til August - so I will have two months under my belt before I have to figure it out!

@@hrhlaurie I joke with my husband about that too but I figure I'm still better off being able to run! I'm intrigued by what that will be like.

I'm having trouble with the timing of my meals/shakes and my days are very front loaded. Gotta set more timers.

I hit 9700 steps yesterday so close to goal of 10k. But today I'm sore and trying to remember to cut myself a little slack.

I'm at 233 today and I'm feeling good about progress but I have a little concern about how slowly the weight is coming off. this was supposed to be the time where weight comes off quickly, but I'm not zipping along. My surgery was 3 weeks ago yesterday and I'm down 17 pounds since surgery date. I told myself that I would stay health focused and not weight focused but....

On the positive side, it probably isn't too early for us to all start sharing some NSVs. I'm now officially out of size 20 so I can shop in the XL range of clothes. I even bought a size 14 bathing suit and I may be straining the lycra panels slightly but I swam in it yesterday and felt great. I have confidence that I'll be in 'onederland' by my vacation in late August.

17 pounds in 3 weeks is fast. If you are really active it might be slower. And I think people that were on liquids diets lost more at the beginning. Plus if you are already out of 20s you don't have as much to lose as someone 300+ pounds. Lots of factors go into it. But if you hit 20 this month and 15 next month you are likely right on track!

M The

I'm enjoying food again! After 20 days of liquids I've enjoyed some baked potato, sweet potato and chili. I was a mad woman cleaning house yesterday, got a good sweat but not too much. I'm down to 238 today. That's 30lbs since my preop started a month ago. I hope it keeps moving. I'm 50 lbs from my first goal, hope to reach that by labor day! :-)

What is dry brushing?

And what is the purpose of moisturizing??

I emailed my NUT yesterday and she says it sounds all good - what I am doing and where I am. She's going to log into my myfitnesspal and make sure I am eating right. It's nice to have someone like that as a resource!

@@grro

Dry brushing is taking a brush similar to a back scrubber and scrubbing your skin in a motion pointing towards your heart for better circulation and exfoliation of your skin. Moisturizing multiple times a day is supposed to improve the elasticity and bounce back of your skin. The concern is that when you've spent a long time very large aka me I've been obese 20 years, your skin in your fattest parts doesn't shrink as fast as the fat disappears, creating loose skin that looks a little like a deflated balloon. You can search pics on bariatric pal to see it first hand. It's like the only thing dreadful about wls cause there's no surefire way to prevent it and the fix is plastic surgery. But it's better than being diabetic or not having the fat chick section not have your size cause you went up another size (again that's all me)