To be honest the sleeve has been a magic wand (or tube as in this case for me. I have been overweight my entire life. I understand nutrition extremely well, have eaten Clean for over a decade, worked out, did all that, but couldn't lose weight. I am 10 days short of 4 months since the sleeve and I am down 79 lbs. For the first time in my life when I try I actually lose weight. And truthfully it has been easy!

And I am thrilled about that. What other freaking area in life do we purposely look for the harder way out?

I don't need the hard way to build character. I have put up with skinny people all my life without breaking too many of them, :-) I've done my character building the hard way!!! So has the sleeve been easy? Yes for me it has, not that it doesn't require work and effort. But I have worked much harder in the past with no results so it feels like magic!! When we have done the diets and struggled to lose two lbs and regain it and try harder and harder with no results and yet keep trying, THAT is the hardest!!! So, now, to make clean food choices and exercise and see the lbs actually drop, and keep dropping? Wow! It does feel easy!!! Even those of you who have lost slowly or even at a stall, I say heck yeah!!!! To you. You are losing!! And if your in a temporary stall your not gaining!! That is also success when you walk in our shoes. The journey has it's hard parts, most of the mental, but it has it's rewards that for us who understand, are beyond most things we have even dreamed about. So, I say chin up. Celebrate the parts that are easy! There are enough hard things to deal with. Revel in the new you, dream new dreams, never look back we have soo much joy ahead in this journey. Life is good, and the easier the better!!!!

Love all you on this journey! May your dreams not even come close to how good it really is!

GodSpeed

To be honest the sleeve has been a magic wand (or tube as in this case for me. I have been overweight my entire life. I understand nutrition extremely well, have eaten Clean for over a decade, worked out, did all that, but couldn't lose weight. I am 10 days short of 4 months since the sleeve and I am down 79 lbs. For the first time in my life when I try I actually lose weight. And truthfully it has been easy!

And I am thrilled about that. What other freaking area in life do we purposely look for the harder way out?

I don't need the hard way to build character. I have put up with skinny people all my life without breaking too many of them, :-) I've done my character building the hard way!!! So has the sleeve been easy? Yes for me it has, not that it doesn't require work and effort. But I have worked much harder in the past with no results so it feels like magic!! When we have done the diets and struggled to lose two lbs and regain it and try harder and harder with no results and yet keep trying, THAT is the hardest!!! So, now, to make clean food choices and exercise and see the lbs actually drop, and keep dropping? Wow! It does feel easy!!! Even those of you who have lost slowly or even at a stall, I say heck yeah!!!! To you. You are losing!! And if your in a temporary stall your not gaining!! That is also success when you walk in our shoes. The journey has it's hard parts, most of the mental, but it has it's rewards that for us who understand, are beyond most things we have even dreamed about. So, I say chin up. Celebrate the parts that are easy! There are enough hard things to deal with. Revel in the new you, dream new dreams, never look back we have soo much joy ahead in this journey. Life is good, and the easier the better!!!!

Love all you on this journey! May your dreams not even come close to how good it really is!

GodSpeed

WORD. Cheers to the easy way out!!

I agree 100%! I know this journey isn't always going to be easy, but it's so much easier than my weight loss attempts in the past, and this time I even have confidence I'll be able to KEEP it off, if I work hard and eat right, get some exercise, and take good care of myself. Before, keeping it off was simply impossible. I'll take possible over impossible any day!!

As someone who's been at goal for over a year, I can say it continues to be easy and I'm loving life now. Even if I splurge and eat sweets, sodas, alcohol, etc. I don't gain weight since I keep the portions small. And also as a former lap-band patient, the sleeve is a MILLION times easier than that ever was! Love it!!

I like taking the easy way:

• 
  
  I do my banking online, rather than mail bills through the mail
• I send email rather than hand-write letters
• I use an automatic washing machine rather than a rub-board and washtub to clean my clothers (like my grandmother)
• I dry the laundry in an electric dryer rather than hang them on a clothesline (like my mom did)
• I have my choice of two bathrooms in the house, rather than a privy at the bottom of the yard (like my kinfolk in Arkansas used to do)
• I buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts, rather than going out in the yard, catching a chicken and wringing its neck when I want chicken for dinner
• My doctors use all sorts of modern treatments that previous generations of doctors never even dreamed of

Why should it bother us to take the "easy way" to lose weight? (although some things about this way are anything but easy)

Three cheers for taking the easy way out!

AMEN TO THAT!!!!

Yes it is easy, easier to only swallow 3 pills a day rather than 20, easier to work out, easier to walk, easier to smile, easier to face the day, easier to have sex, easier to work, hmmm just all around easier, so I think taking the easy way out is worth it, don't you???? LOL

I am so ridiculously happy with what this has brought to my life. It really is so much a glorious dream on this side that I wish I had been able to have this 20 years ago! But I know my life is headed to much more exciting places in the next 20!!!

Well said! I'm for doing it the easy way every time and especially where weight loss is concerned! For me the biggest thing is knowing that this time, for the first time ever, when I lose the weight it will stay lost!!

I LOVE this post!! Really brought a smile to my face.. ♥

I absolutely love this post and I feel like I could have written it myself. I love the replies too! SInce my surgery last year, I have struggled with feeling like others would look down on me for taking the easy way out (even though no one has said anything like that to me). Even though it was not an easy decision to make to have the surgery and the first 6-8 weeks were pretty tough physically and emotionally, the fact is it has been pretty easy to lose the weight with this wonderful tool. In almost 14 months, I've lost just about 125 pounds and I was never able to come anywhere close to that in my previous attempts to lose weight. My weight was something that I thought about every single day of my life for about 30 years and it feels wonderful not to have this issue hanging over my head in the same way.

I continue to thank God everyday that I was able to have this surgery.

Brian

You have done fantastic!

It is interesting as I lose more I have become more "do I wanna tell them how". But I have stuck to my guns. I started this convinced it would work and wanting to be able to hopefully inspire/encourage others that may "need" this tool also. So I share how and make no appology :-) I love the inside me matching the outside me!!

I absolutely love this post and I feel like I could have written it myself. I love the replies too! SInce my surgery last year, I have struggled with feeling like others would look down on me for taking the easy way out (even though no one has said anything like that to me). Even though it was not an easy decision to make to have the surgery and the first 6-8 weeks were pretty tough physically and emotionally, the fact is it has been pretty easy to lose the weight with this wonderful tool. In almost 14 months, I've lost just about 125 pounds and I was never able to come anywhere close to that in my previous attempts to lose weight. My weight was something that I thought about every single day of my life for about 30 years and it feels wonderful not to have this issue hanging over my head in the same way.

I continue to thank God everyday that I was able to have this surgery.

Brian

CHEERS!!!!!!!!

This post is so inspirational! I love the way Pasquini started it, what skcunningham added and the rest of the posts, this makes me happy

Way to go!! I can hardly wait to get my sleeve :-)

What a great attitude! Your post brought a much needed smile to my day! I, too, am loving my sleeve!