JustWatchMe

Thanks and you too!

@@gowalking I deal with those deserving issues daily as my divorce begins. It's a challenge daily to keep my head in a healthy space. I pray a lot. I never used to but I do now. I've also been seeking out emotionally healthy people to be around. Also new behavior for me.

@@enjoythetime, where have you been girl? Missed ya!

Thank you for your service!

It's a difficult but temporary time. It helped me to have my protein shake and nothing afterward for half an hour even though it was all liquids. Protein stayed longer and satisfied longer. I was on liquids for six weeks post op. First fill was at six weeks. I lost 50 pounds before my first fill, so that was very encouraging.

@@maygoddess hang in there! You've gone through a lot and you're doing great. I hope the next month flies by for you.

Approval is insurance related so you will probably have almost no wait. I have insurance and first consult was in September and surgery was in March.

Every party has a pooper.

When your bony ass hurts sitting too long on a hard chair.

Here is my NSV. This upcoming weekend I'm helping my nieces move furniture into their 3rd floor apartment. Why is this an NSV? Never in a million years would I have been able to climb the darn stairs, much less cheerfully volunteer to carry furniture up three flights! I can't wait to be around these twenty-somethings and get some good exercise! *cue Urkel* "Did I say that!?!"

Congrats! I want one !

I thought that too! Thank you to all of our veterans!

Good luck!

I couldn't walk a block to church or stand in one place for more than a few minutes without horrible back pain at 302 pounds. At 198 I have zero back pain. I don't even take my Tylenol most days now. I was living on prescription NSAIDS for years. Good luck.

I never had headaches.

Perfect.

Living well. That is all.

Ginger, I love how BariatricPal "unnecessarily censored" your post. Cracks me up.

Good for you! My most recent was realizing that for the last two weeks I've been wearing my first ever pair of designer jeans. Gloria Vanderbilt size 16. I got them at Goodwill off the 18w rack and didn't notice the size. Or the label! I never fit into designer jeans when I was a teen.

Went jeans shopping Sunday and size 16 is where I am but now it's hard to find a good fit. Lots of belly skin and belly fat to squeeze into these designer (!) jeans. I didn't purchase any. Maybe next week. I'll take that problem over the problem of weighing 103 pounds more. Fasting day today. I'll bring some cheese to work for lunch and combine that with a Quest bar and some almonds. Although leftover roast beef sounds good, I know it can be too difficult to get past my band on a fasting day.

I answered you on the November thread. You got this. You GOT this!

I wish I could show you a glimpse of your life next year at this time. Becoming banded was the key that opened the door to me being able to live again. The weight loss is tremendous, of course. But getting control over my uncontrolled eating was the first piece of the puzzle in putting myself back together. My official pre op diet began eight months ago. Nine months ago my life took a devastating turn. My marriage disintegrated and I felt hopeless. I clung to my upcoming WLS as a life preserver. It was so hard to let go of overeating while I struggled daily to make sense of what was happening and what I was going to do. The grief and anxiety was so strong that sometimes my appetite was literally gone. It was not pleasant. I knew that getting control in my otherwise out of control situation was necessary. It was my motivation. It worked. I made it through the pre op and the surgery and the post op six week liquid diet. I exercised. I followed the rules. I was desperate. It was hard but with every success it was easier. With every victory over old habits I grew stronger. I found my power. I was powerful and it had been buried under binging and despair. I found my power. I unleashed that power. I nurtured that power. I feed that power today. I am so much stronger than I was nine months ago. Ha! I feel like I birthed a new me during these nine months. WLS was the necessary tool I needed to stop binging and start taking control. Health is my new addiction. I am addicted to self care. Self love. Self protection. Self preservation. I won't give away this power again. You don't know this yet but nine months from now you will be a new person and you will be telling your story of struggle and conquest to a newbie. I am proud of you. Believe. It is going to happen.

As gowalking said, for me it took a chunk of weight for people to notice and/or comment. My boss knew about my surgery and at one point said it looked like I'd lost at least twenty pounds! At that point I was down more than sixty, but I just replied, "yeah, thanks!" I was and still am uncomfortable talking numbers with people. Don't want to watch them do the math in their heads.

I didn't try those for a long time. Once I did, I discovered chips are sliders for me and I can eat way too much and not get a stop signal. It was hard to not have them at Mexican restaurants so I avoided those restaurants for a long time. Now they don't call my name so much so I just pass them up and have my entree.

I lost 130 pounds when I was age 28 without WLS. I couldn't keep it off but I will tell you that my confidence increased so much that I knew in my heart getting and keeping the weight off at age 53 with WLS would change my life. It is changing my life. You have wonderful things in store for yourself. Be patient and treat yourself the gentle way you would treat a dear friend. Your whole life and outlook is going to change and then you will see and believe about yourself all of the beautiful things your friends say about you already. We finally finally finally begin to love and value ourselves. For me there's no going back.