Lanette

Kept mine.... No issues. Can't imagine why they would think it needs to come out.

My doc calculated my goal by finding my "healthy" weight based onBMI chart,which is 155 for my height, then calculating what my "excess weight" was. His goal was for me was to lose 80% of that excess weight, which would put me at 177lb. I have exceeded that in less than 6 months and only have 17 lb to go until I reach the 100% of excess weight lost. My goal was to be in the "healthy" range with a 5lb cushion. But my other goal was to be in size 8 jeans andi did that this week.

I started out with my surgeon at 268 but I am 5'6" so quite a bit shorter than you. My doc calculated my goal by finding my "healthy" weight based onBMI chart,which is 155 for my height, then calculating what my "excess weight" was. His goal was for me was to lose 80% of that excess weight, which would put me at 177lb. I have exceeded that in less than 6 months and only have 17 lb to go until I reach the 100% of excess weight lost. I think as others have said, if you take full advantage of the first 6 months to a year, you should definitely be able to reach your goal.

Thanks to ALL of you for your sweet comments. It really does mean so much! For those of you that commented on the shirt.....GO CARDS!! I may live in AR, but I love the Cardinals. I took my soon to his first game at the beginning of the summer....some of the sweetest memories ever.

I am a firm believer in visualizing what you want that goal to be.....I say go get you some 8's girl! I found these at a garage sale and held on to them. I know that for me, a 12-14 felt SWEET after having been in a 24 for so long, so I bet you are looking GREAT!

First of all....I LOVE your screen name. My little girl's name is Emma. Now, to answer the questions you posted below. I was honestly not very strict. I tried it for a few weeks, but realized that I was still losing whether I did the low carb thing or not. Now, I will say that I normally try to eat my Protein first before I eat many carbs and I generally don't have a ton of room for carbs. I eat a lot of pepperoni stix and cheese sticks, eggs, etc. I also just cook fairly normal foods for my family and then just eat a lot less of it and try to mainly eat the meats. I haven't found one thing that my sleeve just isn't able to tolerate. I haven't thrown up at all (due to the sleeve). I do work out, but I really didn't that much during the early months. I walked "some" but not a lot. Now that I am getting smaller, I am actually CRAVING (for lack of a better word) my workouts. I find myself getting up and ready so that the second my husband takes the kids to school, I can hit the running/bike trail. I haven't seen a huge slow down yet in the weight loss and I am guessing that it is b/c I have stepped up the workouts just about the time my loss is probably going to slow down. I will say that I have tried to not sweat the stalls and occasional 1-2 lb gain. I have discovered that through tracking my weight daily, I know that when that stall breaks, I am going to lose those 1-2 lb and probably 3-4 more. Thanks for the sweet comments. Just follow through w/ your Water, protein and exercise and you'll do great!!

Screen Name........starting weight..........current weight..........goal........lb to goal Lanette...............177.8.......................173.2..........................165............8.2 Slowly but surely......

My morning coffee. I stopped for a while, but my doc let me add it back in. Probably TMI, but I have never in my life had constipation issues and I did after surgery. My morning coffee is the cure for that if you get my drift. Sorry for the TMI, but I doubt I'm the only one.

Screen Name........starting weight..........current weight..........goal........lb to goal Lanette...............177.8.......................175............................165.............10 Love those nice round numbers. huge NSV for me last night.....I fit into the "goal jeans" I bought more than a year ago! Size 8's!! Now I know all about vanity sizing and yes, I know it probably isn't an 8 from years ago.....but I can now fit into 3 things with an 8 on the tag so I'm counting it! Lol! Either way, these jeans always looked SO tiny to me and they fit my sister who has always been "tiny" to me. So vanity sizing or not, they are exactly where I have always wanted to be. :)

Thanks guys!!! I am still exactly 20lb from my scale goal (hit docs, but mine was lower) but my size goal were these jeans. My 6 month surgiversary is tomorrow so I think this was a darn good way to Celebrate it!!

Well, it has been a bit of a slow start for me on this one. I stalled out at 177 and then went up and down between there and 179 since posting this. Today I am at 176.2 so I'm hoping the scales are finally moving again. as of right now, 11.2 to go before Halloween.

Had my 6 month check up today. My 6 month surgiversary is actually still 8 days away though. So here are some stats for the first 6 months. At surgery consult, Doc set my goal at 80% of total excess weight (total =113, 80% =90). Hit the 80% mark but my personal goal is 100% of my excess weight to get to my healthy BMI. I am really hoping to hit the personal goal by Christmas or 9 months. For those of you that have hit these marks, how hard was it to get those final 20 lb off? Did you have to work harder? So far, mine has all still "fallen" off without me having to really work at it. I'm going to try to post some pics to this thread in a few days.

Honestly, this made me cry. Part of the reason I wanted to have the sleeve is to be more active with my kids. My son's school has a 5k every year and last year he asked if I would run it with him in 2012 (April). I couldn't have even walked it before, much less ran it! I am doing c25k now and loving it. My sweetest NSV of all time is going to be crossing that finish line with my little man. So glad you got to experience that with your son and thankful that you shared it with us.

Girl! You are smokin'!! I love the outfit and need to take some fashion tips from you. I have never felt that trendy and realized today at the mall that I seriously need to branch out. You look amazing and have so much to be proud of!

At 7 weeks out, my dietary restrictions were gone so it was "whatever you can tolerate". That said, I am the WORST about remembering ANYTHING, but I will list a few of my fav's below. I will say that I was still really sticking to Protein at this point. String cheese sticks, pepperoni stix, salmon, shrimp, lunch meat/cheese roll ups, Fage greek yogurt (w/ fruit mixed in....couldn't stand the plain any way I tried it), chicken salad, tuna salad, eggs, eggs, eggs! I ate boiled eggs, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, deviled eggs....(picture Forest Gump talking about shrimp...tee hee). Eggs were my friend during this stage and thankfully they agreed with me b/c I loved them. Now that said, I did eat anything else I wanted in moderation and just tried little bits and pieces of what hubby and kids had (after I had eaten my protein) mainly to see what I could tolerate. Slowly came to realize that there wasn't a lot that I couldn't have. Just came down to getting in protein and Water and then making sure I was stopping when satisfied and not getting stuffed.

What a GREAT post. I'm going to reply, but just had to say you rock for taking the time to post such a thorough list!! It's posts like this that just make me realize what a great resource this community is for all of us.

This is a pic of my lap on the airplane last week. No more extentions for me. This is a pic of me in my "new" jeans (bought 6 months ago and never really thought I would be in them. I have NEVER had a "gap" before and about cried when I could see daylight. May be TMI, but had to share w/ people that can appreciate this type of NSV.

Screen Name........starting weight..........current weight..........goal........lb to goal Lanette...............177.8.......................177.8................165.....................12.8 This will take me to within 10lb of my final goal. It's a little slower going these days so I'm hoping I can hit this!

I started adding mine back in at about a month out. I was having some constipation issues and had never had that issue previously. Like a previous poster said.....it is a diuretic and it works like a charm or me. I have not had any issues at all as far as Acid Reflux and I'm not even on a PPI. I will say though that I am very careful about getting my water in AND I'm only having about 4-6 oz of coffee daily. I used to use a big mug or get a "venti" where now I'm using my fancy "cup and saucer" cups from my china set since their smaller. I do add flavored liquid creamer and that is my one big vice that I haven't given up.

I am under a different BCBS, but just letting you know that I never did receive my coverage info in writing. I asked multiple times for a written policy but they would only tell me the Bariatric coverage on the phone. I did get a letter stating that I was pre approved after surgeon submitted codes, etc. However it never listed amounts covered, etc. Very frustrating. Our company policy books only say that it is covered but doesn't go into any details so you have to call to find out. I'm a black and white kind of girl though and like to see it in writing, so that was a tough one for me.

one word.....CLOTHES! Shopping is WAY more fun these days.

The first few months, I described the full feeling as "needing to loosen my bra"! I kept saying that everyone else might need to loosen their belt but I was the odd ball that felt like my bra was tight. Now (5 months out) it's more of a traditional full feeling. I try to stop at "content" and not get to "stuffed". However that "stuffed" feeling feels like I am full up to my throat. Not a pleasant feeling and I try to avoid it.