Glad to hear your doing so well.  Im feeling much better about this whole thing.  Sure have been through hell getting here with 3 strictures, an ulcer and hospitalized for 5 days with ubstructed bowel.  But on the up side now.  Hard to believe how time flies.  I have went from wearing a size 3x, 28 pants to 16 pants and a large or xlarge shirt.  It feels great.  Dang, even the shoes fit better.

Hi Bob & fellow Marcher's.

I had my 6 month check-up last Friday.  She said I have done great and have reached 68% of my goal.  She was happy with my progress so far, although my labs showed I am low on iron and B12.  I need to take iron and get B12 shots but my protien levels and everything else looked good.

I have lost a total of 110 lbs and have gone from a size 24 pants & 3X shirt to a size 14 pants and a L shirt.  I have been exercising a couple times a week but I need to start walking more often.  I now just do a weight training class 2 times a week but should be doing some cardio like walking....no excuses, I'm just lazy :-)

Bob - you have done well!!  Congratulations on your weight loss. 

I can't believe it's been 6 months already!

Is anyone scared that the weight loss will start to slow down now??  I'm a little nervous about that b/c so far I've been pretty consistant on losing 10-15 lbs a month.  I'm afraid the honeymoon period is going to be over soon :-(

Hope you are all doing well and enjoying your weight loss !!

Nan

 

 

 

However long it takes!  I actually kept my Guess mini-skirts from 1988 vowing that I would wear them again!  Well I can wear them again!  I took me 21 years! 

I had a stall like that for a whole month myself.   I kept loosing and gaining the same 3 to 4 pounds it was so frustrating.    I too started eating more then I should .  I understolld the concept of the glycogen stores but it did not  help me ( I am enclosing that for you see below)

It is funny I knew I was loosing weight it just did not show on the scales.   I decided that I was on a water pill in the being but stopped taking them    I started back and that showed on the scale alot.  I am now down about 85 pounds. 

I knew I need to be accountable so I joined a local TOPS chapter.  I like the commodery and the weigh ins help me keep on track.    I hope ...  But hang in there it will worl   But loosing 90 pounds isnit it incredible., 

 

It's water. This explanation of what's happening is courtesy of Diana Cox.

Our bodies use glycogen for short term energy storage. Glycogen is not very soluble, but it is stored in our muscles for quick energy -- one pound of glycogen requires 4 lbs of water to keep it soluble, and the average glycogen storage capacity is about 2 lbs. So, when you are not getting in enough food, your body turns first to stored glycogen, which is easy to break down for energy. And when you use up 2 lbs of glycogen, you also lose 8 lbs of water that was used to store it -- voila -- the "easy" 10 lbs that most people lose in the first week of a diet.

As you stay in caloric deficit, however, your body starts to realize that this is not a short term problem. You start mobilizing fat from your adipose tissue and burning fat for energy. But your body also realizes that fat can't be used for short bursts of energy -- like, to outrun a sabertooth tiger. So, it starts converting some of the fat into glycogen, and rebuilding the glycogen stores. And as it puts back the 2 lbs of glycogen into the muscle, 8 lbs of water has to be stored with it to keep it soluble. So, even though you might still be LOSING energy content to your body, your weight will not go down or you might even GAIN for a while as you retain water to dissolve the glycogen that is being reformed and stored.

Our trip went well, it was exhausting but lots of fun.  The Halloween party was a lot of fun.  The heat and humidity I could do without but we walked a TON and I was always ahead of the pack and had to keep stopping so the others could catch up, the plane ride was perfectly comfortable (well as comfortable as a plane ride can be), my feet didn't swell at all, and I never really got sore, I was tired and caught a cold, but not sore like I would've been before!  The eating was a bit difficult, getting in enough water was hard, but overall it was a great trip.  I just uploaded some of the pictures we took while we were there.  By the way, by far the best restaurant we ate at was Ohana's at the Polynesian resort, and they had lots of grilled meats.  Hope you have a great trip!!