petal

I never told my son (15) or my daughter (22) anything at all,,, then again i have told absolutly no-one about my surgury period... all they knew was i was having tummy problems and had to get it sorted.. they were a bit concerned but didnt ask too many questions about it,, just wanted to know that i would be fine afterwards..my grandchildren were more concerned and were so sweet looking after megiving tummy kisses etc.. as for explaining my weight loss.... well everyone who knows me knows that i am always on some sort of diet or exercise program, so to them i am just doing that and this one i sactually working.. cheeky i know but as i see it its no-one elses business except mine.. maybe one day i wil tell my sister ..

First I want to say it is great to have a place to be. I am 4+ weeks out and excited and scared. I see a lot of posts about how this is our decision, and it is but it seems to be a common thread that this is about us, but we are not alone. At least I'm not. My family and friends have suffered right along beside me.
Every time my kids needed to clean cause I couldnt stand long enough. The trips my family has missed out on because I am too fat to fly. The pre planning my husband would have to do so dinner out was not somewhere with sides on the chairs. The lack of sexual positions, or my husband not being allowed to touch me because I was embarrassed by the fat. Just to name a few of the sacrifices of others...
We are not alone, and those who love us have been just as frustrated, overwhelmed and hindered by our disease as we have been and so they are not perfect right now, and they may not know how to show their fears but they never gave up on us......
One of the problems as I see it is that we believe we are alone, no different then a crack addict, so we turn to our drug of choice......,,FOOD......food has become our companion, our solstice, our shelter and instead it needs to be those standing on the other side of this wall we have erected, those who would love to be our support if they knew how and if we let them....
My new choice is my husband, I would have been exasperated tooin his shoes. My incredible kids, I chose them. These friends of mine who are my chosen family, they are my drug of choice now....
God,the Universe or Kermit the frog.....don't care what you call it. I chose to accept I am never alone. I didn't get here alone and I can't cure it alone.....
To succeed is to understand, to see all sides, to believe in your chosen outcome. Thank the ones your with, they have been living this hell with you, they just don't get the recognition.

Band to sleeve for me.. definatly no regrets and 1000% happier 10kg loss is 4 wks yipp yip but defintaly do your research and do whats best for yourself and what will make you happy ..best of luck with it all x

I plan to tell people that I went a majorly strict, high Protein, low carb diet. Won't be a lie Just leaving out some details!! lol

It's true. Our heads really do influence our perceptions of even positive things! I did some paperwork for a stripper recently and we started talking about her job. I've posted before that I actually went to a strip club with friends and that I would love to look like those girls do when I get to goal. Anyway, the stripper told me that I should come audition at her club and I was shocked. I'm nowhere near my goal weight and I'd never take my clothes off in public. Her advice to me was that I should really do the audition because they have clientele that wants to see girls who are bigger... she even gave me some advice on dealing with areas that I think are flaws, like my abdomen!
Afterwards, I was stunned that I had to keep reminding myself that the conversation was intended by her to be flattering to me, because my brain kept concentrating on the negatives rather than the positive that this professional stripper was giving me.
Unless I get really desperate or my business tanks, I don't think anyone will see me headlining at the local strip club, but it is nice to know I have career options!

I agree with the others who've said drink more water. The other thing I've found helpful is to go brush my teeth. I know it sounds odd, but "delaying" eating to brush my teeth does two things; my mouth feels nice and clean and I find I don't want to lose that, and the delay is usually enough to derail my hunger. I do take an acid reducer (Dr's RX) daily, I'd check with your doc before adding that.

Olive oil!! I used it for my knee tape incisions.

WHERE IS THE PUPPY THIS TIME LOL... YOU ARE LOOKING FABULOUS.. CONGRATS ON YOUR ACHIEVMENTS XX

No way are you wrong....but if your tone was wrong then yes. My job presents me opportunity to craft my communication skills. So I'm very in tuned to to e and body language.
Instead of saying "do you mind... " maybe you say "John, we're friends and I need your help. I just had this surgery and folks talk about all this fantastic food. It so hard for me. Do you have any suggestions to help me thru this? I trust your opinion." What you're doing is making your problem his problem and most people LOVE to solve problems....even though they can't.
Funny thing....I do this to my wife all the time. She loves to help fix me.
Just a thought.
Coach
Surgery 4/11/12 lost 54lbs as of 5/28/12

I have a nsv! I painted my toenails today!!!

excellent news.. well done x

hello.. I had the band in for about 6-7yrs was all good, then one day just stopped working , i started to regain and didnt matter what i did could not get the scales to move back down... I had my band removed 8 weeks ago. then exactly 2 weeks ago today I was sleeved.. i know its early days but so far I am sooo happy with it, down 7kg in 2 weeks .. pain wise i honestly thought the lapband in and out is more painful, but seriously not that bad,, the sleeve has given me no discomfort at all except obviously the first day but more in the wound site that the stomach it self.. was up and about the next day and still have no pain at all... but then i have a mind set that because i have chosen to do this to myself then I really have no right to complain about pain .. however i guess if I was really in sever pain then I would be crying like a baby lol.. for me it was easy and painless and best move I have done.. good luck with your surgery x

From my point of view this is an awesome thread. Women losing there panties. But I'm a guy and were visual lol

Now, one of the other maxims of weight loss surgery: Never trust a fart.
Congrats on being sleeved, especially with only one incision!
Welcome to the loser's bench!!

I'm only on pre-op liquid diet, so my advice isn't from experience only what I've read, but walking at least 5 days a week, drinking your water, and making sure you eat protein first and veggies next. Don't get frustrated, you have a new stomach, it's a learning process!

ha Ha crazy lady.. i love it... I probably would of stalked him around the shop till i figured out who he was lol

I'm nearing 2 years out, so obviously I eat a fair bit compared to people just out of surgery, but I still only eat maybe 1/3 of what a normal person consumes in one sitting. For what it's worth, I go every single day, up to 3x daily now that I've upped my fiber intake. Raspberries, blackberries, and dragonfruit - if you are not on the crapper 2 hours after consuming one of those, I owe you $50.

So, I'm in Walmart this morning, doing a little shopping, when I look up and see this really handsome black man. He looks REALLY familiar, too. At first I thought he was someone else, but when I asked, he said no, but he's a Dr Domkowski patient, too. That's when I realized I was talking to Mr. J!!!
I've been following his journey here and on You Tube, and I knew he lived here in Vero, but I was stunned to actually see him in person! BTW, Mr. J seriously needs to update his pic on here! If he hadn't been smiling, I might not have recognized him!
It was nice to meet him in person. He's very charming and kind, even when accosted by strange women in Walmart! I imagine he's got his own NSV for today "Some crazy lady came up and talked to me out of the blue!"

"I can't wait for my husband to be able to pick me up. That is what I want my GOAL pic to be; my hubby holding me in his arms like a rescued princess"
I totally understand. I told Ken, my fiance, that we couldn't actually set a date to get married until he was able to carry me over the threshold. He says he could do that now and I let him know that carrying me slung over his shoulder fireman style doesn't count. lol

I can't wait for my husband to be able to pick me up. That is what I want my GOAL pic to be; my hubby holding me in his arms like a rescued princess :wub:

The thing I like about my sleeve is that I can eat anything I want.... as a fat person I didn't eat a lot of food that was BAD for me.. I just ate a LOT of food...
now... I eat anything I want..... I am 7 months out.. and I eat a bite or two of anything I want.. but that is usually all I want of BAD FOR YOU STUFF... I am totally satisfied with just a bite...
THANK you to my sleeve!!
Rhonda

Had my surgery on thursday 10th May 2013.. drove myself home from hospital on the saturday.. felt good enough to go back to work on the monday.. I am a hairdresser so on my feet all day , but have staff to fill in and only did a few selected "easy clients" so not to over do things and had lots of breaks.. and mainly did appointment bookings ect.. all of last week was like that but back to full on the floor as of tomorrow.. hopefully I wont exhaust myself to much.. but will have breaks and sit down as needed ..actually have been very pleasantly surprised at how great i do feel, hope it continues this way ..good luck with your surgery x

For the first time in over ten years I ordered a dress AND I wore shorts yesterday!! I've had lots of small NSV over the past nine months but this has to be my biggest accomplishment. I have my 25 year class reunion this July (that I never would have attended fat) AND I'm running a 5K in three weeks!! I've gotten under my chosen goal of losing 80 lbs having gone from 206 lbs to 122!! I feel awesome....I have self confidence that I didn't know could exist....the simplest things give me pleasure and I can even enjoy things that doesn't center around food...I'll go shopping and lunch is the furthest thing from my mind!!
Everyone enjoy the journey....I am!!

Take the word "only" out of your vocabulary when it's related to your weight loss, please. When have you EVER lost 40 pounds in ONLY 2 months? Never...and this weight loss you know is not coming back with friends.
From February until a week ago (mid-May) I lost a whopping 10 pounds. That's it! But, I lost 3 sizes during that same time period and I started seeing definition in my muscles. My biceps, thighs and abdomen suddenly have muscle that other people can see. I've also shape-shifted so that now my butt is not the size of Texas; it's more like a Michigan now.
Take your measurements and look for those non-scale victories. Do you fit better in your car seat? Are your clothes looser? Do you have more stamina for walking, shopping, sex? THOSe are the things that tell you that you are progressing.
I'm not even sure who posted it, but one person weighed themselves one day about six times in under an hour. During those six weigh-ins, the scale said they had variously: lost 2 pounds, gained 3 pounds, lost nothing, lost 6 pounds and gained 4 pounds. I believe the poster drank a glass of Water during that hour. The scale is NOT the final arbiter of our weight loss success. Don't get hung up on that number, although it's nice to see losses on the scale. It's JUST a number.
There's a set of pictures on Flickr that's called something like "The Faces of Obesity". In it are pictures of all kinds of people, with their weights and BMI listed. One triathelete on there was listed as Obese! The numbers do not tell the whole story, because no one in their right mind would consider a triathlete obese or unfit.

At 3 months out I was down 40 lbs according to my surgeon's scale, 44 according to mine. You will lose at your pace. Try not to compare it to others because we don't lose the same. I was SOOOO frustrated my 2nd month because I gained and lost the same 2 lbs for 4 weeks. It will happen.
You are doing so great! Try to find the little victories, like smaller clothes. This week I had two realizations that just floored me. One is that I don't run into as many doorjambs and the other is I don't feel like I have to contort my body to turn around in public restroom stalls. I can turn around like a normal person. LOL