August 9Th, Intro...

[Remodeling.Me 41]

Hello August Sleevers! My name is Julie & I'll be sleeved on the 9th! Anyone care to join me?? )

Just started my 10-day Liquid Protein pre-op diet yesterday, so the countdown has officially begun! I can't believe it's coming up so quickly! Yesterday was pretty easy, little hunger today. Will get through it, though!

Thought I'd introduce myself!

...I'm a married mother of 2 awesome teenage boys (17 & 14) from Credit River, Minnesota. I'm an interior designer by trade, but have been a full-time glass bead artist & jewelry designer for the last 5 years. I love what I do! (who wouldn't? I get to play with fire!!) If you want to check out my work, feel free to visit my website by clicking the "glass artist" link below my name in my signature. I've always been creative & am so happy being able to do what I do. I'm also very blessed to have a husband who supports his family & gives me the freedom to do what I love!

I've dealt w/ weight issues my entire adult life, actually since high school. Not one to jump on the fad diet bandwagon, I've mainly done programs like Weight Watchers, having small short lived successes, but have never been able to really maintain any kind of loss for long. A few years ago my doctor brought up WLS & I didn't even consider it.... one one hand it seemed too extreme & on the other, it seemed like the easy way out (yes, I know better!) Over time, however, w/ much research & even more weight gain, I realized that I was in a never ending cycle that I seriously needed to do something about. I stopped looking @ WLS as an easy fix.... realizing that I was still going to be required to do all of the work & instead, I started looking at WLS as an amazing tool that I've never had access to before. Yeah, I know how to lose weight & yeah, I should be able to do this on my own, but for some reason, I haven't been able to. WLS is a permanent fix. Yeah, I know weight can still be gained if you aren't doing what's necessary, but the fact is that a large part of my stomach is going to be removed & I'm going to have minimum capacity there. I'm taking a huge risk to do this & I'm not about to be stupid about it. I know how important getting the right nutrition is going to be & I also know I'll need to move my butt. This is the heavy hand that I obviously need to get this job done! I'm not taking this lightly.

I'm thrilled to have a local friend going through the vertical sleeve procedure w/ me... her surgery date is set for early September, so it'll be great for us to be there to support eachother.... but I'm really happy to have found you guys & this awesome message board / support system. I've already been inspired by so many success stories & I'm really looking forward to becoming part of the community... really enjoy connecting w/ & motivating/inspiring others!

I've decided to blog my experience... something to help me document this new journey of mine.

Oh yeah... I started this journey w/ my first appointment in January this year @ 285lbs, my heaviest ever. I'm sitting @ 272lbs, pre-post-op diet. Will be interesting to see where I am this time next week before surgery & can't wait to see where things go from here!!

xoxox....

[futureskinnypants 193]

hi there I have a thread going for august sleevers "august sleevers where ya's at!? "

http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/38113-august-sleevers-where-yas-at/page__pid__430352__st__1180#entry430352

It's grown so much that I made a Facebook group page for all of us to communicate, i keep a list on here and another member keeps track of the one on facebook.

feel free to click my facebook link on my signature....I can add you to the group on facebook that way its completely private.

[Remodeling.Me 41]

Hi futureskinnypants! I posted on your thread today, busy thread!! ) Thanks for the FB invite, I just clicked your link & friended you.... Julie Nordine. Really looking forward to joining the FB group!

[Remodeling.Me 41]

I can't believe I'm on day 10 of my 10 day pre-op diet & that I'll be sleeved tomorrow! liquid diet went really well, day 10 is a little different w/ just the Clear liquids, but so far so good. I'm thankful for my early morning check-in (5am!), I wouldn't want to wait longer w/ nothing in my belly!

Been really enjoying hearing how well those who have been sleeved are doing... it's really encouraging & helps relieve any anxiety I might've otherwise had if I were doing this on my own. Also really enjoying participating in the FB group.