5 Months Out. Stalled. Need Encouragement

[wwboy 141]

One year ago today I began intentionally working to improve my health. Today I am 80 pounds lighter, I am off on my medication, and I feel really good. I've had to buy all new clothes, and I'm exercising more than I have in years and I'm actually enjoying it. All is well right?

Well I'm still on my CPAP machine. And I am in another 20 pounds or so from my goal weight. I'm five months from my actual surgery day and since then I've lost 40 pounds. But in the last month, I've lost zero. (I have not gained any weight in that time but just stayed right around the same).

My Water and Protein is within my clinics recommendations. I'm exercising quite a lot. The thing that I'm struggling with is grazing when I'm at home especially in the evenings I tend to nibble on while I am cooking dinner for my family. The things I eat are nuts, apples, oranges, Jerky, toast here in there, cheese, yogurt, etc. my clinic hasn't told me to be completely carb free. Instead they have told me to focus on eating protein first. This is what I do for the most part. At my last check up a month ago my care providers all seemed very happy with my progress. But I'm feeling discouraged mostly fear that I am wasting this valuable window surgery has created.

Am I being ridiculous? Because truthfully I haven't felt this good as I do right now in 15 years plus. At the same time I know I haven't been 100% perfect all the time on the diet rules and so I'm terrified that I'm sabotaging myself. Help me get out of this all or nothing black-and-white thinking. Much love thanks for your help.

[WorkinOnMe 597]

I'd say "Embrace the Stall" ... but I don't want to steal someone else's line

Seriously though, give your body a chance to adjust to all the changes it has gone through. I have had my share of stalls in the past year .... some a few days, some a few weeks. It all works out in the end. I can go 3 weeks with nothing, and then BAM! drop 5 lbs. I can go 2 days lose one lb, then 2 days gain one lb. It is always something different.

Keep following your program and stay off the scale. You will see it happen eventually.

[sleevenv 483]

I'm right there with you. I found that since I'm exercising so much, my body starting needing carbs and that's what causes me to graze. For me, adding oatmeal, quinoa and a little more fruit worked to help my body readjust and start losing.

[Bufflehead 6,358]

I'm going to take a different tack from the posters above. I think that if you want your weight loss to start up again, you need to stop the "nibbling" -- and to be honest, oranges, apples, toast, cheese etc. sounds like more than "nibbles." Make a food plan for yourself for a couple of days and stick to it, with defined meals and Snacks. Keep some pre-grilled chicken breast on hand, and tell yourself that if you are hungry, you can eat as much of that as you want. If you aren't hungry enough to be happy about eating chicken breast, you aren't really hungry.

I love that you are being so thoughtful about this whole process and are honest about what you are eating and what your struggles are. I will be that with a little bit of changing in your eating habits you will be right back to losing weight the way you want. Good luck!

[VSGAnn2014 12,992]

I'll be even more contrarian: I think you're wasting your precious honeymoon time and violating one of the most important rules of WLS weight-losing and maintenance success: Don't graze.

It sounds like you're building / reinforcing the bad habit of the "see food" diet -- if you see it, you eat it. And that never, ever ends well. If the foods you're grazing on are out on counters and tabletops, put them up and out of sight.

Are you tracking everything you're drinking and eating to learn / confront how much your nibbling is "costing" you? If not, start counting calories right now. Yes, Protein is important. But calories still count -- as much as they ever did. You eat too many of them, you won't lose weight. You eat even more of them, and you'll gain weight.

[OutsideMatchInside 10,166]

Stop grazing.

Are you logging your food? Log every single bite. Weigh what you eat.

A "bite" is not a scientific measurement. It can vary wildly.

I like Peanut Butter. I don't keep it in the house anymore, because I will just eat a spoonful. It doesn't seem that bad, but Peanut Butter is really calorie dense, so a spoon here or there really adds up to extra calories. Tracking those spoonfuls helps me understand how they add up.

When you are 6 months out and really healed, you will be able to eat more in volume and more things. All your grazing at that point will just multiply. If you don't get a handle on it now you are going totally spiral out of control.

Edited May 5, 2016 by OutsideMatchInside

[JamieLogical 8,727]

Definitely stop the nibbling. Grazing is one of the ways to eat around the restriction of the sleeve, so your tool isn't working for you when you allow yourself to graze. It may not be the source of your current stall, but it is still a potentially destructive behavior you need to acknowledge and work to overcome in order to be successful in the long term.

[cavery77 39]

I take the P3's to work to snack on

Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

[IrishGermanRN 151]

I log every nibble with my fitness pal... everything