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

On 11/29/2019 at 2:51 PM, froufrou said:

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I had a really good one and even lost a pound! I had everything I wanted - just small amounts. I LOVE this way of eating now. I saw everyone else with their big plates of food and I was really not envious. I actually felt grateful I didn't have to stuff all of that in haha. (no judgement on them - they are all skinny-pinnies anyway).

I’m with you. First of all I am more attracted to eat healthy foods as opposed to non-healthy food but I eat whatever I want because my quantities are still so small. I haven’t weighed recently but I was it 100.6 last time I checked. I had targeted 100 pounds is my goal and never thought I would get there. We had a pretty good Thanksgiving. I screwed up some of the cooking but it was a good time and just our family of five.

I look at regular portions and I always think - how the hell are they going to eat all that?! Portions look enormous to me now. I still have trouble ordering in a restaurant because if I order a regular entrée I just feel selfish. I don’t always just want a side item. I can’t even finish a cup of soup!

On 11/30/2019 at 6:51 AM, froufrou said:

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I had a really good one and even lost a pound! I had everything I wanted - just small amounts. I LOVE this way of eating now. I saw everyone else with their big plates of food and I was really not envious. I actually felt grateful I didn't have to stuff all of that in haha. (no judgement on them - they are all skinny-pinnies anyway).

Since we are in Australia, I actually forgot it was Thanksgiving until the day after when I started seeing Facebook posts. However, I agree with what you said in general, and the same principle applies when I eat out with friends. As you said, I have no interest any more in eating the huge portions and unhealthy stuff I see other people eating (well, aside from that one chocolate bar I mentioned in an earlier post....). I'm sure Christmas will be the same.

I'm so proud of you and Anna for sailing through Thanksgiving so easily. Who would have ever thought we could feel this way about food!

Just wanted to say hello to everybody and wish you guys happy holidays. As we have all begun to heal and reach our goals I know we are spending less and less time on here. Just wanted to let everybody know I always have my support group in the back of my mind and hope you guys are having a wonderful holiday season!

On 12/09/2019 at 11:13, Everythinganna said:

Just wanted to say hello to everybody and wish you guys happy holidays. As we have all begun to heal and reach our goals I know we are spending less and less time on here. Just wanted to let everybody know I always have my support group in the back of my mind and hope you guys are having a wonderful holiday season!

Actually right now is about when we will need this the most.

I did okay during the thanksgiving break and the week of vacation after.
My biggest challenge is to refrain from “celebrating” with libations.
The holidays are always the toughest in that regard.

I’m about to break a 24 hour fast and get right to the business of losing the 3.2 pounds I’ve gained in the last 2 weeks

Goal.

Hey Sheri- you GAINED weight? This has been a very different process for me. I am getting a little worried. I am 6 pounds away from being underweight. I wanted to be 100 pounds but once I got down to like 107 I was good and wanted it to stop. I eat anything I want. I have eaten so much candy in the last two weeks and I don’t even normally like sweets. I drink wine. I eat bacon, pizza, mashed potatoes, anything I want. I’m not bragging.... I am so restricted and most of the time I don’t have an appetite. I seem to be able to eat soup pretty good. I did get a whole cup of soup down at Chili’s on Friday....! Did you just stop eating healthy and gain this weight? Or has your restriction lessened?

On 12/10/2019 at 11:21 AM, Sheribear68 said:

Actually right now is about when we will need this the most.

I did okay during the thanksgiving break and the week of vacation after.
My biggest challenge is to refrain from “celebrating” with libations.
The holidays are always the toughest in that regard.

I’m about to break a 24 hour fast and get right to the business of losing the 3.2 pounds I’ve gained in the last 2 weeks

I am still losing, steadily. I haven't been eating very well lately, so I need to figure that out and actually get some nutrition. It's just a busy time of year. But, the great news for me is that as of this morning I am no longer morbidly obese! Just obese hahaha. I'll take it!

Well done for reaching your goal Anna! What a great Christmas present. I know you are concerned about losing too much, but hopefully it'll even out and you can figure out how to maintain. Maybe some veterans on the board can help you with that.

On 12/22/2019 at 08:34, Everythinganna said:

Hey Sheri- you GAINED weight? This has been a very different process for me. I am getting a little worried. I am 6 pounds away from being underweight. I wanted to be 100 pounds but once I got down to like 107 I was good and wanted it to stop. I eat anything I want. I have eaten so much candy in the last two weeks and I don’t even normally like sweets. I drink wine. I eat bacon, pizza, mashed potatoes, anything I want. I’m not bragging.... I am so restricted and most of the time I don’t have an appetite. I seem to be able to eat Soup pretty good. I did get a whole cup of soup down at Chili’s on Friday....! Did you just stop eating healthy and gain this weight? Or has your restriction lessened?

Yup.
I think the reason I gained weight is that I eat bari-keto about 95% of the time so when I do have alcohol and other carbs, it causes a ton of fluid retention.

Also, I’m prone to gain weight very easily and sadly bariatric surgery won’t fix it.
Oh I’ll have a new set point, but I’m thinking I’ll always have to be extremely cautious or else I’ll get metabolically screwed again.

So here’s something weird:
I’m was able to take every one of those pounds off by the time I’d been back 4 days (which proves it was mostly fluid retention because it’s impossible to lose 4 pounds of actual fat in 4 days)
Since then I’m up,down,up,down and I’m at 144., which is 6 pounds under GW.
anyway, I took my measurements yesterday and my waist is down 0.5 inches more and my lower abs are down another 0.5 inches and my hips are down almost 0.75 more inches and I’m only 2 pounds lighter than I was at this time last month.

Even if every single bit of that 2 pounds was pure fat, I don’t think it could take that much inches off of my body so things are still shifting.
My size 8 pants (that I really just got into in early November) are stating to bag on me.
Here is an example of that.

Happy Christmas or whatever you celebrate February Friends! Hope you are all having a peaceful and happy time xxx

I won’t go into details, I did once on this sight. Suffice it to say, it took me four years to get my surgery. It was an emotional roller coaster and I won’t lie there were many tears of frustration.
The two years prior to my surgery, I lost 35 pounds on my own with diet and exercise. Since my surgery in August 2019, I have lost another 64 pounds. Most of that from the four weeks on a liquid diet before and after my surgery.
Maybe because it took so long, really appreciate the wonder this surgery has brought to my life. I always considered my inability to lose weight and keep it off my biggest failure in life. For the first time in my life, I feel like I will not only lose the weight but be able to maintain the weight loss.
Where exercise was always a challenge, it had just become part of my daily life now and I have finally come to realize what huge portions of food I had been eating.
I am trying to lose one more pound by the end of the year because if I do, will go into 2020, a hundred pounds lighter than my heaviest weight!

On 12/25/2019 at 5:24 PM, froufrou said:

Happy Christmas or whatever you Celebrate February Friends! Hope you are all having a peaceful and happy time xxx

Thanks.
I’d like to second those wishes to everyone of our February group out there.

Well, I ate a lot more than I should have during Thanksgiving and actually gained 4 pounds, but since then I have taken off those 4, even with Christmas. I feel so blessed, happy, and relieved that I have tools now to actually take control of my weight instead of my weight controlling me. In the past, those 4 pounds would have been so discouraging that I would have eaten on 4 more, at least.

Although my original goal was 149, I am feeling much better in the low 140's. Maybe I will stay there or maybe even lose a few more, but it feels good to look at the family Christmas pictures where I am not trying to hide behind everyone else!

Edited December 28, 20196 yr by AZhiker

I know what you mean Azhiker. I managed not to put on any weight over the holidays. It is the first time I feel as if I am in charge of my weight.
I am still a long way off from my goal weight but have lost enough to feel confident that I will make it successfully. I am contemplating returning to work because I already have so much loose skin that I know I will have to have plastic surgery in the future. Thank goodness I have the energy to do it.

I've gained about five pounds over the last month, which has nothing to do with eating differently around the holidays. And I'm totally comfortable with my weight gain.

I went on maintenance a couple of months ago after hitting a low of132, eight pounds below my goal. I started consciously eating up to 1,500 calories a day to stop losing. I went up to 135 and stayed there for several weeks. I started adding even more variety to my diet, no longer avoiding carbs and fats as if they were poison.

I've now settled in at a range of 139-141, which I consider a good weight. I no longer look quite as gaunt as I did at 132 and I feel great. The challenge now is to stay here. It's still a bit of trial and error.

Happy new year to all, and congratulations on our upcoming first anniversary!

Congrats guys.

I’ll admit that once I got my vacation regain off I stopped weighing myself.
My clothes seem to fit the same and I take a lot of selfies and I don’t appear to visually be much different.
id love to live the rest of my life weighing myself once monthly or less and managing my size that way.