MCM13

Here are some more recent "in progress" photos.
Top left corner is exactly 1 year ago @ approx. 250 lbs
Bottom left is this past Friday night - 6.5 months after surgery - @ 185.8 lbs
Right side is this past Sunday, my 43rd birthday - 6.5 months after surgery - @ 181.8 lbs (72.2 lbs lost) & officially just "overweight"!

Starting weight 338 I was Sleeved 10/10/12 --I am now 181, my goal is 159lbs

Thanks for the post, Puja - haven't seen you around in a while!
This is why I'm hugely grateful for the vet board. Due to the fact that most vets simply do not hang around there was not a realistic picture out there for me about the real (and forever) challenges of maintenance.
It still takes work. I know that I maintained easily before but if I am not mindful of my eating and I avoid the scale I can easily put on additional pounds. And goodness knows it's harder and harder to shed pounds the farther out I get. Not that it was ever an easy task!
Having a realistic maintenance window is a good idea, as is weighing daily to stay on top of any changes. Tiny adjustments over the course of a few days are easy to shed a pound or two. Waiting until you have five or more to lose will be a problem, and it will get progressively harder the farther out you get.
You've done great - one pound is no big worry but a wake up call is probably a good thing.
~Cheri

dont worry.. I was at a cookout yesterday... almost 3 months out.. I ate, I didnt eat as much as i used to.. but i ate.. Quality of life afterwards for me has been nothing but smooth... I dont have to worry about dropping dead everyday.. Im on ONE PILL... a high blood pressure med which i plan on being off real soon.. Down from 5 pills... No more diabetes, No more cholesterol meds... no more anxiety meds.. .. Your not weak,.. This process is not a "I give up". This process is a "I give in" I have actively chosen my life over what I used to live which was sad... What if, what if, what if, no.. So what, Now what? I made myself fat and I tried many things to help me not be fat and not be unhealthy, it didnt work.. SO WHAT, NOW WHAT? Now i had to decide if i was going to do what i needed to do to live.. I chose LIFE! and I want you to chose life also.. sorry if i come off passionate about it, but i am.. Life is amazing when you are taking life by the wheel and controlling it.. I wish you the best

I went through some tough times on this topic myself. In the end I concluded that I saw myself pretty harshly - more so then others see me. I looked at my face in the mirror, and i felt so old looking. Yet, I constantly get unsolicited feedback about how young I look (I am 49).
I think that losing massive weight is emotionally traumatic in some ways. It is a very good thing, but it is a real shocker and for some of us, some feelings of self doubt and perhaps even self loathing surface. I would advise everyone to try to focus on the positive and to realize that with time it really does get better.
I lost 150# - nearly half my body weight - so there is no denying i need plastic surgery to have anything like a "normal" body however - I am not that bad! I look pretty ok in clothes. i look like a normal healthy woman. Out of clothes, well, I don't look good but i sure as heck look better then when I was morbidly obese. Although my face at times looks drawn and old by my eyes - according to people around me I look way younger... i have heard repeatedly that losing weight took 15 years off my looks. I am thinking that is good, since I think it added 15 years to my life!

One is 3 days before surgery attached with 2 months out, and one is Yesterday July 28th.... I just want to say to anyone thats in a stall... Just switch it up... You will not fail... Just do something different... If your running on a treadmill, start doing different kinds of exercises, change your diet completely.. If your eating chicken breast and salad and your in a stall... eat brocoli and fish... and drink a whole lot more water... Stalls come and trust me, stalls go.. I aint where i wanna be yet, and I was in a stall for 3 weeks without knowing it... but when i realized what was up.. I switched it up,.. and im back on the downward spiral... Good luck VSG family!

I did weeks of research before I chose Dr. Alvarez. I searched and searched and could not find one negative review. He's more expensive then most of the Docs down there, but I wanted to be in a full service hospital for at least 2 days. I saw my PCP last week and she's 100% supportive. She will follow my progress, do the necessary labs, etc. I scheduled a follow up appointment 6 weeks post op just to make sure everything's OK. Dr. Alvarez will give me a full surgical report to bring back to her. My surgery is in 1 week, and I'm 100% sure I made the right decision with choosing Dr. Alvarez. My only regret is that I didn't do this sooner.

Sept.16th...2 day pre op Clear Liquids diet

Well, in all honesty, I hope that NO ONE ever told you "this will solve all your problems" because that just isn't the truth. Everyone says (and repeats) this is just a tool. And yep, here I am getting close to 3 years later and guess what? I still have to weigh and measure my food, I still have to be ON my game, or some weight can slip back on.
So on one hand sure it can be frustrating sometimes to have to remain diligent. I did NOT get skinny from this surgery and did not pick to be in maintenance when my body decided to quit losing. But I have made peace with being where I am. (I am battling a bit of a regain +15lbs which I AM refusing to accept and will continue to battle until it's gone) but I have made peace with the fact that I will not have a "normal" BMI. I'm okay with that.
On the other hand, this is ONE piece of the big puzzle. Why did I eat, when did I eat, and what did I eat pre-surgery? And because of having surgery and dealing with some of the issues around my own eating puzzle, I'm forever grateful for having this surgery. Would I have ever been able to lose -85lbs and KEEP IT OFF for 2 years? Nope. Not this girl. I would have already gained it all back by now.
So the answer to the question is the rose colored glasses are MY CHOICE and how I want my journey to be. I've learned that there is NO finish line, there is no DONE and now I just get to eat whatever I want and not gain weight. So I've accepted that this is MY battle MY cross to bear and I refuse to accept defeat. Attitude counts...it's really all up to you and it always has been. The surgery is the tool to help you, not do it for you.

Oh, you really will be grateful for that photo later. The only 'big' pictures I have that really show the difference are shots I wasn't aware were being snapped. I avoided the camera like the plague, took face only shots or hid behind other people in most pictures. So my before/after comparison shots are kinda crummy. I don't think it's easy to see just how big I really was.
In any case, don't hide behind the camera until you're happy with your size. Really - I'm very sad that I have hardly any photos with my kids or with my family for a huge ten to fifteen year period of time. Short of professional pictures that we got done every few years, there's very little. So few, in fact, that my kids (5 and a half) ask me why I don't have as many pictures with them as daddy does. Besides, you'll want a step by step of this journey on film. Sometimes it's the only way to get it into your head how far you've come. I would beat myself up and feel like nothing had changed until my husband would show me pictures comparing before surgery and wherever I was at. The mind will play tricks on you but those photos will be hard proof to yourself that you're making progress when you're feeling down, hit a stall or frustrated that you're not losing sizes as quickly as you'd like.
Good luck with your upcoming surgery, and wishes for a speedy recovery!
~Cheri

Down 86lbs!

My hubby and I are getting sleeved together on 8/1. We have been doing the pre op diet together. We got heavy together and we will get thin together!
~~~Teri

My husband and I are getting sleeved August 2nd. We debated doing it together vs separately and what decided me was the pre and post op diet. Much better to have a friend to do it with, I thought. I do worry a little but about how we will take care of each other post op though. For those who got it together, was that a problem? How did you cope?

You look fantastic. Love your hair curly too. Makes your transformation that much more striking. Congratulations!

Just wanted to share an updated before/after. I reached goal yesterday. 2 years and 23 days, seemed like forever, but so fast at the same time. Life is good
Starting weight, May 2011, 375 lbs .... vs .... Goal weight, July 2013, 150 lbs

Candy reached goal weight by CandyTX, on Flickr

Woohoo!!! Ran first lap, ran the straight-aways for 3 1/2 miles, and I walked the last. I feel great! I can't wait until I can run the full four, but I'm getting there. Drinking a recovery shake, I'm going to let that settle, then I'm hitting the weights.
#feelingPUMPED

Not sure if this is the right place for this... didn't really want to post in the 'success' thread cos I am saving my goal post for their!
Anyhoo... yep! It's just over three years since I had my sleeve and it really has been a roller coaster ride.
Just a little pre sleeve background; fat kid - mother was and still is to a degree a 'feeder'! Nothing sinister in it, she just loves to see people enjoy food and goodies! As a teenager. although looking back I wasn't really that big, I had a really twisted sense of self image and thought I was disgusting. At 16 I started dieting and basically cut back drastically on calories with little affect! Just made me tired. Still unhappy with my body I joined different slimming clubs and over the next 10 years spent a lot of money with no results. In this time however, I was fit. I used to do a lot of sport; swimming, aerobics, steps, gym, a little running, squash, tennis... the list goes on and I loved it. Looking back I was not big and I was not fat... I was just young and very naive; wanting to look like my skinny friends who were 5-6 inches taller than me and completely different body shape!
At 28 I was preggas with my first - my beautiful daughter (we share the same birthday!) who is now 15. Gained a lot of weight and didn't lose any of it. 2 years later preggas again with my beautiful son who is now 13; same story, gained and never lost. So there I was 30 and morbidly obese I can't even describe how unhappy I was and how much I hated myself. I tried all the slimming clubs again, and had no success which really did get me to a real low place. Throughout this time, I focused on being mam. It seemed the only way to get through the feeling of self loathing was to focus on these two precious people and it worked to a degree. However, the down side was that I lost all sense of me.
Fast forward to 2009, I started researching WLS because I knew it was the only way that I would get healthy and fit again. I knew I had to pay for it because to get it on the NHS (here in the UK) it was virtually impossible at the time. Once my job became permanent, I knew I could get a loan and get the surgery. I attended a few WLS seminars and learnt about the sleeve (I originally wanted the band) and knew it was the one for me. I wanted something permanent, like I was giving myself a new commitment.
Weighing 238lbs I was admitted, signed all the papers and was prepped for the surgery the following morning, that was Friday 2nd July 2010. I wasn't nervous, I wasn't scared. I just wanted to start my new life and get 'me' back. The op went well and I stayed in for 5 days - the surgeon wanted clear drains. I am glad I did too, because the first 48 hours were long and a little painful.
The first 6mths I had a steady weight loss, with many stalls. But I was making good progress and generally pleased. I started exercising and feeling good about myself; I was getting stronger and started to like what I saw. My weight loss slowed down considerable and I went down the route of comparing myself to other sleevers in the same time frame - mistake! (Newbie alert - do not do this - it is a pointless exercise as we are all very different and our body reacts differently!) I found my self in a really dark place that was similar to the one I used to go to when I was a young girl. I did continue to lose weight, albeit slowly until Oct 2011! The it all stopped and I have been bouncing around the same weight since then.
I set myself loads of mini goals and targets and never made any of them! That was a kick in the d**k too! I had this image that on my 40th birthday I would be this beautiful slim woman, wearing a killer black dress and knock out heels - nah! I was still obese! And I was gutted.
I would read posts on here that said ' I farted and lost 100lbs' (ok, slight exaggeration, but you get my drift) and think to myself, I wish I could fart that hard! But I couldn't, so I didn't and I just kept plodding along.
My problem was that I had entered early menopause - confirmed when I was 39 and I had started taking HRT. That did one on my system and completely halted my weight loss. I stopped and started different types and didn't get on with any of them. Currently I am not on any medication and I am pretty much 'playing it by ear'!
After the 8mth mark I really upped my exercise and I started going to my son's boxing gym... my goodness me! What a fantastic work out and I really did reap the rewards; not through the scales but physically and mentally. I loved it. I went religiously for a long time - until I had a back injury that stopped me in my tracks. I went to physio and slowly it got better. However, I never really went back to exercising at the same capacity because I was scared that my back would go again. I didn't want to relive that kind of pain and I couldn't afford time off work. I took to walking and some light jogging instead.
Fast forward to today... I still haven't got to my surgeon's goal; I am just 9lbs away and I am I am 24 lbs away from my personal goal (BMI of 24 - not sure that will ever happen). However, I have not experienced a regain and I've maintained this weight since Oct 2011 (with a 2-4 lb 'bounce) - in that time I have dropped two dress sizes - funny how the body works eh? I honeslty believe that I have not regained because I never met goal and this has kept me on my toes and I remain accountable. I never take my sleeve for granted and I am very aware of what, when and why I eat. That doesn't mean I don't eat junk! I do, but rarely. Nothing is 'off limits' to me, I just make choices. The only thing I can't really tolerate is fizzy pop - I can physically drink it, but I hate the gassy feeling and the bloated feeling it gives me, so I stay away.
I am now 3 mths post TT and with the apron gone and some minor muscle repair and I am starting to feel good about myself and this body that holds me. I have started going to Curves and am I feeling the benefit - this is my way back to the boxing gym. My aim is to, with my TT surgeon's permission, get there by Sept/Oct this year. I am also following the 5:2 diet and it seems to be working as I have broken my 'set point' of 164 lbs and am currently sat at 163! Ok, it is only a pound, but after so long of not seeing any movement I feel like a new woman...lol! I am hopefully that I can at least get to my surgeon's goal and possibly even break through that?
Sorry this is so long, I just wanted to put the whole picture out there - although, I am sure I have missed a lot!
I suppose the main thing I wanted to get across is that it doesn't really matter what the scale reads! Even today I am medically obese - and although I hate that label it doesn't drive me mad anymore. I am fit and healthy and that is way more important. I have turned my life around and added 20 years to it; 20 quality years at that. I have started to accept 'me' and for the first time in a long time I quite like Coops; she's alright!
I will continue my Quest to get to goal... I refuse to give up on myself and I now realise that I am worth the effort! As cliched as it sounds but it really is a journey. And one that will never really end...
I will find some before and after pics and update them later!

Thank you PattyGee I an both excited and nervous and to get my life back. For many years I have been battling with my weight and I often am embarrass. But thank God 7/31 I will be on my way of taking back my life!!

I didn't tell anyone at my place of business. They have known I've been working out like a fiend and eating healthier for months now. I did tell my boss I would be out to have surgery. But they did not ask and I did not tell; the laws say I don't have to.
He just said to take care of myself and return healthy.
Oh I plan too! Healthier and smaller. :-)

I'm not a success story yet but I thought it was time to share my progress. I was sleeved 2/4/13. I've lost 95 lbs since my pre-op started.

I'm 5'1 and 4 weeks post op. Down from 203 to 168 so, 35lbs. 15 pre-op.

I agree--Cheri's posts are some of my absolute favorites.

I woke this morning to an email from Alex congratulating me on my anniversary with VST.
What a difference a year makes.
A year ago, I had just decided to move forward with surgery and joined VST after lurking for a few weeks.
A year ago, I was carrying 133 more pounds than I am today.
A year ago, I would never have believed that so many people that I had never met, would make such a profound difference in my life.
So many of you here have been so many things to me that even those closest to me could not be.
You walk in my shoes. We share a unique bond and I am thankful to so many of you for being a wealth of information, mentors, shoulders to lean on and the cheerleaders we all need from time to time.
If you ever doubt that your contribution here matters, don't. I'm still in the throws of my journey and continue to seek out VST as much as I ever did for continued support and information.
I hope to be the same help to others as so many have been to me.
A big Thank you and huge cyber hug to you all! I couldn't have done it without you.
Chris

I've been a Psych RN for 37 years. I work for Orlando Health. I probably would have had my surgery at one of my company's hospitals, but I was denied by Health Choice, (our insurance company) so I'm going to Mexico for the VSG as a self-pay. I've got 10 days before my surgery and I'm really excited. It will be interesting compare the quality of care in Mexico vs. Orlando Health's "Patient First" policy. From what I've heard, I think I'm going to be pleasantly surprised. My Surgeon is Guillermo Alvarez, MD in Piedras Negras, MX>