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I have been reading posts from the site now for a few weeks and I am always amazed when folk post about stalling. I'm not due for my surgery until the 22nd of this month and like all of us want to know what to expect pre and post surgery, but I am always so amazed at the panic that seems to be displayed when one is not losing weight. Managing one's expectations would be my advice. We do not gain weight instantly nor will we lose weight that way. We all heal differently and our bodies will react differently. Don't jump on the scale every day, again manage the expectation. Try once a week or do a bi-monthly weigh in. Be true to yourself. I know for example that I may cheat on my pre-op diet over the next two weeks. But since there are buffers provided by my NUT, I purchased what I will need to succeed, unsweetened applesauce and SF jello. They will be great snacks in between slimfast shakes. Adjust your diet, use tools that will help, myfitnesspal.com is a good source. Have a good intake of water, and as should be our norm by now, take in protein first. I think another suggestion is not to give up. We worked so hard to get here, over come all types of problems in order to succeed. Let stall equate to adjust, that is what your body and systems are doing, adjusting. This new way of eating and lifestyle takes some adjusting. As we continue on our journery I wish us all success.

One month has flown by and I had my big weigh in at the doctors office, which I was excited to see what it would say. I am at 202 from 235! In one month I lost 33 pounds and have went down a size in pants and 1/2 a shoe size. I also was wearing a 2XL to now wearing some L. So glad I had this life changing surgery!

Guinness World Records called me today. It was out of the blue and I thought it was my shameful little secret. But apparently being startled by a squirrel can help you become a Guinness record breaker. I was in the kitchen messing around and heard some scratches in the utility room. Upon opening the door, I was confronted by a dastardly squirrel. Being a normal (sort of) person, I figured if I stepped towards him, he'd head for the hills. But no, he charged me! Squirrels aren't supposed to charge! They're supposed to hang upside down on the sides of trees and play funny games of tag with each other. It's in the Squirrel Manual. Chapter 1 - Squirrels are supposed to look cute, chase each other, and RUN whenever confronted by things that outweigh them by 300 lbs. This squirrel, obviously, was a dropout. He's the kinda punk squirrel that skips squirrel school, hangs around the pool hall, and smokes. I would add that he's a heroine addict, but I didn't have time to check his little squirrel arm for tracks - I was too busy trying to release the squirrel back into his natural habitat. By that, I mean that I screamed like a girl and slammed the door. That's where Guinness comes in. I thought my shameful little secret was my own, until I got the phone call. Apparently Guinness heard the scream and the door slam at their headquarters and tracked it back to me. I wondered how they tracked it back to me, until I saw the fault line (apparently caused by my slamming the door) snaking across my property and down the street. I now have two Guinness records - one for Loudest Girly Scream from a Man and Hardest Door Slam Without Knocking the Door Off the Hinges. P.S. The Man Club heard about it as well. I tried to explain that I was employing my catlike Ninja skills and the scream was my way of focusing my Chakras - but they weren't buying it. They said they had already given me a break on the whole Monarch Butterfly incident, but they couldn't give me a pass on this one. I now have 2 points on my Man Card. One more point and I have to take a refresher class. :-( P.P.S Does setting the world record for screaming like a girl count as an aerobic workout??????

So 10 weeks out and I've lost 38 pounds. I could have lost more if I was exercising but I haven't been. I bought a bike & was riding with my kids every night after school. Now the temps here are around 95 every day with high humidity and rain. The joys of summer in Central Florida. I should be working out indoors but I've been lazy. I'm determined to start now that I am settled into my new job (started 2 weeks ago) and am lighter. I had a great surprise today! I have a cocktail party to go to in 2 weeks and had nothing to wear. All my clothes are too big (Yahoo!!!). I went to Kohl's and found a dark navy lace dress that I thought was just gorgeous! I also thought "no way am I going to be able to wear this". Well, I had to have my daughter zip it (damn back zippers!) but IT FIT!!! And I looked amazing! I wanted to dance around the dressing room! I can't wait to knock 'em dead in 2 weeks! Inspiration to work out, too! I would love to see that dress a little loose next month! Good luck everyone!

I did not expect this. in learning to eat differently for my post sleeve life, i have evidently decreased my intake even more than i expected and have lost some weight. big deal, everyone here can lose weight, however today when i went hiking in the wilds of northern minnesota my gymn shorts kept slipping down. WTF? I have not had that happen to me in years and i was much lighter then. Perhaps the elastic has worn down, but it felt good anyway. I am heading to my surgery with a full head of steam, aiming to make the most of it right from the start. ten days to go. My daughter is getting married tomorrow and there are all sorts of people here, family people. the same ones that I tend to eat over. but so far i still have little interest in food. very strange, very welcome. We fly back on Sunday and i can get into the security of my routine until surgery. I have told a few chosen people and they have all been highly supportive. perhaps I need to expand my inclusion list.

Aloha Today marks 6 weeks since surgery, and Wednesdays are my ‘official’ weigh in, although I do weigh every morning. I just record it only on Wednesdays. Yesterday the scale showed me down 40 lbs since start of pre-op, 30 since surgery. This morning I showed down 39 lbs since pre-op and 29 since surgery. ~sigh~ this is my first gain, and I’m guessing I ate something salty yesterday. I am absolutely not bugged about this. I will continue to weigh every morning. I am not obsessing. Just yesterday I had a meeting with my NUT and I asked her what her take on stalls is – is it something that just happens inexplicably, or is it usually something the person is doing wrong? Mind you, when I asked this I was still moving full steam ahead losing every day. LOL maybe I jinxed myself. ANYways, she said stalls just happen sometimes, but the individual has the power to break them. All this being said, I know that 1 lb gained overnight certainly does not constitute a stall. It has just set me to thinking about it. There will come a time when I actually do hit a stall. I want to be prepared for it. So screw the 1 lb overnight last night – I am very, very pleased with my progress! I am beginning to go shopping in my closet, and that is fun. I realized last weekend that I can cross my legs; hooo! that was a thrill! My nightly hikes have become more energetic – I can go longer and faster and work up a good sweat. My dog is loving it! I was thinking this morning that something I would love to be able to do would be pushups. Real, honest-to –goodness, straight leg, military style pushups. No way in hell I can do it now, but I was thinking how cool it would be to be able to do them eventually. My (very athletic) husband would be so impressed! And then I had a brainstorm that I will train myself in secret to be able to do them as a surprise for him! Every morning when he gets in the shower I am going to roll out of bed and start trying to do them. And then one day I'll say "look what I can do!" I also want to get some hand weights. My bariatric exercise specialist had given me a band to do arm strength training with, but I have begun to get very nervous using it because I am terrified it’s going to snap and put my eye out. Paranoid? LOL. Perhaps! But I noticed that in very tiny print on the typed instructions she gave it says “caution: wear eye protection when using the band”. LOL she never said it out loud, she didn’t wear glasses when demonstrating it for me, and I have never, never seen anyone in person or on TV wear protective eyewear with the band. Leave it to paranoid me to start thinking about goggles though. Actually, I’d just rather get some hand weights and not worry about it any further. So far my hair is the same as it’s always been – yay! I am fond of my hair. But I think it’s just a little early yet anyways to see any losses. I won't be surprised when it starts to thin a bit in a month or two. My nails are still growing like mad—I finally had to actually clip them so I could type. In the past they’ve always broken way before they got to the point of needing to be clipped. Hope this nice side effect lasts I guess as long as I get my protein and take my vitamins it will. My energy is getting better all the time. Still would love more energy, but I have faith that my energy level, along with other things in my life, will just keep getting better n better as time goes on. Onward!

Feeling much better as of late, almost 100%. There is some pain at my port site but only when i'm lifting heavy items/exercising. My appetite is surpressed but feels normal. I still count my calories and I'm definitely eating less but doesn't feel like it so that's a good thing. Had my first post-surgery doctor's appt. a few days ago, doctor said I'm right on track with where I should be. I lost a few more lbs. again, basically what I had gained. I asked my doctor about the yo-yo-ing and he said that was normal right now, mostly it's water weight. So today I was 264 (yesterday was 263.6). Tried cooked cherries in liquid today...mashed them with the fork...went down fine. I'm actually surprised I haven't thrown up anything but I am trying to be very consistent with the diet plan my doctor/nutritionist provided. Worked out this morning before work, 30min on treadmill and some weight lifting. Went fine, probably could have gone longer if not for time constraints. My major concern is that I was at one point 344 lbs. if I get to my goal weight of 145, I will mostly likely need major plastic surgery especially since the majority of my weight is carried in my stomach/abdominal area. My arms...bat wings... already have some loose skin and are sagging so that is a concern as well, I am doing arm bands to help that area. My doctor said that since I'm young and very active, loose skin should not be a problem, very minimal if at all. I can't help but feel like loose-excess skin is a definite issue. I am 99.99% certain I will have major excess skin. I can't afford plastic surgery and I'm afraid I'll look worse "skinny" than fat. My main motivation is my health but I'm worried of becoming depressed or obsessed with the way my body looks especially taking excess skin into consideration. I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens. I'll just do everything "they" say to do to prevent it and hope for the best! It's discouraging to get so far as to loose 100's of lbs and feel like only half your journey is conquered.

Well I have 5 weeks from today until my surgery on Aug 9th. Can't hardly wait!! Right now I'm focusing on exercise. I have an RN case manager and she said to increase physical activity to be as strong as possible for surgery. I'm doing alot of walking and went hiking the past two nights. It's interesting that I can do more now than 5 years ago and 100 pounds lighter. 5 years ago when I couldn't walk that far on the local walking trail or hiking made me feel like I was going to die I just blamed it on being fat. Maybe I was in denial of how bad my smoking was affecting my health. Now I weigh 100 pounds more and I'm am able to do so much more than I thought possible since quitting smoking over 3 months ago. Of course the bigger you are the more calories you burn and I'm a pretty big girl so I do find myself hungry and stomach growling not long after exercise. I'm worried that during my pre-op diet when I will only be getting 800-900 calories a day that it is going to be very difficult to exercise and that I just won't have the energy. I guess I will do as much as possible now in case this does become a problem. But what about after the surgery? I'll be consuming less calories than that and I'll need to find the energy to exercise. This is something I've been worried about. I will probably just have to suck it up and do it no matter how I feel!! Believe

I vividly remember trying to find something patriotic to wear last 4th and being so frustrated that everything was too tight and looked awful. This year I'm wearing a cute red top and black short shorts and feeling good. Next year I hope to be wearing a nice sundress unselfconsciously. We took a one month progress photo yesterday and compared it to one we took last Feb. when I was at my heaviest. I am awed by the difference. I think it hit me yesterday that this weight loss that I've been obsessing over for YEARS is finally happening. I saw a friend at the parade who hadn't seen me since a week before the surgery and she was surprised at my loss. Wondering what it will be like going back to school in Aug., 6 weeks from now. Hoping I'll be down another 15 lbs. by then. Still haven't figured out what to tell the students. Losing 40 lbs in 10 weeks isn't exactly 'normal.' I've developed an odd side effect - seriously dry, itchy skin. No matter how much or what kind of lotion I put on my face, I was awake half the night itching. I'm also concerned that as the fat exits my face, more wrinkles are showing up and making me look OLD! UGH! Well, dear husband doesn't seem to notice or hasn't said anything if he has. Love that man! Well one month ago today I was being taking from post-op to my room and hating life, wanting to turn back time and change my decision. Today I'm well beyond that point and very happy with my choice to change my body in order to change my life.