I am scheduled for February 18th. I will be first in. Wow, this process takes forever.

Oh p.s. nsv right here! My BP used to be ‘fair’ bordering on bad and my pulse was always near 100.

It's so good to see how well everyone is doing 6 months out. So interesting hearing about how everyone is eating now, the challenges, and how friends/family are reacting. I am trying to get the last few pound off to reach goal and then would like to go down 5-7 more, just to add some wiggle room. Once I reach goal, I never want to see the 150's again. My mom and daughter weigh between 140-150 and they are actually feeling a little threatened! They have never really known me as anything but heavy, and although they are happy for me, it seems that they (my daughter, especially) are feeling a bit odd about me possibly weighing less than them.

I discovered a little life saver tip. I have several 70-100 calorie snacks I make and freeze, and then when I might be tempted to grab something not so good, I can grab and nuke one of these. They are also a good supplement to any meal or to stave off the hungries on their own.

1) Mini quiches (made in cupcake tins. No crust, Made with eggs, milk, onion, mushrooms, cheese, broccoli and a few cubes of gluten free stuffing mix.) 80 cal, 3 gm protein. (Good cold or hot.)

2) Turkey meatballs. (made with ground turkey, shredded zucchinni, eggs, onion, finely ground GF dressing cubes instead of cracker or bread crumbs). 100 cal, 6 gm protein. (Good cold or hot.)

3) Pumpkin custard squares (made with pumpkin, eggs, milk, spices and a little monkfruit sweetener.) 100 cal, 3 gm protein. (Just kept in fridge and eaten cold.)

4) I also keep a pot of turkey/veg soup in the fridge. I cup only has 50 calories, 6 gm protein. A good way to get in a lot of veggies. It is very filling if I am feeling a bit hungry.

5) My final little treat is a sweet one that I use sometimes in the evening. It is the only sweet splurge I allow myself, and I have no sweet cravings. 1 TBS 72% cacao chips with 1 TBS (10 )raw almonds. Yum!!! 150 calories, 4 gm protein.

Best wishes to all the Feb 2019 buddies, as we approach the final stretch! Hugs to all.

Edited August 14, 20196 yr by AZhiker

4 hours ago, 2Bsmaller18 said:

I am guessing a lot of us are dealing with Hair loss at this point. It happened to me in June suddenly and I don't think it has slowed done at all yet. However I noticed something weird today. I have gray roots and normally color my hair every 4-5 weeks. I colored my hair literally 2 1/2 weeks ago and suddenly I have a ton of half inch roots all over. So on closer inspection I noticed that I have a ton of baby hairs growing too. I think my hair may be growing in quicker now and that the roots are showing so much sooner. I am trying to focus on that instead of freaking out about the clump on the shower floor or in my brush. I also tried Toppik and like it better than sprays I have tried before. I have Biotin in my Multivitamin that I have been taking form day 1 and started using Nioxin Shampoo a few weeks ago. Maybe it is helping.

Ugh. My hair loss is terrifying. I have extremely thin hair and when I'm in the shower washing it, I can feel the strands coming out in my fingers. I am trying not to wash it as much, but I seriously cannot go more than two days without it getting nasty looking. I hate combing it out after washing too, as I see lots of strands in the comb. I comb very gently. I am also losing a few eyelashes (again, not good!). It is quite obvious I've lost a lot of hair, especially at the part line, but I'm really trying to stay positive as I know there are many folks miserable on chemo and going bald who have it way worse than me. I take Biotin with Keratin but have not noticed that it helps. I'm going to look into Nioxin shampoo....thanks for telling us about it

34 minutes ago, AZhiker said:

It's so good to see how well everyone is doing 6 months out. So interesting hearing about how everyone is eating now, the challenges, and how friends/family are reacting. I am trying to get the last few pound off to reach goal and then would like to go down 5-7 more, just to add some wiggle room. Once I reach goal, I never want to see the 150's again. My mom and daughter weigh between 140-150 and they are actually feeling a little threatened! They have never really known me as anything but heavy, and although they are happy for me, it seems that they (my daughter, especially) are feeling a bit odd about me possibly weighing less than them.

I discovered a little life saver tip. I have several 70-100 calorie Snacks I make and freeze, and then when I might be tempted to grab something not so good, I can grab and nuke one of these. They are also a good supplement to any meal or to stave off the hungries on their own.

1) Mini quiches (made in cupcake tins. No crust, Made with eggs, milk, onion, mushrooms, cheese, broccoli and a few cubes of gluten free stuffing mix.) 80 cal, 3 gm Protein. (Good cold or hot.)

2) Turkey meatballs. (made with ground turkey, shredded zucchinni, eggs, onion, finely ground GF dressing cubes instead of cracker or bread crumbs). 100 cal, 6 gm protein. (Good cold or hot.)

3) pumpkin custard squares (made with pumpkin, eggs, milk, spices and a little Monkfruit sweetener.) 100 cal, 3 gm protein. (Just kept in fridge and eaten cold.)

4) I also keep a pot of turkey/veg Soup in the fridge. I cup only has 50 calories, 6 gm protein. A good way to get in a lot of veggies. It is very filling if I am feeling a bit hungry.

5) My final little treat is a sweet one that I use sometimes in the evening. It is the only sweet splurge I allow myself, and I have no sweet cravings. 1 TBS 72% cacao chips with 1 TBS (10 )raw almonds. Yum!!! 150 calories, 4 gm protein.

Best wishes to all the Feb 2019 buddies, as we approach the final stretch! Hugs to all.

Great snack ideas! Congrats on getting so far toward your goal!

1 hour ago, froufrou said:

Oh p.s. nsv right here! My BP used to be ‘fair’ bordering on bad and my pulse was always near 100.

Wahoo!!!!

It's my surgiversary tomorrow and I've lost 75% of my excess weight!
Setting a new goal of 69kgs, which would mark losing HALF of my bodyweight.

Wishing us all continuing happiness and success [emoji4]

This is me the day after surgery, as a comparison...

35 minutes ago, EmzBee said:

It's my surgiversary tomorrow and I've lost 75% of my excess weight!
Setting a new goal of 69kgs, which would mark losing HALF of my bodyweight.

Wishing us all continuing happiness and success

FANTASTIC! And I see you are at the gym. If you are working out on your arms, do you see loose skin or are you building muscle there? I see no loose skin on you.

Emzbee, congratulations--you look fantastic. However, I know that you've had quite a few challenges along the way. How are you feeling these days? Are you still having any issues?

I'll chime in on the food intake topic. It seemed like all of a sudden a few weeks ago I was able to eat quite a bit more and a wider variety of things without any ill effects. It's so tempting to eat as much I can tolerate (but still good high-protein low-carb stuff), and I've given in a few times. I definitely need to get back to better portion control. However, I'm still prioritizing protein, I avoid fat (although I'm a little bit more flexible there) and I have not (knowingly) had any sugar since surgery. I've been without a scale for a couple of weeks now, but I don't think I'm gaining weight. We'll see once I can weigh in!

FANTASTIC! And I see you are at the gym. If you are working out on your arms, do you see loose skin or are you building muscle there? I see no loose skin on you.

I rarely work out my arms and I have quite a lot of loose skin. You can tell from this side photo that my arms look massive -- lots of this is loose skin. Plus a tummy sjot to show what I'm carrying underneath! *sigh* Maybe one day I'll be able to afford a tummy tuck!

Emzbee, congratulations--you look fantastic. However, I know that you've had quite a few challenges along the way. How are you feeling these days? Are you still having any issues?

Physical eating problems are fine! I just don't eat tough stuff. Corned beef/silverside slow cooked, not steak or lamb. I go through phases of eating a lot of a particular protein. For a while there I did really well with chicken, now not so much.
Had the wost dumping syndrome ever after eating four teaspoons of an ice cream I'd been able to stomach a full serve of about three months after surgery... seems I'm super-sensitive to sugar!

Where I'm still struggling is mentally. I struggle to celebrate how far I've come. I struggle with significantly lower lows for no particular reason. I tried a non-ssri and it completely wiped me out, so I'm back to trying to manage on my own. Overall I'm good, but I never know when the next bad day is going to come and derail the progress I've made and send me flying two steps back.

*But* I'm still happy I did this and I'm here! [emoji4]

Hope you're excited about Australia, Recidivist! Sorry to hear about your friend... I'm sure her actions have more to do with her than you. In saying that, some cultures are different. Hubs and I are going to Christchurch soon and I'm totally expecting our close Korean friend to try to feed me up and tell me I'm too skinny. *sigh* Guess I'll have to cross that bridge when I come to it! [emoji4]

On 8/13/2019 at 8:36 AM, Everythinganna said:

I guess my last comment is this. In addition to all the other stuff you go through with weight loss surgery I am on a pretty heavy diet of pills from a back injury I sustained. So I take opioids, muscle relaxers and various other non-NSAID pills. They upset my stomach and give me nausea further reducing my will or interest in eating. I think some of the weight loss I have experience as a result of the pills I’ve taken. It has been a very rough experience dealing with both pain, headaches, and healing from the weight-loss surgery.

I take opioids too. I have 5 bulging discs and have had back pain my whole adult life. I literally can not bend even a little without holding on to something. It's very debilitating. I thought it would get better with weightloss and I could get off the pain meds but no such luck. In my experience I think they contributed to my weight gain. Right now I'm dealing with struggling to stay on track. I've dabbled a little in forbidden foods, but not excessively. Last night for the first time I ate 4 cookies and it had 280 calories. I don't know what I was thinking. I have 85 pounds to lose and it is such a struggle now that I can eat more.

Wishing you the best!

On the food topic, I personally stayed away from sugar up until a couple weeks ago (aside from yogurt in the morning). I was scared to try anything with a large amount of sugar for 2 reasons... 1, I would have dumping syndrome, 2, I wouldn't and that could be a slippery slope. Needless to say I was out at an event and they had ice cream there and I since I was heading home I decided to have a small chocolate cone. I had no issues.

Slippery slope here we come, I was out at another event and they had baked goods and I thought, hey I had the ice cream I can have a few of these too, so I bought them and brought them to a friends to share with her. I didn't have that much but I was in a world of hurt not long after, so sick, no dumping. I had to leave her place and rush home, thinking I would have to pull over at any time and another weird thing is I was yawning a lot. By the time I got home I had to lay down with a cold cloth on my head and just breathe until it passed which was about 45 mins or so.

So now I am back to being scared of sugar which is probably for the best.

I dunno.... hair loss for me seems to have actually amplified this last month.
Also in that same time period I had a 10 pound loss month and I haven’t had one of those since April.
At the end of the day I guess I’ll take the 10 pound month and be satisfied with continued hair loss. It wouldn’t be so scary if someone could promise me that eventually most (I’m not even asking for all) could come back in a few months