DIAMOND45

Greetings with love, my Sleeve family, Are we ready for our Spiritual Vitamins? Today's Vitamins are T & H: TRUE HAPPINESS Ecclesiastes 3: 12 "I know that there is nothing better for people, than to be happy and go good while they live." Happiness is a wonderful feeling! When we are happy, we just want to share it with everyone. Many of us are experiencing alot of this while we are losing the weight. Some are feeling happy as we get our letters approving surgery. We are getting happiness from our little non sleeve victories. As we are enjoying these accomplishments, let us not confuse them with "true happiness." True happiness is not shallow or external. It should never be based on how we look, our material possessions, our financial status, or how many people like us. This kind of true happiness, if we believe, should be solely based on our "internal spiritual" relationship with God. When we have a deep, personal bond with the Lord, we are so blessed with a "sense of happiness" that no other part of our lives can give us. We should never forget, that our transformations are blessings, courteousy of our Father and we should show all who are watching us change, how grateful we are by first, taking care of ourselves spiritually, and then physically. God is moving in our lives, we need to move with him! So, my fellow sleevers, as we "lose" these pounds and start to see all the changes in our faces and bodies, let us "gain" a better personal relationship with God so He can help us not to be "full of ourselves", now that there will be "less of us!" Godspeed on your journey.

That is fantastic news. We all share in your joy!!!!!

You will definitely be in my prayers and bless your family for giving you the strength to push ahead. Can someone blog us to let us know that all is well with you?

Started liquids today. I'm using a product called Bariessential that I purchased at my docs office. The flavors are chocolate and vanilla. I had both today and they are really good. I mix them with Smart Balance fat free milk (which truly taste like 2% milk) and some ice chips from Sonic restaurant and blends it all together to make shakes. The chocolate is my favorite, it taste pretty close to a frosty from Wendy's. I put some instant coffee grounds in my vanilla shake with some hazelnut extract, and had myself a "Vanilla Nut Latte", delicious. I am going to be over here in my "Crazy Kitchen Laboratory" making some yummy drinks, mixing all kind of "extracts", milks (soy and fat free) and spices to get the most enjoyment out of this experience as possible. ON YOUR MARK, GET SET, GO!!!!!! "WHEN LIFE HANDS YOU LIQUIDS, MAKE A DELICIOUS MESS!"

I purchased my entire Protein liquid diet from my Bariactric doctors office. When we had our information seminar class, we were given taste samples of the different types of drinks that we could buy to see which brand and flavor we liked and could drink for the pre-op diet. I chose Bariessentials ( chocolate & Vanilla ). We were also given a list of different recipes we could try, to mix it up so we don't get tired of the same flavors and also a list of other things we could have as well ( Jello, broth popsicles, ect.. ) to change the diet up a little. Check with your doctors office to see if they have a specific pre-op diet they recommend. It's easier and it takes all the guess work out of what to drink, how much and when. Hope this helps.

This is fantastic news! You deserve to cry, jump, shout or whatever you need to do. We really should celebrate our small victories, because they are so important to us reaching our big victory. I am celebrating with you, "You Breathe Girl!"

Don't be afraid, God will watch over you and your doctors and you will come through this like a champion. I am scheduled for surgery on March 15, and I don't allow myself time to be fearful, because I lean on my Faith, and I understand whom it is that I belong to. I really believe this, " If God brings you to it, He will see you through it!" I to have a silly thing I am looking forward too, and that is to wear a belt with a cute blouse and really have a waist without wearing a waist reducting garment or spannx under it for shape, because I'm sooooooo tired of the "Girdle Garments!" P.S. I will put you in my prayers

Hugs and Kisses, Sleeve Family, Spiritual Vitamins are good for what ever is ailing your soul! Today is vitamin F: FAITH Hebrews 11:1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. When we first decided that this procedure would be the one to help us finally win our battle with obesity, we really had no idea how our lives were going to change forever. I'm sure if you are like me, you probably googled, researched, read, and watch every resource of information you could get a hold of, to try and get a more better understanding of what was going to happen and what the outcome would be. We also researched physicians that specialized in this procedure. Now, after all our careful research, some of us got nervous, "cold feet" and started thinking if we were making the right choice. But, our desire to be healthier (skinnier, LOL) made us push forward. We finally selected the physician we thought would be the best for our individual needs and we put our "Faith" in him/her that they would be successful in performing the surgery and help us get on our way with this journey. We did not have the slightest idea at all, how any of our procedures were going to turn out, but we "Hoped" they were very skillful and that all would go well. Now: Think about this, we put so much (our lives) faith and hope in physicians who are men and women just like us. But in actuality, they are just the "avenues" that our Father in heaven "utilized" to get us to this point! As children of God, we should never put more faith or hope in any man/women or even ourselves than we put in our Father. This is why, we should talk with Him through prayer everyday and through our "faith" and "hope" in Him alone, shall we wait to receive our increases in life!. God utilizes whatever He needs, to take care of those He loves and those who love Him! "Faith and Hope in the Lord, are our avenues to having a blessed, and successful life!" Feeling strong in the Lord, Diamond45 (a.k.a. Blessed)

Good Afternoon Family, What A Glorious Day! It's time to take our Spiritual Vitamin, today is: Vitamin D: Delight Psalms 37:4 says that we are to, "Delight ourselves in the Lord, and He will give us the desires of our heart." These are very uplifting words for us as we go on our weightloss journey. But we, first need understand that it didn't say He would give us "all" the desires that we ask for. There's also a "condition" that we must fulfill before we can start to receive any of these blessings. We must "delight" ourselves in His love, His mercy, His grace and His Word on a daily basis to show our Father in heaven, we love Him and that He is the head of our lives. God wants us to be happy, joyful, and successful in all that we do. But first, He wants us to acknowledge that all we are, all we have, and all we hope to achieve, we owe to Him and without Him, we are nothing! There is not one thing we can accomplish that is "good for us" without Him! "Every good and perfect gift, comes from our Heavenly Father." James 1:17 (including healthy weightloss) Let us be concerned more about our "inward spiritual appearance" and in doing this, our "outward appearance" will happen as a result!

I am going this morning for my pre-surgery appointment at 7am. This is really happening for me, and I'm excited! Thursday starts my 2 week dance with the "Liquid Diet"! Bring it on, who needs steak and potatoes anyway!! LOL Please pray for me family and I will continue to keep you all in my prayers. Godspeed

Celebrate your NSVI I am celebrating with you and God is watching over you. Now, take some time out from somewhere, and go have some fun and get some jeans that fit! LOL

Happy Lord's Day Family, Life Is Good! "Spiritual Vitamin" for today is C: CONTENTMENT Phillipians 4:11--- The apostle Paul states, "Not that I speak concerning my want, for I have learned, in whatever situation I am in, there will I be content!" Contentment means: to be satified, to be enough, to be at peace, to be full! How are we doing with our contentment as we go on this journey Family? Is God's grace sufficient enough? For us to be in full contentment, we must believe God will meet our needs, and that He will work out "all our circumstances" for His good and not our own! Remember, He knows how we have struggled with this weight and He has opened up an avenue (The Sleeve) for our battles to end. But, we must let Him lead us and be "content" with whatever big, small or no progress made, that we find ourselves facing each day. So let us take this Lord's day, to truly examine ourselves and when we are finished, Pray to our wonderful Father, and ask that He may search our hearts (mind), and take out those things which are preventing "our spirits from being content!" AMEN AMEN Much Love To You, Diamond :rolleyes:

Good morning my beautiful family , I hope you all have a relaxing, spirit filled day. Take some time to talk with the Lord, he's listening! Spiritual Vitamins: Proverbs 16:9 "In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps!" Vitamin S: Surrender When we first begin our journey we're excited! We decide the amount of weight we will lose, how long we think it shoulde take us to reach our goals by day, week, and month. We lose wonderfully at first, (hooray) and then we stall. OMG!!! Now what do we do? Do we panic? Stress out? Are we failures? No, we are human!! What we must realize is that we belong to God and he, in his infinite wisdom, will help us get to our goals if we would "surrender" our plans to him. " God intervenes without controlling, and cares without hurting." Be still in your spirit, do not be anxious for anything and watch God move!

Hip Hip Hooray!!! :D That's your motivation to kep going.

Top of the morning family :D Today is a great day to fill yourself with some spiritual vitamins, your body will thank you!! Vitamin T: TRUST Proverbs 3: 5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct your path! We must understand that God has all power, and that it is he who sustains our life. He has allowed all of us to be on this journeys path, so we must "Trust" that if "He brought us to it, he will see us through it!"

Good Morning Family, I hope your "yesterday" was good, so that your "today" can be even better! Spiritaul Food: Psalms 118:24 "This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!" As we begin another day on our journey to our healthier selves, remember that God knows each and everyone of us by name and knows what we struggle with daily. And with this, you can go through your day knowing that it was "designed" especially for you by our Creator and what ever comes with your day has purpose, so be appreciative for the ups and downs, embrace them and "be glad that God cares for you!" :)

Food for thought for those who are struggling today with any phase of this journey: Ecclesiastes 7:14 says. "The end of a matter is better than its beginning and patience is better than pride!" So wherever you may be in your journey today be patience and just remember if you keep working hard and doing what your doctor said, then each time to you move to a new phase and get closer to your goal, you will see that God's word will not come back void and "your end will definitely be better than your beginning!" Much Spiritual Love

Look at it this way, you can never have a bad hair day with a "Diva Wig" on standby!

I was freaking out about this hair thing because I have been reading all these comments about handfuls of hair falling out starting around 3-4 months post-op and I am a person of color and I do have a head full of thick shoulder length hair. After reading all the blogs on the internet about this topic, I was really considering cancelling my surgery (March 15, 2012) because I take pride in taking excellent care of my hair which we all know is an extention of who we are. But then I started thinking, "hey it's only hair, do what you can to minimze the hair loss, it will grow back, or just cut it short now, and by some Diva wigs and by the time it grows back, you will be a healtier, slimmer you"! So I am going on full steam ahead! Just think about it, we've had this struggle with our weight for so long and now with this tool and and our own efforts, we now have a chance to be FREE of this obesity monster, so if it means we lose some hair on our heads to gain a healthier body for life, then I say it's worth it! So I'm going to continue to trust in the Lord with all my heart, take great care of my hair, take my vitamins, biotin ect. and if the hair falls out, I'm getting me a fabulous Diva Wig Collection to have on standby and if I will "Rock The Wig!" :D :D

I'm excited about this! It makes keeping in touch with my neww family alot easier if I am out and just need to share or get info.

That is so adorable. Keep that sense of humor and positive thinking

Glad to here that your trust is in the Lord, continue to hold on to your faith and you will heal and be on your way to a healthier, better you!

Glad to here that your trust is in the Lord, continue to hold on to your faith and you will heal and be on your way to a healthier, better you!

I am also going in for my surgery on March 15 and I would love to have a pre-op buddy to correspond with through this journey. I live in Texas. There is always "great strength" in numbers !

Appreciate you all for the advice. I to have a high tolerance for pain, just a little nervous about the procedure, but I so need help with this struggle. I can use all the words of encouragement that my new VSG family can throw at me to keep me pumped for my day :D .