6 months out and I feel stuck....any advice?

I am six monhts out now as of yesterday and down 111 pounds and I am proud and doing ok.   I just feel like the scale over past monht has stayed at this same weight loss and nothing budging and it gets to me.  I feel bloated constantly and like my stomach is huge around the clock.  my butt too.  I have come a long way and I know this but I fear I will stay right here for good and not make goal.  I see people loosing and loosing and here I sit at same wieght for past 2 months at least. 

any suggestions?   I can't really get much exercise in as fatigue gets me down and past week I been sick on top of all else.  I know the exercise is a big part but I just cannot bring myself to doing any, I hate exercise and want to knwo I can loose my weight and hold it without it and anything I do get in is an added plus.

I just feel it is not eating right and at same time barely eating......and then when I do get a good meal in I toos it back up as it makes me feel yucky inside.  I am needless to say very frustrated right now as I wacth my daughter skim on by me with her weight loss with her lapband hen we were doing well together and now I am stuck and she is on the go.

help.

First of all Congratulations on the 111 pounds!!!  Good for you!!

The scale is going to stall sometimes....it's just the way it is.  You can kick it, throw it, curse at it, threaten to drop it off at the Good Will, but it is going to be a pain in the ass and stall!  Often, when the scale stops, the inches are falling off.  If you took your measurements at the beginning, take them again now to see how far you have come.  Also, many times when the weight stalls, you will notice your clothes, jewlery, etc getting bigger.  Your body has lost so much and it is adjusting to that loss.  Sometimes your body is saying "HEY!!! hold on a minute and let me catch up!!!" You can try shaking things up a bit by adjusting your protein, you water, maybe switching up your foods a bit.  You body may have gotten used to the same old thing and a bit of a switch will get it moving again. 

As much as you don't want to hear it, you are going to have to exercise.  You can lose weight in the beginning without much effort, but the farther out you get, the harder it is going to be.  Not only is it good for the weight loss, but it is necessary to keep your heart and lungs healthy, to help prevent osteoperosis (spelling???), help with circulation, etc.  It also helps with energy levels.  Start small.....10 minutes....go around the block once....go to the mall and walk...whatever it takes.  Get a walking buddy, get an IPOD, use that time to daydream about whatever hot actor you drool over LOL.....it will help the time pass and before you know it you will be walking twice as long. 

I know what it is like to be frustrated and I know how hard it can be to stay motivated to exercise, but you can get past this.  Try not to compare yourself to others although I know how hard it is NOT to compare....each of our journeys are different and we will get to where we are going in our own time. 

Stay the course...you are doing FANTASTIC!!!

Heather G

Hi,

Everything Heather said to you is true and stalls are a part of this process for most of us, I consider myself a queen of stalls and at around 6 months I went into one that lasted about a month, most recently my weight dwindled to a 2-1/2 pound loss over a 7 week period, but my measurements have changed some and I upped and changed my eating habits and exercise routine. . .  which brings me to say, I hated exercise just like you, still can't say I love it, but reality being what it is, without it, you are not going to get the best results and as we age, exercise is a key component to staying healthy and keeping the weight off, this does not apply just to us, but to the general population.  So find a way to do something that is movement, get a walking buddy, a gym buddy, someone to do it with, you husband, kids, sister, a dog, whatever, and just do it.  You will get to a place where you will not feel complete unless you have done some form of physical activity, it's happened to me and like I said, I still don't love it, but I do love my new  healthier self!

Take care,

I can truly say, I AM THE STALL QUEEN OF WLS.  You need to analyse what you are eating.  Keep a food log.  Go over it with your nutritionist.  Don't waste this time.  The first year is the key to success.  You may need to adjust the type of protein and carbs you are taking in.  You may need to stagger your calories to jump start your metabolism.  Swimming is an excellent weight loss tool.  Shopping without buying anything is also a good routine for walking without the dreaded excercise dreariness.  Vary your daily food menus.  Don't let your body get used to any particular food.  Shake it up.

First of all - I didn't even recognize your avatar - thank goodness your name is easily recognizeable and you brought up the fact of your daughter so I was able to know who you were.

You've gotten really good advice from the other posters.

Exercise actually helps fatigue.  Even little bits help.

If you are having problems with food this far out definately talk to your doc and the nut.  It takes a long time to adjust.  I don't know what you consider to be a "good meal" in - but perhaps you are trying to eat a little to much at a time?  Your meal size will be fairly small at this point.

Continue to follow your program as much as you can - stalls are a part of this journey and they suck plain and simple - but they pass - and you just need to be dilligent.

Pam

Congratulations on your loss so far.

The people you see losing and losing are most likely people who have come to the realization that routine physical activity is essential to post-honeymoon weight loss and more importantly, long-term weight stability.

Please listen to me. You are at a turning point.

Get it in your head that you have to exercise, and watch the weight continue to come off.

Decide that you hate to exercise, and not only will your weight loss stall out and eventually stop, but then, it's going to start to creep back.

I wish you the best of luck, and hope you find the motivation to make the right decision and stick to it.

I will try to reply to all of you in one reply here.  First I would like to thank you for your advice and for your concern and motivation.

I have to say my daughter and I forgot to do the measuing stuff in the begiining so we do not have that to go on,  but I do have clothes to go on and have seen much difference in them and got rid of alot of fat clothes and moved into my daughters clothes she went out of which was really kind of cool.

we started out walking 5 days a week and one thing led to another and it stopped.  I got a tred mill given to me and everytime I go to start it and stay with it somethign else makes it not happen like now I am very sick with either chest cold or bronchitis or something and can't do much of anything right now but rest.

What is my avatar you speak of?  what is wrong with it?  how do I fix it?  clueless here sorry?

I can be honest here and will be, I do agree that on those times I feel that stuck feeling it is becasue I eat too much.  my daghter has told me the same thing upon watching me, we have been good for each other it has been a nice road to travel with a buddy system like that and I listen but then the head does what it wants anyway and bam next thing you know I am at the toilet.   

I am still not much of a breakfast eater, I take strng cheese and cashews for lunch or tuna some days,   always something very small and I do well with all that.   It is dinner and when we go out to eat that I have problems with more so.....I do alot of chicken dishes, cooked right not fried, but after eating I never get the dumping syndrome but I get a pain in my chest and I knwo I have to get it back up.  depending sometimes dinner will stay down but not as often as it is back up.  I drin**** tea and water and diet juices inbetween and basically that is it......only every once in a while I do some wheat crakcers and cheese for a snack if I had dinner early but most times I am not hungry.  not hungry is not the problem I just am feeling bloated all the time as if I have an ongoing period.  so that is my eating patterns.

as for the exercise, I can't join a gym I am poor liek the rest of us......but I will try to strat walking my teed mill and outside when I feel better from this illness, I cannot get my daughter to do it with me, I have begged barteed and pleaded and that is why I won't I hate to do it alone, so I just don't do it since she won't.  I aksed my son to walk with me but he does his own thing so that leavesme on my own and I won't do that so that leaves the tred mill whre I can watch tv while I do it and at least get in a few days.  I promise I will give it my best and see where this goes.

thanks for all in put and I will just keep at it and I may even do the 5 day pouch test to give me a jump kick start, we'll see.

also sorry I haven't been here often but life is sucking in with no job and job hunting everyday for past few months is killing me, the world is a big bad place out here and without an education it sucks.  so that on top of everything else does not help.

take care everyone and God Bless
Donna

I cannot get the avatar on my end to chage my picture to my new one it keeps showing my old one, any ideas?  I uploaded my old one twcie now and still showing old pic.

Nothing was wrong with your avatar - I was commenting because you looked sooooo good and didn't recognize your picture.

You can't see the new picture because of a "cookie" problem - or saved items in the depths of your computers internet memory. There's a few things you can try.

1)  While on the OH website, hold down the shift button on your keyboard and while holding it down, click on the refresh button on the top of the internet screen.  This will delete your "cookies" saved in your computer and will most likely allow you to see the new avatar.

2)  If that doesn't work, go into your start menu on your computer...go into control panel...go into "internet options" and delete your cookies, browsing history, saved websites and whatever else it allows you to.  You won't have "automatic recall" (IE:  When you type in www.obesityhelp.com in the address bar, after the first few letters the website won't appear as a recently visited one) and passwords that you may have placed in "save" with the website will require you to sign on again.

As far as the eating thing - that stuck feeling, especially after eating out, seems to happen to most when they have eaten to much, to quickly, or the meat or whatever isn't moist enough.  I had problems eating out till probably about 8 mos or so.  Basically I stopped going out during that time frame as far as eating was concerned, or I would just get a cup of soup and have my dinner before or after I went out.

Good luck!

Pam

What everyone said here was wonderful.  Stalls happen.  It's just the body's reaction to the drastic changes it's gone through.

I'm a bit concerned about the fatigue.  When were your vitamin levels checked last?  Are you taking a multi every day?  What about B12?  Iron?  Iron, especially, will make you feel really tired.

Exercise is critical, not just in this weight-loss stage, but later when you reach your goal, as well.  There are simple exercises you can do without being in a gym.  Walking, of course, is wonderful.  Power walking around a mall is cheap and fun--just don't window shop!  Walking down stairs (at first) then up and down stairs at the mall is great.  Park your car far away from the entrance to stores and walk in.  When you watching TV, lift weights (they might be soda bottles or cans) to tone your arms.  During commercials, stand up and stretch, move in place.  There are lots of things you can do.  PM me if you'd like more suggestions.  It is critical, though, to move and get your metabolism raised.

WLS is only the first step and is only a tool.  The more you work it, the greater the gain (or loss, really).

Good luck!
Cheryl