Last night I was talking to a friend who is getting RNY in one month. I was saying to her how quickly it would pass and she would be having the surgery. I remembered the date and realized I was at one year myself! It went REALLY fast and here I am at 2 1/2 pounds from "Normal" and 7 pounds from goal! I am one of those people who decided to eat "normal" food most of the time, and not do a very low carb diet. I am a vegetarian, so very low carb is pretty hard to do anyway. All in all, the sleeve has given me the help to "just say no" to the quantity, and my mind was able to do the rest enough to almost get to goal in one year. I am losing so slowly now that I expect to get to goal much later this year sometime. That is fantastic! I am going in for labs today, and if my previous labs results are any indication, these will be stellar.

When I show my friends (the ones I see every day) old photos, they say they cant really remember me like that, only the way I am now. When I see the ones that I haven't seen for a while their chins hit the floor.

I have never lot this much weight before, and I have been dieting from the age of 8. The older I got, the harder it was to lose. It was all I could do to keep my weight from going higher than 257, which was my high for 20 years.

I also think,that just important as the sleeve itself, and the healthy food choices is this site... You guys have been the greatest support system, helping me keep my mind in the right place to be successful. I think the stories here are some of the most meaningful stories I have ever listened to. This is a very powerful group. I believe those who have a support group like this one, that you can go to every day if needed... or about 10 times a day if you are me! must improve success statistics significantly. My Doc asked me if I would be happy losing 50 pounds and I said yes, but would love to lose it all. He is ecstatic that I have lost so much weight, and I think this group has made that difference.

Now to keep it off.

I have actually lost about 8 more pounds than the image in the black dress....

You look fabulous! Congrats on your 1-year sleevaversary. :-)

Thanks Meg. The time just flew!