Ree

I live about 2 hours away from my family. I went to see them last month but no one ever said that they noticed I was losing weight (well except my aunt who notices EVERYTHING!) but this past weekend I went to visit them and finally people are starting to notice. My grandma said "Honey are losing weight? I just noticed your face is pretty" lmao!! and my mom said "whatever you're doing keep it up because its working". No one came out and asked me how I am losing weight though but my aunt did ask me how much I lost and I didn't tell her. Do you guys answers those types of questions? I am no where near my goal but it still feels good to know people are starting to notice the weight coming off. Ok, so it took 70 pounds to lose before people started to notice my weight loss (or if they noticed before they didn't say anything). How much did you lose before people started to notice? Oh and no one knows about the surgery except my husband.

I have tried most of the flavors that came recommended and I hated them all! I have found something that I do like though and its not as expensive as the Quest bars. The bars I eat (usually for breakfast) are the life choice protein bars (double chocolate is the best!). The bars have 190 calories, 8g of sugar and 21 grams of Protein. You can find them in Walmart for about $4 for a box of 5. They also have a chocolate mint flavor but those are harder to chew. The double chocolate is soft and chewy. Seriously love these bars!

Todays weight: 206 And super happy with that number!

I honest to God have no idea what I was thinking when I took a sip of wine yesterday, but let me tell you my stomach did NOT like it one bit. I had less than 2 ounces but it BURNED my stomach so bad. Just to clarify, wine is on the "no no" list, right? I'm not even a wine drinker but we were in the store shopping and they were giving out free samples of wine so my husband and I went ahead and got some to try. I wasn't thinking, that was it. I wasn't thinking at all! I feel fine now but what was up with the burning like a minute after I took down the wine? Is there carbonation in it or something? Well anyways, not doing that again!

Please tell your husband ASAP. I know for me it was very hard to tell my husband, not because I was worried about what he was going to say but because it was me admitting to him that my weight has gotten so out of control that it required me to 'go under the knife' to cut out a large portion of my stomach in order to help me get my weight under control. Honestly though I don't think I could have done this without his support. Actually I KNOW I couldn't have because I choose not to tell anyone else in my life. My husband was my support system, 100%.

Today's weight: 209

Todays weight: 211

Is the recovery room the room you go to before they bring you to the room you'll be staying in for the rest of your stay? I only remember them waking me up after surgery and knocking me back out when they could see I was in extreme pain. The pain was horrible!! When I woke up I was in the room I stayed in for the rest of my stay in the hospital. I shared a room with another person. The person I shared a room with was in her 90's and wasn't all with it. She kept grabbing the curtain that separated us and kept on trying to grab me, which wasn't good because I was still in pain. I had to keep calling the nurse in, finally they moved her bed somewhere else.

I purposely scheduled my surgery during a time when I was pretty certain I wouldn't be on my period. Is there any chance that you can do the same? I know some places aren't that flexible with scheduling, fortunately my surgeons office was a bit flexible when I was scheduling the surgery date.

I hate having to make this post but I'm concerned and need some advice because I don't know what to say or do. I got my surgery done back in December and I've been doing great, since starting this journey I've lost over 60 pounds. However I'm worried about my husband. See, when we started dating (we were teenagers) he was somewhere between normal weight and underweight. Very skinny. In the last 4 years (since I found out I was pregnant 4 years ago) he has gained about 40-45 pounds. He says that his metabolism just isn't what it use to be anymore and that he thinks about food all the time. He doesn't take a lunch to work and when he comes home he overeats on foods that aren't good for him. He wakes up in the middle of the night to eat too. He says he cant sleep if he doesn't eat something. If I don't finish my meal or if my daughter doesn't finish her meal, he eats it in addition to his meal. Now I don't eat the same types of foods he eats. He buys the foods he wants but he will eat dinner when I make it. That's the only meal we actually eat together. I don't want to see him go through what I went through with the weight gain. It's a horrible thing to go through. Right now he is in the 'overweight' category but I feel like if he keeps treading down this path its not going to help any. If I say I am going to make such and such for dinner he always says to make sure I make enough. Example: His idea of enough is a 2 pound steak, of which I am only eating less than 3 ounces of and so is my daughter. He will eat the rest. If I don't make "enough" food (according to his idea of enough food is) he gets upset and says "what the heck am I going to do with that? I'm not a child" referring to the portion size, which is an average portion size for an adult. How do I talk to him? what do I say? He is extremely stubborn and set in his ways. I've already said to him that I don't want him to go through what I did with weight gain because I know how it is and it's a horrible thing to go through. He just sat there and listened but didn't say anything.

CW: 213 Challenge goal weight: 205

Your surgeon didn't explain this to you prior to surgery? I was a little freaked out by it too when I first heard that the little staples don't come out. Watch this video, it talks more about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MRWaAlaJF8

I've always wanted to do that because I know there are many great benefits of doing that but oil in my mouth makes me gag so bad, I can't stand it. So instead I am using something called Earthpaste and it's great! They use Redmond Clay as a base and its all natural. They only use the clay and essential oils in the earthpaste. My daughter loves it and I don't have to worry about her swallowing toothpaste because this stuff is safe to swallow. In fact people ingest Redmond clay all the time for health benefits. Just thought I would throw that out there as an alternative for people who have a hard time tolerating oil in their mouth but want to try something more natural.

Once you are at least 3 months out from surgery, go find a pair of jeans you wore prior to surgery and try them on. You'll be shocked! Better yet, when you are having a bad day go put on those pants, because that will remind you how far along you've come in your journey. So today I was trying to decide which type of jeans to buy online because the ones I just started wearing 3 weeks ago are already too big but even worse they are too long (I'm short, only 5ft tall), actually the "too big" part doesn't bother me at all. So I tried on an old pair of jeans that I wore just days prior to surgery to check the length, and OMG I couldn't believe how big they were on me. It took all I could just to hold them up as I checked the length on the jeans with my sneakers on. I swear there must of been at least a good foot between my body and the front of the jeans as I held them out from my stomach. Well I'm already down 4 sizes. As embarrassing as this is to admit, I was a size 28 and I'm a girl (a guy in a size 28 is good, but a girl?) I am now fitting in to a size 20. Super excited about that! I wonder when the rest of my family will notice my weight loss? Only my observant aunt noticed when I was only 2 months out from surgery. No one knows I had weight loss surgery except for my husband.

I'm in too!! I'll be back on Sunday to record my current weight for that day and what I set my challenge goal weight for!

Ending on a Sunday works great!

I haven't read the responses yet but I would have been one of those people who you thought were still very fat. See I am only 5ft tall and even though I have lost 60 pounds (surgery was exactly 3 months ago), I am still considered 'morbidly obese' according to medical terminology. BUT I lost 60 pounds!! I feel great and I'm thrilled to see the number on the scale go down instead of up (which I had been use to prior to starting this journey). This thread (original post) just reminds me that even though I feel great about losing weight that people who see me and don't know me still see me as someone very fat.

I have always been told not to weigh myself everyday and to limit it to once a week because its easy to become obsessed with the number on the scale and often times (for me) can set the mood for the day. Now I'm starting to hear a lot of talk on here about people weighing themselves everyday or every other day. So I was wondering how often people actually weigh themselves? Since the surgery I have tried to limit myself to weighing in on Wednesdays and Sundays. If I'm not happy with the number I see on Wednesday (1 pound or less of a loss) I will usually weigh myself on Friday to make sure I stay on track.

Is it too late? I was so busy yesterday that I forgot to report back to this thread. I reached my challenge goal on Sunday of 215!

Prior to my surgery I put together about 2 weeks worth of crockpot meals. I prepped everything in freezer bags and when it was time for dinner (about 8hrs earlier) I would just plop the contents of one of the freezer bags into the crockpot and let it go. I did many different chicken meals and some steak fajita meals. My husband and daughter enjoyed them. It's not too late for you to do that if you wanted to. It makes things so much easier. A good site to check out for some meal ideas to freeze is: www.whoneedsacape.com

Will there be an Easter Challenge as well?

Current weight: 218 I have a week to 3 pounds to reach my goal of 215. It's possible but the last few weeks have been slow losing. But I am trying to look at the bright side of things. When I initially started this journey I had over 150 pounds to lose, now I have less than 100 pounds to lose. When I look at it that way it puts a smile on my face.

CW: 220

The only other discomfort I get sometimes is located under my left ribcage, but I figured that was just build up from not being able to go to the bathroom for a few days. Usually after I go, the pain goes away. This left shoulder pain is new and it's not a whole lot of pain but it's irritating. I usually get this kind of pain if I'm sitting in a weird position for too long but once I get up and move around the pain usually subsides. So far it hasn't left.

I'm about 10 weeks post op and last night I started getting left shoulder pain, it hurts more when I inhale deep. I was wondering how common this is? My surgeon said if something was to go wrong it usually happens in the first 6 weeks. So is this just a fluke or something I need to get checked out?