Plateau

I am at 71 pounds and been stuck for soo long now, just doing everything right, any tricks? Donna

Donna - I've not had my surgery yet, but I just wanted to at least give you a (((hug))) and encourage you. I obviously haven't experience wls stalls, but I have with all those diets I've been on and it sometimes just takes time to let your body get used to a certain weight. I liken it to running. Every once in a while you need to stop and take a breath. Of course, I'm sure you experienced that in the dieting too, but the cool thing about this is that this is the point at which many of us get frustrated and give up the diets. That's why wls is so great - you will perservere through this regardless of any stinking diet. LOL!

Right now you are still early in your journey...but I believe the best advice at this point is remember the pouch rules....Protein first....and make sure you get the water in....exercise...It's best that you develop good habits to keep through-out....plateaus will come and go...your body will adjust here and there but if you stick to the rules it will continue to fall. I stuck to the rules as best I could in the beginning and lost 100 lbs...am fighting to get down to 150 which was my initial goal weight...got down to 176-178 (steady) from 286 and once I hit my year [I know somebody before I had surgery that hit a year and then hit the sugar stuff (cake, cookies, etc) without dumping] that I followed suit...I think in my head I had decided I was going to eat what I wanted once I hit a year... well once I got on that sugar kick it was such a viscious cycle and sooo hard to get off it and then with vacation in August, holidays and a trip home to Hawaii about 2 weeks ago I ate and ate non-stop without thinking (I still can't eat a whole lot like I used to...although I eat more then I did right after surgery...but I can graze all day long if I let myself) and came home and found myself up to 197...my husband and daughter both need to lose weight as well and had been on the Atkins diet and when we came home we all decided to go on it as a way of life (Meat and vegetables...no starches) ...we all lost weight...my daughter was 203 and is now 187 (she plays competitive 6th grade basketball)...I am down to 184...and my husband lost about 10 lbs himself... I am reading the South Beach Diet Book due to some pre-surgery health problems with my pancreas flaring up and it all makes so much sense carbohydrates sent me over and over again into a viscious cycle and if I don'****ch it will end up a diabetic especially since it runs in my family and me being a carb addict don't help much...with our new way of eating it is keeping our blood sugars lower and keeping the head hunger out of the way...I thought everyone who said that they don't even crave the carbs anymore was whacked but guess what I really really don't even crave the carbs anymore...plus they make almost everything low carb low sugar now..or have a substitute. Understanding how the bad carbs plummeted me into my food addiction post-surgery makes me that much stronger in making the right choices now 2 1/4 years later... I kinda wish that I truly understood all of this early on so that I would have made better choices...but you know it's never too late...as my surgeon has been saying all along I haven't given you something that will magically make your weight go away...I have given you a tool and how you use that tool will determine what kind of success you have...you can put the tool away and it won't be used and you will gain weight but it's always there for you to pick back up and use....Well, I'm picking it back up. My hope for you is that you develop the right habits upfront and keep them all the way through your journey and you don't worry about the plateaus they come and they go...your body just needs to adjust and it will let go again...I, too, ran into lots of plateaus.