hey all-

I hit my goal over Thanksgiving! Slid right past it yesterday. I only weigh once every few weeks, so i'm not sure when it happened. Am I happy? You bet your sweet ass I am!

Hang in there, folks. It slows down, but I am still losing about half pound a week. My measurement is now my pant size because that goes slower than the scale for me.

Cant believe I have come this far :-)

Woohoo!! Like Amanda, I saw you sliding in for a home run : )

Thanks, all, for the great feedback :-) I have to be honest, I stopped thinking about the goal weight a couple of months ago. I am more into my pant sizes, which have been stuck in a size 10 for a couple of months. As of right now, I have one pair of size 8 (yay!) pants and will probably be able to fit into more of that size in the next month or so. That's my new measure of success.

To answer a couple of questions...

Pics: it's funny - there aren't a lot of "before" pics of me where you can see my whole body (anyone else relate to that?). I didn't take the grand before picture because I am a lap-band revision and I didn't want to set myself up for more disappointment if this surgery didnt work. I will continue looking for a before pic and post it maybe tonight.

Food: I can definitely eat more than before, however, I still eat a tiny fraction of what anyone else around me eats. I still have the "7 bites and I'm done" thing going on. I am not planning to add calories on purpose. I already eat some sugar and some carbs when I feel like it. I tend to eat Protein because I still eat so little - I am afraid of not getting good nutrition. On my frame I could still stand to lose another 10 to 15 pounds and be very healthy (did I mention i am still wearing a size 10 at 134 pounds?!?!?). I am smaller on top, so I guess it all works out in the end. If I were to add more calories, it would be from eating more often.

I don't want to sound cavalier about it, but this has been so easy. Yes, the surgery is hard and the mental hurdles are terribly hard, but the weight loss part has been a breeze. In my experience, the weight loss is so fast and easy that the hardest part was mentally dealing with the lack of food. I don't think too much about what I eat because I have learned a lot of lessons about what feels good when I eat it. Ice cream makes me feel TERRIBLE so I don't even crave it anymore. I have found that I can eat chips all day long so I have to be somewhat mindful with them. On the flip side, if I want to seem like a "normal" person I will nibble on chips and people don't seem to notice that I don't have room for anything else.

Sorry this is so long---

Finally I will say that the best part of my life right now is that my weight is just a non-issue for me. Like I said before, I don't weigh myself much at all. I am really happy with how I look and if I didn't lose another pound or pant size, I would be really happy. It's strange how the goal snuck up on me because, in the end, I wasn't even looking for it. Don't get me wrong, I am not perfect. My stomach is a mess and my boobs droop - but I am genuinely happy.

Now, if I could only get the motivation to do some more exercise and build up my stamina / fitness :-) Oh well, we are all a work-in-progress, right?

Hang in there, everybody!!!

Awesome!!!!

By popular demand, I am going to try and get the pics in here. I made an album in the new Before and After gallery area - if these don't work, you might have to look there. This is my first time with pics on this site...

The before pic is from last year - several months before surgery. *** You have to click on the pic to see it all. I had to go that far back to find something that even remotely showed my body. Before: 195 pounds, size 18.

The after pics are all from last week at my wedding and honeymoon (took my first golf lesson!). After: 135 pounds, size 6/8 top, size 10 bottom. In fact, I think I am wearing some droopy size 12 jeans in the golf pic - I wanted to be comfortable :-)

You might also notice I cut my hair pretty short. I was so exhausted for the first 8 weeks after surgery that I chopped it all off so I wouldn't have to deal with it. Also, it masked my hair loss around month 5. I saw the hair coming out, but it always looked good. Between the hair and the weight loss, most people say I look 5-10 years younger :-)

I started with a relatively low weight / BMI because I am a band revision patient. On dec 7, I will be 9 months post-op.

hey all-

I hit my goal over Thanksgiving! Slid right past it yesterday. I only weigh once every few weeks, so i'm not sure when it happened. Am I happy? You bet your sweet ass I am!

Hang in there, folks. It slows down, but I am still losing about half pound a week. My measurement is now my pant size because that goes slower than the scale for me.

Cant believe I have come this far :-)

!!!!!GOOOAAAALLLLLLLL!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

:Banane57: :cheer2: :rockon: :tea: :bananajump: :woot: :party4: :Dancing_biggrin: :clap: :success1:

Glad to hear that you SLID past home "PLATE"! LOLS - congratulations on your success! Gotta Love our sleeves RIGHT?!!

You look amazing. What an inspiration you are.

You look fantastic! Thanks for posting, and the post is NOT too long, its always a pleasure to hear about someones success on here!

Thanks for sharing your pics. You are a beautiful bride!

I know what you mean about pics. I don't think I have any good full body ones from my highest weight, and I haven't taken many in the months since either.

Lynda