@DomLorenVSG

I'm a graduate student at Auburn University, a single mom, and I work full time for the University. Not only did I do it, but it worked in my advantage. I prep all my food on Sunday's, and I have healthy Snacks with me, and I utilize my work fridge. I took all the crappy food out of my diet, and the walking was really good for me. My biggest issues were social changes- ie going out to lunch or dinner, or being invited out for drinks. I just can't do it. I tried. It always ended badly with me getting sick, over doing it, or eating bad food. I've really changed how I eat socially. I did however start picinicing here and there, which has been fun. I pack chopped up fruits and some light snack foods and on lunch I'll meet with friends and eat out side- THAT has been a huge success. :0)

I'm going back to my university in mid August 2 months after my surgery and will be living on campus and eating in the doing hall I hope that's not going to be a big struggle for me

** and I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY encourage people to try Water aerobics, several sleeve friends have had a LOT of success with it, getting back into shape. Easier on the joints and just as good if not better than most land workouts!!! Great cardio and good or tightening up skin as you go!!!

There is definitly a distinct pattern in how I'm losing. I gain or lose very little one week, then drop a big number the following week. At first I thought it was just in my head, but my recording/tracking doesn't lie! Tracking like this has been HUGE for me, and visually seeing how my body works. I definitly have one good week followed by one neutral/bad week. I can't be hard on myself- this is the cycle of my body. I've come to understand and appreaciate it, versus hating myself and being so confused like I was before surgery. I highly recommend everyone tracking weekly and monthly if possible! Those -1 and -2 lbs weeks add up! I've added the last couple of weeks at the bottom to show you the pattern I'm talking about:
Height: 5'9
Highest (Surgery) Weight: 216
1st Primary Goal Weight: 169 (Achieved 11/27)
2nd Optimal Goal Weight: 145
Sleeve Journey:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> 8/17/12- PreOp/Surgery Day w/Pics Posted in Blog
Week 1 (8/24): 204.8 (-11.2)
Week 2 (8/31): 200.6 (-4.2)
Week 3 (9/7): 196.8 (-3.8)
Week 4 (9/14): 193.5 (-3.3)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> 9/17/12- 1 Month Anniversary w/Pics Posted in Blog (-22.5 lbs)
Week 5 (9/21): 191.6 (-1.9)
Week 6 (9/28): 190.1 (-1.5)
Week 7 (10/5): 187.0 (-3.1)
Week 8 (10/12): 181.9 (-5.1)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> 10/17/12- 2 Month Anniversary w/Pics Posted in Blog (-11.6 lbs)
Week 9 (10/19): 181.4 (-.5)
Week 10 (10/26): 177.9 (-3.5)
Week 11 (11/02): 176.8 (-1.1)
Week 12 (11/09): 174.7 (-2.1)
Week 13 (11/16): 173.3 (-1.4)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> 11/17/12- 3 Month Anniversary w/Pics Posted in Blog (-8.6 lbs)
Week 14 (11/23): 173.1 (-.2)
Week 15 (11/30): 167.3 (-5.8)
Week 16 (12/7): 168.1 (+.8)
Week 17 (12/14): 164.6 (-3.5)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> 12/17/12- 4 Month Anniversary (-8.7 lbs)
Week 18 (12/21): Holiday Break/Vacation- No scale Available
Week 19 (12/28): Holiday Break/Vacation- No scale Available
Week 20 (1/4/13): 164.5 (-.1)
Week 21 (1/11): 161.5 (-3.0)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> 01/17/13- 5 Month Anniversary (-3.1 lbs)
Week 22 (1/18): 161.7 (+.2)
Week 23 (1/25): 158.7 (-3.0)

I think your weekly stats are a real eye opener for me and many others. Slow and steady wins the race.
Thanks for the post!

I was thinking the same thing;)

You look absolutely amazing! I am so impressed! I know you are working hard at this! Keep it up! You look so happy, too!

I post this in my blog, but I've gotten so much personal feedback about my journey from these pictures, I'd thought I'd share it on here as well.
Thursday is actually my 5 month Surgiversary- but this past weekend I attended a friends birthday party and they took a lot of candid shots of me, I compared them to some candids from last summer. Pretty amazing difference at this point and I"m not even at my official optimal goal yet. I am the brunette in the top pictures wearing the orange/reddish dress.
Height: 5'9
Highest (Surgery) Weight: 216
1st Primary Goal Weight: 169 (Achieved 11/27)
2nd Optimal Goal Weight: 145
Sleeve Journey:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> 8/17/12- PreOp/Surgery Day w/Pics Posted in Blog
Week 1 (8/24): 204.8 (-11.2)
Week 2 (8/31): 200.6 (-4.2)
Week 3 (9/7): 196.8 (-3.8)
Week 4 (9/14): 193.5 (-3.3)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> 9/17/12- 1 Month Anniversary w/Pics Posted in Blog (-22.5 lbs)
Week 5 (9/21): 191.6 (-1.9)
Week 6 (9/28): 190.1 (-1.5)
Week 7 (10/5): 187.0 (-3.1)
Week 8 (10/12): 181.9 (-5.1)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> 10/17/12- 2 Month Anniversary w/Pics Posted in Blog (-11.6 lbs)
Week 9 (10/19): 181.4 (-.5)
Week 10 (10/26): 177.9 (-3.5)
Week 11 (11/02): 176.8 (-1.1)
Week 12 (11/09): 174.7 (-2.1)
Week 13 (11/16): 173.3 (-1.4)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> 11/17/12- 3 Month Anniversary w/Pics Posted in Blog (-8.6 lbs)
Week 14 (11/23): 173.1 (-.2)
Week 15 (11/30): 167.3 (-5.8)
Week 16 (12/7): 168.1 (+.8)
Week 17 (12/14): 164.6 (-3.5)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> 12/17/12- 4 Month Anniversary (-8.7 lbs)
Week 18 (12/21): Holiday Break/Vacation- No scale Available
Week 19 (12/28): Holiday Break/Vacation- No scale Available
Week 20 (1/4/13): 164.5 (-.1)
Week 21 (1/11): 161.5 (-3.0)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> 01/17/13- 5 Month Anniversary (-3.1 lbs)

I post this in my blog, but I've gotten so much personal feedback about my journey from these pictures, I'd thought I'd share it on here as well.
Thursday is actually my 5 month Surgiversary- but this past weekend I attended a friends birthday party and they took a lot of candid shots of me, I compared them to some candids from last summer. Pretty amazing difference at this point and I"m not even at my official optimal goal yet. I am the brunette in the top pictures wearing the orange/reddish dress.
Height: 5'9
Highest (Surgery) Weight: 216
1st Primary Goal Weight: 169 (Achieved 11/27)
2nd Optimal Goal Weight: 145
Sleeve Journey:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> 8/17/12- PreOp/Surgery Day w/Pics Posted in Blog
Week 1 (8/24): 204.8 (-11.2)
Week 2 (8/31): 200.6 (-4.2)
Week 3 (9/7): 196.8 (-3.8)
Week 4 (9/14): 193.5 (-3.3)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> 9/17/12- 1 Month Anniversary w/Pics Posted in Blog (-22.5 lbs)
Week 5 (9/21): 191.6 (-1.9)
Week 6 (9/28): 190.1 (-1.5)
Week 7 (10/5): 187.0 (-3.1)
Week 8 (10/12): 181.9 (-5.1)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> 10/17/12- 2 Month Anniversary w/Pics Posted in Blog (-11.6 lbs)
Week 9 (10/19): 181.4 (-.5)
Week 10 (10/26): 177.9 (-3.5)
Week 11 (11/02): 176.8 (-1.1)
Week 12 (11/09): 174.7 (-2.1)
Week 13 (11/16): 173.3 (-1.4)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> 11/17/12- 3 Month Anniversary w/Pics Posted in Blog (-8.6 lbs)
Week 14 (11/23): 173.1 (-.2)
Week 15 (11/30): 167.3 (-5.8)
Week 16 (12/7): 168.1 (+.8)
Week 17 (12/14): 164.6 (-3.5)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> 12/17/12- 4 Month Anniversary (-8.7 lbs)
Week 18 (12/21): Holiday Break/Vacation- No scale Available
Week 19 (12/28): Holiday Break/Vacation- No scale Available
Week 20 (1/4/13): 164.5 (-.1)
Week 21 (1/11): 161.5 (-3.0)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> 01/17/13- 5 Month Anniversary (-3.1 lbs)

My doc finally cleared me to be back in the Water again 15 days post op. I have a pretty crazy workout schedule. I play collegiate Water polo 4 nights a week for 2.5 hours, and I swim on the University’s Master's Swim team on my lunch 3 days a week for 1.5 hours. The first 2 days were the roughest, I was extremely sore and exhausted. Doing this much working out on such little calories is daunting and not for the faint of heart. I'm 6 week out tomorrow and don't remember the last time I felt this good!
I will say that doing team/club sports is night and day different from going to the gym on my own. I'm lucky to stay focused enough to do 45 minutes on an elliptical or treadmill, whereas when I get in the water I'm not staying place, I'm engaging with other people, being pushed by my team members, and have a coach guiding my workouts. I never get bored. My mindset is not to just survive practice, but to be one of the best, swim the fastest, throw the ball the hardest, and be an MVP. When I do get out of the water whether it was water polo or masters swim- I'm Jello, my body is completely exhausted and I feel like an Olympic champion (minus those sweet little gold medals). I have several fitness goals this semester, and I'm so motivated to get into the best shape ever, regardless of what the scale says. Our first ranked NCAA tournament is this weekend. Bet your bottom I've been going all Kong Fu Panda on my workouts-and the bonus?- I'm going to lose weight. I <3 my sleeve.

My doc finally cleared me to be back in the Water again 15 days post op. I have a pretty crazy workout schedule. I play collegiate Water polo 4 nights a week for 2.5 hours, and I swim on the University’s Master's Swim team on my lunch 3 days a week for 1.5 hours. The first 2 days were the roughest, I was extremely sore and exhausted. Doing this much working out on such little calories is daunting and not for the faint of heart. I'm 6 week out tomorrow and don't remember the last time I felt this good!
I will say that doing team/club sports is night and day different from going to the gym on my own. I'm lucky to stay focused enough to do 45 minutes on an elliptical or treadmill, whereas when I get in the water I'm not staying place, I'm engaging with other people, being pushed by my team members, and have a coach guiding my workouts. I never get bored. My mindset is not to just survive practice, but to be one of the best, swim the fastest, throw the ball the hardest, and be an MVP. When I do get out of the water whether it was water polo or masters swim- I'm Jello, my body is completely exhausted and I feel like an Olympic champion (minus those sweet little gold medals). I have several fitness goals this semester, and I'm so motivated to get into the best shape ever, regardless of what the scale says. Our first ranked NCAA tournament is this weekend. Bet your bottom I've been going all Kong Fu Panda on my workouts-and the bonus?- I'm going to lose weight. I <3 my sleeve.

** and I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY encourage people to try Water aerobics, several sleeve friends have had a LOT of success with it, getting back into shape. Easier on the joints and just as good if not better than most land workouts!!! Great cardio and good or tightening up skin as you go!!!

I'm a large athlete. I was in the Army, got out and now I'm in graduate school playing collegiate Water polo. The average person on my team eats around 3,000+ to 5,000+ calories a day and we work out at least 3 hours 5 days a week. I've always been overweight, even though I've always worked out. There is NO way that I coud stop my ravenous appetite without this tool. I would work out then be starving after practice. I would eat anything I could get my hands on and sometimes binge eat, and it wasn't necessarily self control, it was my body thinking I needed more than it really did. Last season I was working out 3 hours 5+ days a week and I gained 20 lbs. I cried, a lot. After my sleeve in august and suriving the fall semester work out schedule I'm down 50 lbs. I eat a lot of Protein, and don't have room for much else, and I'm still hungry but NOTHING like it was before surgery. It's faint compared to before. And even if I do get really hungry it only takes a little bit to fill me up, where as before I could have done 5 rounds at a buffett and still had room for more. And no one would have said stop because everyone knows how much I work out. This is a tool, but Portion Control is decieving. Our bodies produce hormones, and all sorts of things to tell us we are full, and if those hormones in our stomach don't trigger, our brain says keep it eating. I love my sleeve, and it has truly changed my life. And I'm extremely thankful and would reccomend it to anyone, and I already have a friend getting hers next month as well.

I used to argue with my ex all the time about what it means to have self control. He would buy a candy bar and put it in the fridge and leave it there. After three or four days I'd EAT it and several days later he'd come looking for his candy bar. He'd tell me I have no self control. I'd explain to him, "on the contrary I had a lot of self control. I thought of that candy bar thousands of times and only ate it once. 99.9% of the time when I thought of eating that candy bar, I didn't do it." Normal people don't understand how much we WANT to eat but don't. The sleeve is just a tool to make us feel more normal so that the self control that we DO have can be sufficient to allow us to meet our goals!

After being on diets since I was 12 I am seriously convinced that after being sleeved for only 90 days that this is the ONLY solution that would have EVER helped me. I look at all the failed attemps and money I spent and most importantly how bad I felt about myself everytime I failed. I finally feel like a normal person now. I don't obsess about food, I don't overeat. I like myself so much more because I am not defeated by food. I am not at goal but this is already a success for me. I feel like an addict who has been freed. I think this went so much deeper than self control. I didn't have control over food, myself, my body, my emotions- I was a slave to my hunger. Now I walk away and put food in it's place- fuel for my body. That's it. Not the key to my life and happiness. I think my food issues were so much deeper than self control, so when I hear people talk about that, I realize those are people who really don't understand what it is like to have this kind problem.

Of course it takes self control!!!! You could still eat sweets and treats every few hours when you have been sleeved but you will have to make a conscious decision not too. The sleeve is a tool to aid weight loss but it doesn't do the work for you.
WLS is highly frowned upon across here as it is portrayed as a "quick fix" for fat people. What people don't realise is that its s dam long process to be accepted for the sleeve in the first place (took me 2 years to be accepted) then you have all the mental and physical trauma both before and after surgery. The liquid and purée diet stages are by no means easy. So anybody thinking or saying this is a "quick fix" or thinking that self control is not needed are needing to do some reading or be told the facts. Xxx

I had a caffeine addiction which lead to severe headaches whenever I did not get my normal daily intake of coffee. Months in advance of the surgery I started weaning myself from coffee. Was I ever glad I had done it!
IsB has it right about the diet and exercise.

I agree with both above. I didn't ween off caffeine, and boy did i pay for it. It was the worst headache I ever had. DO NOT GO cold turkey. Also the better shape you are in going into surgery the better and quicker recovery time. After surgery you will need to walk, walk , walk this helps in a number of ways..1 you need to get all the gas out of your system that they pump in there to work so the more you more the quicker it comes out..2nd youo need to move so that you don't develop blood clots in your legs and 3rd you need to move so that you don't get constipated. So the more you can walk prior to surgery the easier it will be to do after surgery. Good Luck

Start now. Start eating healthy foods. Start daily exercise. Don't worry about how much weight you lose. What's important is that by the time you have your surgery you have a real understanding of what you need to do to make this succeed. The more you can do now the easier it will be for you later.

I have lost 85 lbs from my highest weight of 302. I am now 217. I went from a size 22-24 to 14-16. I feel so much better mentally and physically. I started training for a 5K run last week. It is going to be at the end of January. I am very excited. I have had a lot of support from you folks on this forum and I'd like to thank you. I have 40 lbs to goal. I will be hanging around here for a while longer.
 

someone finally noticed that I have lost weight! and it only took a loss of 44 pounds!
a patient that I haven't seen in several months came in today....she told me "you've lost weight, did you do surgery?" lol

In 7 days I'll be 3 months out from surgery...58 pounds down & loving it...I work in advertising & we get lots of gifts this time of year from clients. The reason I'm posting is pre-surgery I was an avid chocoholic! Right next to me on my desk is a gigantic "dark chocolate pizza" that I would've demolished. It's doing NOTHING for me now. YAY.....love this feeling.....

There's another wave coming. If you thought this was good wait until you move down the rack at the clothing stores. And there's the energy wave and the no longer avoiding mirrors wave. Surf's up!

That I can finally eat and tolerate Protein bars! I was gagging trying to get the protein shakes/drinks down. I am 4 weeks 1 day out and I am just now starting to feel 'normal' again. Well, me new normal!
Thank you to everyone on this forum for all of your support. I could never have done this without you all!

Before surgery at 251, at three months 200!