Or you could drink a lot of water before you get weighed next time. ;)

I do find now that I'm at the normal end that it's all about body composition and not about weight. 

I'm drinking a carbonated drink right now. It's a myth that they can stretch anything. We have two holes that the carbonation comes out of... you can burp or fart out the gas. LOL

I don't drink the heavily carbonated stuff because it bothers me and diet colas have some other health issues so I avoid those too, but I drink some stuff with light carbonation and a fruity flavor and it's fine. I've been drinking it for months with no issues and my weight hasn't changed at all.

I never have any trouble with eating on cruises even when I was overweight. That's because the food is served at set times so no snacking. Or at least it's limited. There are plenty of choices and you will be walking a lot too. All the cruises I have been on, I have lost weight!

They don't advertise it but most US surgeons will do WLS on BMIs of 30 and up if there are co-morbidities. That's the standard in most of the rest of the world and they recognize that.

The way I look at it is that studies show that this surgery works better the smaller you are when you get it. Society says we only deserve to get it once we get up to 300+ pounds and have suffered for a million years but society is full of crap! You wouldn't wait to have chemo until the last possible second when it had less chance of working so why wait until excess weight has taken even more of a toll on your body and the chances of losing 100% of your excess weight are even lower?

My surgeon says that that statistic about the average EWL being 60% is for everybody but that for lightweights it's more like 80-90%. And the same with co-morbidity resolution. We statistically get better co-mordity resolution than the SMO too.

The other way I look at it is that I didn't have surgery to lose weight. I know I can do that on my own. I've done it a million times. I had to keep it off. I've never done that before! (Well not until I had surgery. It's been 5 years and I've kept it off just fine.)

How is it "cheating" to have the most effective medical procedure for your medical condition? Is it cheating to have surgery to remove your gallbladder? After all it *is* possible to control gallbladder attacks somewhat with diet. Why not do that instead? It doesn't work as well and you'll be miserable a few time a year but at least you didn't CHEAT!!! Bwahahaha. Of course when you put it that way, it sounds ridiculous. It's only when it comes to our weight that there is all this moral judgement about the "right" and "wrong" way to do it.

I decided to weight today just for you.

123 right on target and as expected.

Yesterday I did my first full real triathlon since my accident. (Did a shorter Xterra one earlier but not really a mountain biker so it doesn't count. LOL) I came close to my swim time goal (swims are iffy because the course can't be exact), beat my T1 time goal, KILLED my bike time goal even though it was windy, killed my T2 goal but realized I forgot my Garmin and decided to go back for it -- still beat my T2 time goal as it was only about 10 yards of backtracking, was pretty close on my run time goal as well and beat not only my overall time goal but my dream time goal thanks to my great bike time!

So I am super stoked and happy and that's even before I realized I came in 4th in my age group! Now there was a bit of a gap between 2nd and 3rd and light attendance this year but I think even if more people had shown up, I would have still finished MOP just as I did here - 4th out of 8. It just would have been maybe 6th out of 12th or something. Still would have been stoked as I used to be one of those "next to last" finishers and it's nice to have moved up and to feel more consistent in my performances.

Today the fam went geocaching. I enjoyed myself but most of them weren't too into it.

Also, water is one of those things where more isn't always better. If you drink too much water, you wash out your electrolytes and can have the exact same symptoms as if you aren't getting enough electrolytes.

Plus, it's not just lack of potassium that causes muscle spasms but also lack of magnesium, calcium, etc.

It might be a good idea to talk to someone at your surgeon's office and see what they recommend.

Holding steady at 123 just like in my signature. I never gained back the weight I lost when I was sick. I think I was due to drop a bit. I am experimenting with cutting back on dairy so that probably helps.

I'm only weighing myself a few times a month now. Nothing much changes in my world and I can tell by my clothes and my eating if I'm on a bad trend so I don't really need to do more than that. I'm holding stead around 125-ish. Today I weighed after working out and eating a bit and before pooping and it was 125 exactly. Sometimes it's lower, sometimes higher but I always seem to come back to that point.

Congrats! I'm over 5 years out from sleeve surgery and loving it!

I think most of us have a good sense for who to tell and who not to tell. I think immediate family needs to know and then you can play it by ear. The first 3 months, anyone you eat with is going to know something it up. So you have to have something to tell them. I think it's better to tell the truth but it can be a partial truth. "I had stomach surgery and I'm still healing" is the truth. But when you can only eat 4 bites of soft food and are losing 10-20 pounds a month, people notice!

"Even unjury and others that are made for post surgical patients"

Okay this drives me crazy. There is nothing special about Unjury (and others) that makes it more appropriate for bariatric or post-surgical patients compared to any other protein powder made of whey protein isolate. It's all marketing BS on their part when they say "specially made for" or "medical grade". There is no definition of "medical grade" when it comes to protein powder. Anyone can say that and it means nothing! End "marketing BS rant!" lol

Anyway...

If you dump / vomit on protein shakes, it could be a lactose intolerance issue. Make sure you mix them with water and not milk. And use whey protein isolate, not concentrate. Concentrate has more lactose than isolate. Also, try protein powders made of egg or soy and not whey.

OTOH, if the milk is going down fine but not the protein powder, then could it be the artificial sweeteners that a lot of them use to keep calories down? In that case, you can try to isolate which sweetener it is and only use shakes that don't have that kind of sweetener.

Another possibility is texture. That's something I'm sensitive to myself. I have to make my shakes in a blender with ice. I just can't take shakes made just by shaking the powder up. I taste every little aftertaste when they are made that way and I find myself gagging on them.

If it's just the shakes and not the powder, try putting the powder into foods and not a shake. Sprinkle it into yogurt or cottage cheese, etc.