*Lexie*

Wow, great progress!

Yep, I watched it....without the ability to shovel popcorn in my mouth to stifle my emotions. That was painful. But I sure will think twice before feeling sorry for myself for not losing a measly pound.

If you can, then by all means, give it a try. I don't think I could have followed it without the surgery. It's pretty tough. You could try a pre-op diet version. Mine was 2 Protein shakes and a healthy meal (meat and veggies). Sort of sounds like the Slim Fast diet, LOL. Having at least one meal a day really helped keep me sane.

I have had issues with all sorts of food but oddly celery is not one of them. I was told it may be difficult to digest. I eat a few stick of celery with veggie dip a few nights a week and it's a good snack. If you try it, just have a little and see how it goes. Also would help to pick the lighter color stalks from the center of the celery, it's less stringy.

I bet you do look fantastic! That was a nice response. Regardless if the compliment is accidentally backhanded or intentionally cruel, I think a genuine thank you is a great way to respond. If the person didn't understand that they were being offensive, you are genuinely thanking them and if they are trying to be mean, you are showing that you're not letting it get to you.

My insurance covered the surgery but I have been surprised that they have not billed my insurance for any of my follow up care. Maybe that varies by practice but it should be included in the price because if you don't go back, they can't track their weight loss success rate. There's a benefit to them for you to return. I'm with you, I don't get a lot out of my follow up visits. My office does offer advanced skills classes (for free) and I am taking advantage of those and attending. Helps with emotional eating and such. I need all the help I can get.

Today's weight 199.6 - goal weight 190

Yay, congratulations!! It is a big deal and you are over halfway to your goal. That has to feel good too. Love that you have a trick of weighing yourself with a bunch of heavy stuff to make sure the scale works. We do the craziest things. I just got under 200 this past Friday and was so excited about that. I celebrated by getting myself these cool blue tooth headphones that I've been wanting. Couldn't wait to get to the gym to try them out. We both has plastic surgery around the same time after having previous weight loss and I started gaining weight back during that recovery. My tummy held up pretty well despite my gaining weight, how about you? This time we will not gain the weight back.

I'm not so lucky. My sleeve doesn't like anything. It's certainly a reinforcer to stay away from certain foods.

I probably got around 800-1000 at 3 months out and honestly that's still where I'm at in the 5th month. My doctor wants me off of Protein shakes by my 6 month appt and I noticed that days I don't drink them, I have less calories for the day.

Mine fell out like crazy for about a month and stopped as suddenly as it started. Now my nails are cracking and breaking. Hopefully yours is short like mine was. I didn't even notice that I lost any but I have really thick hair.

I was not given calorie goals but encouraged to track my food. I try to stay around 1000 calories per day.

Love the title of this post. Congrats on the extra action you're getting!

I thought the exact same thing. Especially because in the first week or two I was on liquids and couldn't feel the restriction yet. Honestly, I still think it from time to time but it keeps me motivated to keep working.

What you are doing wrong is having too high of expectations. I did it too, I think most of us did. 15lbs in 3 weeks is pretty good. Your body is adjusting. Just relax and soon you'll start seeing fairly steady weight loss.

I'd like to join. My goal will be 190.

I'm almost 5 months out and I have issues with spicy food, salmon or anything fried. Really shouldn't be eating fried food anyway so that's good.

I lost my hair for about 4 weeks and it suddenly stopped about a week ago. But now my nails are cracking and peeling. Hoping that doesn't last long. I just got a cold this weekend but it's been pretty mild. It's my first cold of the season so I don't think it's related to the surgery. Sorry I'm not much help on this.

@@Wynnie has solid advice. I tried that and it's probably in my head but I really struggled with going to full liquids for a few days. So I went back to my pre-op diet which was 2 shakes and a healthy meal and that got things moving for me. Things are slowing down for me right now and if I don't lose this week, I'll probably go back to that for a week or so.

I lose slowly too and I've tried various things to pick things up when I stop losing. The most effective was that I went back on my pre-op diet for a few days. If you can stand it for longer than that, then I'm sure it would be even more effective. My pre-op diet was 2 Protein shakes and a healthy meal. If I do that for a few days, I'll usually lose a few pounds that week. You can take shakes when you travel and that could help keep your calories low when you have all your meals at restaurants.

Final weight - 202

I did for the first 3 weeks or so after surgery.

Mine was the opposite. I had one C-section and it was a cake walk. Recovery was easy, never took anything but ibuprofen. VSG took me a little longer to recover and I took pain meds for a day or two. Even though I'm ranking it worse, I still thought it was pretty easy.

200.0 today. 1 pound to goal!

@VSGAnn2014 Your posts are always so motivating. Love your attitude. @Rosie77 I do think attitude and approach make all the difference. I come to this site to stay engaged and focused on my goals. I go to support group meetings and advanced skills classes offered by my surgeon. These things keep me focused. I truly believe that if I just got the surgery and stopped there, I would maybe lose half of my excess weight like the stats show. But I have learned that the people that stay engaged in their goals are more successful. Everyone on this site who has hit and maintained their goals could have walked away long ago. But I believe being here keeps them successful. Don't be discouraged by stats, be determined to make the most of the opportunity. P.S. Confession - I had to use a calculator to convert kg to lbs.