Dub

Lost 55 prior to surgery. Am almost at the 4 month mark now and have lost 85 more since surgery date.

I don't get enough sleep and it tells on my back. Last night, for instance......last huge glass of Water during the SB halftime....allowing plenty of time for it to pass through my system. In bed and asleep right around 11:00am. Up at 2:00am.....dozed restlessly until 3:30am and couldn't stand it anymore. Up and having coffee now. Nervous about developing issues at work this week. Once this is resolved I'll probably sleep great next weekend and beyond.

Awesome story !!! Saleslady: "Yes, that's right, you're too small for this store" LMAO. Great stuff right there. Well done on the jacket, too. I had a moment like that Friday night. Finally was cold enough to need a jacket and was going out for an evening out. Didn't really want to wear my everyday coat and reached for a leather coat that I'd planned on wearing for Winter of next year. Yeah....it fit and zipped and everything. Crazy. Wore it with pride. NSV's are great. Also hit a new low weight the next morning. ​Keep on killing it. I know you are working really hard in the gym and the energy has to be feeling great.

Sort of a downplayed Super Bowl for me this year. Brought some job paperwork home and got done this afternoon......very early start to the workweek in the morning. Grilled some brats, wings and chicken breasts & chicken dip last night so just having leftovers tonight. A couple wing drummettes and some dip & celery and I was done. The tribe is feasting on the stuff and some frozen appetizers that they cooked. Ordinarily I'd be pulling for the Panthers in this game.....but I want to see Manning go out with this win and retire. Huge respect for him.

When I road tripped for a week a couple months back, I took a an ample supply of Quest bars, low sodium beef jerky and premixed Premier Protein vanilla & chocolate shakes. I was in my own vehicle an tossed my cooler in the back seat and filled the remaining cooler space with bottled Water. Everything went fine.

I can't really advise others on whether or not to go for it.....but can only say that I'm very glad I did.

Went out last night and finally had some cold enough weather to warrant wearing a jacket. The jacket I wore was one that I was hoping to be able to wear by next year's Winter.........but I can fit into it just fine now. Very pleased with this development.

I wan't really able to prior due to back injury. There is absolutely zero doubt in my mind that it would help me to have been able to, though. My last abdominal hernia repair was 4 years ago. The day before the surgery I did a total body workout and hit every major muscle group. I guess you could say I sort of peaked in that workout. It came after 8 months of hard training. It was a super intense and fast paced workout that spanned some 2 hours. Muscle soreness was setting in the next morning as I went in for my surgery. The recovery was tremendously easier than the same surgery a few years before....done when I wasn't really doing any type of formal exercise. Unfortunately, it appears that I'll have to have yet another hernia repair in the future as the last isn't holding. Surgeon wants to monitor it and me to put it off until I'm cruising around at goal weight for a while. I'll exercise hard right up until that surgery, too.

8-9 weeks was when I started feeling really charged up and getting my energy back. It took the related abdominal hernia repair that long to heal to the point where movement wasn't a pain. Went back to work at 3 weeks and was sorta out of it.

My son begged me to take him to a Breakfast buffet not too long ago. We went and had some eggs & a grilled pork chop. Didn't finish either, but such is the case these days and I'm perfectly fine with that. I sat there and watched little guy eat like he'd been starved for a week. It is unreal how much food he puts away when he's onto something he likes. It his funny to me as he has a BMI of 19. What wasn't funny was as I looked around at the patrons seated near us.....I quickly noticed how overweight we all were. My son was the only person in our section that was even remotely close to being "normal" weight. I'm talking 40-50 people here......and everyone was large. I don't normally people watch.....but sitting in restaurants finds me filled with idle time. After a while I was over that place and ready to scramble out of there. Seeing folks return to the food lines over and over was almost making me ill. It was a stark reminder to what life used to be like for me. Now....I'm part of the stick & move crowd and so grateful for it. A small tasty meal and I'm done. I'd honestly rather order coffee and Water when I go to restaurants and simply sit and drink while others enjoy their meals. I"m perfectly content in doing this. I do find myself sitting at the bars much more often when I go out to eat. I don't necessarily have drinks, but it's just much more interactive than being trapped at a table and waiting for others to eat for an hour or two. Chatting with the bartenders and other folks.....sports on televisions, etc. Much more enjoyable for me if those I'm going with don't mind. Going on a cruise in a couple months and will be laughing inside at all the grazing that goes on. Ironically the last cruise I went on found me dead in the middle of Atkins diet. Drank like a fish in the comedy club & casino every night.....layed around the pool and hot tub all day.....ate some killer food but still lost 5 pounds on that 7-day cruise. The secret was getting up early every morning and killing it in the gym......every single morning. Seeing the sunrise across the ocean from the ocean while walking the upper deck walking trail was a great start. Thanks. You are really doing great. Seems like it was just last week you had your surgery and now look at your progress ticker. Doing great. Fried & greasy stuff is not good on me either.

Mmmmmmm....I love dead animal flesh. I eat high protein, high fat, real foods. Nuts, cheese, veggies, meat, eggs, seafood. Most fruit disagrees with me as do rice and potatoes. Carbs are pretty limited to Beans and an occasional dessert. But dead animal flesh is my favorite. If it's red meat, rare... Oh! Edit to add. Almost three years out and healthy as a horse. I'm pulling up a chair to your table. chicken, fish, steak & etc for me as well.

I haven't yet read the other replies to your questions.....I probably should have done that before responding. I was 478 last June 2015. I was 422 in October 2015 when I had my sleeve. This morning I was 337. Could I have delayed my time of having the surgery and lost more on my own before ? Sure could. Do I wish I had? Heck no. My only regret is not getting the surgery done sooner. My goal was to lose weight as quickly and safely as possible. The sleeve supports this goal in a powerful way. Delaying it is pointless. Those percentages are simply numbers applied to a wide range of folks with a wide range of circumstances. You can blow those numbers away......look around here and you see folks doing it all the time. Strictly adhere to your plan and you will kill it.

Dub, how did you do it? I'm wrestling with this issue now, and it's really throwing off my motivation. I would love to learn how to shift my own perspective. It was a natural order of things for me, I suppose. The real struggle was finally getting my head wrapped around simply having the wls. Tossed the idea around for a few years. Even that was a simple & easy decision once I injured my back. Knowing that it'd not likely heal at the weight I was....and if I proceeded with surgery....it wouldn't be much fun trying to recover at the weight I was. Was consulting with another surgeon over another matter at the time. Both the spine guy and the other surgeon said the same thing......if you have wls you will not need our services.......SOLD ! Now that the weight is coming off I can see where there may be a need for further plastic surgery to deal with a couple areas. No biggie. I'll get 'r done and go from there. It'll be like slamming the door on my heavy past and enjoying what comes next. Fun times.

Sure. I use Imgur on my macbook and also run their app on my iPhone. http://imgur.com From the iPhone......open the imgur app and press the add button.....select your pic from your camera roll and upload it to imgur. Resize it to whatever size you'd like....save it.....then copy the url address and post it in your thread. I think registration is still free with them and there is a nominal lifetime usage fee if you'd want more storage than the free version. Photobucket is another similar app that works almost as easy.

It can be tough at first when folks start grilling you about being off work and the reason for it. So many folks instantly assume that we all have wls simply to look better when in most cases it's about feeling better and getting healthy. Never ceases to amaze me at how folks scoff at getting healthy. You are early in this deal. It does get much easier later on. I can assure you of that. As the weight comes off and you feel better each day your concern over other's unsupportive comments will diminish just like your belt size. Stay the course and get the results you want. It'll get easier in all aspects.

Had a slice of pizza Hut thin crust Supreme a week or so ago. Couldn't finish it. Thought I was going to hurl. Used to love that stuff. Doughs, pastas and breads just don't sit well on my sleeve. Don't miss them, either.

LOL.

Not a requirement, but it is how I approached it. Low carb for the two months leading up to the liquid diet. Getting acclimated to low carb living was a great thing for me. Much easier on the post-op side as a result. It's essentially how I live now with an occasional exception.

Good deal on this morning. So true how the carb heavy stuff is easier to eat. The meats are really something to tackle. My most recent discovery on "bad stuff"......was a single slice of thin crust pizza. It took forever to eat 2/3 of it and I didn't like the way it felt sitting there. No thanks. No desire. I would have bet anyone....any amount of money that I was a pizza-for-life dude a year ago. Funny turn of events.

Excellent thread topic. NUTs should hit the above points firmly in their intro classes. food funerals are only cheating yourself. I stumbled a bit when I thought I was gearing up for bypass. There were things that I knew would be forever off the menu and I indulged in some of them. Closer to my surgery date my surgeon strongly suggested I consider the sleeve. It was what he really felt I should have and I decided to do so. The knowledge that all things in moderation would be the plan down the road made it immediately easier to drop the food funerals.

Outstanding !

That is wild. Maybe you've simply amped up your metabolism to a very high level ?

Thank you. It's powerfully motivating seeing folks reach their goal weight and thrive there as you have done. Pic was taken about a month ago was outside goofing around with my son. It is going to feel great to reach that point where I remind myself to eat more to keep from losing weight. Wild concept to get my mind wrapped around considering it's been the other way for so long.