As @FluffyChix stated in the original thread:

Quote

Let's share all our sophomore experiences, our angst, our struggles, our suggestions--let's talk about life! Let's become friends! You can be on any kind of food plan, do any kind of exercise or not, be gay or straight, engage in cardio or not--you just have to be in the "tweener" stage post WLS.

Not a Newbie but not yet a Vet - Sophomores have different challenges and are coping with an awkward middle stage, so please only post if you've passed the six month post-surgery mark!

Any thoughts?

I think Fledge is awesome and spot on. I haven't lost many lbs. in the last month but I've gone from size 18 jeans to size 14 jeans and I care about being smaller a lot more than about a number on a scale. For me, clothes sizes are the easiest way to tell I'm still losing fat, whether the scale moves much or not.

Edited August 18, 20196 yr by JessLess

Hey all! Checking in. Hope everyone is still crushing goals.

I’m now 13ish months post op. Been stalled for a few months, but just focusing on eating clean and getting fit, scale be damned.

It’s hard not to focus on the scale, because even though I see the physical changes from working out- I’m still bummed the scale doesn’t seem to want to budge. Just gotta keep on, keepin’ on. I just try to appreciate all the good this has brought me and not take any of this health for granted. :)

8 hours ago, insta_adventurer said:

Hey all! Checking in. Hope everyone is still crushing goals.

I’m now 13ish months post op. Been stalled for a few months, but just focusing on eating clean and getting fit, scale be damned.

It’s hard not to focus on the scale, because even though I see the physical changes from working out- I’m still bummed the scale doesn’t seem to want to budge. Just gotta keep on, keepin’ on. I just try to appreciate all the good this has brought me and not take any of this health for granted.

Good to hear from you! I saw one of your older posts the other day and wondered how you were doing. Have you checked out the intermittent fasting thread? Some of the posters have had good luck breaking stalls with it.

On 08/18/2019 at 08:20, JessLess said:

I think Fledge is awesome and spot on. I haven't lost many lbs. in the last month but I've gone from size 18 jeans to size 14 jeans and I care about being smaller a lot more than about a number on a scale. For me, clothes sizes are the easiest way to tell I'm still losing fat, whether the scale moves much or not.

Agree.

Less than a month post-surgery I got a scale that breaks down percentages.
I know enough to realize that the scale isn’t the absolute authority on my percentage of fat, water and muscle, but because I’m always using the same scale, the percentage lost over that time period is the important number for me

The following numbers are what really excites me about this journey:

Muscle staying the same. It’s the FAT that’s disappearing.

Who knows if my fat % now is really and truly 33.4%. The most important fact is that it as FALLEN by 12%.

On 08/19/2019 at 07:56, Orchids&Dragons said:

Good to hear from you! I saw one of your older posts the other day and wondered how you were doing. Have you checked out the intermittent fasting thread? Some of the posters have had good luck breaking stalls with it.

Gosh, idk if I could do IF. I get hannnnnngry. I’ve looked into Keto, but kinda want to stick with just trying to stick to/adopt a healthy lifestyle vs something I’m unlikely to stick to long term.. if that makes sense?

On 08/19/2019 at 17:31, insta_adventurer said:

Gosh, idk if I could do IF. I get hannnnnngry. I’ve looked into Keto, but kinda want to stick with just trying to stick to/adopt a healthy lifestyle vs something I’m unlikely to stick to long term.. if that makes sense?

Not to be an IF pusher, but for me IF is easier and much more sustainable than something like keto

What I like about IF

Flexibility- I can stop and start whenever I want. I can do 20:4, 18:6, 16:8, or just not IF at all. I can’t really ‘fail’ at it. If I’m too hungry, I eat, no big deal

Ease - it’s the one diet that gets easier as time goes on, IME. My body gets trained to not be hungry in the morning. If I do feel hungry, pushing liquids usually makes it go away. If it doesn’t, I just eat & don’t worry about IF that day. But the longer I IF the easier it becomes

Not to be an IF pusher, but for me IF is easier and much more sustainable than something like keto

What I like about IF

Flexibility- I can stop and start whenever I want. I can do 20:4, 18:6, 16:8, or just not IF at all. I can’t really ‘fail’ at it. If I’m too hungry, I eat, no big deal

Ease - it’s the one diet that gets easier as time goes on, IME. My body gets trained to not be hungry in the morning. If I do feel hungry, pushing liquids usually makes it go away. If it doesn’t, I just eat & don’t worry about IF that day. But the longer I IF the easier it becomes

Good to have this reinforced! This is my plan for maintenance for all the reasons you mentioned! Especially now that I see the physiology of the plan!!

On 08/20/2019 at 11:03, sillykitty said:

Not to be an IF pusher, but for me IF is easier and much more sustainable than something like keto



What I like about IF



Flexibility- I can stop and start whenever I want. I can do 20:4, 18:6, 16:8, or just not IF at all. I can’t really ‘fail’ at it. If I’m too hungry, I eat, no big deal



Ease - it’s the one diet that gets easier as time goes on, IME. My body gets trained to not be hungry in the morning. If I do feel hungry, pushing liquids usually makes it go away. If it doesn’t, I just eat & don’t worry about IF that day. But the longer I IF the easier it becomes

Yup. I’ve been doing all sorts of TRE since about 2.5 months PO.

As of right now, I’m at 17 hrs fasting and plan on eating right before work in 3 hours.
My biggest fear is we will get slammed tonite and I won’t get to “finish” my eating within my pre-planned 4 hr window.

You know what though? If it happens, it happens. There really isn’t true failure on this (especially when the mind and body is willing, but factors beyond our control are at play)

16 hours ago, insta_adventurer said:

Gosh, idk if I could do IF. I get hannnnnngry. I’ve looked into Keto, but kinda want to stick with just trying to stick to/adopt a healthy lifestyle vs something I’m unlikely to stick to long term.. if that makes sense?

Truth be told the longer that I did IF the less hunger I experienced

On 08/20/2019 at 11:40, GreenTealael said:

Truth be told the longer that I did IF the less hunger I experienced

This is why I’m having so much fun playing around with different eating windows.

If I absolutely know that I’ll be able to break my fast at a specific time, and I have pre-planned what I’m breaking it with, I feel as if I’m in control of the hunger rather than the hunger having control of me.

Each day this week was a different adventure, lol

I'm another person who gets less hungry the more I practice IF.

I was on vacation last week, and at the end I casually mentioned it to my mom: “I think I’ve gained some weight, maybe two or three pounds” and she had this completely over-the-top, horrified reaction! Like, so ABSURDLY reactionary that I stopped in my tracks and turned to look at her, and she got all flustered trying to backtrack. It was so weird! I was unfazed when saying it, it was mostly just a casual observation, but her exclamation really blindsided me.

Now, the nutty thing is that I was right - 2.5 lb increase, based on total inactivity and steady booze/ice cream intake (no regrets!). This is a weird victory for me, both in that I am apparently familiar enough with my body at this point to be able to gauge weigh correctly just by gut feel, and that I felt absolutely no shame or guilt in the observation. But mom’s reaction was a strange blend - it reminded me that she did react constantly to anything related to my weight when I was fat, but the SCALE of the response was much more connected to a real horror of me reverting.

I love her to death, but yikes. And I think she was just as taken aback by her response as I was; she’d mostly stopped actively bugging me about weight a few years before surgery (she attended a psych lecture and during the presentation realized that all the “don’t do this” things around body image were things she’d done while raising me, and apparently had to leave mid-presentation and cry in the car). She was very careful after that, and then thrilled after surgery, so this was more like her behavior to teenage me suddenly popping up out of nowhere like a jack-in-the-box.

Anyone else seen weird throwback behavior from friends or relatives?

On 08/22/2019 at 19:02, sideeye said:

I was on vacation last week, and at the end I casually mentioned it to my mom: “I think I’ve gained some weight, maybe two or three pounds” and she had this completely over-the-top, horrified reaction! Like, so ABSURDLY reactionary that I stopped in my tracks and turned to look at her, and she got all flustered trying to backtrack. It was so weird! I was unfazed when saying it, it was mostly just a casual observation, but her exclamation really blindsided me.

Now, the nutty thing is that I was right - 2.5 lb increase, based on total inactivity and steady booze/ice cream intake (no regrets!). This is a weird victory for me, both in that I am apparently familiar enough with my body at this point to be able to gauge weigh correctly just by gut feel, and that I felt absolutely no shame or guilt in the observation. But mom’s reaction was a strange blend - it reminded me that she did react constantly to anything related to my weight when I was fat, but the scale of the response was much more connected to a real horror of me reverting.

I love her to death, but yikes. And I think she was just as taken aback by her response as I was; she’d mostly stopped actively bugging me about weight a few years before surgery (she attended a psych lecture and during the presentation realized that all the “don’t do this” things around body image were things she’d done while raising me, and apparently had to leave mid-presentation and cry in the car). She was very careful after that, and then thrilled after surgery, so this was more like her behavior to teenage me suddenly popping up out of nowhere like a jack-in-the-box.

Anyone else seen weird throwback behavior from friends or relatives?

Ironically, last week after like four bites of frozen yogurt my mom freaked out on me about gaining my weight back and how I needed to reign things back in. She was so over the top aggressive, it made me realize that I was not the only one who had an unhealthy relationship with weight. It brought me right back to my childhood. I quickly placed firm boundaries around this issue, which she is not doing well with ... but a healthy relationship with food is about me not her. And I will continue on this journey strong ... creating my new life, including healthy relationships with both food and people. Good luck to us all!

I got sooo tickled this week with a consecutive series of the gentlemen in my life (the dentist, the car mechanic, the vet and furniture rep) that do not see me on a regular basis. None had seen me since my December 2018 sleeve. None could believe I was the same person! And, I kid you not, at the conclusion our appointments it was see you Cupcake; Cookie; Sweetie pie; and Gum drop! It would seem I am now a designated dessert. LOL. Ironic, as those were the very baked goods like cup cakes, cookies and pie that got me in so much trouble. Not so much gum drops BUT certainly ice cream. By the way, my dentist is gorgeous and an avid tennis player (his wife passed of cancer a few years back) AND wishing I could introduce him to some of our beautiful single ladies here on The Sophomores Thread. ;]