4.5 months out - half way to goal!

This is great information!!! Thanks for taking the time to write it all out, it really does help!

Your life sounds insane, but in a good way :) At this moment I'm homeless - I have an apt where I used to live, but my roommate has basically taken it over so the food that's there on weekends is her food. She's one of those 6' tall string beans that eats an all carbohydrates all the time diet of at least 3000 calories a day (plus she drinks like a fish so there are bottles of booze and mixers). The last time I was there, the fruit and veggie bowl was literally filled with peanut M&Ms and Reesie cups! Here in Columbus I'm staying with my sister and her family whi*****ludes two boys under five. My sister bakes bread every week. They eat a very healthy diet, but there are lots of whole grains and lots of bread. I don't eat with them, I try to get most of my calories in at Breakfast and lunch. I don't buy wine (my vice) or any straight carbs but I do get a produce box each week at work and I incorporate the fresh produce (Swiss Chard, Kale, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers etc) into my meals and the occasional smoothie.

I'm 'suddenly single' and living most of the week in a new city. I don't have kids or a spouse to share my time with. My only obligation will come when I bring home my puppy (end of September) and I'm already working out how I can hit the gym and still have quality time with the puppy. I might be one of those freaks who takes her puppy on walks and tucks him into a shoulder bag while he's still too little to make it on long walks.

I'm hoping I'll be able to swim before work (six am) at least twice a week, then go home and walk the pup, then go to the office. After work I'll go straight home to the pup, walk, make dinner then two nights a week do weights - on bad weather nights I may do cardio at the gym too, but ideally I'll be running and walking at night, with the puppy. I've started to rig up my bike to carry the pup in my grocery basket (on the back). It's really important to me that I figure this out BEFORE I hit the ten month post RNY mark.

What's an RMR?

Resting Metabolic Rate test. It tells you how many calories your body burns at rest (ie: if you never got out of bed in a day). Mine came back at 1,541. So I'm targeting around there for maintenance, but it's likely it could be a bit higher than that (up to 1,700-1,800) or because of the margin of error and the fact that human bodies are a real ******* a smidge lower.

I was looking at your losses and it's clear that your strict adherence is granting you better numbers than my haphazard approach! I'm losing inches faster than I'd expected, and the weight is coming off faster than my surgeon was expecting but more slowly than I'd like. Will I be to (weight) goal by February if I continue this way? It's not a sure thing, but still possible. What I really want to see is my body fat % dropping and my lean muscle mass increasing to healthy levels. Right now that, like my measurements, has been improving at a good rate. If I'm fit, strong, and at a lean body fat level, I'll not be too hung up on the scale number.

Thanks to my small bones, my BMI is looking good, but my actual body fat % is still near 39%! YIKES!!! I'm below average for my age group in muscle mass in my core and upper body, and just at "average" for my legs (must be the running).

I know that I have to get my lean body mass up or my RMR will never be up to the level of yours!

I can't even imagine a life where 1700 calories per day would be considered reasonable. It's like imagining a life where I had twice my income

We had surgery at the same time at the same BMI and we have the same goal!

Dayum shazaaam! Congrats and those are awesome goals!

I really admire your focus and determination. Also, you are an exercise machine! You're doing a great job...keep on keeping on. :)

Of my four siblings, I've always been the least athletic. Like if my most athletic sister (runs marathons, excels in team sports, skis all winter every winter) is a 10, and my least athletic sister (does aerobic classes twice a week and walks daily) is a 5, I'm a negative 12... As kids I was the horse crazy one who was active but mostly just to keep my horse (baling hay, mucking out stalls, riding).

I decided that I may not have a sport I LOVE, but I can find a way to enjoy the time I exercise. I'm really trying to leverage my exercise time by listening to books on audible and pod casts. I'm hoping to at least understand a few languages other than English, if not speak them. Things like that which can be accomplished WHILE I'm sweating away :)

When I was younger I loved to play volley ball and basketball. My favorite sport was surfing. I went almost everyday. I even surfed up until I was 8 months pregnant. 51 years ago that just wasn't done. In fact, I was one of the few women who even surfed at the time. When I delivered my baby my tan was the big topic of conversation. I'm like, get the baby out of me and look at the tan later!

I'd like to become fluent in Spanish again. I certainly don't use it like I did when I lived in Spain, but living by the Mexican border I get a chance to use it. I learned Castilian in Spain and in Baja California they speak Mexican which is different. Like the differecnce between American, British, Australian etc. Not only that, but in our area where there is a huge border crossing, all kinds of dialects get mixed in. People come straight up from South America and Central America so there can be quite a mishmash.

Sometimes I dream in Spanish, but when I come to a word I don't remember, I just substitute in the English word and go on with my dream like nothing ever happened.

Congratulations; you're doing great!

I love your goals. I swim, ride my bike, and walk too. I need to add weights to the mix but have a mental block about them, lol. I do super light weights for my arms every day, but that's it so far.

Your travel goals sound amazing. I need to save money; there's a bike tour in Austria, along the Danube, that I'd love to do. I have relatives who live in a small town outside of Vienna so I could stay with them before and after the trip. I'm in Northern Ontario, Canada, though, and it's so expensive to fly anywhere. I'd have to scrimp and save for a long time.

When I reach goal, I was thinking I'd like to go overseas and teach English for a year or two.

The job I took in April is for a fantastic health system (private hospital system) and one of the many perks they offer is membership to their fitness centers. I pay via payroll deduction up front, and then if I USE the fitness center at least twice a week (average) over a quarter, they reimburse me for my membership!

I'm going through the "on-boarding" at the super nice, main facility now. It includes a stress test by the cardiology team, and then three separate orientations - The first one was last night and just covered the pools. The certified exercise physiologist reviewed my stress test for my cardio health (I have lots of room for improvement), reviewed my medical history, then she helped me figure out the best options for exercise within the swimming/pools offerings. She had me swim a few laps so she could gauge my swimming form and skill level, then she had me try out various water "tools" such as float "weights", resistance "weights", flippers, leg floats, hand paddles, etc... and explained how to use these on my own (walking laps, swimming, resting injured or over-worked limbs or body regions while working out other areas of my body...) It was supposed to be an hour but she spent over two hours with me!

In two weeks I'll have the same type of orientation with another exercise physiologist who specializes in cardio machines. That person will put me on every type of machine from the treadmills to the rowing machines and walk me through the set-up of each. They will check my form and make sure I'm using the right posture etc... They will show me how to program the machines, how to do a "quick start" on each and advise me on the best mix of machines to use depending on my other activities (row on running nights, 30 minutes of brisk walking on an inclined treadmill before an aerobics class... etc). I will leave with a written six month cardio plan.

The last orientation is with a resistance specialist, also an exercise physiologist, who will have me sit in every weight "machine" (non-free weights) and set up the seat height etc to make sure I will be using the right form. The machines will "remember" the set up when I use my membership bar-code to "check in" and a screen will walk me through the right settings before it lets me start. After the machine setup stuff I'll get an introduction to free weights. Like the other two orientations, I'll leave with a written plan based on my current level of fitness (including a body scan that looks at me lean muscle mass in my limbs and core).

I am generally very Leary of weights because I know I can do it "wrong" and injure myself and because I basically hate working out with weights. I'm so excited to have opportunity to learn how to do it the RIGHT way!

I really want to build this into my forever life, rather than just a "get fit" phase of WLS.