I had a great weekend in Las Vegas with my mother, sister, and all four of our kids. The first happy thing happened when Mom walked in to my hotel room and said, “You’ve lost a lot of weight!” Funny thing is, she saw me last week but she said that I was wearing more fitted clothes and now she could really tell. My Lap-Band®® is a secret, so I said I was eating more protein, less carbs, and walking on the treadmill. Not a lie, but I still feel guilt about it, especially when talking to my sister who shares my weight problems.

The next day I put on my new size 14 jeans and we headed out to the Hoover Dam to take a tour. I was on the escalader in front of Mom and Sister, and they commented that my butt was so much smaller! This is the best I’ve felt about my body in a very long time.

We met up with some old friends for dinner, and I wasn’t embarrassed to see them. Usually I would dread seeing old friends because I just knew they were thinking, “Wow, she got so fat!” They didn’t notice the weight loss because they hadn’t seen me at my highest; they had only seen our yearly Christmas photos which are strategically cropped every year.

After our dinner, Mom watched the kids while my sister and I went downstairs to the casino for drinks and gambling. I won about $250 and we headed home the next day. Truly the highlight of the trip was hearing the compliments after so long.

Yesterday I had the day off from work but braved a bad rainstorm to go to my 4 month post op appointment. Dr. Oliak charted my progress on a graph and it made me feel so much better about how I was struggling for the first three months. I’ve lost a total of 33 pounds now, and most people I read about of LBT have done much better than that. I was below the average curve for the first three months, but my last fill made the weight loss jump way over that line. We decided against another fill right now, and I’m going to go back to see him at my six month post op in March.

Next goal, get to Onederland!

Congrats...but question.. why not share with your sister if she's going through the same thing? You may inspire her and help better her life.

I understand the privacy issue, as I've kept mine very quiet as well, but if it's someone I think I can help I definitely tell them about it.

If I tell my sister I'm telling the world. I don't want to do that yet. I'll reconsider as time goes by. I know that once I tell I can't untell, so I'm going to make sure that I really want to do that before I let the cat out of the bag.

Congrats on such a wonderful weekend.

Congrats to you... I am in the same boat.. only my boyfriend and my two kids know that I've had surgery.. 9/24/09 I had lost up to 25 lbs from 252 lbs. only to find out that when I went for my first fill it was tilted and had a revision done on 1/14/10 now I went on the scale and was at 222 excited but trying to consider exercising without harming my new incision & placement of the port. My choice was personal to not tell anyone for various reasons but the main reason was that I wanted to do this pretty much on my own.. and feel the accomplishment was for me not anyone else. So, I do agree with your decision of not telling anyone.. I just hope that you continue succeeding in your quest for a better, healthier lifestyle and enjoy everything that you set your mind too!