plumpprincesspeach

I'm now as skinny as my sister in law!!! She always used to joke me about being heavy and now I am actually one size smaller than she is!

I didn't wait for my body to tell me anything. Waiting for my body to do what it wanted got me over 350 lbs. I hit my goal weight and then very carefully started experimenting with exercise and calorie allowances -- tracking everything -- to find a good range for me to maintain at. It took a lot of work and planning and math, not waiting for mystical messages from my body

One thing I've learned (of the many things) at almost 2 years post op is I don't need to mindlessly feed my face to watch a movie. I just drink a great big low or no calorie drink like tea or Water or sometimes even a flattened diet soda (gasp)!
Like someone else had said, it's a great way to get your fluids in just sip, sip, sipping through the movie!

What a great morning!! I was really hoping to break into the 170's before my surgery on Thursday... well I beat that by 4 days!! WHOOTT!!

AND...

From my highest weight ever, I'm down a total of 150.2 LBS!!!!!! WOW!!!!!!!!

I never did imagine I'd be right here where I am right now. In only 8.2 more Lbs I'll have lost 100 Lbs total from my sleeve date. Great things continue to happen, while working the sleeve!! It's wonders are boundless!!!!

I'm more than three years out. Outside of pregnancy, I've stayed within 5% of my goal weight.
Some people can't track. Some people have to do it. I have to do it.
I think the biggest thing is to stay disciplined. Weigh daily. If you don't know what the scale says, you can easily slip into denial about weight gain until your pants are too tight.
I may eat whatever I want, but I choose wisely about 99% of the time. I can't rely on my sleeve to keep me thin despite myself. I have to think about my food, I prefer to plan my meals and I must weigh myself daily. I cannot just "wing it" for long periods of time or my eating habits get sloppy again.
I have decades of disordered eating behind me. I have only three years of being a normal weight and making mostly good choices under my belt. If I leave it up to my habits to see me through, I'm going to find myself with a regain and it's harder to lose weight the closer you are to goal.
You'll need to find what works for you and keep with it for the long haul. We regularly see people back in the vets forum that have been offline and without support that need to lose a regain. It's all too easy to gain weight if you get sloppy.
~Cheri

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Today I reached my ultimate fantasy weight -- 122 pounds. (Well the scale actually said 121 lbs. but I know that when I weigh again tomorrow it will be up to 122 as that has been my pattern for the last few months.) My BMI is now in the mid-range of healthy for my height.
I now have to buckle down and apply all of the lessons I have learned over the past year to maintain this weight. I know that if I lose focus, I will gain. That has been my experience in the past. I would tell myself that no one can be on a diet forever. But in the past year, I have been rethinking this. I have observed my thin friends. They aren’t on a diet forever, but they don’t eat whatever they want either. If they have a high calorie lunch, they’ll have a conservative dinner. If they are full, they don’t eat more just because it tastes good or they’re at a party or it’s their birthday. When they are full, they stop eating.
My thin friends don’t even know that they have been mentoring me, but I need to emulate them. I need to remind myself every day that if I return to my previous eating pattern, I will return to my previous weight. These things may seem obvious to most people, but it is hard-won wisdom for me. In the past, due to my diabetes, I usually avoided junk food and almost never ate sweets but I often ate until I was over-stuffed. (My stomach didn’t seem to feel full until it was overfull.) I ate just because it was pleasurable, not because I was hungry.
I am so grateful for this website and tools like MyFitnessPal which have helped me to learn better habits and stay on track for the past year. If I get the idea in my head that I don’t need this help anymore so I don’t need to check in, I hope I’ll remember how I feel today and compare it to how I felt in January 2014. Do I really want to risk returning to that?

My surgery was September 26. Looking back (even though it's very recent), I can honestly say that the the biggest adjustment comes when you are given freedom to eat solid foods. What a challenge! When the diet was dicated to me (liquids, then soft solids, etc.) I ate from the list and that was that. But when you begin to explore what works for you and what doesn't (as far as the permanent diet), that's when the real adjustment comes in. And those first few weeks after begin given that freedom I had a few episodes where I either ate too much at once, too fast, or didn't chew well enough (good news: it's so unpleasant, you'll be sure to only do that ONCE!). But here I am 47 and a half pounds down and I am so deliriously happy. And I have a very unusual frame/body, apparently, because I lost close to 30 pounds before people even started to notice. I lose it all over, very evenly. I'm down one size (although ready to go into next size), but I'm okay with that. It really comes from all over on me--my rings are big, I'm even sliding around in my shoes. I have two friends who are ready to take the plunge because they see my success and like me, they've tried just about everything. They are both post-menopausal and the weight just wants to stay put. I know, I was there.
It's a little bit of a challenge getting in my Protein, although God knows I concentrate all day long on doing that. I find that some of my tastes have changed a bit. I never had a "sweet tooth" before, and now I have even less of a tolerance for sweets. So getting down a Protein Bar or shake is literally an all-day task for me. I'm trying to finish a Protein Bar right now that I started yesterday. I take a bite here and a bite there.
You know what the best part about this whole journey is? Besides that I feel fantastic and I'm so happy I did this, the best part is not having that old love/hate relationship with food. I can be around it, have it in the house, go to parties, and never, ever fear that I'm going to overeat and hate myself afterwards. Aside from concentrating on the Protein, I can honestly say I eat what I want and when I want and I have been losing consistently. I make better choice now, because who wants to go through all this and then eat junk food? Even then, I am very, very cognizant of the fact that I am eating a fraction of what I would eat before.
I would encourage anyone considering the sleeve: it will be the best gift you will ever give yourself. I am enjoying life in a whole new way. Good luck!!