Kris

I just got home from Maui last night and was really interested to see what the scale would tell me. During vacation I decided to not put any limits on what I ate or drank, so had many treats over the course of six days ... I really enjoyed my food at Maui, but restriction kept me in good control of caloric intake. Plus, we were pretty active ... lots of swimming, snorkeling, and walking around in the warm Hawaaiian sun. So I figured the activity would counteract the splurges at the table. So ... my final weigh in was on July 5th (the morning we left for Maui) and I was 169.6 (just barely missed my July 4th goal of 169.0). Today I got on the scale, and O Happy Day, it said I weigh 167.2 -- a loss of 2.4 lbs.! Yay! That was a happy moment for me! I had a couple of NSVs this week too. The biggest one was how easily I now fit in a plane seat. I used to hate and dread flying, because I would overflow the seat and could barely close the seat belt, but now I have no problems at all with the plane seat or seat belt. That felt great! The second NSV came this morning -- my hubby went out to get the mail and saw one of our neighbors, who told him, "Your wife is the incredible shrinking woman!" LOL! I am now wearing a size 14 (or women's Large) and that is so cool! Life is really great with my sleeve!

Well, for those of you who didn't hit goal ... add me to the group... I was SO SURE I would hit it, and then hit a 3 week virtual stall in June (my worst month for weight loss since getting sleeved in January) ... but hey, I was close. Let's see how I do for the Labor Day Challenge! SN................Starting Wt..........Current..........Goal...........Lbs to Goal Kris..................186...................170.4..........169...............1.4

Lots to talk about this week. My 6 month surgiversary is in 4 days. As of today, I weigh 170.4 lbs.; my 4th of July goal was to get to 169 lbs. so it is coming right down to the wire. I am hoping to be under 170 lbs. tomorrow ... maybe not 169.0 but somewhere between that and 170.0. When I had my surgery, I set several VSG progress goals on my weight loss journey. There were three progress goals in particular that were really meaningful to me -- first, to get into ONEderland; second, to weigh less than my husband; and third, to have a BMI of less than 30 (therefore no longer being considered officially obese). I hit my first goal the month after getting sleeved, and just hit my second goal today. When I saw my weight being right near 170 lbs. this morning, I knew I was very close to my husband's weight. I called DH into the bathroom, asked him to strip down to his skivvies (since I weighed in wearing only my skivvies), and get on the scale. Ta da -- he weighs 172.8, so I weigh 2.4 lbs. less than him! Woo hoo! June was a very tough month for me on the weight loss front. I was in a virtual stall for 3 weeks, and started eating really badly out of frustration. I hadn't been exercising, and started doing that last weekend. I really got into exercising this past week, and it definitely helped ... I dropped nearly 2 lbs. this week, even with a visit from Auntie Flo (which, when I think about it, probably also explains a bit why I went a little crazy with junk eating last week ... raging hormones + frustration = BAD NEWS). I have exercised a lot this week ... did a fairly tough 2.5 mile trail walk 5 times (including this morning). I've been getting up a bit earlier and walking before going to work, and it also helps me come to work with more energy and focus. I haven't been exercising really (except for gardening on the weekends) so I have been pleasantly surprised how much I like it. It is SO much easier and pleasant to exercise when I don't have as much excess weight to carry around. Each day I try to do a little bit more ... challenging myself every time. I am feeling good about exercising and wish I had started doing it much sooner (no doubt I would be much closer to my ultimate goal if I had started exercising 5 days a week a few months ago!). DH and I are having or 15th wedding anniversary this week and are celebrating it by taking a trip to Maui. I plan to spend a lot of time in the water (we have two snorkeling trips already booked) and am hoping that a week of downtime, and lots of fun exercise, means a nice surprise for me on the scale when I return from my trip.

Hi all my fellow sleevers, Like most sleevers, when I had my VSG procedure I set some weight loss progress goals so my ultimate weight loss goal (99 lbs.) didn't seem quite so impossible. Aside from my ultimate weight loss goal, the one goal that I really, really wanted to achieve was to weigh less than my husband ... and finally, today was the day! WOOT!?! I saw 170.4 on the scale and knew I was really close to his weight, so I called DH to hop on the scale. He obliged, and the scale said he weighed 172.8 -- more than 2 lbs. more than I weigh. This is a sweet NSV! We are having our 15th anniversary on Wednesday, and for most of our marriage, I have weighed more than DH. But not this year! This is the best anniversary present I can think of! I still have nearly 40 lbs. to lose to hit my ultimate goal, so my weight loss journey still has a quite a ways to go ... but today I am pretty darn happy!

Hi Dari, I totally get where you are at! My surgeon told me before surgery, "This operation is only on your stomach, NOT your head. You need to work on your head too." At the time I was a little skeptical of what he said, but he was 100% right. My new sleeve helps me not eat as much bad food, but the cravings and the emotional eating are still with me to a great degree. I think just the part of expressing the problem (like we do here on VSG Talk) is very helpful -- like once we own our truth, we can start working on it. And really, when you think about it, this weight loss process is going fast -- our bodies are changing way faster than our heads can keep up. You are doing great to have lost so much weight so fast already! I hope you continue to have great success!

Excuse my bad language, but I had a total craptastic week on the weight loss front. I am only down .2 lbs. since last Sunday (172.0 today) -- awful. But even worse, this time I can't blame my bad week on my body holding on to weight -- this week it's my own fault I haven't lost weight. My eating this week has been the worst ever since getting sleeved. I've partaken of donuts, cupcakes, crackers, and rice chips -- all that junk food, ugh. I have been frustrated with not losing weight so I have fallen into my very bad pattern of dealing with frustration by eating junk. However, I will say, I am owning my bad behavior, and this morning I did something about it. I got up out of bed, got on my walking shoes, and did a killer one hour walk on a trail near my house (which has a monster hill that goes a mile and several hundred feet in elevation). Yah, baby! THAT'S the way to deal with frustration -- not putting crap food into my mouth, but doing something healthy and (dare I say) fun. I was SO proud of myself doing this walk today. I had walked on that trail a few times before surgery (when I was 220 lbs.+) and it darn near killed me. On the hill part, I would have to take it in sections, like walk 100 yards, suck wind really hard until I felt like my heart wasn't going to explode out of my chest, and then walk another 100 yards, until I got up that hill. Today was the first time I have walked that trail since surgery, and man what a difference losing 60 lbs. makes. The hill starts out gradually, then gets really steep for a while. Once I got to the steep part, I could feel my heart get going faster, and I was thinking, "Oh boy, I am going to have to stop soon," but I decided to just keep going until I couldn't take it anymore ... and lo and behold, I never had to stop ... it did get tough at some points, but I just kept walking. To me this is a MAJOR NSV because I can do something now with relative ease that I would have keeled over dead trying to do pre-surgery. Another thing that was really cool was that my husband did the same walk as me, but he used the reverse course, so we passed each other halfway. He made it home before me (he is not fat) but when I walked in the front door his first words to me were, "You're home already! I am really impressed! I just got home a few minutes ago myself!" Yay!!!! And you know, right now, as I am writing this, I am eating a lovely breakfast of cold watermelon and feeling darn good. My energy level is really good. My legs are a little sore from walking but nothing major -- it's a good kind of sore that tells me I challenged myself and did good. So anyway, some key lessons learned this week are that I still obviously emotional eating issues; but I can do something about it and deal with my emotions in a healthier way. My 4th of July goal was to get to 169 and I am 3 lbs. away from that goal. I am going to do that hill walk every day this week, by gum, and see if I can get to that goal. I was doing so great earlier in the month and thought I had that goal in the bag ... but now I am really going to have to fight for it. And I AM going to fight for it!

You know that saying, be careful what you ask for because you just might get it? Well, lo and behold, that has happened to me as far as my weight loss is concerned. Back before surgery I had submitted a post here on VSG asking had anyone deliberately eaten more calories in order to have a slower weight loss, so the skin could catch up as the weight loss happened. I got numerous responses, nearly all of which were to the effect of, why the heck would you want to have surgery in order to deliberately slow down your weight loss? And also people pointed out your skin will do what it wants to do, whether you lose fast or slow. I was suitably chastened because of course my VSG friends were correct about that. HOWEVER, I needn't have worried about having super fast weight loss. I am losing weight nice and slow and steady, not by design but just cause my bod wants to. This week I am down only .6 lbs. for the week. Nearly stalled. This happens nearly every month but for some reason only losing less than 1 lb. feels like a total failure. I have not been eating any better or worse than usual, but my body is holding on to the weight right now. However, I can't complain that much because I am really bad about not exercising. Every week I say this will be the week it changes, and then I don't do anything different. I do work in the garden on the weekends, but very little in the way of exercise from Mon-Fri. I am sure that is hurting my weight loss. I tried on the size 18 bathing suit this weekend ... ruh roh Scooby Doo. My girls are totally overflowing the size 18 top too. Even worse, the laws of gravity are telling the girls to just hang where they want, which is not in the cups of the swim top, so as a result they keep slipping out of the swim top and below the bra area and it looks like I am deformed. So, my swimsuit purchases so far have been a total fail. My girls are so saggy and just shall I say gross .... I hate them, hate them, HATE THEM. The swim skirt on the size 18 swimsuit is a little loose; it should really be a size 16. So I have a minor disaster on my hands ... a top that is too small and a bottom that is a little loose. So much for the great deal on a bathing suit ... I am going to order some swim separates from Lands End today (plus size top, regular size bottoms). And I know for sure next year I am either going to appeal for breast reduction surgery at my *** or am going back to Mexico to get a breast reduction/lift. I want a total do-over on my girls. Speaking of saggy, I could say that about my whole dadgum body. Upper arms are saggy; my thighs are a freaking cottage cheese filled saggy DISASTER, and of course the aforementioned low rider girls. Now here I am bitching about my saggy skin, but of course in reality I am in a weird way very thankful to have this saggy skin, because it means I have lost a whole lot of excess weight. When I am wearing clothes that cover my upper arms and thighs, I feel like I look fine -- a little heavy, but normal heavy, not remarkably heavy as I was before surgery. Blah, blah, blah. I am hoping next week when I post I will have a lovely number to report, something between 170 and 171. Now off to the garden with my saggy skin self and burn some calories.

SN..........Starting Wt..............Current..........Goal.......Lbs. to Go Kris...............184.6......................172.8.............169............3.8 I'm getting closer, I think I will make this goal! I'm in a slow patch right now but am still optimistic I am going to get this!

In my last blog posting I mentioned how my weight loss goes in cycles, and that has proved to be the case this week. After two weeks of good weight loss, this week I only lost 1 lb. -- I'm 172.8 today. I expect next week will be similar, and then hopefully the last 2 weeks of June will be another good weight loss cycle. I am 3.8 lbs. from my July 4th goal, and I think I can still make it, barring a stall. I still have some of my old size 22/3X/2X clothes in my closet, but slowly but surely I am giving them away to Goodwill. I just filled another large bag with clothes to donate this morning and will drop them off today (and pop into the store to see if there's anything cute to buy). Some of the 1X clothes I bought in late March/April are definitely too big now ... that is a good feeling! Aside from my size 18 swimsuit (which I need because I am so darn busty), I am totally out of the plus sizes now. My hair loss is definitely continuing, but not as bad as I had thought it would be. I have seen stories of women losing hair in handfuls, and I haven't experienced that ... I do shed hair for sure when I am washing my hair and styling it. I have noticed time and time again that my sleeve now is just part of me ... my life is totally normal now, except I just can't eat as much food as I could before surgery. I am losing weight pretty effortlessly. I still have to battle the carb monster and not make stupid choices, but it's not nearly as hard now as it was before surgery to walk past the bakery section, or confine myself to two or three little bites of garlic bread with a meal instead of half a loaf, or to skip having lunch at fast food 3 or 4 days a week (though I do love me some Wendy's salads ... they make great salads, and they're pretty guilt free esp. since I have the half size salad, skip the cheese and have grilled chicken on the salad). A couple of times I have 'splurged' and ordered a hamburger and fries at a fast food joint, but I can only eat a few fries and really they don't feel that great in my sleeve, so it's not as tempting to eat them as it was pre-surgery. I do still love food, and I am actually glad about that, because good food is one of life's great pleasures. I just now have this wonderful, powerful tool, that helps me to enjoy the heck out of my food, in small quantities. I have seen a lot of people losing incredible amounts of weight since being sleeved ... that's not me, but I am more than halfway to goal and not yet six months out. Next month will be my six month surgiversary and I hope to be 30-some-odd lbs. from my end goal weight. I don't exercise much (really my only exercise is gardening, which I do for several hours each weekend day and some evenings after work) so I know I would lose more if I were exercising more ... now that the weather is getting really decent, I will be bumping up my exercising more. I really do need to work on toning, as my loose skin is yucky (but not as bad as fat!). So ... off to the garden now. I am going to be having some wonderful salads this year. I have two pet rabbits and DH and I make them a big salad every night for dinner (veg and little bits of fruit only, of course, no dressings or nuts or croutons or such) ... and every time I make a bunny salad I'm like, "Yum, I want to eat this too!" My dinners most summers are going to be salad with some grilled meat or fish ... YUM!!!!

So my five month surgiversary is in two short days. Today I was 173.8, up a couple of oz. from Friday I think, but still, getting pretty close to my July 4th goal of 169 lbs! I had DH weigh himself yesterday to see how much he weighs. He weighs 170.8 so I am 3 lbs. above his weight. It will be a happy, happy day to make my July 4th goal, as I will also weigh less than my hubby. I am just shy of 42 lbs. above my ultimate goal weight, so more than halfway to goal, and not even six months out. Yay! Today DH and I went to Seattle Suntan for our first-ever indoor tanning experience. Let's just say it can be pricey to get a tan (and maintain it) but I have pretty fair (AKA *white*) skin and don't want to go to Maui next month (exactly one month from today, woo hoo!) blinding people with the whiteness of my skin. We went on one of the newer premium beds -- it was so weird. I didn't expect it would be so hot in the tanning bed .... and your skin stays warm for quite a while afterwards. I didn't put on any tanning lotion before tanning but ordered some on Amazon after I got home so will have some for next time. I tried on that Speedo swimsuit I got from Cosco ... fit everywhere but in the bust area (too small in the bust, alas). So today I went to Sams Club and bought a size 18 2 piece (tank top and swim skirt), and hopefully that will have better coverage. I've bought several items of clothing, all size 16, so it was kind of a bummer to have to bump up a size in swimsuits, but c'est la vie. My legs are awful, lots of cellulite still in the thighs (all the way down to the knee) and I have quite a gut still ... let's just say men won't be gazing at my bod with desire at the swimming pool, LOL! But, on the other hand, my mom says she is JEALOUS of me now that I weight less than she does ... first time in a long time that is the case. But it is good natured jealousy, and not mean spirited. I've also gotten quite a few comments from co-workers about how different I look ... it's funny, when you see yourself in the mirror you don't notice change as much as others do. The only time I really notice how much weight I've lost is when I put on a piece of clothing I had worn before surgery ... I really can't wear most of my old clothes anymore, they are horribly loose. Only the clothes that were really tight can still be worn (and now they are loose). I've also noticed my weight loss definitely goes in cycles ... I will have a couple of good weeks of weight loss and then a couple of weeks where nothing happens. And I am not doing anything different. It's just odd the way that happens. Anyhow, five months out from surgery and I am feeling really good and am still so happy with my sleeve. I love how it helps me manage my volume eating problem (can't volume eat anymore!). And I really have a different relationship with food now. I just wish I would have had this surgery years ago! But am glad I'm still fairly young (43) so plenty of life ahead of me. This is the first summer in MANY years where I will be doing things I really love to do ... and not be ashamed (so much) to do them (swimming, wearing shorts, able to keep up with people while walking, etc.)

Awesome, amazing! Yay for you!!! I want to lose a total of 100 lbs. too and have a ways to go, but whenever I pick up something heavy (like a 40 lb. box of cat litter) I realize I used to be carrying that weight (actually more) around with me, every minute of every day, and it's like, Holy Cow, how did I function?!? You must look and feel wonderful! Congrats!!!!

OK, confession time -- I love a good bargain and I lurrrve me some Costco -- even though DH and I have no kids and don't run a business, we spend quite a lot of $ there -- they have so many good quality things, and such great prices. One of the things that always made me sad about being a size 22 was I could never ever buy any clothes at Costco (the highest size they typically go on women's clothes is size 16 and occasionally size 18). So now, I can officially buy clothes from Costco! Woot! I bought a pair of size 16 Dockers capris and a pair of shorts on Friday. Costco doesn't have a dressing room, so it's always a risk when you're not sure what size you wear. But, the clothes are cheap (esp compared to dept. stores) and I figured what the hey, buy some size 16s and see if they fit. I am still in the phase of picking up a pair of size 16s and thinking there is NO WAY these will fit (my brain still thinks I wear size 22), and then pulling them up and finding they do fit. The dockers are cut differently than other clothes -- the waist is actually loose, the hips/butt are fine, the legs are not as loose as the waist and truthfully I would be happier if they were a little looser -- but overall, I would still wear them now for sure (if the weather wasn't so dismal here -- still chilly and today it's very gloomy). I also bought a size 16 swimsuit ($20 for a speedo, score!) but haven't worked up the courage to try that on because I am afraid of how I will look in a swimsuit. I am still bigger on the top than on the bottom so that should be interesting! I am 175.4 today, only have to lose 6.4 lbs. by July 4th to hit my goal of being under 170 for the vacation to Hawaii. I really hope I can get there! It was kind of a crazy month in my weight loss journey -- May started off great, then I had a big lull in the middle where nothing much happened, then I had a good week this week. I am hopeful to end up with an 8 lb. loss, which is what I've had each of the past 2 months -- if not the full 8 lbs. I should be close (I think I need to lose slightly under 1 lb. to get there, and I'll be doing some physical labor today, which should help with the calorie burn). My BMI is getting ever closer to the 30 mark, and boy oh boy I can't wait until my BMI puts me at merely "overweight" instead of "obese!" (When I weigh 159 I will be officially below a 30 BMI). That will be a great day to celebrate on my weight loss journey -- of course, at the rate I am going, that won't be until the end of July or maybe early August, so it's not imminent -- but that will be my next major progress goal.

Yay Fern for your nsvs (which are both way cool), but WTH is up with your "best" friend????? I meant it's one thing to have concerns before the surgery, but come on to be like that 3 months later, what is up? I'd hate to have a best friend who didn't support me in something to improve my health and quality of life. I hope she comes around soon!

Yay, you are doing GREAT!!!!!

A little over a week ago I saw my primary care physician for a checkup (actually saw the PA but that was fine, it's not like I even know my PCP as I only see her once in a blue moon). Anyhow, I brought along the XRays of my sleeve from Dr. Aceves and told her about the surgery. She didn't even know what VSG was so I had to explain it to her (I never told my PCP I was going to have the procedure before I went to Mexico). She seemed happy with my weight loss and didn't make any negative comments about me going to Mexico (which was good, as that would have really upset me). She ordered a battery of blood tests, which I had done early last week (I hadn't fasted prior to my dr. appt. so needed to come back another time). I got the results on Thursday, and to my delight, everything was within a normal range. In 2009 (last time I had blood tests) I had elevated fasting blood glucose -- not quite high enough to be confirmed for diabetes, but higher than the normal range (normal range tops out at 99, I was 110, diabetes is 125 or higher) -- basically, pre-diabetes. And my blood pressure was higher than normal, too. Well, this time my fasting blood glucose level was 85, right smack dab in the middle of normal! And my blood pressure is normal too (it also had been elevated -- not high enough for meds, but higher than normal; this time it was 118/80). There was not one area where my blood was not within a normal range! I am only halfway to my long term weight loss goal, but one of my major goals/hopes for this surgery was to have my health issues resolved, and I am thrilled that they really are! I feel like I have already added years onto my life. Even if I never lost another lb. (which I don't think will be the case), I consider this surgery to be a success because it has really, measurably, improved my health. I am SO thrilled with my sleeve!!!!

A week ago on Friday I had a checkup with my primary care physician's office. I asked to have blood workup to make sure everything is A-OK since it's been 4 months since surgery. I had a bunch of blood samples taken, checking cholesterol, iron, folate, vitamins/minerals, and fasting blood sugar. I got my results back this week and I was SO happy to see that everything is within normal ranges! In 2009, the last time I had blood drawn, it was because my dr. was worried I had diabetes. My fasting glucose level was 110 -- higher than the acceptable normal range of 65-99, but not quite as high as to confirm diabetes (a reading of 125 or higher is indicative of diabetes). I was "pre-diabetic" and that was one of the things that was worrying me (not to mention I had somewhat high blood pressure too). Anyhow, as of last week, my fasting glucose level was 85 -- well within normal range, and a drop of 25 points (about a 30% decrease!) from my 2009 levels. So -- only 4.5 months out of surgery and all systems are in good order -- yay, yay, yay!!!! I had a mini stall on my weight loss but it seems to have broken; as of this morning I am down to 178.0, a drop of nearly 2 lbs. since last week. I am getting ready to go out to do some gardening so that will give me some needed calorie burn. I am pretty sure I will not make it into the size 14 land by the time of our Maui trip, but hopefully by then my size 16s will be nice and comfy-loose and I won't look completely hideous in a swimsuit. I'm going to start going to a tanning salon (first time ever) this week to build up a base tan for the Hawaii vacation and a tan does make people look thinner -- hopefully it will help me! All in all -- a golly gee good news week. I feel really good, I am losing weight, My health has improved markedly, and all is well in my world!

Thank you starygrl, I love your name and your avatar! I have a bunch of cats so love anything with Hello Kitty!

Thanks Foxbins! You are so sweet!!!

Hi Christina, Dr. Aceves did my surgery and I highly recommend him! He and his team are super! Oh and thanks for reading my blog! I am always surprised to see comments!

This was a good news/bad news week. The good news was last Sunday (or Monday, not sure which) I broke into the 170s with a weight of 179.8. The bad news is I am still 179.8 as of today, and in fact as recently as Friday I was 181. But I'm happy to say I am in the 170s again after 14 LONG years. My hubby weighs in the low 170s so if I hit my July 4th goal of 167 I will finally weigh less than my husband, again something I haven't been able to say since shortly after we were married in 1996. I had a couple of weeks of good weight loss but for the month so far I am only down 3 lbs., so I hope the rest of May is better as far as the scale is concerned, or I am going to have a tough time getting out of the 170s. In other non-sleeve news, we just adopted a sweet, beautiful female bunny named Jewelie. She is 2 years old and had a very rough life; she was rescued a few months ago from a home where the owner was starving her to death. Fortunately, a local rabbit rescue organization (Rabbit Haven) was able to take her in and nurse her back into good health. We wanted to adopt a female rabbit for our neutered male rabbit, Toffee. We took Toffee to Rabbit Haven yesterday to "date" some of the girls and hopefully find one who would be a good bunny wife for him. We had read about Jewelie on Rabbit Haven's website and she was the first girl we wanted to introduce to Toffee. She was a dear girl, totally submissive to Toffee, and the Rabbit Haven folks said they were having a pretty great first date. So, we decided to adopt her and bring her home. Now that they are both home, Toffee is definitely showing dominance, but she is so submissive and sweet that I think they will be fully bonded soon, hopefully within just a few weeks. We currently have them living in separate rooms and have bunny dates periodically, but they both seem a bit stressed when they spend too much time together, so we think it's better to go a little slow right now. OK, so this has absolutely zero to do with me losing weight, except that my pets make my life sooooo much better, and my hubby and I both feel we have a purpose in life to help animals by providing them a loving and safe home (we have multiple cats, many of whom were rescued, so now we are on to bunnies and cats). The only thing in my life that I have felt was really unsatisfactory has been my obesity, and even that is (slowly) changing. Anyway, that's about it for this week. Hard to believe it is mid-May already, and Memorial Day is just a couple short weeks away!

Christal, I am feeling you!!! I have been hating my turkey neck (actually pelican neck really is more accurate!), my batwings, and my horrible half-filled Water balloon ta-tas that are almost hitting my belly button (arggh). But I am also loving fitting into clothes sizes I haven't been able to wear in over a decade, and having way more energy than I did before surgery, and feeling much better than I did a few months ago. I hope you and your hubby find new, better jobs soon! Congrats on your progress so far -- you are doing great! Kris

So today is my four month surgiversary. I am down 50 lbs. from my high preop weight and have 49 lbs. left to lose to get to my ultimate goal. I am feeling really good! Yesterday I had my first physical with my primary care doc (actually PA). My weight with clothes on (jeans, tank, lightweight cotton shirt over the tank, and underwear) was 183. My home scale said I weighed 181 so I think my home scale is accurate, maybe even a little on the high side (I assume my clothes weighed 3 or 4 lbs, but maybe not. I wish I had thought to weigh myself immediately before or after seeing the doctor, but alas I didn't). My blood pressure was 118/80, which I believe is very normal. I have to get a blood test to check my vitamin, mineral, and cholesterol levels. The PA had never even heard of VSG and I had to explain it to her. She didn't say a word about me going to Mexico, good or bad. She did look at my incisions as part of the exam and said they looked like they were healing just fine. She did seem pretty happy with my weight loss, although of course I am still considered pretty obese and have a long way to go to get to goal. She did ask me how much weight I could lose with VSG and I said my dr. said I could lose up to 95% of my excess weight, and she seemed really surprised by that. I guess time will tell how far I get. I continue to get great restriction with my sleeve if I eat protein. Today DH and I went to Famous Dave's for a late lunch/early dinner (I did 3 hours of fairly vigorous work in the garden -- building a raised bed from a kit, filling it with 8 large bags of potting soil, weeding a raspberry patch, etc.) so I was pretty hungry. We ordered the half slab ribs platter to share (6 ribs, with a side of fries, baked beans, corn on the cob, and cornbread muffin). I was able to eat 3/4 of one rib, a couple of fries, 3 bites of baked beans, and was totally stuffed. My husband was happy as a clam because he got 5 ribs all to himself (and polished off the remaining part of my rib), all the corn, all the cornbread muffin, and almost all the fries. Pre-VSG, we would share the same dinner, but have plenty of room left in our tummies for dessert (we would share a piece of pecan pie with vanilla ice cream). Now we were both so full from the meal, we didn't have room for dessert. Let's see -- what else. I am wearing size 16s and am able to now shop in Costco and Sam's Club for clothes -- I could never do that before and it is exciting. They have some good swimsuits for sale and I will probably buy a couple next month as I get closer to my trip to Hawaii. I am definitely losing more weight now that I am actively doing garden work, and that is a lot of fun. I hope my increased activity will keep the calories burning and the weight coming off! I have noticed another great thing -- I am sleeping longer every night. I used to wake up at least once in the middle of the night, but now I sleep at least 7 hours, sometimes 8, before waking up, and i definitely feel better rested now than pre-surgery. I think I had sleep apnea before surgery and while I may still have it, I am sleeping more soundly and better than I have in years. That is also helping me have a good level of energy. One final thing -- I started eating fruit again last week. I bought some grapes the other day and they were fantastic -- like candy to me, but good for me. I think all the time I've not had many sweets has made me more sensitive to sweetness so fruits taste sweeter and more delicious than they did before surgery. Yay, another benefit of being sleeved! So all in all, it's been a good week and a great four months. I am really excited to see how I progress now that summer will be here in a few weeks. I think I will make my July 4th goal to be under 170 lbs. and I am really hoping next week when I post a blog entry I will be able to say I am in the 170s.

Hi there lewisfamilytexas, I saw this topic today and said to myself, "Whoa, I remember writing that topic starter a while ago!" That was 3.5 months ago, and while I still remember that day very well (it truly was my lowest point after surgery) I can tell you that in a few months all the misery you are feeling now will be only a memory. The first month after surgery is by far the hardest -- the second month is challenging in that you get to "relearn" how to eat (and you will be completely amazed at the restriction, and probably have at least one or two times where you overdo it, and that sucks too!) -- and by the end of the 3rd month you should be in sync with and loving your sleeve (at least that has been my experience). I do encourage you to try to not go off your post-op plan until your dr. clears it, your new sleeve is still very much in the early healing phase and you don't want to risk a leak. I remember well that while on the liquid diet I was aching to get out of liquids, and into mushies. Mushies were way better than liquids, but after a few days I started wanting to go onto the next stage. Juliarh was right, you think you want something, but then when you can actually have it you'll probably be like, "eh, what was the big deal?" You CAN get through it, it will suck but you will get through it, and in a short amount of time you will be totally rocking your sleeve! Best to you in your journey! Amazing things await!

So this is my nearly 4 month surgiversary (next Saturday is the actual surgiversary date). I am almost at my midpoint -- 49 lbs. lost, 50 lbs. to go to get to my ultimate goal weight of 132 lbs. That's exciting news! Exciting too to be nearly out of the 180s -- if all goes well that should be happening in less than 2 weeks. I have been battling with some pretty awful snack cravings, which usually hit between 3-4 pm and (depending on when I eat dinner, and what's in the dinner), between 8-9 pm. I find it easier to disregard the snacking urge in the evening but the afternoon snacking urge is powerful, and most days I succumb to it. And it is almost always a crunchy, salty carb snack (lately chex mix and Riceworks Sweet Chili rice chips have been my go-to snack of choice). I was feeling very guilty about snacking because I remember Dr. Aceves warning not to do that. At the suggestion of a fellow sleever I contacted his patient coordinator to ask if I can eat more than 3 times a day, and as it turns out he will allow 5-6 small meals a day, so I translate that into meals plus a couple of snacks, as long as I'm staying below a total intake of 900 calories a day and getting in a decent amount of protein each day. Happy, happy me! I stocked up on some very low-cal snacks (dill pickles) in case I'm running close to the 900 calories a day limit and still want to eat something. I've been pretty active this weekend with gardening chores (in fact am quite sore right now!) and I know that will help me lose weight. I actually lost more weight in April than in March (8.6 lbs. vs. 8 lbs. in March), due I believe to being more active, now that springtime is here. So I am hoping for another month of 8+ lbs. lost in May. I gave a bunch of my old size 22's/2X/3X clothes to Goodwill today and actually went shopping in the store for the first time ever. I found a couple of pairs of capris for $6 each and a polo shirt for $4 so am happy with that ... some extra weekend clothes to wear, especially while I am gardening. I am sure I will go back as I lose weight, as it seems there are a lot more clothes in the smaller sizes than in the larger sizes. I was tempted to buy a couple of pairs of size 14 jeans, but thought better of it ... I can buy those when the time is right. I am definitely still in the size 16/1X zone and no point of pretending otherwise! I guess that is about all for this week ... I am looking forward to next week and hopefully will be really close to 180 next week. I have a ton of garden chores to do this week and hope Mother Nature gives me some decent weather to work in ... if I can do an hour or two of gardening chores each evening after work, I will have a very good shot at being near 180 next week.

I heard back from Dr. Aceves's office -- they said 3 larger meals a day or 5 -6 very small meals a day. What the heck, I am going to translate that into three smaller meals and two Snacks a day. Gaby also said keep total calories below 900 a day, which I've been really pretty good at doing even with the snacking, so I am going to officially consider it OK to have a snack or two as long as I budget my calories appropriately. Becca -- I do like pork rinds and have those from time to time, but feel bad about the calories ... but they do satisfy the salty crunch cravings I have and I think they are tasty! (A little too tasty, I really have to portion those babies out or it's easy to overdo it!) I did a quick shop tonight and bought some salsa and bean dip (to have with a few baked tortilla chips, so I'm getting either some veg or some Protein in when I do cave to a crunchy carb craving). Luckily, I also love dill pickles and just bought a jar -- 5 calories per pickle, so if I get a powerful snack attack and don't want to take in extra calories that will be my go to snack. Thanks everyone for your comments and support! I'm so glad I have this forum, it helps me SO much!!!!