You are so right about the hardest part being getting started.  I'm going to be facing that myself in a day or so when I get back into my normal routine.  I'm definitely rusty during this post-op recovery period.

Kudos to you for pushing thru it and getting to the gym....

I have a question for anyone who might know whats going on. It seems like when ever I work out for any length of time my feet start getting numb. You know that tingling feeling. Does anyone know why this might be happeneing??

Mary, OMG - no wonder you love to watch The Biggest Losers LOL

Tami do you have a water bottle with you? I drink water as I exercise, whenever I feel thirsty I drink.

I read Michael's info about drinking water to avoid nausea:
 "To keep from becoming dehydrated, you should try to drink a minimum of two cups of water roughly two hours before you start your exercise routine. 20 minutes before you begin your routine, you should drink 2 more cups of water. While you are exercising, you should also keep a water bottle nearby. During exercise, you should drink around half a cup of water for every ten to fifteen minutes of your exercise routine. If you follow these guidelines, you should be able to avoid becoming dehydrated, and to avoid the nausea that comes with dehydration."
OMG - I would be running to the toilet the whole time I should be on the treadmill!

I have felt nausea actually when I've drank too much water and I could feel it slooshing around in my stomach - I think you have to find the happy medium of just enough water.

I have noticed it when I've really pushed myself extremely hard - I don't have that problem very often.

Mary, what an inspiring response.

Ashley - isn't that food self stable and dry where you have to add water to reconstitute? I would think it would be hard to eat after WLS?(I could be wrong, I've never had Nutrisystem but my cousin did years ago). I understand that what you really are looking for is something that takes you away from making decisions. I know I felt like this when I did medically supervised medifast shakes years ago - but I found the problem was I didn't really learn how to change my eating patterns to maintain the success so the weight came back on - this is yoyo dieting which we need to avoid.

I follow Dr. McDougall's Maximum Weight loss diet which I realize you probably aren't interested in, but on his website they also have something called Mary's mini (MM) diet based on something his wife did years ago to lose weight and when they analyzed it nutritionally it was extremely healthy just limited food choices. MM is chosing a complex carbohydrate and a vegetable(s) and a fruit and eating the same thing for each meal - in fact you can eat the same foods all week long. One of the reasons this works so well is, well it's boring - so you can apply this to your food. Chose a meal that is healthy and keep eating the same thing with little or no variety.

Hi Jody. I was in your shoes and decided to stop just before the surgery. BTW, I see you have a sleep study coming up soon, please don't cancel that. My sleep study was the best thing of the whole WLS process because I didn't know I had sleep apnea. I can't tell you how fabulous it felt to have a good night sleep using my CPAP machine and it helps in shedding weight.  I know OHIP is notoriously slow, but I don't know how long you have to wait. If I were you I wouldn't step out of the queue until you were certain in your decision.  Postpone things to slow it down. Don't have surgery if you aren't certain - there are indeed serious risks and as you point out you're a single mom raising two children. You have to be at peace with your decision.

You may read on the main board "they operated on my digestive track but the problem is in my head" and people complaining about "head hunger". There is nothing wrong with your digestive track and having WLS can alter it permanently causing problems after surgery or later in life depending on the surgery. It's the head problem - what you put in your mouth that is the real issue and that's what I decided I needed to fix. Fixing your head can help you be a better model for your children. I've been a member here (and on other websites) for quite awhile but I lurked longer and I've seen a whole lot of people go through their WLS journey and shed a lot of weight, only to come back a few years later having gained much of it back - I feel so bad for them. Do you realize that some people have had 3 different weight loss surgeries? WLS results are only permanent when you fix the head. So my advice is work on your head and if you get that screwed on tight, then don't bother with the surgery. You will be much healthier. I know that feeling of desperation, that WLS is your only solution - but that's not true - the only thing true is that you need to shed that excess fat to improve your health. WLS or diet alone can be hard at the beginning to get into a new routine. (((HUGS))) we want to help support you which ever you decide to do and it is a personal decision that you alone have to make.

I'm impressed that you're thinking and working to increase your exercise - have your kids participate - take them for walks whenever possible- make it a routine for everyone. Maybe walk around the neighbourhood after supper or turn off the tv and play tag or hide and seek? Keep in mind that it takes a lot of exercise to burn a few calories - lowering the calories that we take in as food is much more effective for shedding weight. Exercise is important to help keep our body in good working order.

Our diet has changed so rapidly even since World War II - most of the "food" that we eat wouldn't even be recognized back then, didn't even exist. Those of us who are obese are horribly affected by all this industrialized food - we have to go back and eat real, whole foods. When you stop eating that super processed food you will lose the taste for it. I think maybe this is happening with your french fries? No simple carbs like flour and sugar- no highly processed foods. Stick to complex carbs which are our bodies, especially our brain needs. Low fat - fat has more than double the calories of protein and carbohydrates. Fat has almost no vitamins, no minerals, no fibre and no phychonutrients - it's just empty calories and it's packed in all our industrial food.

Find a healthy diet - the meaning of diet is the food you eat - it's not a bad word. You want to follow it to shed your weight and slightly modify it to maintain your goal. Some people here are on WW, I love my McDougall diet and others use other diets. Let us know what you plan to do. I see you have a lot of weight to shed. I remember when I started and knew that I had about 200 pounds to shed and it was so depressing and overwhelming so I broke it up into very small goals and didn't focus on how much or how long it was going to take me. It was hard psychologically. I saw a good therapist for a few months to help work on issues.

Okay, I'm rattling on and this is very long, sorry. Time for me to get back to house cleaning.