Swift Kate

Celebrating today- 75kg down in 8 months I am one happy sleever!

Thanks sue, kelli and Aussiegirl for your feedback. It is hard to get goal weight info from both my surgeon and dietician ... I think there might be a conspiracy between them!!! Sounds right about the old percentage being related to a smaller sleeve. I'll just remain quietly optimistic that I will get into the sixties. Oh and I too must up the exercise.
Good luck with the surgeon today misty.
Kate

based on your quick results so far, you will get there.

I am getting my SLEEVE on May 14! I have to have a telephone appointment with the dietitian first but may not need to do a pre-op diet at all since I am under 100 kg. The surgeon would have been happy to sleeve me this Friday actually! But I have several commitments including travel to America next week and a concert to play on May 11.
I am thrilled. Need to talk to my husband about it to make sure he is ok with the dates and need to talk to the private insurance. Also need to sell the rest of my stock. Looks like the out of pocket will be 6500 plus the anaesthetist and hospital few. Two days in hospital.

Thanks sue, kelli and Aussiegirl for your feedback. It is hard to get goal weight info from both my surgeon and dietician ... I think there might be a conspiracy between them!!! Sounds right about the old percentage being related to a smaller sleeve. I'll just remain quietly optimistic that I will get into the sixties. Oh and I too must up the exercise.
Good luck with the surgeon today misty.
Kate

Hi everyone - Just touching base as like puppyphat, things have been going along quite nicely. I have done my catch up read and can see more and more people joining our thread and a few of the old crowd ducking in for a visit - wow Shell!
I am still concentrating on my maintenance but have dropped another kilo over the last few weeks - now weighing 61.4kg (167cm and 51 yrs old sleeved on 18 July 2012 - pre-op weight 103kg for those of you who don't know my history).
I keep talking about exercise but I haven't got to my free personal training sessions yet!!! I kind of feel guilty when I see how fit you all sound!!! Great work guys - you know who you are!
Misty - when I made the decision to get the sleeve I looked at the all the options of weight loss surgery and based my decision on what side effects I could live with or tolerate for the rest of my life. I have ended up still having to take Nexium for excess acid/reflux - some people have to be on this for the rest of there lives and I might be one of them - but hey I knew there was a chance of this a long with all the other risks but I would do it all again - the sleeve was defiantly the right choice for me and I am so happy. It is a big decision and with all the information from the surgeon, you will be able to make the right one for you. Remember - this is all about you - no one else - so it is what you can live with going forward. Good luck with you appointments.
Lissa - damn those red frogs! I have had my episodes too - mainly from eating too fast but thankfully nothing recently!

Congratulations Dean!
Friend and mentor to all!
From this months newsletter;
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT- MEET DEAN
We’re delighted to introduce you to *Dean* for this month’s member spotlight! He’s a Police Negotiator and a detective in child abuse who works in an Australian police department in Child Abuse. This 43-year-old has been married for 16 years, and he has twin 8-year-old daughters. Dean had a lifetime of yo-yo dieting. In his early 30's, he dedicated a year to weight loss, and lost about 150 pounds through diet and exercise with a personal trainer.
As he changed from a 9 to 5 office job to shift work, got busier with family and grew older, Dean had even more trouble controlling his weight. Over 10 years, he gained back 110 pounds and continually struggled. Over a year ago, he started to look into weight loss surgery over a year ago, and got the sleeve in November of 2012. He’s already down 88 pounds from his high of 302 pounds, and has only 34 pounds left to hit his goal weight of 180 pounds.
Since surgery, Dean is happier, more confident, more energetic and less hungry. Before surgery, he says he was preoccupied with food. Becoming free from the hold that food had over him lets him enjoy people and events instead of focusing on what and how much he could eat. He also learned that he was an emotional eater before surgery, even though he didn’t realize it before. Dean is learning not to give in to “head hunger,” and to instead drink some Water, exercise or talk to someone instead of eating.
Dean has met some of his Australian VerticalSleeveTalk.com friends in person and would one day like to meet his American friends. He tries to answer other members’ questions, both to help them out and to keep himself on track! To help you succeed, Dean suggests planning your food. He also says that he’s getting better at listening to his body to match his foods to his body’s needs.
Dean, congratulations on your weight loss so far! Thanks for sharing your story and tips with us in the Member Spotlight!

Wow, so much has happened, so many new people.
Nothing new has happened with me, still sitting between 55 and 57kg, I eat popcorn, had a jd and coke on the weekend, love and enjoy my skim lattes. I've joined an oztag team called "the butchers, the bakers and the cocktail makers". Bought a whole new business wardrobe for my new corporate job starting Monday. All size 6s and 8s.
Anyway, that's kinda why I've been a bit AWOL lately, because everything's been going so well.
Hope everything is going so well for everybody else.

LOL I had a much better day today guy's And thanks for the support and the kind words about my new pic. I thought it was time to pop up a new one! Had a good day today, ate well (lots of fruit today) and I feel a lot better tonight!! Suffice to say that we now have a red frog ban in the office.
It shall now go down in history as the "Red Frog Incident" - thanks Kelli
Hope you're all doing well! And have a great weekend! Cheers, Liss

OMG I stuffed up today. So I started my new job. It's awesome but it's a management role. I am responsible for the clinical decisions that over 20 staff (across several disciplines) make. Stuff happened (not important) and what was my response? Red frogs. I don't even bloody like red frogs. But they were there and I crammed them into my mouth. I at about 10 of the little bastards.
Now I've puked a LOT since the sleeve. But I swear to god nothing was more disgusting that spewing up those red frogs. So damn embarrassing - staff knocking on the toilet door to see if I am okay - apparently the sound of my puking had the added bonus of echoing down the hall to their office. And not to mention so GROSS.
So now I am quite unwell tonight, I suspect that my blood sugar is dangerously low again but I am so nauseated still from earlier, I dare not eat anything. I've had a little black tea with some sugar in it (not great but better than nothing)...
So just when I think I am kicking it with the sleeve and addressing my lifelong issues with food, I fall right back into the same old mistakes at the first hurdle.
Tomorrow, I am getting gum to chew at work...stupid, stupid, stupid

Yes very quiet. Hope you are enjoying your break Kelli. I haven't been up to much - just trying to get my head around going back to work on the 7 May after over a year off!
I met up some old work colleagues this week that didn't' know anything about my weight loss - you can imagine the shock on their faces when they saw me 40kg lighter! My old boss kept asking if it was really me and looking at me and laughing all through lunch! It was really amusing. They rang me up later that day and they were still in shock!

Happy Belated Easter everyone!!!
Welcome Bec! Glad we could help you with your decision. As the others have said there is probably very little that we havent seen between us.
Swift Kate, congrats. It does feel great to see the numbers moving in a downward direction...enjoy the compliments there are going to be more and more of them
You definitely learn how to take a compliment through this process.
It is also not unusual to feel down or flat. In life we generally have moments when get down about things...I hope the break has helped get some pep back in your step.
Sue, you will have to let us know how the workouts go.
Kelli, hope the high Protein diet is working for you. How was the tiramisu?

Don't feel guilty - everyone makes there own choices about who they tell and who they don't. I don't think it matters - your standard answer when people ask how you did it can be just 'hardwork!' - which is the truth! Enjoy the compliments! I myself have probably been too much of an open book - I think shop assistants a bit taken back (and curious!) when I tell them how much weight I have lost and how I did it!

Don't feel guilty - you've lost 18 kilos, I'm sure you look great!

Thanks for your support sue and dean. I am lucky to have 5 days off over Easter so have been quite relaxed. Have lots of school work to do but have planned that for tomorrow and haven't thought too much about it this weekend. Certainly not complaining about it this weekend as I have lots of time to do it. Had Easter lunch with family and tried whatever I wanted but extra small portions. My lovely brother and sister in law kept telling me how well I looked. I haven't seen them for a few weeks. They don't know about the op and i did feel a little guilty keeping it to myself.

Thanks for your support sue and dean. I am lucky to have 5 days off over Easter so have been quite relaxed. Have lots of school work to do but have planned that for tomorrow and haven't thought too much about it this weekend. Certainly not complaining about it this weekend as I have lots of time to do it. Had Easter lunch with family and tried whatever I wanted but extra small portions. My lovely brother and sister in law kept telling me how well I looked. I haven't seen them for a few weeks. They don't know about the op and i did feel a little guilty keeping it to myself.

Kelli - thanks for the Easter wishes . Hope you have a happy one too and a nice break.
Kate - As Dean said, I think it is quite common to go through a flat period. I went through mine when I moved from liquids to mushy food. It didn't last long as each day went by and the weight came off. I have been very lucky that I took a years leave of absence from my work so I no other stresses going on. I am sure you will come out of it.
Dean - 40kg is a big chunk of weight - you must be so happy - only 15kg to go! I know that I am amazed that I have lost 40kg - it still seems like magic but is slowly sinking in! Well done!

Teaching, a bit like law enforcement, is often a thankless job. I'm on the board of my kids school and there always seems to be something new we're expecting of them.
I think teachers do a terrific job. I had a career change a lot of years ago. I worked for a bank and wanted to check out of the corporate lifestyle, for a number of reasons. Primary school teaching was on my short list.
I hope things get easier at work. I'm sure they will as soon as you get your energy back, the national curriculum gets sorted out and we find a cure for helicopter parents!

Thanks Deano,
What you say certainly makes sense. The dietician discouraged counting calories as she said that by doing that it makes it seem like a diet. As long as I get my 60 gms of Protein in I should be ok. That said I haven't been eating fruit so will try and add that. I noticed Lissa saying she as upped her vegetable/salad intake so will try to do he same. Your third point hit the nail on the head. I know am an emotional eater and thinking about it I really do miss eating away my tiredness, stress, happiness,etc. Work has been really busy and stressful lately so maybe there is a connection. I am a teacher and have a principal that micro manages everyone and everything. Have been working 10 hour days (7am - 5pm) and then an extra hour or two each night at home. The crazy part is about half of the stuff we have to do is irrelevant. The latest task we have is to work with a colleague as a type of coach to each other. We have to start meeting weekly for a minimum of 2 hours. What the? One poweball...
Kate

Thanks Deano,
What you say certainly makes sense. The dietician discouraged counting calories as she said that by doing that it makes it seem like a diet. As long as I get my 60 gms of Protein in I should be ok. That said I haven't been eating fruit so will try and add that. I noticed Lissa saying she as upped her vegetable/salad intake so will try to do he same. Your third point hit the nail on the head. I know am an emotional eater and thinking about it I really do miss eating away my tiredness, stress, happiness,etc. Work has been really busy and stressful lately so maybe there is a connection. I am a teacher and have a principal that micro manages everyone and everything. Have been working 10 hour days (7am - 5pm) and then an extra hour or two each night at home. The crazy part is about half of the stuff we have to do is irrelevant. The latest task we have is to work with a colleague as a type of coach to each other. We have to start meeting weekly for a minimum of 2 hours. What the? One poweball...
Kate

Milestone for me today. Or I guess I should say kilometrestone .........
I thought I'd share in here ....... metric doesn't mean a lot to everyone outside of our thread!
I'm in my 20th week post op and today I hit 40 kgs gone.
15 kgs to go and I'll be at a BMI of 25, which is my goal at the moment.
Happy day,
Deano

Hi Kate.
That's an amazing loss. Congratulations. You're already almost half way to goal and your BMI is about to drop below the 'obese' category. You have a lot to be happy about
I experienced a flat few weeks. For me it came down to 3 possibilities -
1. Eating so few calories of course I felt flat
2. I've heard fat stores hormones so maybe some of that was being released
3. (and this one was a surprise for me) I found out I was an emotional eater. I now know I ate when I was stressed, worried etc etc. I had times when I wanted to eat in volume (like I used to) but couldn't because of the surgery.
1. and 2. have sorted themselves out. 3 is a work in progress but I'm most of the way there. I've found other, healthier ways to deal with stress and other emotions. We've all heard them before. Exercise has been a big one for me. Talking more as well.
I'm well and truly out of that 'flat few weeks' now.
All the best,
Deano

Kelliv, good luck with the new advice....
Nessa, dont let it get you down too much. Your body is probably readjusting after months of loosing. I would often gain a small amount of weight and then loose it is some of its friends the next few weeks or so. Now I am maintaining, I can easily swing 1.5 kgs up and down over a day *shrug*
I was talking to my trainer today and said that I wanted to loose another 2-3kgs to be exactly half what I started out at, to which he replied where from? You are all muscle
It gave me a bit of a smile, cause he isnt one to just say nice things for the sake of it. I ofcourse had no problem showing him exactly where it needs to come off...
But I will call that win of the day.

Congratulations Kelliv on getting into the 70's and size 12 pants. I've been reading your posts and it's really nice to hear that you have reached another goal. Hope you enjoyed your gold day.