mlbdl

I think it's a fantastic post. I don't know why you would be attacked. My only feedback that I consider constructive criticism is the comment about avoid other overweight friends that aren't changing their lifestyle. If these friends aren't sabotaging you, why give up otherwise good/great friendships? I'm not sure if you meant they were or weren't sabotaging or too difficult for the surgery patient to be around someone for a little while that is eating a lot or things you can't have. But, the world doesn't change for us and we have to learn to live in it. The rest of that particular comment I totally agree with. I just wasn't sure what you meant. Again, great advice, no reason you should have been attacked.
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When I was preparing to have my sleeve surgery, I spent a lot of time on this forum. I found most of the people here to be very helpful. Even though there's every kind of personality here, we all have one thing in common: we wanted to lose weight and be healthier.
Approaching any surgery is scary. There are real risks, and real rewards when all goes well.
I have struggled with weight my whole life. Total sugar junkie. Used food to replace every unmet need I had, to repress every emotion for which I was unprepared to deal.
I gained and lost hundreds of pounds over the course of my life. Hundreds.
When my husband died eight years ago it broke me. I shattered, and it took me almost a decade to put myself back together. During that time, I lost everything: my beloved, my home, my income, even my sense of self. And I spent the next eight years eating to fill this giant empty void inside my being where someone who I thought of as the love of my life used to be.
I ballooned up bigger than I had ever been, surpassing my previous high weight and moving into the 320s.
I avoided social situations, and only left the house when necessary. I was afraid I would have to ask for a stronger chair when invited to sit down for dinner at somebody's home. I was afraid that I would need to sit down every 20 or 30 steps during a leisurely stroll through the mall with a friend. My body ached; sometimes the pain was so bad that I could scarcely move-even sitting still was painful.
Life had become extremely small.
Deciding to get the surgery was surprisingly easy, but getting through the approval process and going through with the surgery summoned up terror in me that had been there since my first surgery when I was three years old.
I thought it would be a miracle if I were able to get the surgery, simply because my trauma was so severe for so many years that it seemed like an impossible feat to put myself in the hands of medical professionals, who I have never trusted all my life.
With lots of support from my mother, my sister who had already had the surgery, and my therapist, I was able to get the sleeve.
And it changed my life!
I also decided that I was going to make up for lost time now that I was going to be able to physically get around again. I sold all my stuff, ditched my apartment, bought an RV and moved in! And it's wonderful! I could not have fit in here, nor could I do the things necessary when living in an RV, at my previous weight.
This surgery has allowed me an opportunity for a whole new lease on life. I am officially one year postop, and I am down about 130 pounds, with another 30 to go. It's amazing the difference a single year can make!
If you know that this is right for you, and the only thing giving you pause is fear that is not coming from your true intuition: there are many people on these forums who feel that this surgery has saved our lives.
I am one of those people. Here is a before and present a photo of me, in a year, this could be you!
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Fabulous!
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I do all of these things too and have often wondered why. Perhaps I just enjoy being small now.

YES!!! I do this too. I think it's a subconscious sense of discomfort/insecurity, because I find myself doing it more in public, even if I'm not paying attention.

I had my gastric sleeve done January 11th. I weighed 333.1lbs.
I'm 10 months post op now and weigh 144.2lbs.
I've set new goal weights as I've gone along...first was just to get under 200lbs, then I thought I wanted my goal weight to be 180lbs. When I got there, I made the crazy goal of 150lbs never thinking I'd make it....but I did. So then I figured my goal would be 145lbs which puts me at a normal bmi...which I haven't been since I was around 10.
Now that I weight 144lbs, I've decided my final goal will 133lbs, which will mean I will have lost a total of 200lbs....and I'll do it, I know I can.
I never thought when I had surgery that weighing in the 130's would even be possible.
I've gone from wearing sizes 5-6x, and 28-30, now I wear smalls and mediums and am a size 8....I would be around a 6 if it wasn't for the large amount of skin I have around my stomach and thighs....but it's a price I'm more than happy to pay.
I've been extremely disciplined this whole 10 months. I can honestly say I've never put a bad food in my mouth...not once. I follow a very low carb diet still, drink about 85oz of Water every day and get in around 80oz of Protein. I take all my required Vitamins daily.
The gym has become a big part of my life. I workout around 5-6 days per week doing a variety of exercising....spin class, step  class, yoga, cardio machines....I like doing different things so I don't get bored.
Anyway, because I'm so close to goal, I just wanted to share this. And for the people who have a lot of weight to lose like I did....remember, you can do this! I'm living proof!!
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I tried one (the purple one?) at the suggestion of a friend. I had one sip. I imagine it's what death tastes like. BLECH!

Congrats! It's a great feeling, right? I hit it on 9/3 and had to force myself not to bawl - I hadn't seen "1" at the beginning of my weight since 1996! Now I've been dancing in the mid-190's for 10 days. I want the 180's!!

I almost buckled a seat belt on southwest a few weeks ago and today I buckled one without extender and comfort with arm rest on jet blue today!!

Congrats! It's a great feeling, right? I hit it on 9/3 and had to force myself not to bawl - I hadn't seen "1" at the beginning of my weight since 1996! Now I've been dancing in the mid-190's for 10 days. I want the 180's!!

Hey guys! Just to help everyone out! I only needed an extender for one of the connecting flights. I didn't carry a lot of weight in my hips so that helped out a lot. It has been quite the ride since surgery and I'm down 157 pounds since surgery and feel amazing! Best decision I've ever made in my life!   
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Congrats! It's a great feeling, right? I hit it on 9/3 and had to force myself not to bawl - I hadn't seen "1" at the beginning of my weight since 1996! Now I've been dancing in the mid-190's for 10 days. I want the 180's!!

It'll come!! I promise!!! Dang decade dances I call them. Just tipped into the 170's. Next stop 160's!!
(Btw- I don't pay attention to the numbers In between 9-0!!! They go up and down day to day until they don't! Lol)
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Congrats! It's a great feeling, right? I hit it on 9/3 and had to force myself not to bawl - I hadn't seen "1" at the beginning of my weight since 1996! Now I've been dancing in the mid-190's for 10 days. I want the 180's!!

@@Elode
congratulations on the newsletter.
My pet peeve is people that now want to be friends. When before weight loss they would not give me the time of day. Maybe this is my inner fat girl with a chip on my shoulder.

Yeah it finally happened at the end of last week, I went back to work last Tuesday and had lots of hugs and positive feedback, but on Friday and yesterday I got the "dude are you sick?? Cancer???" But the one that made my nurse intervene by placing her hand over my mouth and shoving me away so I would keep my job was
"Oh my god your getting too skinny, what hell did you do, that's so weird?????" I guess my nurse loves me and didn't want me to mention the $8500 pair of boobs standing in front of me that were purchased as a gift to her husband who left her a year later anyway for a GIRL 10 years YOUNGER!!!!! Yeah at 55 years old in sure those hooters will get to heaven way ahead of her after she passes........????

I am finding weightloss with the sleeve to be so different from the many, many times I have lost before. I could always lose steadily, but now it is in waves that roll in slowly. And once that wave hits the shore it goes back out to sea for a week or two. This is my pattern now. Time will tell if it changes, but it helps me to know this is how my body is working.
This morning I got on the scale expecting to see a gain because I went to an art opening last night and had 2 glasses of wine. Imagine my surprise when the scale showed a loss of 1.5 pounds! So happy. (I don't even care that it might have been 2 if I hadn't had wine.)
I love my sleeve. I love that it stops me from eating too much. I love that I feel like I can live a normal life. I love that I don't feel deprived.
Thanks for listening. Unless you are on this journey, it is hard to understand.
How is everyone else dokng?

I'm at 55 days and just under 25 lbs. Frustrating in one sense, but on the flip side, it took me 7 months to lose 17 lbs to prepare for the surgery. So I consider the 25 lbs in 2 months a win! If I continue to average 12 lbs a month (which...who knows?), I'll be at goal, or close to it, in 6 months. Anything can happen, but I constantly remind myself that this is better than I've ever done before.

My surgeon says to let your employer know it could be 6 weeks, or you could return before then but with restrictions up to 6 weeks - they really encourage it. My surgery was on a Thursday. I was out for a full week after that. The 2nd full week, I worked part time from home 20 hours, and the other 20 hours, I was on disability. Then I returned to the office full time with the restriction/ability to work from home as needed (which I can do anyway), and that's what I'm still on. It's good to have that because there have been times where my energy has just been so low that I can't get out of bed in time to get to the office at a decent start time, so I work from home in the morning, and then go in, in the afternoon. Or, I'll have a rough morning and will go home early and work the rest of the hours intermittently. The flexibility has been helpful. I've had no real physical issues as far as pain goes - its been brain fog, energy, or sometimes something not agreeing with me.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

As I guy, I don't think my expectation would be for the girl to bring up any physical "faults" (probably not the right word) she thinks she has... in fact I'd probably find it a bit off-putting that she brought it up as I'd be thinking "does she really think I'm that shallow?"
That being said it's going to come down to the type of guy you're dating... by the time you get to the point of taking off your clothes, I'm guessing you'll know whether it's a narcissistic douche that may have an issue with it... in which case you probably shouldn't be taking off your clothes anyway, lol.

I'm at 55 days and just under 25 lbs. Frustrating in one sense, but on the flip side, it took me 7 months to lose 17 lbs to prepare for the surgery. So I consider the 25 lbs in 2 months a win! If I continue to average 12 lbs a month (which...who knows?), I'll be at goal, or close to it, in 6 months. Anything can happen, but I constantly remind myself that this is better than I've ever done before.

@@Mjohnson4631
kudos for following the Protein, Water, etc rules
"we all lose weight in different time periods"
"one thing we have in common, is that we're all different"
OP that start with a large #, tend to lose a lot of weight at the beginning
especially men - those fiends!!
that's great that you lost 6 lbs in the first week
no loss 2nd week+, disappointing sob sob
this does happen
eating as few calories as you do
the weight must come off, inches too
"God Grant Me Patience, Just Hurry Up About It"
a stall does NOT mean one week
a stall is at least 3+ weeks
i'm betting you will win
better yet - "lose"!!
good luck bud
you'll do great!!
kathy

That first stall is the worst. At least it was for me because I had failed in so many previous weight loss attempts that my confidence that the surgery would work for me was low. But after 2-3 weeks the scale started to move again. After the first 2 weeks after my surgery when I was on Clear Liquids only and lost 20 lbs. I am now losing an average of 1-2 lb per week. After 8 weeks I am down 28 lbs and weigh less than I have in 26 years!

My surgeon says to let your employer know it could be 6 weeks, or you could return before then but with restrictions up to 6 weeks - they really encourage it. My surgery was on a Thursday. I was out for a full week after that. The 2nd full week, I worked part time from home 20 hours, and the other 20 hours, I was on disability. Then I returned to the office full time with the restriction/ability to work from home as needed (which I can do anyway), and that's what I'm still on. It's good to have that because there have been times where my energy has just been so low that I can't get out of bed in time to get to the office at a decent start time, so I work from home in the morning, and then go in, in the afternoon. Or, I'll have a rough morning and will go home early and work the rest of the hours intermittently. The flexibility has been helpful. I've had no real physical issues as far as pain goes - its been brain fog, energy, or sometimes something not agreeing with me.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

I am overwhelmed. When I say you can't beat God's timing. I have pleaded my heart to my family, tried to get insurance through job's to cover surgery and even asked for charitable donations. Nothing worked. This started when I was 19 years old. 14 years later I was blessed with an amazing job with great benefits that cover bariatric surgery. I started my process on March 30, 2016 and finished July 6, 2016. All of my information was submitted to my insurance on July 18, 2016 and on July 25, 2016 I received a call that would change my life forever. I was APPROVED! Surgery date 8/15/2016. I start my liquid diet 8/1/2016. When I say I need somebody to pinch me and wake me up, I am so overwhelmed. I can't say thank you to God enough and for you guys for listening to me vent on the process and being there for me. You guys I am so excited!!!! Someone calm me the heck down.