hadouni

scale finally budged again and things must be really shifting because I'm officially down into 18s & 1X tops. I don't like tight pants and my mom always jokes that I wear everything at least a size too big. I've put all my size 20 pants into the donation pile because they are starting to look silly on me. I do need to work this a little harder. I'm not exercising like I know I should - sort of hit and miss with it. I need a little jump start with my meal planning!

What an amazing transformation. Unrecognizable as the same person. Congratulations!

What a fantastic accomplishment! you look wonderful!

Watermelon is on my surgeon's list of foods to avoid I think because there isn't much nutritional value in the amount we can eat and it takes up the space of protein they want patients to consume. I don't care. I love it and when the season comes around here I'll dig in! It's mostly water- that's got to count for fluids right!! =)

benefiber has been helpful to me. I try to take one a day.

I've always been regular and still am. 26-30 day cycles but most are 28-29. Three months post op still the same. I do notice that I stall coming up to my period then drop 3-4 lbs in the days after.

I wasn't doing any solids so soon but Writergirl's experience is similar to mine- liquids have always gone down easily, I was told 1/3 cup at a time and that goes down easily as long as I chew well if it's solid and I can eat more than that of things like yogurt or pureed soups. Early on I did chicken salad rather than straight chicken to give it a little extra moisture to help it go down. My thought is if you aren't feeling discomfort, you aren't over-eating your sleeve. For me it always boils down to one bite- the bite that pushes me over into discomfort if I take it. Funny how one mouthful is the difference between good and not good post-sleeve. Sounds like you're doing great! Congrats.

I haven't tried sugar free chocolate post-sleeve but I have had a little regular chocolate here and there. 2 or 3 Hershey kisses at a time work. I can't do more than that because it'll make me nauseous. I do find sugary things leave me with a bad after taste in my mouth and it helps keep me away from sweets. On a side note, I just had a strawberry slime up on me- go figure!

Thanks ladies! I've also realized I've lost more weight than my son weighs and I CAN BARELY LIFT HIM!!! My son weighs 42 lbs and I've lost 44!

Do you mean on a treadmill? My treadmill has some weight loss programs that I've not really used and I didn't even put the arm pole things on the treadmill... maybe I should try it!

Oh I love shish taouk! 1.5 pieces sounds about right to me too. I'm 10 weeks out and I could probably eat two, but I have to eat really slow with denser meat-based proteins. Good choice though - yum!!

I thought of something... pretty panties and bras!

I had a haital hernia repaired with my sleeve and I wouldn't have known if he hadn't told me. My recovery was great. I slept in a recliner chair the first two nights home because it was most comfortable. I had surgery Monday morning, home Tuesday afternoon and I think my last pain pill was on Thursday. I didn't need to use many of them so I consider myself really lucky. I think the hernia repair is just a couple stitches, not a big deal compared to what they'll do to your stomach!

Congratulations! What a great accomplishment!

I've been keeping (more off than on lately) a journal for my son since I was trying to get pregnant with him back in 2007. The night before surgery I wrote to him telling him that I was doing this for us both because I love him so much and I want to be active with him and live longer with him. I also went and updated my will and living trust. All these actions were because I was afraid I'd be the 0.01% who don't make it out! It's scary going under the knife. No matter how "safe" it is, we're human and it's a very real human response to be afraid and to avoid if at all possible. This is an incredibly personal choice and each of us is the only person who can make the choice for ourselves. For me it was absolutely, without a doubt the right choice. I've been lucky to have had a very good experience, great sugeon and I'm loosing weight in a way that I could have never accomplished on my own. Would I do it again - yes. Do I wish I'd been abe to do it 10 years ago when I first started really gaining weight - yes!

interesting... I haven't wanted any particular thing. I'm just looking forward to my size 14s again! It'll be nice not to be embarrassed to wear a swimsuit too.

Getting all the pills in is a challenge for me. I take my thyroid pill when I get up. Actigall after breakfast, flinstone chewable and B12 at lunch, oh and two calcium chews if I remember. If I was really good, I got a couple calcium chews mid-morning too. After dinner is Actigall again and more calcium. Omperizole before bed. I'm trying to wean off the PPI. I joked with the nurse that they should hand out an "every 15 minute do this..." schedule and she said if people would follow it, they would!

Ok, so leave it to me to get excited about a bra but I pulled out my old bra this morning to see if it'd go around me and it fits! I haven't had a real bra on in ages and these are my favorite Wacol bras. Such a great feeling. One strange thing is how different my body is. I was about 250 when I got pregnant with my son. I'm inching toward 220 and am much thicker in the waist than I was at 220 before- at least how I remember it! Thank you sleeve!

Wow! incredible transformation.

I started out my pregnancy back in 2007 at about 250lbs and was 268 right before surgery. I have a flabby pouch on my stomach that is shrinking but not as fast as I'd like. I'm also 40 so who knows if it'll ever be gone of if I'll have to resort to plastics to get rid of it. Hopefully insurance will pay when the time comes!

I'm just over two months out and I average 600-800 a day and try to hit at least 150 calories burned on the treadmill 4-5 days per week (I'm trying to step up the exercise...). I get into trouble if I get into the cheez-its (which I did today!). If you're making even reasonably healthy food choices it's really hard to take in more than 200 calories at a time - at least it is for me. So far today I've had two cups of decaf with milk, a cheese stick and probably 200 calories worth of cheez-its. I'm working on a 20 oz zero calorie drink after which I'll have a little of my mom's spagetti sauce for lunch. Who knows what for dinner - maybe a greek yogurt and a few bites of veggies? I don't get hungry like I used to except for two days per month before my period when I could eat all day long. Head hunger is a hard animal to turn off. Also, sweets don't taste as good as they used to - they leave a bitter aftertaste that lingers long after the pleasure of the sweet food. The beauty of this for me is volume- I just can't eat much of whatever I eat and if I do eat too much it comes back up or makes me feel horrible. Sometimes I miss being able to check out of reality with a big plate of food but that generally passes quickly and I do miss being able to drink with my meals. That's tough for me because I love to drink lots of iced tea with my meals...

Woah! That's amazing! I didn't take measurements and now I wish I had! Congrats to you! Well done!!

You look fantastic! All your hard work has paid off big time! If you are comfortable where you are and life is good- that's why you went through all this! Enjoy!! Dare I say screw the scale?

Awesome! What a fantastic gift from your sleeve!

You look fantastic! Congratulations!