Monday April 4 was 12 weeks since I had my VSG surgery. I have enjoyed every second of my journey thus far. I have found one thing that I wish I would have done differently and I wanted to share with you.

I have a blue camp shirt, nothing special, blue denim button-up. I had bought this shirt back near my highest weight because it was the type of shirt that my wife had always wanted me to wear. At the time I bought the shirt I could not wear it, it was too small. It was about 4 inches away from being able to button. I told myself that I would lose enough weight to be able to wear this shirt one day, it would be a bit of motivation for me. I hung the shirt in my closet and would take it out from time to time to see if it was getting any closer to fitting. Well after enough time I no longer thought about the shirt though it continued to hang in my closet.

Flash forward to this weekend. As I mentioned I'm almost 12 weeks post op and thank God I have been fortunate to lose 109lbs (73 post-op) so far. I found my shirt hanging there where I had left it in my closet. I tried it on and instead of being 4 inches from being able to button, it now overlapped by about 4 inches. I wish I would have taken a picture of myself in that blue shirt when I first bought it. In those times when the scale may not be moving as fast as i would like or I may begin to feel down about how far I have yet to go I would look at that picture and know how far I have come already.

I have bought a new shirt, a shirt that does not yet quite fit. One day, hopefully soon, that shirt will fit and I'll look back to where I was and have a greater appreciation for where I am.

First picture 4-7-11

Second Picture 4-22-11

Third Picture 5-4-2011

<a href='http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/gallery/image/3461-progress-shirt-5-4-11/'><img src='http://cdn.verticalsleevetalk.com/uploads/gallery/album_824/gallery_7088_824_71823.jpg' alt='Progress Shirt 5-4-11' /></a>

Final Progress shirt photo