Hello VST Family,

For me, I have gotten lucky! I am now 8 weeks out, and my scale is moving again. (yeahh as of this mornning I am 200.0 flat!) Kool, huh?

Anyway, I don't want to sabotage my scale numbers and I have gotten lucky. My family is sick and tired of the traditional "holiday foods".

My son came to me and asked me NOT to cook the traditional turkey\ham and fixings. Instead, he wants .........LASAGNA. (Yeahhhh me! Easy food. :smile1:

Sooooo, I will be making a Lasagna for him and meatloaf and veggies for me! I will also be cooking a Peach Cobbler for him.

Also.....I have to work that day, which means there is no room for me to put on the lbs.

Soooo, I was thinking - "How are you going to keep the lbs off over Thanksgiving?" P.S. No licking the deserts if you are fresh out of the gate; it will only make you sick....hehhhe

God and the Universe willing, this will be my last pre-sleeve Thanksgiving & Christmas! My house is the new neutral territory for my (small) extended family so I'll be cooking turkey and some of the sides. I've typically been able to make it through the holidays without gaining so my plan is to stick to my treadmill walking (recently started) and enjoy my last few weeks with starch!

For me my plans over the Holidays will be no different than any other day - except I'll get to see my big loving family. My meals will be Protein first, veggies second and one bite of everything else.

I do plan to indulge and have some pies or whatever, but I'm not in weight loss mode so no biggie. I literally can't eat more than 3 quarter cups volume food. Even if I do gain some over the next 6 weeks, then I'll have to do the right thing and join the masses and lose it in January.

Oh to be normal. I do love it!!!

I'm looking forward to the visit with my family and plan eat like I always do--at 7 months out, that means frequent small meals (1/2 cup max), chewing really thoroughly, and avoiding the foods that my sleeve still doesn't like. There will be plenty of opportunity for exercise (walking, gardening, shopping, chasing kids and dogs). I'm actually really excited, since most of the crew hasn't seen me since August, and I've dropped around 30 pounds since then. My brother's family hasn't seen me since June, so it's going to be especially fun to see them. (They are all extremely supportive and positive about my having had the surgery.)

I will definitely be having a bite of pie and probably a bite of sweet potato at some point (both foods that I haven't tried post-sleeve yet). Hopefully they will be tolerable, and if not, no more and no big deal. I'm enjoying the fact that my emphasis isn't on the "big meal" but on seeing and enjoying my family--kind of like I think it's supposed to be in the "never been overweight" world.

Protein, protein, protein!!! I plan on doing a bigger portion of protein and smaller portion of veggies.

This is my last holiday as a fat woman, no more yo yo diets, and failed attempts at a normal life, soon my journey will begin, not soon enough for me. I started eating and shaking just like all the sleevers to assure that there would be no complications during my procedure. I have lost some weight but struggle daily to keep it off. God has blessed me with knowledge and the stregnth to do this and I will be able to see many more holidays once my sleeve is done. I wish everybody a blessed holiday season