patrice1

My results with the sleeve are completely different. I DO get sick eating sugar, rich foods, etc. It has been 8 years since my surgery and I have kept the weight off (100+ lb. weight loss).

My results with the sleeve are completely different. I DO get sick eating sugar, rich foods, etc. It has been 8 years since my surgery and I have kept the weight off (100+ lb. weight loss).

My results with the sleeve are completely different. I DO get sick eating sugar, rich foods, etc. It has been 8 years since my surgery and I have kept the weight off (100+ lb. weight loss).

My results with the sleeve are completely different. I DO get sick eating sugar, rich foods, etc. It has been 8 years since my surgery and I have kept the weight off (100+ lb. weight loss).

My results with the sleeve are completely different. I DO get sick eating sugar, rich foods, etc. It has been 8 years since my surgery and I have kept the weight off (100+ lb. weight loss).

How are you doing these days? I am 55 and I have recently been approved for surgery. Very excited to get on track myself! Just found this group. You know, "we aren't getting older we're getting better" (remember that old commercial)? Well, we ARE!

Hi! All the best to you - I remember being where you are and looking at all the photos (I still am in progress!) Here are a few of mine. I started out at 289.8 pounds on day of surgery (6/20/2014) and am at 206 pounds currently with 56 pounds left to go. Excited for all of us; I don't regret a single day after having my surgery.

Hi! All the best to you - I remember being where you are and looking at all the photos (I still am in progress!) Here are a few of mine. I started out at 289.8 pounds on day of surgery (6/20/2014) and am at 206 pounds currently with 56 pounds left to go. Excited for all of us; I don't regret a single day after having my surgery.

You look amazing!

Hi! All the best to you - I remember being where you are and looking at all the photos (I still am in progress!) Here are a few of mine. I started out at 289.8 pounds on day of surgery (6/20/2014) and am at 206 pounds currently with 56 pounds left to go. Excited for all of us; I don't regret a single day after having my surgery.

Hi! All the best to you - I remember being where you are and looking at all the photos (I still am in progress!) Here are a few of mine. I started out at 289.8 pounds on day of surgery (6/20/2014) and am at 206 pounds currently with 56 pounds left to go. Excited for all of us; I don't regret a single day after having my surgery.

Amazing!! 4 days post op. Your and inspiration!!

I have some experience with online dating, and I have dated men I met in other ways. I gave up about 4 years ago and started focusing on me. I've spent that time doing a lot of things on my bucket list that I had not done before then. Even my decision now to do WLS has nothing to do with losing weight to be pleasing to men (this was NOT the case all of my life about diets. It was always about 'this is what men expect me to be'). I was glad to shed that expectation. My Dad really promoted his daughters being thin, and it was extreme. Not that I blame Dad for my choices, but I think I rebelled. I am a pear-shaped, tall, and big boned woman. I literally could feel my ribs sticking out on the top, and had larger legs and butt, while the scale read a low weight, I always looked heavier. Even thin, many men did not like my body.
My first husband was great about me, and after 17 years, sadly, our marriage ended. I did eventually date online, and met my second husband. That marriage lasted a year and was physically abusive. I simply was naive and had a "learning experience" from that. It ended ten years ago, and while I dated here and there, even one seriously for awhile, I found that I needed time to really sort through all my issues. My fat was a protective wall around me, for many reasons, some personal and I won't share here. But I found out that binge eating is an eating disorder. I was a serial dieter, but could never keep it off for long.
When I made the decision to have WLS, I went in to therapy, which I am still in and will stay in. I find this time without men to be very important. I am ready to shed the pounds and the protective walls of fat that keep men away.
However, even my thin friends, the ones with the body types that men like, who seem to have the perfect body, have the same issues with men. They meet the duds and the sweethearts. They have to do the same things we all talk about here. I think it is an important reality check to know that being overweight, while making it more difficult to navigate the dating world on a superficial level, my thin friends also get hit on for those same superficial reasons. They get their hearts broken at the same rate.
I really believe that as we love ourselves, living our lives as fully and happily as possible single, as counter-intuitive as it may seem, is exactly how we attract the better guy, the one who wants to meet a fabulous woman, with a happy smile and a happy life, and one who respects and loves herself. A man with the same qualities will find that attractive.
However, I have made peace with the fact that he perhaps may not come. I am fine with that. My WLS will give me a healthy life, that will enable me to be around to see my children get older and have children of their own. I will be able to travel, and walk, and hike, and dance .....
I know this is long, but I am finding my life again. WLS is the first step. I am open now - to all of life. I'll let you know what I find on "the other side." You all give me such inspiration! Love this topic.

I have some experience with online dating, and I have dated men I met in other ways. I gave up about 4 years ago and started focusing on me. I've spent that time doing a lot of things on my bucket list that I had not done before then. Even my decision now to do WLS has nothing to do with losing weight to be pleasing to men (this was NOT the case all of my life about diets. It was always about 'this is what men expect me to be'). I was glad to shed that expectation. My Dad really promoted his daughters being thin, and it was extreme. Not that I blame Dad for my choices, but I think I rebelled. I am a pear-shaped, tall, and big boned woman. I literally could feel my ribs sticking out on the top, and had larger legs and butt, while the scale read a low weight, I always looked heavier. Even thin, many men did not like my body.
My first husband was great about me, and after 17 years, sadly, our marriage ended. I did eventually date online, and met my second husband. That marriage lasted a year and was physically abusive. I simply was naive and had a "learning experience" from that. It ended ten years ago, and while I dated here and there, even one seriously for awhile, I found that I needed time to really sort through all my issues. My fat was a protective wall around me, for many reasons, some personal and I won't share here. But I found out that binge eating is an eating disorder. I was a serial dieter, but could never keep it off for long.
When I made the decision to have WLS, I went in to therapy, which I am still in and will stay in. I find this time without men to be very important. I am ready to shed the pounds and the protective walls of fat that keep men away.
However, even my thin friends, the ones with the body types that men like, who seem to have the perfect body, have the same issues with men. They meet the duds and the sweethearts. They have to do the same things we all talk about here. I think it is an important reality check to know that being overweight, while making it more difficult to navigate the dating world on a superficial level, my thin friends also get hit on for those same superficial reasons. They get their hearts broken at the same rate.
I really believe that as we love ourselves, living our lives as fully and happily as possible single, as counter-intuitive as it may seem, is exactly how we attract the better guy, the one who wants to meet a fabulous woman, with a happy smile and a happy life, and one who respects and loves herself. A man with the same qualities will find that attractive.
However, I have made peace with the fact that he perhaps may not come. I am fine with that. My WLS will give me a healthy life, that will enable me to be around to see my children get older and have children of their own. I will be able to travel, and walk, and hike, and dance .....
I know this is long, but I am finding my life again. WLS is the first step. I am open now - to all of life. I'll let you know what I find on "the other side." You all give me such inspiration! Love this topic.

I was sleeved on the 20th as well. Sleeve twins.

My husband and I will Celebrate our 35th anniversary in July. I was small when we married and didn't gain weight till after I had children. He has loved me this long and can't see it changing. He is so proud of me and tells everyone how hard I work at getting healthy. I believe we will be just fine when I get to the goal line. I can see where things might be different in younger couples where people are getting a lot of attention that they didn't get before. The temptation can be overwhelming for some and with the ease of meeting people on line, the possibility of being attracted to somebody else becomes more possible. For us older and settled folks, the temptation for romance is not as great and I think we are more into being healthy, looking good, and being able to be active.

My marriage is stronger 2 years later, but it has taken work. Communication is the keys to happy marriage. Before surgery my husband and I had a long heart to heart talk. Let me start off by saying my husband is skinny and has never had weight issues. During our pre surgical talk I told him that I felt like he would sabotage me when I would try to diet in the past. I would start losing weight and the he would buy sweets and tell me to have the will power to deny myself the sweets. So fast forward to about 2 months post op. I was losing weight and although I was nauseous I was excited about my results. Hubby went to the store and came home with a chocolate cream pie. He said I know you can't eat much, but this is like Jello and creamy. I got hurt and started to get mad. Typically I would be mad and stay in our bedroom for a while. Today I decided we need to talk about it. So I told him this is what I was talking about. I felt like it was a sabatoge to my surgery. He apologized and said he still wanted to eat something sweet at night. I said that was fine, but he needed to find something I did not like. So we settled on coconut cream pie because I hate coconut,
The other issue we have had is jealousy. My mom made a comment to him before surgery about being able to handle men hitting on me more when I was skinny. He began having dreams of me running off with another man. Once we talked about it. I told him he loved me when I was overweight because he loves me for me. No other man could love me that way.
So communication is the key. You must be willing to ask the hard questions, and listen to those answers with an open mind.

I have worked my entire life, even when I was a kid, I found odd jobs to do: a paper route, picking fruits and vegetables at a farm in the summer... I was raised that way. Through the births of my children, I was back to work quickly. I also have a developmentally disabled adult child to care for, and although she is in an adult residential program, she comes home frequently and I am involved in her care. I have relocated to other states four times in my career, and work long hours in a demanding job that I love, but it is stressful. I also take two classes a term on top of that to keep my skills up. As you can see, I have driven myself for a long time and take pride in my work ethic. I am also almost 56 years old. So , all that being said.....
I decided to take the advice of my surgeon who wants me off for 6 weeks. To take the time to take care of myself and use the time to heal and truly rest and get used to my new smaller stomach and digestive issues. I decided to be kind to myself and take the time I need to take care of me. So much of my life has been about taking care of others and getting things done (all of which I loved doing). But there comes a time when I knew I needed to truly rest and take care of myself for perhaps really the first time in my life. Perhaps the lack of making self-care a priority is part of the reason I got so overweight (I think so).
In other words, learning healthy self-care and compassion for what my body may need to fully recover, seems wise to me. Sure, it's hard, I think about work and all I need to do. But this is all part of learning a new lifestyle for myself. I also am very fortunate that my wonderful company pays 100% of my salary for the first 6 weeks, so that makes it easier perhaps than some others to do this.
And one last thing -- several WLS speakers came to the classes that we were required to take prior to surgery, who gave their testimony that they fought their doctors on returning to work too early (in a week or two). Both ended up having complications that set them back. For me, I'd rather get solid first, and then go back and stay back.
Just my thoughts - everyone is different!
Patrice

I thought I would post my goal pictures. I have not had plastics yet...I wore this outfit to the seminar I spoke at last week..
Here goes! See my hubby..Isn't he cute!!!!!!!!

When I had the surgery done I remember during one of my check ups they asked me to set a short term goal and a long term goal. My long term goal was to be 120. The nurse smiled and said that I should do something a little more realistic and asked me to think about aiming for 160. I agreed, but in my head I promised myself I wouldn't settle for anything less than what I wanted. ... I made it! I stayed focused. I followed all the rules. Never chested. Never ate things I shouldn't. Never over did it. Never ate and drank at the same time. ...but I freakin did it! That nurse was happy for me but I so badly wanted to shout I TOLD YOU I COULD DO IT

Today's my 7 month anniversary for my conversion from lapband to sleeve. 90 pounds down and 60 to go. Feeling pretty proud of myself even though my weight loss has slowed and I'm still struggling with "just wanting to eat things". For the most part, I'm eating around 1200 calories, 85 gm of Protein and getting 100 oz or more of Fluid in. I've been walking about 3 miles a day four or five times per week. Know what? My dog has also lost some weight!!   

My surgeon has warned me as well that most of his sleeve patients have some sort of acid issue, of varying degrees. He said that if I can live with the risk & possibly be on meds for quite a while, then sleeve was a good option for me. And that if I couldn't bear the thought, RNY eliminates reflux almost always. I'd still rather take a pill daily than have my intestines moved around...
347*294/285/135 (*347HW/294SSW)

I decided to have weight loss surgery in December 2012. It took mow way to long to get through the pre op process. I finally had surgery 2/19/14 it was the best decision I have ever made. I am now down 75lbs today and feel amazing. I am now in regular size clothing and feel more confident every day.

Isn't it crazy to see it works? I was sleeved on 6/19 and went to my Dr follow up yesterday and in down 14.6lbs since surgery!
Congrats to you!!

Wow that's amazing
Congrats