dreamscometrue

Oh my gosh! You will be way past 75 lbs by the time October rolls around! I'll be looking forward to seeing your progress if you post pics along the way!! Thank you for the compliments! Congrats on your 32lbs so far!

Thank you!!! I'm LOVING the ombré! And I love that you had to do a double take! Makes me smile!

Thank you!! You will totally have that same transformation! I still have another 50lbs to go, but I'm enjoying each step along the way... So funny how we all go from "ugh I have nothing to wear because everything is too tight" to "crap, I can't find anything to wear because every size I've kept in my closet is too big!" This side is MUCH MORE FUN! I wish you all the best luck!

Ha!!! That made me laugh! Thank you!!

I was sleeved almost 5 months ago and I had a surgeon who is with an extremely reputable bariatric group, yet after my initial meeting, I could see he seemed a bit preoccupied and arrogant and rushed. I am in pharmaceutical sales, so I talk to surgeons all day long and I don't think that the "treating people like cattle" necessarily makes me question his abilities as a surgeon as much as his "specials" that he runs. What kind of specials are we talking about? Surgeons are constantly running around like crazy with running back and forth from rounds to surgery centers to dictating to seeing new patients and existing patient follow ups. A lot of people don't get it so I'm sure that's where some negative comments are coming from. In my opinion, I am fine with somebody that may be an excellent surgeon as long as I can utilize the nutritionists, nurses, PA's, etc... with my random questions! Good luck!!

Challenge start- 205 Current weight 203

I knew this was inevitable... The infamous hair loss. I just thought I would document this with a lovely picture to show those who haven't hit the 3-4 month mark yet what to expect (more than likely). Now, I have somewhat thick hair, but it is quite disturbing how much comes out each time I brush and/or wash it! Ugh! Not to mention, all day long, I'm constantly picking hair off of my clothes. So annoying. I just need to walk around with a lint roller attached to my hip! Yesterday, while I was washing my hair, my fingers were COVERED with hair coming out. Then, this picture is what come out of my perfectly clean brush as I was blow drying it. Yikes! Okay, my rant is over.

Hahaha, I have about half of a shoe box full of hair that I've pulled out of my brush. I swear, I could sew a small wig at this point. Today is the first morning that I can literally look at my hair and see it's thinner. Not good, not good at all. Like I said before, I have/had a lot of hair, but I'm seriously concerned now! At this rate, there's no way I'll have enough hair by the 8 month mark!

I LOVE the Miraclesuit swimwear! I know they sell them at Lane Bryant and Nordstrom and Macy's. Those swimsuits are thicker and really suck you in!

Memorial Day Challenge! Current weight- 205 (not sure how the scale went up 2lbs from yesterday, but whatever!) Goal weight- 195 ... Come on, ONEDERLAND!

Starting competition- 213 Final weight today- 203 ** Only 3lbs away from ONEDERLAND!!! Happy Easter, everyone!

That's an impressive amount of weight loss! Do you mind me asking what your height and starting weight was?! Keep up the great work with the exercise!!!

Well, I'm sure it will go great! I'm not sure how much of a notice you need to give your job, but I would be highly surprised if you needed more than 2 weeks off! That would be plenty of time for planning purposes. As for insurance, 1-2 weeks is the time I've read for approval!

Well, I'm only 4 months post op, but have lost 72 lbs (starting weight 277) and I have stuck to LOW LOW carb diet. By time I eat protein, there's no room for any of those carbs! I will warn you to be careful with those crackers so soon out! I just met with my dietician for my check up and she said they just took crackers off of our approved list and can't have them until month 9 because people were gaining weight bc they could eat way more than the 2 recommended crackers! For bread, I'm not supposed to have it till one year. I will say, I have a friend who had bypass (I was sleeved) and she was/is much larger than me by about 100 lbs... Well, we both had surgery within 2 weeks of each other, but considering she is much larger and had bypass, she should be losing way faster and more than myself. Not the case. She eats crackers and those low carb 100 calorie flat bread things for sandwiches every day. WATCH THOSE CARBS!

Like @@Pamalamb, I had a great recovery! I walked 3 miles in the 1.5 days in the hospital (walking laps around the floor) and I think that helped! I was pretty uncomfortable the first 4 days, but I remember waking up on day 5 and feeling much better. I was sleeved on a Tuesday and went back to work on Monday. Everybody is different with this, but those first few days are not fun. Getting in liquids sucks! Vitamins suck even worse. Know that you won't be hitting your protein any time soon; but that's totally normal!! Good luck to you!!

Hey everybody! I just wanted to give a quick 4 month check in since today is the big day! I'm down 72 lbs! In 4 months!!!! I'm so happy with my results and I just had my doctor's appointment a few days ago and they all seemed very pleased and kinda shocked with my numbers! I hadn't been to the doctor since my 1 month post op so I was excited to go! I was supposed to meet with the dietician at 2 and then my surgeon at 2:30, but I learned that apparently I don't get to see my doctor again until 18 months!! I think that's a little crazy but whatever. A few things: I'm horrible about taking my vitamins (ugh, I know...), I've stopped protein shakes and probably need to still get one in a day, and my hair is coming out like crazy!! I knew I should expect it; but HOLY CRAP! Not good at all! Also, I don't measure my food (because I know I don't eat too much) but I decided to tonight just to see. I couldn't even eat 2 oz of pulled pork ... About one bite short of 2 oz. I still can't get over it! Oh, and I no longer enjoy going out to eat with people (unless it's my husband or mom because those two know about my surgery) .... That would be the only downside to this entire surgery, and yes it's because I chose not to tell people and I still am so so so glad I didn't! I watch how other people get talked about behind their backs for having WLS and I don't need to worry about that crap! (Good for you if you never care one bit about what people think about you!) ha! Anyway, heading to bed and getting ready for a big weekend of seeing my husband's family who haven't seen me since Christmas so it should be interesting!!! Happy Easter, everyone!

Hey there! I was sleeved 4 months ago today by Dr. Evanson and was fighting down to the wire to get approved and schedule surgery while I still had UHC because as of January, my company switched to Anthem BCBS and I would have had to do the 6 month supervised diet as well. I can tell you from experience that Angel, the lady at Evanson's office that handles the communication between insurance and scheduling, was absolutely HORRIBLE to work with. HORRIBLE!!!! I started the process last August and was told by Angel... "Do not call me, I will call you once I've heard from the insurance company.." Well, thank god I was on here and finally called in October when I realized my insurance was going to change for the worse and I still hadn't heard anything! Yes, Angel failed to submit any of my paperwork to my insurance. Once I got approved (was within a week once she finally submitted it), she told me there was no way I would ever get scheduled before the end of the year. I was devastated. Long story short, I was sleeved December 17th because I kept being persistent and went around her! UGH!! It was easy and fast to get into a pre-op class... They do them all the time! As for your weight, everybody is all over the board with their weight. Are you being sleeved or gastric bypass?

I'm confused as well! 12 sizes?! Can you clarify?!

So true!!! Ha! Just gave a brand new pair of spanx (sausage casings are what I call them) to a friend of mine because they were too big... Woohoo!!!

Everybody tends to really start losing hair between 3-4 months and people say it stops between 7-9 months. Everyone is completely different, and I've been taking Biotin and my hair loss started a few weeks ago. Yikes!!

That's not strange at all... In fact, it's very typical. That first month has many fluctuations, which is why they say it's best to wait to do these challenges since you really have no control that first month on what you lose.

Well, in honor of Easter just around the corner, I thought it might be an interesting conversation to see what tips and tricks you all do while eating and/or going out to restaurants with friends/family who don't know about your surgery! I was sleeved 4 months ago and I recently have found this getting more and more challenging. I can only use the excuse of "oh I just ate" or "I'm not feeling very well", etc... For example: If I have the choice of restaurant, I try and always choose a sushi place bc I can order sashimi and eat about 5 pieces of that and people don't question it because it's expensive and they know I'm not eating carbs. I also always have a straw with my Water (yeah, yeah) and I naturally will pick up my drink and put the straw in my mouth throughout my meal and not drink out of it. No red flags . Oh, and to all the people who are going to post "That's why I told everybody and you should too..." Go ahead and save your time by not posting! Ha!

Woohoo!!! scale FINALLY began moving again! Last week- 211 Current- 206 Goal- 199.9 *It would take a miracle to hit goal this round, but I'm going to work out like crazy!! Do we know yet what the next challenge will be?! Memorial Day???

Soup is another great one!! It was especially great all winter, however summer may be a different story. I always feel so weird just ordering a cup because the waitress usually says something, to which my friend or family member will say "that's all you're getting?!"... I need to take your husband's advice and start not caring!

Yeah, I wouldn't do the drink thing, but all of my family and friends would probably notice, seeing as I used to easily get 2 or 3 refills of water during every meal at a restaurant. I seem to be fine when it's a group of people, but it's becoming harder and harder when it's just a meal one-on-one! I like the "doctors orders" thing!