After all this time, and all this work, I still love my sleeve even with everything that comes with it. I am still amazed at how my body cyclically and periodically continues to drop weight. I never dreamed that I would lose this much. I have left my stretch goal in the dust, because when I started it seemed unlikely I would ever reach it anyway even though it would still be considered 60 pounds overweight. I am now well beneath that and I am continuing. Here is a picture of before and present.

Wooooow, you have made an epic transformation!!!!!!

Congratulations!

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Great job! What's a typical daily meal plan for you?

Wow! Congratulations, you look great. Would you mind giving me some pointers? I'm 8 months post op and only down 50. I'm getting discouraged. I'd appreciate any tips. Thanks

You look amazing

You look soooo good, great changes for your life.

You look amazing and so happy!!!!

Great job! What's a typical daily meal plan for you?

I have to be honest with you: I never followed a daily meal plan. Certainly immediately after surgery but since then, I have followed my intuition. I have slipped, and slid. I have binged, and exercised. I have worked really hard, but I never ever let this become a diet. And I honestly think that for me that has been one of the biggest keys of success. Diets made me fat. And now I eat whatever makes me feel good, and my sleeve helps me not to overdo it. I generally try to stay away from highly processed junk food. My digestive tract can no longer handle it anyway.

Wow! Congratulations, you look great. Would you mind giving me some pointers? I'm 8 months post op and only down 50. I'm getting discouraged. I'd appreciate any tips. Thanks

I never fully subscribed to the bariatric gospel as I call it. My personal experience has been that long term I was guided to eat in a highly and balanced way that had consequences to how well I felt. So my tip is, listen to your body. If it is asking for nuts or a certain kind of cheese or certain fruits or vegetables, eat them. I have found that my body loses weight the most efficiently when it is well nourished. I have never counted calories since I had my surgery.

I want to thank you all for your positive comments and feedback! This place has helped me through this process since before I even had my surgery and I'm just so glad to have such a supportive virtual community that I can talk to about my weight loss and the challenges that sometimes come with it.

Thanks for the encouragement!! You look great! I love that this isn't a "diet" for you and you listen to your body- I need to remember that.

Excellent job!! So happy for you!

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You look amazing! I am almost 1 month post op and often feel like I'm not doing "things" the right way and like I'm not losing gray enough, your story gives me hope! Keep up the good work and thank you!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using BariatricPal mobile app

Wow, you look so beautiful and happy! [emoji1373][emoji1373][emoji1373][emoji173]️[emoji173]️[emoji173]️

Thanks for the encouragement!! You look great! I love that this isn't a "diet" for you and you listen to your body- I need to remember that.

Outside of the context of body and weight, I live in a way that puts emphasis on intuition and instincts. Because of this, I live a very different kind of life than most people choose. It looks riskier, but really it is a life that has greater creative rights. And I approach my weight loss no differently. The new skill that has come with the surgery is learning how to hear, read, and listen to my physical body which was lacking before. And still leaves much to be desired. But this ongoing effort is most certainly paying off. I haven't dropped my weight as fast as some people, but I have a system that is very intuitive and thus sustainable for me. Following a menu, and tracking 100 different things a day is not sustainable for me. In fact, it keeps me focused on lack. And ironically, weight loss seems to be about abundance!