Summer Rain

When I was searching for a plastic surgeon, I noticed a trend as well. Some plastic surgeons tend to have more of their patients suffer from complications. You certainly do not want that. It is your body! You do not want to take chances. I have also noticed some women bodies all look exactly the same after the procedure. Wow! Just because a plastic surgeon is popular does not mean he is good for you. (Example: Just because a McDonalds hamburger is popular does not mean it is good for you:)

I found a wonderful, unique, experienced, caring plastic surgeon - Dr. Victor Gutierrez in Tijuana, Mexico. He has all 5 star raving reviews on RealSelf.com from ALL of his patients that have written about him. Prices are listed as well. You will notice he is artistic and each persons results are different according to the person body type.

My full experience is on this site under 'Story' and pictures under 'Gallery' on this site. Check it out!

@@Summerrain , Thank you so much, your right both scary and excited. How are you feeling?

@@Kindle congratulations! It's been almost a year since you reached your goal weight. You are an inspiration : )

@@soonsleeved congratulations! I hope everything goes well for you. It's an exciting and scary time I know but it is sooo worth it! Good luck : )

@@Kindle congratulations! It's been almost a year since you reached your goal weight. You are an inspiration : )

I'm glad my PCP told me if I got the lapband, I'd only lose 40 lbs. Made me even more determined to go with the surgery I felt more comfortable with and not the one that would help me lose the most amount of weight.
And I'm the first to admit that there's something so satisfying when she told me that I weigh less than she does. At this point, I'm probably a good 15 lbs. less than her. Hehehe...

p

Wow I am down 100lb as of today, next stop Onederland. Feeling so good and doing so much more now, I will love summer this year. Everyone have a great summer too.

Thank you all for congratulations. I know now the real work begins. I talked to myself a lot. I am going to try my best to stick to my program. Protein, Water, exercise, and my support group for accountability. My nutritionist said something at my last support group, she said we must remember the basics at all times. If you slip up, pick your self up and go back to the basics.

Thanks all.
And an update made my goal weight today!!! Super excited.

I haven't posted much but had my daughter take pics and WOW is all I can say!
At my top weight I was 210.....at 5'2" that is a lot. I got down to 196 on surgery day - 6/16/14. I had a pretty rough 6 weeks right after surgery but once I got on the proper medication the journey got pretty easy.
Now 11 months post op and down to 129 it has been an awesome adventure. So pleased I had the sleeve done.
I also show horses (and have for years), after I had lost about 75 pounds I was at a show, the judge was someone I showed with, she didn't recognize me and asked my trainer who that was riding my horse! Too funny.
 
Thanks for letting me share!

Sometimes it takes longer for us to see the changes in ourselves. I have taken pics almost monthly since my surgery 7 months ago and I don't think I noticed a big change until about 3 months. If you have not been taking pics start now and do it monthly. I promise you will start to see the changes!
Summer Rain

Sometimes it takes longer for us to see the changes in ourselves. I have taken pics almost monthly since my surgery 7 months ago and I don't think I noticed a big change until about 3 months. If you have not been taking pics start now and do it monthly. I promise you will start to see the changes!
Summer Rain

Nikki D that is awesome! Congratulations! 100 lbs...WOW!

After 10 years of watching my weight creep up up up into the 200s and finally topping out at 260, I am finally seeing a 1 before my weight again! I really like it here, I'm never going back!!! Another 8 lbs and I'll weigh what I lied and told the DMV I weighed LOL

5 months post op and I am just on the cusp of only being obese!! No longer showing on the chart as morbidly obese!! Whoo!!!

Just wanted to jump in and toot my horn i am so happy i did this. i am three and a half months with my new teeny tummy and although the first month was a little unpredictable and yes, very hard, i am so happy to report I am already half way to my goal weight. As of today i am down 73 lbs and things are going really well. It really hit me yesterday when i bought a new summer dress and i just grabbed the XL off the rack and put it up against me thinking this should fit, or if it doesn't it will soon enough, to get it home, try it on and it fits like a glove. Best news, it was not an XL it was a M. it was just on the wrong hanger. OMG i cannot even remember ever buying an Medium. Yay for me!! That is all

Today is my 9 months surgeversary. I am thrilled to report that I am down 60 pounds from my surgery weight and 84 pounds from the 260 I weighed when I started working on losing weight pre-op.
60 pounds might not seem like a lot to some folks. I know there are people out there who lose that much in just a couple of months. But, for me, I am very very pleased.
In the beginning, once it became clear I would be a "slow" loser, I was very frustrated. I had all the same thoughts and reactions that I see other slow losers having on these forums. Why did I have 80% of my stomach removed and undergo an expensive and potentially risky surgery to lose weight more slowly than I could on my own? Why is everyone else losing 10 pounds a week when I'm only losing 1 or 2? What am I doing wrong?
Luckily, that mentality only lasted a couple of months for me. Eventually I realized that I wasn't in a race. I was losing weight and I would continue losing weight until I didn't need to lose anymore. It didn't matter when I got to my goal, so long as I got there eventually and was able to maintain it once I did. After all, that was the main reason I got WLS. Weight LOSS is the easy part. I've managed to lose weight on my own dozens of times. It's weight MAINTENANCE that was always the challenge for me. And now I am VERY confident that once I reach my goal, I will be able to maintain it much more easily than in the past.
Now, 9 months out, I am quite content to just be losing about a half a pound a week. Every half pound brings me that much closer to my goal, and meanwhile, I am just enjoying my life!

Hi Sleevers,
It's been forever since I've posted. I have been at the same weight for a long time. I'm super close to my goal. I was sleeved 2/13/12. I'm very happy that I had it done. Wish I would have done it sooner.
I wanted to get back on track and start losing again. I did the 5 day pouch test. I wasn't sure if was going to work...but it did. I'm super happy with the results. Not only did I lose 6 pounds in 5 days I've gain the feeling of more restriction. I'm getting in 90 grams of Protein now, drinking 64 ounces of Water and really trying to focus on what works best for my sleeve.
I know I can maintain my weight. I've done that for months now. But now It finally feels like my goal will happen sooner than later.
It's so easy to fall into eating slider foods and taking little bites here and there. (And ice cream sure goes down well too)
I've read so many posts about getting on track. It's possible. I planned for about 2 weeks before doing the pouch test. I mentally prepared. If your struggling...pls know you can get back on track and reach your healthy BMI/goal. We all have come so far!!! Let's do this!!

I am 2 weeks post op today and went to put on my belt this morning only to find out that it doesn't fit at all. I have lost 34lbs since my preop diet!

I will be 6 months out next week. My 16yr old daughter and I were at a friends daughters little play at her school the other night. By the way it was sooooo cute.
Anyway my friends mom was there also and had brought her aunt with her. We were leaving the play and my friends mom said to me "My aunt wants to know if that is your sister or your daughter??" I just laughed and said "Thank you, I love you, and you might need to have your eyes checked!!" LOL My daughter immediately said "don't let that go to your head!" (she has been hearing how much we look alike since she was born.)
It really made me smile. Now I know at almost 47yrs old we truly don't look like sisters, but compliments like that I could take all day long!!! Now I keep calling my daughter Sis, and as you can imagine I find this way more amusing then she does. LOL
I posted an updated pic of the two of us from the night we went out to dinner a couple weeks ago for her 16th birthday!! I love this picture of us!

I am late on my post. I made on year March 26th 2015. I started at 360 lbs and I am currently 250. I have stalled a lil bit but with work and school and family it was expected. I want to drop another 40 lbs to reach my goal of 210 lbs. It's been a long and well needed journey.

I thought that getting WLS was going to be hard. Turns out, it was pretty easy. I had great insurance and got approval and had surgery six months after starting my process.
I thought losing the first 100 pounds was going to be hard. Turns out, with my LapBand, it was pretty easy. My body cooperated with my band and when I ate right, the weight came off.
I thought leaving my emotionally abusive husband was going to be hard. Turns out, once I took control of my food and my body and got out of my food coma, leaving him was pretty easy. Logistically tricky, but with reliance on friends and family and a good lawyer, leaving was only temporarily difficult.
I thought the divorce process would be hard. Turns out, it is stressful and emotional, but the actual tasks put in front of me, although tedious and time consuming, are just tasks. I am blessed with a good job and resources that many women don't have. The slowness of it is harder than the tasks in front of me.
I thought walking for exercise was going to be hard. Turns out, it is the one exercise I love and have not grown tired of. I can walk for miles with ease.
I thought asking for help was going to be hard. Turns out, like exercising a muscle, the more I do it, the easier it gets.
I thought being kind to myself was going to be easy. I was wrong.
Oh, was I wrong.
Oh, I've learned it's okay and necessary to treat myself to little things, like a manicure, or a foot massage, or a movie. But then there's the other things.
And I can't help wondering if these other things have a lot to do with why I overeat and stayed obese for so long.
Like saying no to people. I say no. But then I go into "shoulda woulda coulda" and feel guilty about it.
Like reaching for comfort food or wine once in awhile. And then I start the tape in my head that says I'm bad, I'm lazy, I'm never going to get to my goal weight because I don't deserve to.
Like going out with friends and holding my head up high because I feel pretty for the first time in years. And when a musician in a band notices and makes a sweet comment about the "beautiful women in the room tonight" and points directly at me, I find the next opportunity to gather my things and call it an early evening, because to flirt would be bad, and I don't deserve that kind of attention.
Like getting a strong lawyer who is fighting for my financial rights and future, but crying at night because this divorce would go so much faster if I just didn't fight for the college money for my girls or maintenance for myself; because if I wanted out so bad, shouldn't I just cut my losses and end this?
Like not losing any weight for the last six months even though I have fifty left to goal, and telling myself it will never happen because I've never followed through on a goal weight before and what makes me think this time is any different?
Like standing up to my mom's criticisms in person, but in private wondering if she is right about me -- that I'm making a big mistake doing this or that or the other thing, and remembering how judged I felt my whole childhood and adolescence and wondering if she was right about me all along?
This is what is hard. Calling bulls!# on these thoughts and patterns and habits.
My higher self knows it. But it's so DAMN HARD to stop the negative thought cycle, that shi##y committee in my head.
Attitude is everything. I just turned 54 over the weekend and birthdays make me reflective. I have what may prove to be my best year ever ahead of me. God willing, I may see divorce papers signed in 2015. Maybe. I'm 100 pounds lighter than I was a year ago and healthier than I have been in decades. I may be moving into a new home by the end of the year. There is every reason to be hopeful.
So why does my sick brain still gravitate toward self blame and misery? Why, why don't I believe I deserve happiness?
I may never know why.
I'm a practical person. I believe in results. So what I'm planning to do about this is purely practical. It may or may not have any basis in psychology, but it seems reasonable to me.
I plan to abort those thoughts the second I sense them in my head. Literally catch myself and interrupt it with the opposite thought.
I do deserve joy. I do choose healthy food and I will meet my weight loss goal. That person that said I was beautiful was telling the truth. I choose to believe my older daughter who just told me I am strong and a role model. I believe my younger daughter who just told me I've always got her back. I am deserving of financial security and what is rightfully mine. I am deserving of a slim body and to feel pretty. Accepting attention is not shameful. I make good decisions. I take care of my loved ones and I am a good mother. I am smart and strong and pretty and nobody's fool. I am precious in God's eyes and I will live my best life.
This is the hard part. This is the only hard part. The head is always the hardest part to change.

Been banded over 4 years, lost all my weight a while back...so I don't get NSV';s that often anymore....
But Saturday Night was a big one!
First, I graduated HS in 1970....I weighed 165, played football, ran track, etc.
There is a class mate, who has become a very popular comedian, tours all over the world, TV, Movies...etc. (I'm not going to mention his name)
Well the word went out through face book, that he would be the headline act at "Catch a Rising Star" here in New Jersey....and people from the Class of 70 were being contacted to attend...sort of a mini reunion....which a good number of us did.
To get to the point, people I have not seen in over 40 years were there....of course everyone was thrilled to see each other. Lots of Love going around!.....and everyone could not get over how I have not changed one bit...I am still the same weight, and I am still in tip-top shape as I was in High School! People said I have obviously done pretty good for myself.
The joke was, where everyone is getting older...I am gong in the opposite direction!
IF THEY ONLY KNEW!!!! It's been over 40 years and they do not know I was once morbidly obese, was once a diabetic, have cardiac issues, along with a long list of other things.
And as a last resort, I had to undergo Bariatric Weight Loss Surgery...and only then did I turn my life around....but they don't know, and that's just fine with me....just let it ride.
I was walking on air all night, and it was not just the alcohol we were consuming! (of course we partied!)
Stuff like his makes it all worth it....best decision I ever made!

It's SLEEVELESS. Oh. My. God. Me, in a sleeveless dress? Well, yes! I put this under Fitness & Exercise, because, lol, this is the most motivation I've had in months for getting down to the basement and working out on the BowFlex. Here's to it.