I thought I would share some of my "dreams" from my preop journal back when I weighed well over 300#

It is interesting to pick this up over 3 years later and check how I am doing against my non scale goals:

NO more...

-plus size clothes

-huge gut ( want normal body proportions)

-foot pain

-back pain

-knee pain

-hip pain

Yes to...

-ride horses bolder

-ride in the mountains (without worrying about killing my horse)

-ride fast

-deal with other aspects of life/organization

-wear makeup

-dress nice because i am worth it.

Well... I have acheived most of these goals.. and am totally the hair/makeup/clothing diva...haha. Yesterday I was at a work related "workshop" and somebody suggested hairspray for some weird thing and everybody looked at me. I am like "what, you think I bring hairspray to the office?" haha. It's a lot funner to dress nice and stuff when you actually look good in clothes.

What i have not achieved is being pain free. My back, hip and knee still give me troubles but I am able to maintain an active life even with those flareups. Truth of the matter is I did damage to my joints from a lifetime of obesity combined with an inherited predisposition toward oesteo arthritis..oh and a couple of "wrecks" didn't help either. It can bum you out if you let it, but mostly I just celebrate being able to live life so fully.

I think what this list does for me is remind me just how limited my life was that my primary goals were to not be plus sized and not be weird shaped (I had a huge mid section). I really just wanted to live a full life and i was recognizing that obesity had robbed me of that.

I bet many of you have come a very long way - have you taken a moment to reflect on how much you have acheived, regardless of what the scale says?

Great post! That you for sharing that.

Thanks for sharing. You are an inspiration to so many. It is true that we all need to focus on the non scale goals that we had and how far we all have come. I think when I take the time to do that it makes me more focused, but also grateful for this new life!!

I'm three years out too. I weighed 260 when I started and now weigh in at 150. I tell everyone I lost my teenage daughter. Her weight equals my weight loss. I have dropped as low as 132 this last summer. It was nice and I would like to be there again. Lots of stressful life events from May to now. I hope to work these out to get over this hump. Trying to go back to basics in very beginning but so hard. Thanks for listening