8 month anniversary/ sorry I've been gone so long, have had a hard time

Hey everyone, I know it has been over a month and half since I have been on the boards.  I am so sorry for that, things at home have been so very difficult, but by the Lords grace and mercy I, we are finally beginning to see the light ahead of us. On the 6th of April I celebrated my 8 month anniversary and also joined the Century Club with an offical weight loss of 104lbs and a weight of 154.  I am in a size 12 and mediums and am on the brink of moving into 10's.

I wish I could say I have been the perfect RNY patient because I haven't.  I have no problem staying away from forbidden foods, the problem goes the other way.  I have a very hard  time holding down any kind of meat at all, unless it is chili.  I am to a point I am almost a vegetarian. I have been living off protien bars, yogurt and chili and worst of all I did not excersise at all over the last 8 months. Finally, everything here at home came to a head and we as a couple, a family and me as an individual hit rock bottom.  3 days ago we went a joined Ballys and have already worked out twice.  I had forgotten how GOOD it feels to use my muscles like that.  The only thing I really knew is that I hate to walk for excersise.  I know I have friends here on OH, but I literally have no friends in person.  All my really good friends live from 1.5 hours away to 3000 miles away.  We still have not gotten back to church but I am truly holding out hope that we are going to get there. The Lord has brought me so far, us out of the woods with our relationship and my kids are responding to me in such a different way now that I am out of bed and doing house work, going places with them.

The best part of all of this, besides the Lords blessings and presence in my life, is that in January I turned 40 and something really happened for me. For this girl who has had body image problems her whole life, I no longer do.  I put a bathing suit on yesterday and thought I looked good, THAT IS A HUGE MILESTONE FOR ME.  Turning 40 liberated me from all that crap, all the crap I was fed by my family, the media and people in general around me.  Now, I know I am seeing me for the first tme in my life.  True, I definitely don't like a lot of what I see, but Praise Jesus that He is in my life, because I know He will change those things in me.  I am going to have my husband take a picuture of me tomorrow when I am ready to go to the gym and you will finally get to see what I look like now. So, what I am really working on is tring to eat more and better, getting to church, getting involved, meeting other women and finally after years being a REALLY GOOD role model for my kids.  I am by the grace of God first, so proud to be me now.  I am a survivor of obesity and though I am no where near the end of the road, nor will I ever be, I can see me, the real me and I am forever grateful to God, my surgeon, and all of you who encourage me and lifted me up over the last 8 months. ONE BIG QUESTION I HAVE FOR ALL OF YOU AND IT IS URGENT FOR ME, is anyone else having problems getting a lot of different foods down.  Everyone keeps telling me I should be able to eat pretty much anything by now, but this is defintely not the case. I could really use some suggestions/help. Love to you all I have missed you, Trish

Patricia, I am at 19 months and still don't do well with most meats unless they are ground up like the meat in chili or burritos and tacos.  Chicken and white fish occassionally go down if I chew them to a pulp but still make me sick more often than not so I avoid them.  I can eat shrimp and scallops. I can eat some meatloaf and ground beef burgers but I have to go slow because if the fat content is to high, it starts churning down there and after a couple of bites I know whether to continue or not. I usually have oatmeal with a little honey and a banana with a scoop of chocolate protein powder for breakfast, a protein bar or tow mid morning.  Sometimes I'll snack on acouple of Nature Valley or SUnbelt honey and oat granola bars, a banana or apple (apples go better if peeled).  A peeled baked potato with some ****tail sauce or melted cheddar cheese for lunch. And for dinner, shrimp or brunsick stew or mac and cheese,or a sweet potato (no butter; I use echeddar cheese instead or nothing.  I also do banana and strawberry protein smoothies and munch on strawberries sometimes.  Life cereal is good to munch on too with no milk, one square at a time but gotta be careful to not develop a grazing habit doing that.  I can occassionally handle more and sometimes I'll eat a blueberry muffin or a pop tart or a couple of oreos or something naughty.  If I keep it too a minimum, it doen't bother me  otherwise I dump.  And I like it that way.  I personally have seen too many post-ops continue to eat poorly andguess what, their bodies adjust and learn totolerate the bad stuff over time and within a year they are putting on weight again and cursing having had WLS. Go figure.  I don't want to ever be able to eat like that again.   Nothing tastes as good as being thin (ner). Count it as a long term blessing and enjoy the weight lose and smaller clothes.