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SN..............Starting Wt........Current.......Goal.......Lbs to Goal Cludgie .......235....................186.............174........... 12

Coops - I am TOTALLY with you on the clothing!! I just went for my first ever shopping spree in bench this week, and got into a L top (absolutely refusing to buy the slightly less clingy xl one from pure principal!), and hillariously a SMALL t-shirt, which is a loose bat wing type things so supposed to be massive on a tiny person (thus I can fit into it!) I've not been brave enough to try their jeans on yet because I'm blessed with "child bearing" hips, and the higher end of fashion doesn't seem to want to accommodate them! My makeover goals are largely clothing based too, as I replace my bigger stuff I am buying fewer items, but better quality than I have previously, and I'm lapping up the brands which only do up to a 14/16, so my wardrobe is slowly starting to include things like Gio-Goi, and Bench (almost bought a DKNY jacket today but managed to resist that temptation!!). I've also invested in some very good quality "firming" underwear so despite the natural sagginess I can wear fitted stuff which I'd never dream of before! I've had a c-section so figure a tummy tuck at some point wouldn't be too dissimilar, and would result in about the same scarring, but I have to spend another 3 years paying back my sleeve before I can even think of taking anything else out on finance, and who knows maybe I'll have learned to live with my wobbly bits by then!

Awesome!! Well done.

Randomly for me it was the other way around! My period was due the day of my surgery (thankfully it didn't arrive whilst I was in hospital), and my body decided to skip one completely the first month post op - which NEVER happens to me. Kind of settled down into a pattern month 2 and beyond thankfully.

Glad you turned your crappy day around so effectively. I am totally lost style wise, I'm 31, and have missed out on my teens and twenties due to my weight, so I'm not buying many replacement clothes until I get to goal, BUT the few bits I am buying I now spend a little bit more on, and buy from the shops that don't do bigger sizes just because I couldn't before, and that is naturally leading to a certain style change automatically! I am also buying the smallest size I can get away with (teamed with good underwear), A: Because it feels better, and B: Because I'm hoping to get the most ware out of things that way! Enjoy that inch loss, your self image will catch up soon, and there will be no stopping that new sexy 35 year old you!

ARGH!!!!! WTF??? OK So I get to my 2nd mini goal expecting to weigh less than my husband who weighed in at 188lb last week, I gleefully weigh in at 187, and think that finally, after 12 years I'm the thinner one - WRONG!!! I make my husband weigh in, and he's dropped to 185lb (without trying!!!!!), so he's gone and moved the goal posts grrrrrr! :argue: (bless him, in all honsety he doesn't even know what he has done!!!)

Sloooooow progress this month, but hey it is progress! SN..............Starting Wt........Current.......Goal.......Lbs to Goal Cludgie .......235....................187.............174........... 13

You have done brilliantly, and look amazing!!! You make me wish I'd kept some old clothes, but every time I get a little room for manoeuvre I have a massive wardrobe purge (still can't really admit to myself how much I needed this surgery I guess). Hope you are feeling brighter soon, and keep up the inspiring posts!!

Ok, so I know I'm here having another yay me moment, and as its the 3rd this week I apologise if its getting boring. I just wondered if anyone else found that you suddenly hit a point where everyone around you suddenly realised your weightloss and starts commenting? I felt better and kind of hoped for the odd complement every pound I lost over the first stone, nothing was said, and I just gave up on the observation skills of others. This week, and 48lb down the penny dropped, and TWELVE of my friends have noticed and commented, including one person telling me not t lose much more (the same person begged me to lose weight when I got married at just 2lb heavier than I am now!!!), and a friend not recognising me at all from behind!! I'm delighted, but it fascinates me that there seems to be this optimum point of change in people's collective conscious!!

Isnt that just the best feeling ever? Well done!

Yay!! I hit my 1st mini goal, and am almost at my second on (now weigh 1lb less than on my wedding day, and the same as my husband, one more little lb, and I'll be less than him for the 1st time ever!!!

wow you look amazing - well done!!!

SN..............Starting Wt........Current.......Goal.......Lbs to Goal Cludgie.......235................188..........175...........13 Yay! finally 1st loss since easter - 5lb this week woop! (lots of happy dancing):cheer2:

Its funny I just e-mailed my surgeon monday for some advice because I just can't get my judgement of portions right, and so I asked how big he'd made my new stomach, so I could measure my portions in grams,ml etc. I got the WORST imaginable reply "Your stomach is the size of a banana, so only eat 3 small meals a day". A banana? A big banana, a small banana, a peeled banana - WTF how do I quantify that??? I do find that it really varies for me, for instance; I am full on a single cooked small/medium chicken breast, or if i am having something like sliced ham I can eat about 75g, wheras with something like bacon which i find harder to digest I can only manage 1-1 1/2 rashers, I also mix my Protein shakes with 175ml of milk instead of the 300ml they suggest because I just can't accommodate more than that!

OK, so I am having a stall again, the scale has not moved since before easter, BUT the last 3 days have been amazing for NSVs, so I'll bask in those a little instead! Monday - (sorry this is reapeated form another thread) - I put on my work trousers only to find they don't touch ANYWHERE, not the waist, not the bum, not the thighs, I let go and they hit the floor, and they are not old trousers. My 7 year old thinks this is hillarious, so much so that she tells everyone who will listen about it (I'm flattered, but gosh i hope she doesn't tell people every time I try something on and its too small!!) Then I go to do the pick up from the childminders, and she greets me with "hello skinny" Tuesday - I see my mum for the first time in 2 weeks, and she says "Claire you look amazing, you look really well, and you are getting so skinny!" (that strange word again!) I then go to work, and am also told by my boss that I'm getting "Skinny" (thats 3 times in 2 days!) Today - I try on old trousers that were painfully small a couple of weeks ago - hey presto perfect fit, I team them with a top which I normally only wear with tummy control underwear, and the top just kind of floats around me without the use of any hidden support! I get to work and a colleague stops me in the corridoor and just starts pointing at me (I thought she was having some sort of breakdown), I asked what was wrong and she says "My god Claire, where has your stomach gone??? Its dissappeared!" I did resist the temptation to say it was in my surgeone's rubbish bin. Finally I get home and change into my pyjamas, and realise that the only way they are staying up is with a belt - so here I sit in my comfy pj's and a fetching flourescent belt!!! So with another 37lb to goal and a long long way from what I consider to be a normal weight, things are still pretty damn good!

Wow you are all doing so well! Keep working those sleeves!

Aww bless you - try your nearest asda, its with the health supplements, and its about £5 a jar, but last week it was on offer and I got 3 jars (easily 3 months supply) for £10 - Bargain! I also find that coffee can help (even the ones without benefibre in), but I have no idea why! Good luck!

Thanks all, I am a big fan of charity shops, and seriously need to make time for that low cost shopping spree eek!

I'm convinced that if what goes in does not come out it must affect your weight. I'm prone to constipation too but don't like laxatives, so i have benefibre which is a tasteless odourless fibre supplement which you can add to literally any drink (I have a couple of spoonfulls in my coffee 2-3 times a day) and its just enough to keep the wheels in motion so to speak. Good luck!

I have two very mini goals, but I gained 2lb last week (I was on holiday), so I've only just re-lost that 2lb and am back to square one. I'm 191lb again now. 1st mini goal = 189lb which is my pre-baby (she is 7 now), and wedding day weight. I wanted this for easter and missed, but REALLY want it for our friend's wedding this coming saturday. 2nd mini goal = 187lb which puts me at 1lb below my husband's weight for the first time ever (woooo), and I just want to get to that as soon as I can. Although in his defense he is 6ft4, and I'm only 5ft8!! 3rd mini goal = 181lb which takes me to the weight i was the day my husband and I moved in together 11 years ago, ah to be 20 again!

Amazing, well done!

Thanks Lara, I LOVE cheese, but I read somewhere that the carb levels in cheese can be deceptive, and so that and the fat content put me off a bit, although if people find they can eat cheese and still lose I'm adding that back immediately! I'm also going to explore the yoghurt thing more too. Thanks!

Thanks Griselda, pre surgery I largely ate a lot of rubbish, lots of Pasta (macaroni cheese, or carbonara, or chow mein noodles), lots of cous cous, easy foods, so potato and breaded chicken, or sausages and mash. I'd also have pudding most evenings, which is my idea of hell now (yay for the sleeve!!)

Thanks kids, I've looked through some, and she certainly seems to cook up a storm - I need to try and find some of the products she uses here in the uk too, especially to make those dreaded shakes more palatable.

Oh wow, thats really interesting, there are certainly things I just cannot cope with, for instance the sound of shoelaces (I know how totally crazy that sounds, but if my shoes have laces they have to be tucked in or the sound they make tapping on the shoe every time I move my foot drives me nuts!!). I'm really going to look into that, thank you so much - I would love not to have so many quirks!