SleeveinIL

I wanted to share a "time lapse" of pictures of my transformation over the past 3 years 7/2017 - 5/2020. I have lost weight, exercised and I have my life back and I am living it again. All of us are here to fight this demon and I wanted to show my pictures as encouragement to show it can happen. Will I be a size 2? Probably not, but I am happier than ever with my life and myself. I am currently pursuing removing my stomach skin with my original surgeon due to recurrent abdominal and navel infections. We shall see what the insurance says about it all. ?

I had to pay $710 which was my coinsurance because I had already met my deductible and out of pocket.

So now that I’ve lost some weight I asked my life insurance to re-evaluate my rating to see if I can get a cheaper rate. Those jerks actually cut your weight loss in half because “the average person regains half the weight they lost.” Has anyone else run into this? Just irritated me. Sorry to vent.

I had sleeve and hiatal hurnia procedures as well. I really didn't have any pain. I was off pain meds as soon as I came home from the hospital (2 days). I have never had any pain. It is so odd since I am such a big weenie. lol

I was sleeved March 2018 and my stomach still gurgles LOUDLY. It will scare my little lap dog when it really gets going. LOL You sound like you are dong terrific.

I also love them. I also much on pistachios once in a blue moon.

You are doing great. The surgery is doing exactly what it should. Keep it up!

I am so sorry for your loss. This is so senseless and tragic.

Challenge Starting weight: 207 Current weight lost: 101lbs Losing or maintaining weight: Losing Fitness/exercise goal: 5-6 days a week, and I signed up for running my first Turkey Trot (Short one - 2 miles)! Total weight loss at the end of challenge: (Post January 1st 2019) 20lbs Check in: Tell us how you are doing - (How is your diet and exercise plan going? Any struggles? Stress level? What have you overcome? Any strategies that have helped) Struggles: tracking my food in a journal. I HATE IT but I think that is slowing my progress more than I want to admit. Also, my fur baby just passed away so I have been very down of late. I have been working out harder/more to keep my emotions in check. Also have regular appointments to manage the "soul".

I have had facial hair forever and was tested for PCOS (negative) and was told it was hormonal and permanent once it was there it is there forever. A year ago I started going to a dermatologist to laser this stuff off. I had previously had it lasered at a salon and that did NOTHING. I have definitely had thinning of the facial hair with the dermatologist, however, now some of the hair has gone from black to white. White hairs are not affected by the laser so they will be there forever. Sad me! My lip is much better but not perfect, chin and some on the neck. I get charged $100 about every 6 - 8 weeks. I decided I needed to do that for me long before I made the decision for surgery. I am worth it.

I have a funny story that happened to me that I wanted to share because I can't tell anyone I know about this! So I ran 2.5 miles and was all sweaty. Afterwards I had to go to the bathroom so I proceed to do my thing, sat down and slipped off the dang seat because I was so sweaty. All I could do was laugh at myself because I never saw that coming. My coworker (was at fitness center at my office) asked if I was okay and all I could do was laugh and choke out that I was fine, just embarrassed. I waited for her to leave the locker room before I made my exit from the stall. ?

I have always hated clothes shopping, and I am not a fan of spending a lot on clothes as I move through the sizes. I have found that Goodwill has some options - I was able to get 2 pairs of jeans for $11 which is a bargain. Of course they may not have what you are looking for, and it takes a little longer to wade through the items, but it is an option. I did purchase a few new outfits for work and was thrilled when I could fit in an XL on top and 14 on the bottom. Gave me extra incentive to continue losing.

I have not had any issues with Stevia.

This is a very normal side effect. If you did a search on this site I bet you can find multiple threads over time, so know you are not alone!

Ditto...what they said above. This is painful.

Girl, you look amazing!!!! Congrats, your journey has been totally worth it. I am so glad you are happy and healthy.

You've got this! See you on the losers' bench!

At 90 lbs down I treated myself to a new fall coat and 3 new pairs of shoes.

I noticed we had surgery only 4 days apart. First let me say you have already done an amazing job with your weight loss! I had a 3 weeks stall recently that finally broke last week and I was so thrilled to see the scale move again. I was still losing inches during that time as I bet you are too. My surgeon was not concerned at all when I saw him last week. You will break through this stall! I found increasing my water intake helped a lot to get things moving again.

I tell people that I had hiatal hernia surgery - which is true, I had it with the sleeve. The restricted eating is the same for that surgery as WLS. If people ask about my weight lost specifically, I tell them I eat less and am doing Keto and exercise which I didn't do at all before I started this journey. All of these responses are accurate! I am not comfortable telling everyone at work because the gossip factory is just too active here and I don't want people judging/talking about me. My lunch buddy and my boss know and that is it.

Congrats on this awesome success!

The picture on the left is from Sept 2017 and the one on the right is from a couple weeks ago.

I had 10 days worth. Did 1 at the hospital and 9 at home in the stomach.

P3 protein packs made by Kraft are my go to grab n go. Ranges from 13 - 20 g protein. Has meat, cheese and nuts and they are 2 oz - 3.2 oz in size. I can grab one, throw it in my purse and I am good to go!

I work out with a personal trainer Mon and Wed for 30 min then I do an additional 30 - 50 minutes on elliptical or a combination of stair stepper and elliptical. Rest of the time I break it up and do treadmill, walk outside, elliptical, stair stepper. I also take a 45 min yoga core class and a 20 minutes arms/abs class on Tuesdays. My office has a gym with 2 trainers. They have classes every day and they also offer 30 and 60 min personal training (for a fee of course). I find I am not good at doing exercise when I am at home because of all the other items pulling at my calendar so I come into work early or leave late to accommodate getting workouts in.