1 month out & 27 pounds down!

I am excited and disappointed! It is one month since surgery and I am down 27 pounds! I am disappointed because my goal was 30 pounds! But I am still happy! How long will it take me to get to my 130 goal, I wonder! My favorite food is CRAB LEGS! They go down so easy! I like grapes and taco soup with extra beans, no corn and grapes to snack on......How does that sound it comparison to everyone else and what they were eating one month out? Holli

that sounds amazing! don't worry about the weight loss. when was the last time you lost 27 lbs. in a month? i know it's hard to be patient. the first 3 months took *forever* to pass with me and then suddenly i was six months out and down 75 lbs. i don't think i was that adventurous with my eating. my doc has a more conservative diet plan and it takes us about 4-6 weeks before we're eating solids freely. i think i was on mushy foods at your stage. a friend of mine had a slower start with her WLS and also has a goal of 130 lbs. down. she jump started everything by exercising and now is shedding weight and clothes really fast! so get out and get moving!

I'm the friend Kari is mentioning here (no problems outing myself ) and she is indeed right. Before surgery I was 312. I was only 26 pounds at the one month mark myself. Then I was 44 lbs down a month-ish later and pretty disappointed. At about the 2.5 month mark I started a martial arts class. It's 45 minutes a session, two days a week. Then I started a weight lifting class through the local community college (a whole lot cheaper than a gym with the added benefit of accountability). I go there for about an hour and 15 minutes usually 3 times a week. I'm now a little over 3.5 months out (I think 16 weeks out) and as of yesterday morning I've lost 60 pounds. The weight, and most especially the inches have just been falling off like crazy this past month. Starting the exercise ended a month long plateau and sped up the loss. Now I check on the scale every few days when I'm at the gym and I've lost 2 pounds each time I check consistently for about the last two weeks. I'm sure I'll hit another plateau eventually or slow down, but I don't think it'll be as long this time! I'm now 252 pounds. I dropped from a size 26 to a 24 around a month ago and my size 24 pants are now loose enough on me that I wore a belt yesterday because I got tired of constantly pulling them up! Most of the shirts that I'm wearing are a 22/24, so they still fit pretty well. The size 22 pants are still pretty form fitting and I like to wear them a little bit looser, so I'll wait a couple of weeks before going down. Anyway, the point is that exercise has made a huge difference in my weight loss. Even my surgeon was really impressed and said I'm above average. As you probably know from experience, exercise at a heavy weight is not always the most fun thing in the world. But by the end of two weeks I felt much better, had better stamina and flexibility, and didn't have to take so many "catch my breath for a minute" breaks. Now I don't usually even need the breaks unless I'm pushing harder than normal. Despite the quantity of activity that I'm doing (which probably sounds a little insane), I'm actually taking things fairly slowly and not trying to push myself to the levels that the people around me are doing. I'm doing this with a painful heel spur and a pretty screwed up knee. But I keep doing it anyway and I love the way it makes me feel, as well as the results I'm seeing in the mirror and scale. At one month out you probably don't yet have the energy for this level of activity, but start smaller now and build up to this level in a month when you do have more energy. You won't regret it!

I check the scales 10 times a day...I am addicted! Wow on your workouts! HELLO..can you move after all of that! You gave me some ideas about what I need to be doing. I feel my biggest barrier is that I am in the car a lot! Twice a week I drive 5 hours round trip to take 4 hours worth of classes. The driving alone poops me out since I no longer smoke and eat candy while driving...just grapes! So then, I feel like it takes me two days to recover and two days to lay around..so really that is four days to lay around! OKAY! OKAY!! Those are all excuses...I SUCK!!! Thank you for the advice~ Holli

As of this morning, I am 28.5 down! Yeah! After one week, my doctor cleared me to eat anything I want and take notes on what makes me sick. Of course, I have not eaten many carbs and no sweets---mainly seafood and cheese and cuccumbers...umm! Thanks for the pep talk as I need it! I cannot get motivated to move! I am going to make a goal to walk...tonight! Thanks, Holli

Holli, That level of exercise sounds really daunting because of your energy level. That will start to improve soon. I got a good energy boost right at the time I started working out. Since your doctor allows you to eat normally this soon out, you may have that energy boost a lot sooner than I did. Getting lots of protein in is also really important both for the energy level and so that you can build rather than lose more muscle. I also wasn't even allowed to work out other than walking for the first month. The surgeon Kari and I had is very conservative, but he's also one of the best in the country. As for how do I manage to move, well...I did have mildly sore muscles after each workout for the first two weeks. But aside from that, the exercise actually gave me more energy. I get that "runner's high" that I've always heard about but never experienced until lately. Kari can attest to this since I once called her "under the influence" of my exercise endorphins. Take it slow. Start of at just two days a week and add one or two more after the first two weeks. That's what I did.