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This summer has been awesome! I have so much energy and I have been so active! I finally rode my bike (havent done that in over 20 years) and my doggies are getting walked every morning! Swimming in the pool and going to the beach! I have done so many activities this summer that have involved walking. It is almost like a dream. It is hard for me not to buy clothes "just because I can". I used to buy things only because they fit, never for the style. What a lifestyle change this has been and continues to be. I have so much more work to do, but that is okay because this is a journey. I have finally gotten over the head hunger and craving, I eat for the nutrition and for fuel. Such a relief, because the first few months were so hard! It was kind of a mourning peroid. It's gonna be okay!

There is a comedian that talks about how even as an adult he laughs everytime he squirts out the shampoo and it makes a PPHHFFLLTT sound. Well, I guess I am like that. There are two things I have seen on here that just made me think like a 12 year old... 1. In a perfectly serious and nice forum post one user posted "It is official, I am in a stall." Then she went on to describe her frustration at her weight not moving at all for like 2 weeks. Definitely a stall and a very frustrating one. Nothing to laugh at....... Well, all I could think of when I first read the headline was that she was stuck in a public bathroom somewhere. I can just see me stuck in a bathroom - and being the goof that I am - I would text something like....It's official, I'm in a stall!. Sorta had to be there, but I thought it was funny 2. The one thing that really cracks me up... and I am dying - literally dying - to be able to use this on some unsuspecting person. In this very specific subject website we have our own vocabulary that no one else uses (foamies, sliming, etc.) And we all know what we mean because there is such a fine and narrow context built into all of our posts. However, we fling around the terms pre-op and post-op like we own them. We do not own them. There is another very narrowly defined group that uses these very same words. And they are not talking about having your stomach cut off. They are aiming lower -much lower. I hope I can just drop in a conversation somewhere that I am 2 months post-op with no additional information. Then just watch to see how people treat me. We all know that big people are treated different. But I can only imagine that if people thought I had just gone through surgery to change my "accessories." That would be hilarious. I couls also probably answer questions honestly. Did it hurt? no. How long were you in the hospital? not long. Do you feel different? oh yes!! Do people treat you differently? yes. Was your family supportive? Yes, especially my wife and kids - that ought to get a look. Then go for the total freak out. Do you want to see my incisions?

So I eat a LOT of Greek yogurt, but there's only a handful of flavors that I like and you gotta admit, eating the same 3 flavors day after day for breakfast and sometimes lunch gets a bit redundant. I have heard that mixing a 5.3oz package of Greek Yogurt with 1/4 package of sugar free jello pudding makes a yummy snack, especially if you are having a sweet tooth craving. I think I'll try this, but from what I've read it turns the Greek yogurt into a mousse almost, light and fluffy in texture, but not as bitter, so for everyone who doesn't like Greek Yogurt because of the bitter aftertaste, this may be for you! I also read that some people freeze the mixture to make a type of healthier high protein ice cream. I just found a recipe for mixing blended banana into a cup of greek yogurt, add a bit of lemon juice, and a bit of honey and freeze to make pops. Has anyone tried any of this?? Or have any suggestions for healthy high protein snacks?? For lunch today I took a slice of turkey breast, a slice of provolone cheese, and a pickle and made rolls with them because I can't handle bread on my sandwiches it fills me up too quickly. I think tomorrow I'll try a piece of avocado with the turkey and cheese. Night all!

How did a former athlete who was 9% body fat in college get to this point? Well I was born with a bad heart valve that wore out faster than my body did. In my early 40s suddenly I was gasping for breath, by my late 40s I was type 2 diabetic, at 50 I had surgery for diverticulitus and lost 4" of my colon which slowed me down more. At 52 I had open heart surgery where they replaced the valve and found a aneurysm which would have killed me. However, I came out of this unable to lift weights, play softball or baseball, with a right arm and shoulder with nerve damage in it and a bad knee and hip. Then the meds quit controlling my diabetes, the new meds added weight and now it is out of control, I have nerve damage in my feet and my wife has to look at them every night to make sure I don't wind up with an infection. I was approved as a metabolic Weight Loss Patient on the first go around. I am now on my second doctor because the staff of the first one frankly was incompetent. I was lied to when they told me that they had filed FMLA, and I was pre-approved by insurance, they hadnt submitted either one of them. So being the analyst that I am I checked and found out everything. Added to that the hospital that they wanted to have the surgery in didnt have the best reputation. I should have had the surgery two months ago to keep nerve damage to a minimum. I am very nervous, from my major surgeries I live with pain every day. I was told that while they can do the sleeve that the results are better with bypass. However, the horror stories with malabsorption worry me. I am doing this to be able to have a life again not just to trade one set of issues for a whole other set. So any feedback is appreciated.

It's been a month today since my surgery, so I thought I'd add a quick update. The first week was HARD, lots of pain and discomfort Week two was a bit better, but still painful and had major gas pain on my shoulders Third week, the gas pain started to taper off, had very little energy Week four, less pain but have started having the "pulling" feeling around the band area, still tire easily and have little energy Total Lbs. gone for ever=18 Would I do it again? yes! What I would do differently? seriously do a pre-op diet. It wasn't required for me. I'm looking forward to feeling more like myself in the next few weeks, I feel drained by mid-day, I also wish the swelling in my stomach would go down already...baby steps, I know...I know.

Today I had surgery. I have 6 small incisions with a on-q ball. I am taking loratab every 4 hours and still in a lot of pain. Im so excited to finally have the procedure done and ready to begin my new journey.

I really wish for all that is holy that people would stop getting lapbands in Mexico. Number one they are a third world country. Do you really want medical care there! I am a registered nurse and have seen the screw up from these doctors and patients. Don't do it! They don't provide the correct or if any pre op teaching so post operatively people are doing things that screw things up. Your health is worth a lot more than saving some money. Yes it is cheaper but have you ever thought why? Mexican doctors and I use the term doctors loosely do not receive proper medical training. This isn't the place to go to get a lapband. I see it at work everyday and as a lapband patient I just nod my head in disbelief.

I am 4 months post op with the Gastric sleeve. *I'll spare the book of my "story" for this blog, but overall my surgery and experience was very satisfactory. My full story is posted on my page if anyone is interested. Since surgery I have lost 64 lbs. Since I started the journey in January of 2011 I have lost a total of 129 lbs. I feel amazing, but everyday is a new battle it seems. My battles lately seem to be centered around trying to eat the right amount of protein, trying to drink the right amount of water, and to try and not have a mental breakdown everytime I brush my hair in the morning and find a small animal of hair on the brush. I find frustration in the lack of information and tips and tricks for eating. It seems all I eat are Greek Yogurt, Greek Yogurt, and a piece of grilled chicken or steak. I feel devastated that I can't get more veggies and fruits in, which many of you must know after years of diets, that there's a little stamp in my brain insisting to eat more veggies and fruits. I haven't been able to find anybody with a story similar to mine, so I thought, why not start a blog and maybe somebody out there is looking for me too, to compare thoughts and ideas or to just compare their experiences to. I am 25, I am happily married but have no kids because I was too overweight for my body to work correctly. I plan on kids in the future, but my husband is in end stage renal failure and on dialysis. I am his own personal nurse, I give him dialysis at home everyday with a newer dialysis machine and procedure than they usually use. I am also a LPN in real life. I have Multiple Sclerosis but thankfully no permanent issues have resulted from it. The weight loss is helping the amount of relapses immensely. I just have to avoid stress... Ha! I just started going back to school again to finish up my degree as a RN. I am also an EMT on the local lifesquad as a volunteer and I work as their insurance biller a few times a week. So my life is absolutely crazy, and on the top of it all I am learning a new lifestyle of food! Now I realize that there isn't going to be a lot of people out there exactly in my situation but I'm always curious to see how other people out there who have struggles have overcome or are trying to overcome them. Like exercise! I love going to the gym, I usually go for 30-40 minutes on the elliptical on a cardio setting. Then I go and do toning with the weights. But being a MS'er, I can't do any of this when it's hot or humid out. And being summer guess what the weather is?? I try to compensate by going to the pool and swimming laps, using my exercise bike at home, even playing my Wii Fit. But lately it's been so humid that I completely can't do a single thing in this humidity, other than swim. And the pool at the gym is about 20 minutes from me, and it's getting easier and easier to put off going because of the distance and how I feel. So I'm not exercising as much as I'd like to. Well that's all for now. I've gotta go get ready for my last lab of Microbiology for the summer, Take care all!

My last meal was bruschetta, little toasted pieces of baguette, rubbed with garlic, laden with chopped tomatoes and basil. I thought maybe I would never be able to eat them again, I mourned a little that it had come to this, I was excited to have hope again, I was already bookmarking favorites in online shopping, filling the imaginary shopping cart with pretty items in never before dreamt of sizes. Two years ago today I woke very early, 6 perhaps, amazing how some things get forgotten ... I had drunk the horrific milk of magnesia the night before and had my final water at the same time and now was nervous and thirsty, the adrenaline making both sensations all the more acute. My Mother and I were at a hotel around the corner from the hospital and we drove there, or did we take the shuttle? I was in my pyjamas, having just showered with the special cleanser they gave me. I was private pay from one of the best surgical teams for VSG in the world, Laparascopic Associates of San Francisco, so I got a pretty 5 star treatment, private changing room, garment bag for my things, robes etc. with the LASF logo stitched on. I must have been nervous but my adrenaline kept me from really feeling much. My Mom and I waited in a private room, I laid on a bed in my gowns. One last trip to the bathroom and it was off to the OR to meet the kindest anesthesiologist ever, I think she had all sorts of dogs printed on her surgical cap, that's all I remember ... Next thing, I was waking up in my room with a view of the City, in and out of consciousness ... there were popsicles ... there was walking ... there was feeling like I was going to barf but nothing happening ... I didn't pee when they wanted me to and a few other things so I spent an extra day in the hospital ... The following few days are mostly a blur, 2 years later my Mother tells me the timeline of events during those days and it's all news to me. I spent 3 weeks recovering in the country, in a little cottage up the coast a few hours from SF. That first night I stayed on the couch in a sitting position and the following 3 nights I slept in bed but only on my side as sleeping on my back gave me terrible sensations. My body was a foreign landscape that first week and for the first month I felt as close to vampiric as one can, I had no human bodily functions - no need to pee or poop, no interest in human food, in fact a revulsion of nearly every food or beverage. Before I walked into the OR they weighed me one last time, 294. 2 weeks later I came back for a check up and they weighed me, 274. 20 pounds! Those first 20 pounds were more stunning than the following 100. After all the research, all the thinking, all the talking to sleevers, it still had never genuinely sunk in that this was real and that it really does work. I sat in my Dr's office, stunned! There are plenty of people here on VST who tell delightful tales of reaching and exceeding their goals within 6 months, how they are now under goal, wear a size 0, and chirp chirp chirp, tweet tweet tweet. Well, good for them, wish I was one. That has never been my VSG story however. It was a full year before I joined the century club and 2 years out I am still shy of surgeon's goal by approx. 25 lbs and personal by approx. 50. Two years out I sometimes still reflexively tense up when I sit in a chair with arms, genuinely expecting to not be able to fit into it. I still stiffen up when in crowds, thinking people are staring and staring for negative reasons. I still FEEL fat often, I still feel frustrated that after so much time and effort I still probably look like a pudgy lazy bones to the average lay person, but I would rather be at this stage of the game rather than having never begun and still at square one! I've learned that losing weight and becoming physically active and strong does solve a lot of problems and does bring a lot of simple joy but that losing weight or becoming a specific size doesn't automatically confer happiness and that fat or thin life can just suck sometimes. Weight loss is NOT a fairy tale prince come to swoop me onto a horse and ride me off into a happily ever after sunset, a fact that honestly, I am still trying to come to terms with. One final thought, I think I might not have made the decision or had the success I have had or a lot of positive things if it weren't for this forum and the support I've found here. Fellow sleevers from around the world have supported me, advised me, commiserated with me and have just been indispensable on this journey. I hope I have been able to give some of that back. Here's to the continued adventures, the continued seeking of and eventual attainment of goals, for me and for us all, -Globetrotter

That was the response I got at Olive Garden today when I said "no thankyou" to the complimentary garlic bread. pat pat pat myself on the back. Seems like small potatoes, but it was a HUGE triumph for me. I love breads, rice, pastas...oh and the delicious mashed potatoes made with cream cheese!!! I am a not just a food addict, I am addicted to starch. So, I orded the soup (pasta fagioli) and salad...yes with the dressing. But I did not order anything carb loaded. I thought about asking the waitress to remove the bread, but my friend was enjoying it sooo much, I just didn't have the heart. ooh ooh ooh....and you know that little mint they give you at the end, I gave it to my friend. New plan, I am going to feed all of my friends so they get fatter to make me look skinnier. Just joking. The will power is getting easier....but no bueno on the shakes 2 times day. It's too much sweetness. I bought some jerky, string cheese and yogurt to get the full amount of protein needed per day. I also eat fish or chicken and green veggies or salad for dinner. I am only down 2 lbs for the first week of preop diet, but I am still limited on my excercise with my broken toes. Note to self....stop falling down stairs. Tomorrow starts week 2 of preop. Phew....can't wait for this week to be over with. I am so excited to get banded next week.