buttahfly

Ok, so its not exactly how it sounds but Friday I will finally become a mom... and it's a boy! I have been trying to adopt for over a year and he is coming to live with me this weekend. After four months of rushed evening visits and having to take him back after a weekend stay, he is finally coming home for good. This was one of the reasons I had the surgery--so that I could be a healthy and active mom. I still have a ways to go, but I feel better than I have in many many years. These last months have been life changing, and the surgery was the best thing I could have ever done for myself!

Heads up people, GIANT post!
I have not been a "sporty" person most of my life. I had periods where I went out dancing, or swim laps at a local gym. About 2 1/2 years before I got surgery, I noticed a slow decline in my health. I could hardly get off the couch without making old man noises. I could see my future, and It wasn't pretty.I was 55 years old. So I thought about what kind of movement I might actually like, because I knew from being alive for years already, I don't move unless I like it. I have a gym close by that is a rock climbing gym. I did this for a short time because my boyfriend/husband did, and it looks cool to see others do it. I thought, I'm going to that gym, and take a yoga class to start things out. Flexibility was attractive to me. I went into the gym with a friend, took a yoga class (sorry all), HATED IT, because it was too hard for me. I loved the gym though, all giant fake rock walls and cool townies climbing. I looked at the list of classes, and saw Bellydance. You heard it... they had a weekly bellydance class. I had taken bellydance in the 70s, for a few months, and I had always thought, "If I hadn't quite that class as soon as I did, I would know how to bellydance now! And I decided to go to the class and try it out. OK. I loved it. It was HARD, but I loved it. There was cool music, you could wear a skirt and jewelry while you exercised, and no shoes. The ladies were super nice. I made a committment then and there to go to class for 5 years and do at least one public performance. This last friday was my 5th year at bellydance, and I STILL love it. I even took some Tango lessons at the gym, and lately started weights. Around the same time I also started "co-teaching" a walking class at the day program I work at... so I get paid to walk 45-60 minutes twice a week with a group. Heres the thing, I don't feel like I can't get off the couch anymore. I butt-dance in my car when I drive if good music comes on....my body shape has changed s-l-o-w-l-y over the years, and when I lost the (now 71 pounds)weight you could actually see some muscles and shape underneath. I don't think the exercise was a huge factor in my weight loss, but it was a huge factor in feeling great and sexy and connected with my body.I found some things I like to do, I don't have to be good, just committed... and in the last couple of months I have added walking in nature, birdwatching, and taking photos as well. I go out to take photos and birdwatch, and I just happen to be walking at the same time and don't even realize I am exercising until I check my fitbit and see I have gone 2 miles and totally enjoyed myself AND got some practice with my new camera. Just saying, moving is a lovely part of life. I also like to move more because I can eat more when I do. I use my fitbit to track my output, and can eat a little more when I exercise a little more.... its even enough so Im not hungry, which happens to some of us after a few years(or even earlier than that) That is a motivator for me too. LONG POST, sorry if its tooooo long, but thats my story. 2 1/2 years out, lost 87- gained 22, lost 7.... still going to get to goal if possible. I have not gotten to goal yet... but happy and looking good!
Here is a pic of me and my little dog going out for a day of birdwatching on my 60th birthday last saturday... walked 3 miles and saw some fantastic nature! Find something you love to do that involves moving, and do it! Best of luck to you all!

To keep on working on myself. I want my inside to match my outside...whereas before surgery and goal I really felt that the outside was what needed changing. In fact, my problems started inside and the weight was just a sign of the problems in my life. I spent years being fat because I was hiding myself and didn't want/feel I deserved to have real relationships with other people. Slap on an extra 100 pounds and a mean look and people leave you alone, you know?
I have been told how pretty I am my whole life and I suppose that due to a myriad of totally screwed up experiences I tried to distract from that with ugly behavior. I want to be more grateful. I want to be happier just as I am...without feeling like I need something else to happen before I'll allow happiness into my life. I have come so far in my life and I have done an amazing job taking care of my family and being a mom to my kids...things that, quite frankly, have taken a lot of work and effort for me, because I grew up in such a terribly messed up home. If you learn how to parent and how to have relationships from your family as a child, who teaches you how to do things properly if they're completely backwards and harmful? Loving people or letting people close to me does not come naturally. Being nice, being friendly, being open, being unselfish...those things take effort though they are becoming more natural as I continue to work on them.
So for me, the most important thing is to make sure that who I am inside and how I'm feeling match the woman on the outside, who is pretty and smiling and looks like she has it together. I want kindness and forgiveness to be my first responses, not irritation or frustration. It's hard. I'm a work in progress and I want to keep working. I also want to remember that I always get to try again tomorrow. And every day I work on me, the REAL me, not just my body, it gets easier and I feel less like I'm acting or performing.
That's got to be progress.
~Cheri

Hey everyone, I hope that your day is going well thus far. :-) Just wondering...when you think about this journey of better health, what is the most important thing/goal, etc to you? The key is to pick only one thing. I'd like to see what you all think. For me, the most important thing to me along this journey is that I NEVER GIVE UP. This is not easy & sometimes I feel weary/overwhelmed when I think about how hard I have to continue to work to accomplish my goal & maintain a healthy BMI, but I refuse to give up. I've given up too many times in the past & that's part of what got me to 303lbs to begin with. No matter how hard it is....I...Must.....Keep...Pressing....On. (Sigh) WE WILL DO THIS LADIES & GENTS!!!

1 year ago today I was wheeled into surgery, I was such a sad person, I was so unhealthy and had tried everything i could to lose weight. Today I'm 125 lbs lighter and over 96 inches of fat lost (that's 8 feet of fat!). Thank God I took this step!
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I was reading a post on another thread and one thing really hit me hard and that I had been thinking about constantly. For awhile now, I have been thinking about food constantly. I'm not hungry, but I will sometimes eat anyways. I am so tired of this behavior and it has to stop. So I'm hoping others will share how they manage these pesky thoughts and stay on track. I believe it has lead me to grazing behavior. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Time to kick my butt. I can't even go to mall now because I know how to get free chocolates from See's candies. I am so sabotaging myself right now.....
I know others are struggling with this too so now what do we do and how do we change this?

I usually say that I just eat less and cut out carbs. But for the one super nosey gossip lady at work, I leaned over and whispered in her ear "lots and lots of sex". She stopped asking and it made me smile

Hi All,
I rarely come on the forums anymore. It seems that, once I got past the really tough times with my band to sleeve revision I just drifted away.
Anyway, I realized that I will be 2 years post-revision in a couple of weeks and I should probably report in and let the newbies know about my experience. If you want to know specifics about my surgery, you can look through my profile posts - it is hard for me to remember all the details now.
I had a lap band for 4 years and it sucked. I got my lap band at 215 pounds and ended up at about 195 pounds and was gaining slowly on top of that. I couldn't eat chicken (did I mention the band SUCKED?). I wanted the band out, but I was afraid I would baloon up higher than ever. For me, the sleeve was an insurance policy. I did not expect it to work because I had already been through weight loss surgery that did not work. Why would I expect anything different the second time around? I was 100% afraid to dream that it might be successful.
And, of course, I was wrong
The sleeve was everything the band promised and more.
On surgery day I was somewhere between 195 and 200. I went to Dr Aceves and would recommend him without hesitation. Band out and sleeve in, took less than 90 minutes. No complications. Good pain management.
That's when the tough stuff really started. I couldn't drink the Protein drinks because I couldn't handle the smell or taste. Because of this I barely ate or drank anything for weeks. Everything tasted so weird / bad. I was significantly fatigued for 3 months because could barely get any food in. I chewed my Vitamins and took my omeprazole like a good girl.
The apex of my weight loss occured after about 9 months. I got down to about 127 pounds. Mind you, at no time was I ever "trying" to lose weight. In fact, I was "trying" to get enough quality calories in my body. Since I ate so little, I couldn't mess around with junk food - I only ate food with good nutritional value. I also found that Certain foods were just harder to eat. I craved chicken, but I had a hard time eating carrots (they stick!).
I would say I didn't feel completely normal until about a year had passed.
At this point I have levelled out in the 135-140 range and I am thrilled about it. It is easy for me to get down to 135 (and lower if I wanted to) by just cutting out one snack a day or quitting drinking alcohol altogether. I weigh myself maybe once a month and if I see myself creep towards 138-139, I start cutting out a couple of things and get back to my comfort zone.
It has been hard in the last 6 months because my father committed suicide leaving me with a contentious legal battle with his wife. I started drinking a couple of drinks every day because of the stress. That has kept me in the upper end of my range, but it is still easy to maintain. I find as time goes by, I stopped drinking every day and only a couple of times a week - it made me less puffy :-)
So, my lifestyle now: I don't exercise. Yes, I know - that's bad. I do have tons more energy and I walk more in my daily life than I ever did before, but I do not engage in regular exercise. I try. I do my best. I'm just being honest. I still have a hard time getting even 30 ounces of Fluid every day. The taste of Water changed for me the day I had surgery and I have had a terrible time replacing it. Sometimes I have fizzy Water. Strangely, beer goes down very easily. I developed a Starbucks mocha habit after the first year, but I limit it to one a day and get nonfat most of the time. I also started drinking iced coffee. I eat 5-6 times a day (I limit it to 5 if I am actively trying to manage my weight). I eat Protein and veggies. I just started liking sandwiches again, but find bread and rice both expand in my stomach and make me very uncomfortable after I eat them. Even now, I eat too fast sometimes and can be in terrible pain from fullness.
I still can't drink after I eat. I drink as much as possible up to the point where I put food in my mouth and then no liquids for an hour or more - PAINFUL!!
I could never have done this without the sleeve.
I am completely happy with the result.
My life isn't "normal" because I still have to think about carrying Snacks with me so I can have good choices while I am out of the house. I still have to eat slowly. I still have people in restaurants badgering me about why I didn't finish my food. The difference is that I wear size 8 jeans and size 4/6 dress. I can walk / run around Disneyland for 10 hours with my daughter without major breaks to sit down. I rode a bike with my kid just this week and it was awesome. I finally feel like I fit in with my world. The outside reflects the inside.
I feel much happier now, also, because people are used to me being this size now. Before people were always making a big deal out of the wieght loss. I don't like talking about it. I hated the attention during the loss because I was very guarded about the surgery. Now I have been the same for a year and a half or so, people don't comment about it as much and I love it.
My future: well, the biggest surprise for me is that my husband and I are thinking about having another baby. My daughter is 8 and I had my tubes tied 6 years ago. I scheduled my tubal reversal with a specialist in Beverly Hills at the end of March. I will be 39 in a couple of weeks, but the doc says my FSH level is that of a 25 year old and my husbands sperm count and motility is off the charts! I used to be super-fertile before my tubal (just look at me sideways, and I was knocked up!) so we will see if that is still the case in a couple of months.
Also, I finally finished my Bachelors degree 21 years after I started :-) I graduate in June.
My life rocks! I was already lucky to have a good man, a great child, good job, and overall good health. The sleeve and weight loss are the icing on the cake for me. I'm a lucky lady.
With gratitude,
Lara

I love the medically supervised/ diet & exercise explanation!! Think I'll go with that!! *clapping like we're on Family Feud* Good answers!! Good answers!! Thank you all!

I remember once when Oprah had lost a lot of weight...she heard that people were saying things like "Well, she's rich, it's easy to lose weight when someone cooks all of your food and does everything for you." She was talking about it on her show and basically said...she was the one who had to make healthful dietary choices every day and refuse her beloved Ruffles potato chips. Her wealth didn't do that for her. And she is the one who had to get her butt on the track and walk every day. She couldn't pay someone to do that for her.
I think it is so similar when people say that VSG is "the easy way out." We are the ones who have make sure that every morsel we put in our mouths is good fuel for our bodies and resist head hunger. The surgery doesn't do that for us. We're the ones who make special holiday meals for our families and then don't partake in most of it. The surgery doesn't do that for us. We're the ones who go to the gym even when the weather isn't good or we feel like going to bed early instead. The surgery doesn't do that for us. We're the ones who keep drinking (and drinking and drinking) Water when part of us would rather hang out with our old friend Diet Coke or Frozen Margarita. The surgery doesn't do that for us.
And you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way. Yes, the surgery is a tool, but I still feel that we own and deserve every hard-earned victory we see on the scale and every NSV. If others don't understand that, it's okay. I know that I haven't taken the easy way out, but I also know that what I'm doing is an investment in something very important--me. And that's something that money definitely can't buy.

I had surgery October 17th and am down 64 pds so far! I feel so good! Just wanted to share

Sure!
Breakfast : 6:30 sipping / eating for 1 hour. medium ice vanilla latte from caribou coffee- not sugar free, with 2% milk and 1 turkey bacon mini sandwhich from caribou. Total: 400 cals, 20 grams of Protein
snack 9:45am : babybels cheese 60 cals, 6 Protein.
Lunch: 1 large egg made in to egg salad with regular mayo, 1 serving of cheezits. Total: 320 cals, 10 protein.
Snack: Stoney field farm yogurt- organic banana flavor - 1 cup 200 cals, 9 protein.
Dinner: steak burrito bowl from chipotle- about 2oz of steak, cheese, sour cream, 2 tablespoons of Beans, 2 tablespoons of rice and hot salsa. I figure about 350 cals and 15 protein.
Dessert/ late night snack, edys whole fruit Popsicle. 100 cals.
Very typical day- I get burrito bowls and eat them for days! And at 2000 cals I eat similar, like 2 eggs at lunch and a little more meat for dinner- and ususlly some veggies at dinner and sometimes for my afternoon snack.

It takes a little while to get over the omg phase, but when you really see and believe the difference in your body, you will be sold on it. For me it was the first pair of pants that fell off as I was walking. Then it was the going in any bathroom stall and fitting. I still have a hard time believing when I hold up my pants that I will actually fit in them, but slip them right on and they are a little big. You won't regret it.

The first on st pattys day 2012 the other one was taken this st pattys day 74 pounds gone
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Has anyone tried Rogaine for Hair loss or hair thinning ?

April 6th i will be 5 months out and i am down 70 lbs!!! 47lb away from onederland woohoo !!!
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Today marks 5 months post op. I have lost 62 lbs. I feel great and I have so much energy. I love my sleeve!
First time posting picks on here...

Today marks 5 months post op. I have lost 62 lbs. I feel great and I have so much energy. I love my sleeve!
First time posting picks on here...

We had a recent thread about lying about the surgery. I don't like lying but I do like being a wise guy.
Here are some not-to-be-believed answers for the question:
How did you lose the weight?.....
I went swimming in a river in Borneo and contracted a rare fat-eating bacteria.
I only eat foods that begin with Z, I am getting sick of Zucchini !
I am on the Werewolf diet. Where did you say you live?
It is psychological bulimia. After I eat, I think of a catastrophe that leaves you and me as the only survivors in the world. The food comes up pretty quickly.
I eat from a plate made with a picture of my mother-in-law's face on it. The more I eat, the more I see.
It's Water loss. I urinated yesterday and couldn't stop.
I am oppositional defiant. I have my wife command me not to over eat.
I am still overweight. I am wearing a partial cloaking device.
I have gone through an inter-dimensional switch. Fortunately, the alternate reality me was thinner.

Diet Coke was my vice pre- sleeve, I would drink 100 oz or more everyday. It was a bad habit. It was awful detoxing off of it during my pre-op diet, headaches and cravings. I have replaced it with unsweetended iced tea and Water. I am almost 6 months post op and I would never consider adding that back to my diet. I guess had it not been such a big and negative issue for me than maybe one here or there would be okay but one was never enough and I don't want to take the chance that I develop that habit again. There is no value in that choice for me anymore.

I just started couch to 5k ...I hope it helps me get to my final goal.

Coastal Maine

I have found that I lose a while, then it slow/stops for a while. It's just the body's way of dealing with the changes. I have noticed however, that I still lose inches during the slow times which kept me going and encouraged... Good luck...Be patient with your body...