jamill527

Tomorrow makes 9 months that I started this journey. This has been an emotional but blessed journey for me. I'm loving my transformation but I have to admit it has been mentally draining. My Hw was 303 and my Cw is 217. My goal weight is 150lbs but it doesn't look like I'm going to reach it because I've been stalled at 217 for 3 months now, and it's very frustrating because I have no clue what to do to start losing again. Anybody with some advice please Help me! Here's a few pics.

Tomorrow makes 9 months that I started this journey. This has been an emotional but blessed journey for me. I'm loving my transformation but I have to admit it has been mentally draining. My Hw was 303 and my Cw is 217. My goal weight is 150lbs but it doesn't look like I'm going to reach it because I've been stalled at 217 for 3 months now, and it's very frustrating because I have no clue what to do to start losing again. Anybody with some advice please Help me! Here's a few pics.

Tomorrow makes 9 months that I started this journey. This has been an emotional but blessed journey for me. I'm loving my transformation but I have to admit it has been mentally draining. My Hw was 303 and my Cw is 217. My goal weight is 150lbs but it doesn't look like I'm going to reach it because I've been stalled at 217 for 3 months now, and it's very frustrating because I have no clue what to do to start losing again. Anybody with some advice please Help me! Here's a few pics.

Tomorrow makes 9 months that I started this journey. This has been an emotional but blessed journey for me. I'm loving my transformation but I have to admit it has been mentally draining. My Hw was 303 and my Cw is 217. My goal weight is 150lbs but it doesn't look like I'm going to reach it because I've been stalled at 217 for 3 months now, and it's very frustrating because I have no clue what to do to start losing again. Anybody with some advice please Help me! Here's a few pics.

Tomorrow makes 9 months that I started this journey. This has been an emotional but blessed journey for me. I'm loving my transformation but I have to admit it has been mentally draining. My Hw was 303 and my Cw is 217. My goal weight is 150lbs but it doesn't look like I'm going to reach it because I've been stalled at 217 for 3 months now, and it's very frustrating because I have no clue what to do to start losing again. Anybody with some advice please Help me! Here's a few pics.

Tomorrow makes 9 months that I started this journey. This has been an emotional but blessed journey for me. I'm loving my transformation but I have to admit it has been mentally draining. My Hw was 303 and my Cw is 217. My goal weight is 150lbs but it doesn't look like I'm going to reach it because I've been stalled at 217 for 3 months now, and it's very frustrating because I have no clue what to do to start losing again. Anybody with some advice please Help me! Here's a few pics.

Tomorrow makes 9 months that I started this journey. This has been an emotional but blessed journey for me. I'm loving my transformation but I have to admit it has been mentally draining. My Hw was 303 and my Cw is 217. My goal weight is 150lbs but it doesn't look like I'm going to reach it because I've been stalled at 217 for 3 months now, and it's very frustrating because I have no clue what to do to start losing again. Anybody with some advice please Help me! Here's a few pics.

Look great!

Are you kidding me? You look amazing! Just go back to the basics like the beginning !

Tomorrow makes 9 months that I started this journey. This has been an emotional but blessed journey for me. I'm loving my transformation but I have to admit it has been mentally draining. My Hw was 303 and my Cw is 217. My goal weight is 150lbs but it doesn't look like I'm going to reach it because I've been stalled at 217 for 3 months now, and it's very frustrating because I have no clue what to do to start losing again. Anybody with some advice please Help me! Here's a few pics.

Tomorrow makes 9 months that I started this journey. This has been an emotional but blessed journey for me. I'm loving my transformation but I have to admit it has been mentally draining. My Hw was 303 and my Cw is 217. My goal weight is 150lbs but it doesn't look like I'm going to reach it because I've been stalled at 217 for 3 months now, and it's very frustrating because I have no clue what to do to start losing again. Anybody with some advice please Help me! Here's a few pics.

Tomorrow makes 9 months that I started this journey. This has been an emotional but blessed journey for me. I'm loving my transformation but I have to admit it has been mentally draining. My Hw was 303 and my Cw is 217. My goal weight is 150lbs but it doesn't look like I'm going to reach it because I've been stalled at 217 for 3 months now, and it's very frustrating because I have no clue what to do to start losing again. Anybody with some advice please Help me! Here's a few pics.

WOW, I did it! I have reached my personal goal of 100 lbs gone by 1 year. I had my sleeve surgery on July 26, 2013. I still have 30 lbs to go, but this is the moment for me!
I often get asked would I do the surgery again. OF COURSE, I would. If I had to do surgery every year I would do it. NO DIET WORKS. It has to be a lifestyle change (yes, we have heard that before, but did we every believe it?). I spent years thinking it was my fault I couldn't stay on a diet. It was my fault I couldn't keep the weight off. Well guess what? It isn't my fault. Without the surgery I can't even think where I would be right now, probably spending $100s of dollars on a diet plan that "works" for a short period and going off of it because I am too hungry. And then gaining more weight because my body is in "Feed Me" mode because I starved it.
It is soooo wonderful to be off that roller coaster! When I tell people "I used to be hungry all the time" they just can't comprehend what that means. Unless you have been in my shoes, you don't understand. But you do! We are the only people that can understand what it means, how it makes you feel and what a struggle it is.
So, my next goal is to take off the 30 to reach my total goal. However long that takes, is fine with me!
Happy Friday!
Joan

1 year ago....
as of May 17 and that big girl with the pretty face is gone. I'm so grateful and proud of how far I've come. I still can't believe it's me in the pictures or when I pass a store window. I've lost 102 lbs and now working on the last 10. Festival season in New Orleans is hard on my good eating habits...but I'm getting back on track. Have a awesome weekend everybody and good luck!!!! Hang in there.

One year ago today was my surgery. Starting weight was 285, at 5 foot 2. Now I'm down 115 pounds with 20 pounds til goal. So happy with the changes this has made in my life, heck, I'm a green belt in taekwondo now! Before surgery walking to and from my car was all the "exercise" I got! Not good with attchments, we'll see if this works.

Hey guys 7months 1 week post op and 100 pounds gone wow excited
20 more to go

It's not abnormal to find that you can eat more the longer you go. I noticed at around 6 or 7 months, too, and at 16 months, I can eat more than I could at 7 months. We always need to be mindful and control portion sizes. Try to measure your food to avoid too much at once, and as for the hunger, I find drinking really does help. I drink coffee, hot or cold tea, and sometimes if I am really hungry, I'll have a smoothie. Seems frozen drinks really fill me up. I weigh, measure, and count calories. Just the restriction of the sleeve alone is not enough to keep me from gaining weight, but having it does help keep things in control.

Today makes 6 months that I decided to make one of the best decisions of my life! My starting weight was 303lbs and I'm now 219lbs. I'm feeling a lot better mentally and physically. I'm so motivated that nothing is getting in my way. I go to the gym 3-4 days a week, and still staying under 1200 calories. Here is a couple pictures so you can see my results.

I am 6 months post op and I find I can eat more too but u have to control it and still watch what u eat I still have 26 more to go tog goal weight just keep up with exercise

You are probably at a point where you are not getting in enough Protein (my problem)... or Fluid...call your dr...check to make sure you are not eating too much...
good luck

Lately I've seen a TON of posts about lucky sleevers that drop 100 pounds in six months.
Congrats to them and to their loss. And I would never, ever begrudge anyone the right to crow about a fantastic success. It's part of why we're all here, to share the ups and downs of this surgery!
But frequently, these posts are followed by folks that feel frustrated because they aren't losing at the same pace. All too often, we forget that everyone loses at a different pace. It's easy to lose sight of the real goal (long term maintenance) in the face of the scale goals we set for ourselves. And it's also easy to forget that this isn't a race and that there's no special prize waiting at the end for reaching goal more quickly.
I would like to contribute my loss pattern so that people can see that there is more than one way to achieve a goal. Being successful is about reaching your personal goals, overcoming your personal food demons and maintaining your weight loss for life. It's not about hitting goal in nine months.
I encourage everyone else with a slow loss story to contribute their successes here as well. It's hard to research this surgery and find only the stories about extremes - people completely thrilled with surgery or people that regret every minute of life post op. The same goes for loss. When people search out stories on this, it's too easy to only find rapid loss or stall posts but nothing showing the more realistic and moderate journey many of us take. The sleeve is a permanent tool that does not have a special window of easy weight loss. There is no reason to feel discouraged when you haven't reached goal at one year out, or even two. There is nothing preventing you (short of your own body's natural stopping point) from achieving or re-achieving goal at any point post op.
I lost 60 pounds in the first five months after my surgery.
And I slowly lost 32 pounds over the next seven months.
It took me another five months to shed the final 15 pounds to my goal.
I lost 107 pounds over the course of 17 months. I stalled twice for nine weeks each time. I had months where I only lost one pound. I regularly experienced a gain of three pounds around my cycle, and often only lost weight in the last week to ten days of the month, after sitting at the same weight for nearly three weeks.
I am a success, and at 2.5 years out (and currently pregnant) I still have good, healthy eating habits and maintained my weight loss quite easily. Even 30 weeks pregnant, I am still wearing a size 6/small (in maternity clothes, of course) regardless of how I feel about my expanding body!
I learned what was important on this journey and am in better health today (not just physically, but mentally and emotionally), than I have ever experienced as an adult.
Good luck to those currently on their journey, and I encourage everyone to share their stories here so that newly sleeved folks can see that slow vs. fast loss doesn't really matter in the end.
~Cheri

Go girl!!!!

Wow! You look great!

Hiii everyone, i just wanted to take the time to do an update i just realized that i am 6 months post op today i was sleeved on September 10th 2013 and what can i say other than i am so thankful at the opportunity life has given me its like being reborn again. Back in July 2013 my health took a toll for the worst, that is when my doctor recommended i get Bariatric Surgery because loosing weight would be the only way 2 control my PCOS symptoms i finally decided to do something about it and went ahead and started my WL journey i was then 250 lbs my highest weight ever being 5'1 it wasn't good at all for me along with my PCOS i started having back problems, knee problems, achillis tendons problems, ankles were always swollen, my BP had started to get out of control, along with a few other things. Today at 6 months i couldn't be happier with the way i feel, today i no longer use any medications, i am still in shock when i see myself in the mirror in my head i still think of myself sometimes as being heavy even though i know i am not and peoples reaction when they see me is priceless =) words will never describe how Amazing this journey has been and how i feel i thank God first and for most and my awesome doctor Scott Shikora and Team for giving me this second chance in life my highest weight was 250, today at 6 months post op i am 147 lbs and still counting even my doctor was amazed when i saw him last month he said and i quote (remember we spoke that people who are sleeved loose about 50-60% of their excess weight well you have lost already 75% of your excess weight) he was sooo happy my goal is 135 i am very close i went from size 22 or 2x 3x to my now size 6 and that size is now fitting loose so am i Happy? Heck yeaaah i am Extreeeeemely Happyyyyy! 88 lbs since September 10th (day of surgery i was 235lbs) total weight loss 103 lbs from when i was 250 lbs till now i'll take it! =)))

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jamill527
hmmmmm.........
great pics
i think doing "your thang" is working for you
being motivated is a great "thang" to have
84 lbs lost!!!!!
keep up the good job
i know you will!!!!
kathy
congrats