COnative

NOW THAT IS MOTIVATING!!!! You look amazing! I definitely know that feeling of looking in the mirror and being shocked. Cool eh? Thanks for posting your success it keeps the rest of us motivated! CONGRATS!

You are doing great! Patience and perserverence are the two words I think of most often with this weight loss journey. My 1st 2 - 3 weeks I weighed every day because it was so exciting to the pounds drop, but I soon went down to twice a week and now I am once a week. You might try to not focus on the scale so much, the weight is going to come off..
Good Luck!

LOL yes, on youtube I carefully searched for vsg ANIMATION

lmao

Mine is that I will put the weight back on. After yo-yoing all my life you never feel like it will end. Thank god for therapy.

Mine is that I will put the weight back on. After yo-yoing all my life you never feel like it will end. Thank god for therapy.

Mine is that I will put the weight back on. After yo-yoing all my life you never feel like it will end. Thank god for therapy.

No, I think you hit it on the head. I am uncomfortable with attention unless I solicit it. I think that is one reason I ate and ate, and ate. To be invisible. Just take it as a compliment and you are doing wonderful in your weight loss. Allow it to be encouraging to lose more! They don't matter anyway! You do!

Ok I may be crazy but I am sooo sick of all the attention I have been getting post op. I am 6 months out right now and down 68lb and I swear everyday at work someone is like omg how much are you down, you look great..... I really appreciate it but am sick of it. I guess I don't feel that great, I'm still 173 and 5'1" so I still look big in my eyes. I have never been comfortable being the center of attention any way so this is making it worse. Like I said I may be nuts but its just really starting to annoy me and unfortunately I work in a huge hospital and everyone knows me there so I get it at least 3 times a day. I guess I just want to be normal and not feel like the freak show weight loss girl. Am I the only one feeling this way??

Well I made the decision to switch to Dr Fernando Garcia. I get the feeling that Dr Almanza is trying to push to many patients through in one day. I called earlier today to find out how many are having surgery the 20th of March. Weight loss agents said that they couldn't tell me but not to worry. I was already a little uneasy so I checked with Dr Fernando Garcia and talked to Alma at Ready for a Change. I was told that Dr Garcia only does 4 a day and the conditions sound better and so does the hotel stay. I have paid my deposit and will still have my surgery on the 20th of March. I feel more comfortable now that I made the change and would love to hear from anyone else who has had any experiences with Dr Garcia.

That is the million dollar question in some ways. I started the process with one doctor (Aceves) and then went to my second choice (Alvarez) to have the surgery. I really just followed my heart BUT with being said, I also met with the doctor a month before surgery just to make sure I still felt good with my decision. And I think it is to your advantage that your wife had a good experience. I actually think that speaks louder than anything else. I wish you the best, the decision is not easy, but soon you will be on your journey post-surgery.

I am scared too. I lucked out, in some ways, - I met my husband when I was really heavy then I got thin and then heavy again. If I met him thin I would have said the same thing- that I was really a fat girl! LOL
I think it will always be on the back of our minds especially for us that have yo-yo'd a lot through life. I am thankful for the surgery and I am soooo happy I can't eat as much as I did. I just try to stay positive and really in-vision my future as thinner. But I can totally relate to The Gamer- when I look in the mirror I'm like, "Who are you?" But yes, I feel I am the same person as I have always been.
Life is such a journey with all its experiences! I love it!

I am scared too. I lucked out, in some ways, - I met my husband when I was really heavy then I got thin and then heavy again. If I met him thin I would have said the same thing- that I was really a fat girl! LOL
I think it will always be on the back of our minds especially for us that have yo-yo'd a lot through life. I am thankful for the surgery and I am soooo happy I can't eat as much as I did. I just try to stay positive and really in-vision my future as thinner. But I can totally relate to The Gamer- when I look in the mirror I'm like, "Who are you?" But yes, I feel I am the same person as I have always been.
Life is such a journey with all its experiences! I love it!

I am scared too. I lucked out, in some ways, - I met my husband when I was really heavy then I got thin and then heavy again. If I met him thin I would have said the same thing- that I was really a fat girl! LOL
I think it will always be on the back of our minds especially for us that have yo-yo'd a lot through life. I am thankful for the surgery and I am soooo happy I can't eat as much as I did. I just try to stay positive and really in-vision my future as thinner. But I can totally relate to The Gamer- when I look in the mirror I'm like, "Who are you?" But yes, I feel I am the same person as I have always been.
Life is such a journey with all its experiences! I love it!

I am, and always will be, a fat person. I've never known anything else. Even if I change physically, I haven't changed mentally. It's how I self identify. I will always have to fight against my body's natural inclination, which is to be overweight. You know, though, it doesn't worry me. I was happy fat. I was okay with myself. Now that I'm losing weight, I'm okay with that too, even if I don't recognize the person in the pictures I take now. She is, in many ways, a stranger to me. I am the same person I've always been, even if my body changes. I think, above all else, what's best for me is to just be okay with whatever happens. If being fat was the worst thing that ever happened in my life, I've had an exceptionally blessed life.

thanks for sharing! My sister was sleeved a year ago and lost around 80 pounds in 12 months. She is 5'8" and started at 255 and looks great at 170.

I am close. I am 5'7 and started out at 220. I am 6 1/2 months out and 55 down. I lost 20 the first month and about 7-10lbs each month thereafter but a month long plateau at month 5. Now at month 6 I started losing again. But I definitely felt like I hit plateaus all the time. I would lose a few pounds in a week then plateau for two weeks then lost again. But the entire time I felt my body changing. I also learned that if I eat 1000 or less calories per day I lose- I eat a measly 200 more calories per day and I plateau. I really hope this helps!!!! Hang in there! It looks like you are doing really good.

I am close. I am 5'7 and started out at 220. I am 6 1/2 months out and 55 down. I lost 20 the first month and about 7-10lbs each month thereafter but a month long plateau at month 5. Now at month 6 I started losing again. But I definitely felt like I hit plateaus all the time. I would lose a few pounds in a week then plateau for two weeks then lost again. But the entire time I felt my body changing. I also learned that if I eat 1000 or less calories per day I lose- I eat a measly 200 more calories per day and I plateau. I really hope this helps!!!! Hang in there! It looks like you are doing really good.

Sounds like we are both dealing with the same kind of issue. I sometimes make choices I wish I hadn't - old habits die hard. One thing I have learned is not to beat yourself up about it though but rather to learn from it and move on. My weight loss is slow and I have just accepted it that way. I am just trying to find peace with "right now", each moment being a new moment to appreciate because right now, I am not what I was a few months ago. There are a ton of ways to kick things up into gear and they work. It seems to me that you pick one thing and try it out. Little steps to form small changes will lead to bigger changes. Try not to overload and take it all on at once. It makes the issue so big and impossible - at least from my point of view anyway. My goal this week is to drink a lot of Water. Until I have that mastered, I am not moving on to my next goal - plan all my meals at least 1 day ahead so I can stick to it. While I know that this is what will help me be much more successful, the Water is more essential for my health. Maybe make a list, prioritize and than implement slowly. You got this. It's a tool and we need to use it to our advantage. Stay in touch!!
Steph

Thank you sooo much for your post! I have been going through a lot of therapy to address emotional eating as well. I recently came across a therapy called EMDR. I have made LEAPS AND BOUNDS with this therapy and it has helped me more than talk therapy- actually there has been no comparison. Talk therapy never helped me in the past and man I sure did a lot of it and spent $$$$!!!!!!! Your post is soooo important to all of us- thank you for sharing and may you grab the bull by its horns again!!!!

Hi :-)
I was at a plateau for a month and then started losing again after I added one more day of workouts and did a dietary change. For one month, and my hubby's doing it with me, we cut out alcohol, caffeine, dairy, gluten, corn and soy. I know, it doesn't sound very fun but I dropped five pounds in a week and have kept it off for the following two weeks. I am hoping it has jump started my losing again. We'll see. Losing weight is still tough! Tougher than I thought it would be with the sleeve. I will lose if I stay under 1000 calories per day but as soon as I am up around 1200 - I either stay the same or gain a little. Oh well. It was still worth it.
I hope you start losing again soon. All the best.

I was told that it should take 20-30 minutes to eat a meal. So practice eating a slower by talking in between bites or put the fork down and wait til you finish chew chew chewing (as kcinpa said) then pick up the fork for the next bite. Good luck with it. I'm still working on slowing down, but after tomorrow I think it's gonna be easier to slow down since there will be physical consequences...lol

Hi everyone! Just thought I would check in. I was sleeved on 1/28/13. I haven't really had any recovery problems to speak of and am just toodling along.
I have been doing more reading than posting lately and am noticing lots of people upset over weight loss stalls. Am I the only person that will weigh myself only once a month? I haven't even gotten on a scale since surgery because I decided I would wait until my first post op appt which is next Tuesday. That will be nearly a month before I weigh in for the first time.
I refuse to be a slave to the scale. I have already been there done that for 20 yrs. I decided as long as I was following my doctors and NUTS orders that it would all work out in time. After my first weigh in next Tuesday I won't weigh myself for another month.
I personally feel like stepping on the scale too much will play with mentally and I don't want to be discouraged. Just thinking my thoughts out loud, but maybe some of you should stay off the scale and give your body a chance to catch up?

I make an easy chili for my family:
1pound ground turkey
1 red bell pepper chopped
1 green bell pepper chopped
1onion chopped
I small can Tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cans black Beans
1 can chicken stock
a handful of chili powder to taste And garlic powder, salt, pepper..or if I'm feeling even more lazy I just use a packet of chili spices and disregard the directions on it! Brown the turkey I'm a big pot Dump the rest in and cook until peppers are tender

I'm back at the hospital for my 1 year EGD. It's amazing to think where I was this time last year. 387 pounds. Scared. Uncertain.
Now I'm here at the same hospital, 185 pounds lighter. It's a really happy and exciting feeling. Now to just make sure everything is peachy with my stomach.
Anyone questioning whether this is right for you, take my word for it. Best. Decision. Ever.