Spatters3

Well here's an update.
Down to 245. I guess that makes 120lbs lost. I still maintain a fairly strict diet. High Protein, low carbs, fairly low fat. I have a weakness for Gatorade, watermelon, and about once every two or three weeks, I MAY get a Cheerwine (for the NC peeps) slushy. I try to keep things in the 1000-1100 calorie range until I hit the weight I want to be at, then will adjust from there to maintain.
I havent hammered down a true diet yet, but over the course of a day I may eat a pack of Lance cashews, which is a meal for me now, a boiled egg, maybe a half a chicken breast, or whole one over the course of two meals, and some green vegetables (broccoli is a favorite), or Beans of some sort, and generally some Water and a 32oz Gatorade. I don't necessarily eat those foods every day, especially since eggs add a lot of calories, as do the cashews.
I eat a lot of Beans, chicken, cashews, and quinoa. Those are pretty much staples in my diet. I try to shy away from beef, but will occasionally grab something from a chinese place with mixed vegetables as a rare treat about once a month. No bread, no candy, no sweets. Once or twice a month I may grab a sweet tea while at a restaurant, old habit, and I never drink it, and don't know why I order it. Occasionally, at my bi-weekly Men's group before work every other Thursday, I'll get grits, an egg over easy, and add a little butter. I eat maybe 1/4-1/2c cooked grits, and all the egg.
I run occasionally. Can't sit still any more. Hate to sit at home. Have to be doing SOMETHING. Got a couple issues to straighten out post marriage and will join the YMCA. Basically, I don't have a checking account (weird, I know), and need to set one up in order to have my payment drafted from the account to pay the YMCA. They don't take debit card, and I wasn't paying 3 months up front right now with cash, as Im still paying off some of the ex's debts that she miraculously racked up in my name.
As far as weightloss.... I went down 100lbs quick, like 3 months or so, then stopped for a few weeks. I went down another 5 or so, and stopped again for a week or so, and now down another 15, and slowed again. Not worried, it will come off. I haven't really tried pushing it yet. I have 15 pounds until I reach my goal weight. My focus then will be to tighten up what I have and rebuild some muscle, and see where I am. I may try to continue to lose more weight while trying to build. I know adding muscle will add weight so I want to try to even them both out. I also mean by adding muscle I mean not trying to get ripped, but just building some strength back to an acceptable level. I'm not weak, but I have gotten a little weaker through the process, enough to notice, but it may just be because Im active again and doing stuff I haven't done in years.
Goal is 230. Over weight by the charts, but a number my surgeon and nutritionist agreed on since I'm pretty broad in the shoulders and hips. My hip bones stick out as is where I am now.
The start....

And now.... here's a cheesey mirror selfy showing my progress... excuse the dirty mirror. I had all the kids this weekend and havent cleaned the bathroom since they left. Apparently toothpaste is supposed to go elsewhere besides your mouth and the sink.

I like having my taste buds back. Mine went wonky for awhile and while it really did help me with the weight loss, it was also a bit of a sadness. I can remember during that time that the world wasn't as brightly colored. It impacted my emotional state slightly.
Now, food tastes good, but, because i eat pretty clean most of the time, I feel like I really enjoy good food the most. Of course, i haven't been to the fair yet this year!

Oh how I wish I could have my post-op taste buds back. You know, the ones that make everything taste blah or even bad.
My family and I went to the state fair in our area over the weekend. I had a little bites of a bunch of different foods. The difference between this year and last year is that the food actually tasted good this year. Last year I would take a bite of something sweet or fried at the fair and it was just gross so I didn't bother. This year quite the opposite, it was all so yummy. Why can't this surgery change our taste buds forever?
I am still grateful for my sleeve. I was able to enjoy myself and eat like a thin person...a bite of this and that. BSL(before surgery life) I would have gone to the fair and eaten myself sick, it would have been all about food. This time, I was able to go and enjoy myself and my family. I could walk around without sweating like a pig. I could actually walk and walk without being uncomfortable.
Now, if those surgeons could just figure out a way to change those taste buds for good, and while they're at it our brains, too!

GUESS WHAT GUYS?!?!?
im 6wks pregnant!

being diagnosed with some other life threatening disease/disorder brought to light because of so many pre-op tests or because of becoming accutely self-aware of how your body is functioning (mine is cancer, and because of the latter reason).

Shouldn't have gone there, BCA.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn offered the following explanation: “ Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: 'Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.'
Since then I have spend well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: 'Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.' [9] ”
Vox Day notes concerning atheism and mass murder: “ Apparently it was just an amazing coincidence that every Communist of historical note publicly declared his atheism … .there have been twenty-eight countries in world history that can be confirmed to have been ruled by regimes with avowed atheists at the helm … These twenty-eight historical regimes have been ruled by eighty-nine atheists, of whom more than half have engaged in democidal162 acts of the sort committed by Stalin and Mao …
The total body count for the ninety years between 1917 and 2007 is approximately 148 million dead at the bloody hands of fifty-two atheists, three times more than all the human beings killed by war, civil war, and individual crime in the entire twentieth century combined.
The historical record of collective atheism is thus 182,716 times worse on an annual basis than Christianity’s worst and most infamous misdeed, the Spanish Inquisition. It is not only Stalin and Mao who were so murderously inclined, they were merely the worst of the whole Hell-bound lot. For every Pol Pot whose infamous name is still spoken with horror today, there was a Mengistu, a Bierut, and a Choibalsan, godless men whose names are now forgotten everywhere but in the lands they once ruled with a red hand.
Is a 58 percent chance that an atheist leader will murder a noticeable percentage of the population over which he rules sufficient evidence that atheism does, in fact, provide a systematic influence to do bad things? If that is not deemed to be conclusive, how about the fact that the average atheist crime against humanity is 18.3 million percent worse than the very worst depredation committed by Christians, even though atheists have had less than one-twentieth the number of opportunities with which to commit them. If one considers the statistically significant size of the historical atheist set and contrasts it with the fact that not one in a thousand religious leaders have committed similarly large-scale atrocities, it is impossible to conclude otherwise, even if we do not yet understand exactly why this should be the case. Once might be an accident, even twice could be coincidence, but fifty-two incidents in ninety years reeks of causation![10]

I once did a concert at a mental institution. I met a man who insisted he was Frank Sinatra Jr. To the best of my knowledge he was not.
I did not feel offended by his delusion, it was not a threat to my "beliefs", I was not compelled to find a way to stop his self expression. In fact, I was kind to him and worked around his delusion. We are both human beings and deserve tolerance which I define as "space to be".
I believe in God. I have also spent many hours discussing my faith with highly intelligent atheists. Many have exhibited graciousness and although quite opposed to my beliefs maintained a civil dialog. I feel like real warmth and mutual respect was established.
There are many ways we can relate to each other. I try to relate as I see opportunity without sacrificing my identity or character.
My Savior ate with tax collectors and rank sinners which bothered the religious folks terribly. He was not put off by the differences, he found a way to embrace the unlovely. I am not as longsuffering as He, but I'm working on it.

I never forward anything that tries to emotionaly manipulate me into forwarding no matter how much I agree with the content. I am not a cyber puppet.
Amazing how bent out of shape people get at religious expression. In no way does the post do anyone any harm. Unless someone is trying to behead you let it go.

I forgot to attach it, so here it is.....

Thats it. No big news...just happy.
Finally got my "cruiser type" bike fixed and bought a used mountain bike (both from a bike hobbiest guy who custom fitted it just for me). Best $50 I recently spent. I went for a little ride last night and thought "wow - this is alot easier at 155 then at 300+++.... LOL. I am going to do another little ride after work today.
Tonight, i am meeting a friend for a horseback ride. Okay, i do that alot, nothing new, but I just can't believe how "full" my life is now. I look back at the person who tried to be active but often sat at home watching TV because the body couldn't keep up with the heart and desires....
It makes me happy to every day be living the life I want!

Yes, I sometimes regret that I can't eat a lot of food like everyone else. Which is exactly why I needed the VSG

Yes, I sometimes regret that I can't eat a lot of food like everyone else. Which is exactly why I needed the VSG

Yes, I sometimes regret that I can't eat a lot of food like everyone else. Which is exactly why I needed the VSG

Yes, I sometimes regret that I can't eat a lot of food like everyone else. Which is exactly why I needed the VSG

Yes, I sometimes regret that I can't eat a lot of food like everyone else. Which is exactly why I needed the VSG

Yes, I sometimes regret that I can't eat a lot of food like everyone else. Which is exactly why I needed the VSG

Yes, I sometimes regret that I can't eat a lot of food like everyone else. Which is exactly why I needed the VSG

Yes, I sometimes regret that I can't eat a lot of food like everyone else. Which is exactly why I needed the VSG

Yes, I sometimes regret that I can't eat a lot of food like everyone else. Which is exactly why I needed the VSG

Please do expand upon it, I can appreciate not wanting to kick other people's sand castles, but the thread was started to get responses from people that are unsatisfied after 6 months or more. Besides, when you do not tell your story, nobody wins, people who read your post are left to assume what they will, and you don't get a real opportunity to express yourself.

This morning I was at the grocery store in the check out line, I began to unload my groceries onto the conveyor belt and the lady in front of me kept glancing at the items that I was putting on there. I was a bit self conscience at first because it was normal occurrence in the past for people to take a second look at the full buggy of food that I was purchasing. It was "normal" for me to be piling up the conveyor belt with things that aren't good for me and that helped to get me into the position I was 9 months ago right before I had my surgery. It was normal for me to have Cookies, chips, prepackaged foods like chicken nuggets, pizzas, lasagnas, then ice cream, candy, hamburger helper meals and a TON of sodas.
But now, I am one of THOSE people that I felt self conscience around (although they didn't do anything to make me feel this way except for to make better choices in the food that they purchased) Today, my purchases consisted of fresh fish and chicken, lots of fresh veggies and yogurts. I chose to skip the chip, cookie and soda aisles and I am not missing a thing! (And as an added bonus, my grocery bill has gone down!)
Woo-hoo!!!!

I dunno... the normal-sized stomach humans would all be miserable and hungry and we'd be happily munching away on locusts and what-not and getting satisfied.

Apocalypse post op vs pre op:
I cannot believe someone else has also considered this very issue. This was one of the reasons I have now started down the road to vs surgery. I am so not physically ready to "battle" in my pre op condition, but I hope and expect post op to be a (pardon the expression....i gotta dream!) "a lean, mean fighting machine"!

I dunno... the normal-sized stomach humans would all be miserable and hungry and we'd be happily munching away on locusts and what-not and getting satisfied.