BANANA PANTS!

Thanks from me, too! I have Lupus so I've been eager to hear the experiences of other "chronically awesome" people!

CHRONICALLY AWESOME !!!! I'm so stealing that term! I just posted a new bolg entry - but had to go on steroids this past week. Guess what? NO WEIGHT GAIN!!! I actually lost 4 lbs. So happy that I did the surgery - I'd be doing a happy dance (if I could) right now!

this all sounds great! 65 pounds is a lot...almost to 100. how much more do you have to lose?

I am now half-way to my goal. I had about 140 total to lose. My healthy weight is 125 - so I would say I am about 1/2 way there - but looking at an uphill road for the last half! I am just going to keep thinking about it as an adventure and will enjoy the ride/struggle...

Thank you for inspiring me to develop goals that are not focused exclusively on the scale! I can't wait to make my own list.

Melody2 - You are welcome - I feel like I have now payed it forward as I got this inspiration from someone else on this site my first week after surgery. An interesting note about my goals - when I first wrote them down I thought they were achievable, but I had no idea how fast so many of them would happen or how realitively easy it would be to meet the goals. My strategy was to have realistic achievable goals to inspire me on the days when the scale mocked me - and it was a huge success in terms of keeping me looking at the big picture. But I honestly was surprised at how realitively easy they were to achieve - it's interesting how differently I think about this process almost 5 months out than I did 5 days out! I was so afraid it wouldn't work, or that I would be a "slow loser," but now I realize that it's going to work, that success or failure is up to me, and most importantly - for the first time in my life I have to ability to make weightloss a success.

what a great post. Good for you! I needed to read that today. Although I have had great success with my weight loss- 76 pounds since January 14th, 2013-- I have been really depressed these past 2 weeks and I don't really know why.

Melissa - and really everyone who posted on my blog,

The feedback from people here is really meaningful. I truly appreciate your kind words, encouragement, and feedback - because there have been days when I needed to read something positive about someone elses journey just to get me out of my funk!

Melissa - 76 lbs?!?! I am jealous!! I do know what you mean though about having days/weeks where you get depressed or in a funk. I've been there. All I can say is to keep looking forward (or maybe look back and see how different you are today than you were on January 14th)!

Anyway - it's good to get this kind of supportive feedback - and I just wanted you all to know how much I appreciate it!

I really like the 10% BMI goal. I'm 5 months out, and I'm still thinking in terms of numbers of pounds for weight loss, while percentage might be more realistic. Of course I'm not losing as quickly as I did in the beginning, but as I think about it, my BMI is quite a bit lower, so that makes sense. Thanks for a very obvious, but important, ah-ha moment.

Jennie - I knew the scale would be fickle on a day to day basis and I knew that having a more global view of the weightloss process would help me keep my focus on the big picture. I think this was my one relatively intellectual thought during my pain-med haze of the first week post-op! I'm not losing near as fast now either and I knew it was likely going to take me a full year to lose my weight, so the percentage has been a good tool for me. I'm not gonna lie - part of me hoped I would be one of those people who had lost it all within 6 months - but the reality is that it's going to take a year. Not sad about this though - I'm focused on enjoying the journey.

Thanks for sharing your story, it was very uplifting for me!

Best wishes!

Thanks for posting - I learned so much and got such great inspiration from reading what others wrote as well - it sort of normalized the experience for me.

Hope you continue to do well! and take it from me, don't become addicted to scale. It's a recipe for disaster! The stalls will come. Pictures and how your pants feel are less stressful ways to measure your journey:)

Thank you for your kind words!