P/B Challenge Roll Call

Good Morning to all. Today is the inportant day that we start out P/B Challenge. I started this journey weighing 345 lbs. My lowest weight was 232lbs. Today I weighted in at 245 lbs. I'm not going to beat myself up. I'm going to get back on track and beat this. I am posting this so all will know you can gain weight if you eat wrong. Don't let anyone tell you you will never gain weight again. I am hoping some of this is just fluid for my hands are really swallen today.Ok here goes my plan of Action. I am going to journal and walk 10,000 steps a day.Each night I will plan what I eat tomorrow and try to stick with it. I am having my coffee now. Decafe w/ splenda and non dairy creamer. Breakfast = light yogurt, Snack= V-8 with protein, Lunch= homemade cream of broccoli soup ( a W/W's recipe),snack pudding w/protein, Dinner= Cream of broccoli soup, snack V-8 with protein. Lots of water in between. I will let all know how this worked at the end of the day. Oh, this comes to 635 calories and 92 grams of protein if I stay on track. I will post tonight how my day went. Good luck to all. See all lighter. Joanne

That is really low calorie for this far post op. Have you considered running that plan by your nutritionist. You may end up gaining weight still because your body could go into starvation mode. Any chance you can get the calories closer to 1200? The protein is great but you may want to add in some healthy fats and complex carbs to up the calories. Just a suggestion. Eating that low and not balancing out your carb/protein/fat also means you could get hungry faster and may be more likely snack or at least be in an awful mood! Good Luck!!

Stacy, Thanks for your advise. I will let you know how I make out. I am going back to basics to get a jump start on weight loss again. In the beginning this is how we ate. All should be ok. See you lighter. Joanne

I think it is wonderful to go back to basic, revisit the pouch rules, etc. Hope this will shake things up for you and get you off your stall. It is possible to apply the basics and still maintain a higher calorie level. You can do it with out bulk too.. adding in flax seed oil to protein shakes.. sprinkle a little toasted wheat germ on top of that morning yogurt. I do know that our bodies respond differently so I can only speak from my own nutritional research and experience. It seems like if I just cycle up or down 250 calories that is enough to shake things up for me and keep the results consistent. I'll be cheering you all on!

Stacey... In the beginnig of our surgeries we ate like this and we were very low calories,,,I am not sure what type of surgery yuo hd but I had the open RNY and I was on liquid only for 1 month post op.... I am working very closely with my bariatric center and they advise me to get back to basics every so often to whip my pouch in shape and stay on track... There are several people on here have hit plateaus and are very unsatisfied with thier progress....we are not suppose to be eating carbs...protein protein protein...yogurt has carbs in it...so will the soup she will be eating....when we eat we are suppse to eat protein first anyway....when i eat i do not nor have ever eaten any carbs and I am alive to tell about it....I dont eat rice, bread, pasta, potatoes,,,any stacrh veggy....I concentrate on protein only.... This is a week to week kick start,,,,,it is not a long term daily eating program....getting back to the basics is what we all need from time to time....I only consume daily around 400 to 600 calories a day...My pouch can only hold 3 tbs of food ata time...there is no way i would ever be able to eat 1200 calories...I have not since surgery....I am surprised you can...how far out from surgery are you that you can eat 1200 calories a day? that seems like an awful lot to me.... take care Rae

My progression per my surgeon was: 0 - 3 weeks liquid - try to get up to 600 calories 3 - 7 weeks soft foods - try to get up to 800 calories 7 weeks plus regular diet - 1200 calories - 4 meals a day no snacks Going to make a long post here so bare with me. Sorry for the book in advance. This is what works for me but I realize everyone is different and bodies and minds can respond differently to this surgery. There is more then one way to drop weight.. millions of ways. We all know that. I do think there are also many ways to become healthy. I just believe there are some better then others. Hopefully whatever we do gives us those long term results we all want. We all want the same thing.. too look good naked.. right? lol.. just kidding. I had my Lap RNY in April just like the rest of you. It was at the University of Maryland. They have a comprehensive program and I work closely with my nutritionist on almost everything I do. We are in email contact and she also drops into the online support group I run every so often as well. I see her monthly at the hospital support group meetings. Her standard plan for WLS at this stage though is 1200 calories and they are ok with carbs as long as protein is first and you are meeting all your other nutritional needs. Carbs are not bad.. that is a myth. No food is bad food. There are just better choices. For me its more about how I balance it all out... meal by meal.. day by day.. week by week. Complex carbs and healthy fats are essential for my health and an important part of my diet. I do try to stay away from more simple carbs (unless it is post workout) since they burn up a lot faster. I do pay attention to protein and always meet that requirement.. then I move on to the veggies, whole grains, and fruits. I can combine meals like a stir fry though and know now that this far out I will have room to eat my 4 ounces of chicken with some mixed veggies at the same time. I portion stuff before it goes onto my plate. I feel like I have a really good understanding now of exactly what volumes my pouch can and can't handle along with the foods it can and can't handle most of the time. I eat 1200- 1500 calories and 80-100 grams of protein. I do 5 meals a day that are 250-300 calories. The emphasis of Dr. Kligman's program has always been "realistic" eating in real world scenarios. They even give a guide to healthy eating at fast food places. They don't expect us to all be health nuts.. although I am and do take it a step further. It works for me.. it isn't for everyone. I have had an interest in nutritional science and fitness long before my WLS. I also founded and continue to moderate two non-WLS nutrition and fitness message boards that are a few years old. I started an online support group for my surgeons patients that is independent of the University of Maryland back when I first had surgery when we didn't have more regular on site meetings. My food beliefs.. I believe in getting the most bang for my buck and pick nutritionally dense foods 95% of the time. I enjoy my staples... whey protein, egg whites, cottage cheese, walnuts, almonds, natural peanut butter, toasted wheat germ, flax seed meal, blueberries, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, lean meats, and baby spinach! I pick whole foods over processed when possible but I do eat processed too. Hard not to in this day and age. Cheese sticks are a staple for me as well. Enjoy the laughing cow cheeses or goat cheese too. I usually partner that with some flax seed crackers and a good green salad. I still do a post workout whey protein shake but try to stay away from liquid protein outside that one shake a day. I am pro adding in the "superfoods" to my diet and eating for disease prevention since I have seen so much cancer and other serious diseases in my family. I had a scare myself a few years ago but doing great now. My husband is a personal trainer and has muscular dystrophy - he is also another research fanatic, athlete, and very supportive. He ran a triathlon last year but due to the progression of his MD this year he has had to slow down. Great book om Super Foods if you get a chance: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060535679/104-8839272-8498354?v=glance&n=283155 I eat for health now. I don't eat to lose weight. I know.. Crazy?!! Right?This mindset has been really freeing for me. It was hard to get there since I had been conditioned to diet all my life and was on that never ending yo yo cycle. I thought dieting was eating healthy but now I know better. It is about every day lifestyle choices. Scales and calipers still can drive me nuts but I fight to find a balance with them. I think they have there place. I try to see losing weight now as just a bonus. I have an idea where I will stabilize but it really isn't a concrete goal. My goals are more nutitional and fitness related. Some weeks I drop a couple lbs and some weeks I don't. I try to pay more attention to how I feel and how my clothes are fitting. I only weigh every couple weeks. I do fall off the wagon sometimes, get back on very fast, I have dumped plenty, I have eaten sugar (had 5 of those mini-sugar cookies at Starbucks that made me dump a few days ago), high fat foods.. I am by no means perfect at all. I think the reason this time is different from others is 1) the gift of this wonderful too, the pouch 2) I'm working equally hard on both the mental and physical journey 3) don't try to be perfect 4) focus on the here and now - living a healthy lifestyle today This year I'm planning on running a sprint triathlon and also going for my spinning certification. My exercise has been more sporadic the last year due to a couple other health issues that seem to now be resolved but once I increase it I plan to adjust my calories again if needed to compensate for burning more calories. Obviously I can't go burn 500 - 800 calories in the gym or on a run training for a triathlon and be left with only a few hundred for regular functioning. I'd get very sick! I was doing resistance training and cardio 5-6 times a week before surgery. You will probably see me even higher calories once I get back to that and adding in a 6th meal. One of my reasons for WLS was because I was continuing to get joint injuries after working out and activity. I no longer have any joint problems, back pain, no more high blood pressure, and am hopeful that once my weight does stabilize for 6 months that we will start trying to work on getting pregnant too! Good Luck on whatever paths you take. Enjoy the journey and you can count on me dropping in to cheer you on as often as I can.

Stayce, I think I agree more along the lines of your thinking. Thanks for taking the time to articulate your thoughts. I've become a work out fiend. I love it..I do aerobics, life cycle and treadmill. I will be interested in hearing how you progress toward your goal of the sprint triathalon. Good luck on the pregnancy. I had PCO before, but my cycles are like clockwork now. I'm fairly sure that I'm ovulating, but at this point in my life I'm fairly certain I'm done with making babies. Now I just have to worry about accidental preg...gasp! Laura

Sprint Tri is fairly easy and any one can train for it... Check out this "Couch to Sprint" training program: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/Programs/couch_to_sprint_overview.htm You should come hang out with us on the bodybuilding and weightlifting message boards at OH. Great group of people there too. Very cool to hear your cycles are normal. It has been a fight for me for months. I had some Lupron and just had a D&C on Dec. 29th. Hoping that will get me back on track. I had my period for over a month and a half.. very heavy and very painful. It had been bad prior to that but this was the worst. My dr had me on everything to try to stop the bleeding.. pills, high dose estrogen patches. The one shot of Lupron was the only thing that worked. That was just so I wouldn't bleed during my surgery. Also have a couple small fibroids and back a few years ago had an abnorm pap and needed LEEP surgery to remove the pre-cancer cells from my cervix. Had a grapefruit size fibroid removed last year.. oh the gyn fun of it all! LOL I love that soul cysters board. I learned a ton from it. I thought I had PCOS for a while since I had some of the symptoms but never was diagnosed. So glad to here you are on track now!!!

Joanne: I am right along here with you,,,,,Pre op weight was 315 lbs...my present weight is 170.....I have lost 135 lbs and started the P/B challenge with you all...I started yesterday.....I had a protein shake for breakfast....S/F jello for lunch with my protein shake S/F jello for my snack Protein shake for dinner... S/F jello for snack...Protein shake before i went to bed....along with some tomato soup made with skim milk//// protein count was 120 total fluid intake was 100 oz...... Good luck....Thank you for not putting this down and your willing ness to try fascinates me Rae

Rae, Thanks for your support. I am very determined to do this and have no fears. I really like what you say about carbs. I know everyone is different but I have found carbs put weight back on me and fast. You don't have to eat breads, pasta, rice or any of the white stuff to get in carbs. Carbs are also found in Milk, fruit and vegetables. I get most of mine from milk and vegetables with no problem. Fruit or the white stuff puts weight on me. I know I can do this and I will. I am going to put my focuse on that upcoming T/T in May. Everytime I want to eat something I am going to write it out. This is a one shot deal and I will not blow it. I will get below 200 lbs by then. You are a great inspiration to me and I appreciate your faith. See you lighter. Joanne