I haven't been on the forum as much lately. Having to play "catch up" with everything that I put off while recuperating from my surgery.

At almost 12 weeks out, I am now down 50lbs, and in a size 16. Unbelievable! I shopped last week for a few new clothes (don't want to spend too much since I plan on shrinking out of these soon!). I automatically headed to the "big girl" sizes and couldn't find hardly anything that fit! I had to go over to the "normal" sizes, and was able to wear almost everything I picked out - WOW - what a feeling! I bought 5 tops that will I can dress up or dress down, and spent less than $50. As I've said before, I think the dressing rooms are nicer on the other side Of course, it could just be my attitude.

Struggling with my mental image has been interesting. My brain says, "No way you can get in to that", and then I try it on and it's either a bit too big, or it fits just right, and I think "OMG - I can wear this!!!". The other thing is that my eyes are still WAY to big for my sleeve. When I am putting food on my plate, I think, "That's not enough, that won't fill me up", and then I can eat only half of it, my sleeve says "I'm full, STOP", but my brain says, "I WANT MORE"!! I don't know if this is something that I will adjust to or not. As I've said, it took my brain 50 years to reach this point, so it will probably take a LOOOOONG time for it to stop thinking that way.

I went to the first WLS support group last night. There were 2 other lovely ladies there that have had the sleeve surgery. One lady had her's just this past April, another real go-getter had her's in February of 2010. She was amazing! She just turned 62 and looked fantastic. She had also done her very first half-marathon! What an inspiration!!! The setting was just a Q&A of 9 other ladies who were scheduled to get their surgery soon. I think 3 of them were getting theirs in the next few weeks, other's were somewhere in the process of getting approved. They worked for the hospital, and their insurance was now covering their surgery and pre-op testing. They also have the ability to do a flexible spending account to help with their out of pocket. I believe the financial department told them that their total out of pocket would be around the $1650 mark. What a great benefit!! It was great listening to everyone's concerns, and the other sleever's experience. We all had different experiences at the different phases of our journey, but we all felt the same way . . . so very thankful for our surgeon - Dr. Kaler rocks! - and so very thankful for our sleeve! We are going to meet again next month - CAN'T WAIT!!!

I seem to have hit my first major stall - struggling with the same 2 lbs, and I know it's normal. So I think I'll just wait it out and see what happens over the next couple of days/weeks. I know that this is just part of the process and look forward to that next drop on the scale!

I must confess though, that I haven't been tracking my food as well, so that means I've got to get back into it! Gotta be held accountable for my end of the deal, since my sleeve is holding up it's part of the deal!