Wow! That is really wonderful. Congratulations, I hope your success continues. Good Luck! Robin G

Hi Maggie, Well first off, my husband is a gym freak and we used to go together all the time so I learned all of my exercises from him. I use 8 lb free-weights now and do bicep curls and tricep lifts and shoulder raises. THen I do pulldowns on the nautilus, butterfly chest squeezes, leg curls and leg presses, abs, etc. I usually do this every other day and I am always sore the day after which tells me I am ripping new muscles. THis in turn helps to burn fat!!! Oh yeah, I do 3 sets of each exercise, like 10-15 reps each set. Don't be afraid to use weights. You are far enough out from surgery to use them. My surgeon said fly with it and I have full clearance to do whatever exercise I can (She said that at about 8 or 9 weeks out). So I figure you are good to go too. And you feel really good afterwards!!!! I hate cardio but I do it cause I know it is good for me. Good luck to you too and now that I know about this board I will be around much more often. See ya, Elisa

Hey Elisa! welcome to the board........ I wanted to ask you, what kind of strength training are you doing?? I joined the gym last week, and I've been doing pure cardio, I dont want to lift anything heavy too soon! - *welcome* and keep us updated on your progress maggie 318/255/150

dont be a stranger this is a great group of October babies. looks like your doing very well. keep up the good work.

well I am only updateing because I weighed in at my PCP's when I went for my B-12 shot yesterday. I had been stalled at -60 pounds for the past three weeks but have now dropped another 10 to -70 so I hope that continues. It seems I am able this week to eat a bit more than previously which both elates and scares the hell out of me. I am also starting to recover my feeling of fullness which has been absent along with my hunger since surgery. I hope the feeling of hunger stays away forever as far as I am concerned. I am still taking a prtein shake daily and concentrating on protein meals as often as I can tolerate them. I snack on almonds and cheese squares when ever possible . this is the first week I have been able to actually drink more than 40 0z of water on some days . I am finding that I can now actually take a good swallow of water rather than my previous small sips. I suppose that means my pouch is stretching ( hopefully not all that much) I usually do half a cup of cereal with splenda in the morning with my protein shake either before or after, a half cup of soup or chili for lunch and a half of a lean cusine for dinner. with water in between , and a light desert of cottage cheese and coolwhip jello mixture when I feel the urge. I have to chuckle as my nephews lids who are staying with us had a birthday yesterday and they of course had cake and ice cream and they added butter fingers whole to their ice cream, I never once felt the urge to indulge and in fact just the thought of it was a bit nauseating. I no longer have any desire to have sweets which is nice but seems very strange. I am currently 8 pounds from my first goal of reaching 300 which will take me to half of the weight I hope to lose. I need to add more exercise into my regimine but even with the best of intentions I have yet to do that. so send me good thoughts that I will force myself to exercise more often and join a gym. hope all are having a great day.