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One month has flown by and I had my big weigh in at the doctors office, which I was excited to see what it would say. I am at 202 from 235! In one month I lost 33 pounds and have went down a size in pants and 1/2 a shoe size. I also was wearing a 2XL to now wearing some L. So glad I had this life changing surgery!

I'm learning my way, so I apologize in advance for the repition. This was posted yesterday I've been struggling with my weight since I was a child...Always gaining and never losing. Excercising, watching what I ate. Green Juicing & organic eating. Cutting back the salt, decreasing the sugar, omiting the bread, bagels & donuts. Stoping the fast food quick trips, increasing the steamed veggies, and loving fish & fowl. Drinking water, carrying water. Drowning in water. I have water in my car, my desk drawer, a bottle in my purse...It became my newest accessory. I've done Nutri System, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, and starving. I've used videos, joined classes at the gym, water aerobics, kick boxing, walking & jumping rope around the track. With minimal results, I started crying, lost hope & then binge eating. I have high blood pressure, sore knee joints, an achy back, & a sad spirit. Yet I continue to smile on the outside, because fluffy people are supposed to be happy & jovial. I'm a 49 y/o female that needed help. I started my journey January 2013 by attending a Bariatric Center of Excellence Seminar in the area. It motivated me & I realized this was the help I needed. I immediately signed up and went to my 1st appointment in Feb 2013. I followed the instructions of my insurance carrier, jumped through all of their hoops, crossed my T's, dotted my I's and was still declined the sleeve in May 2013. I questioned, how can that be when I'm in such bad shape? The Bariatric Center of Excellence filed an appeal on my behalf June 2013. I received a call yesterday. My appeal was approved, YAY! Anxiously awaiting 2mrrw to schedule my Sleeve Day. I'm grinning from the inside out!! Please be my support.... Thank you for allowing me to share.

I have been reading posts from the site now for a few weeks and I am always amazed when folk post about stalling. I'm not due for my surgery until the 22nd of this month and like all of us want to know what to expect pre and post surgery, but I am always so amazed at the panic that seems to be displayed when one is not losing weight. Managing one's expectations would be my advice. We do not gain weight instantly nor will we lose weight that way. We all heal differently and our bodies will react differently. Don't jump on the scale every day, again manage the expectation. Try once a week or do a bi-monthly weigh in. Be true to yourself. I know for example that I may cheat on my pre-op diet over the next two weeks. But since there are buffers provided by my NUT, I purchased what I will need to succeed, unsweetened applesauce and SF jello. They will be great snacks in between slimfast shakes. Adjust your diet, use tools that will help, myfitnesspal.com is a good source. Have a good intake of water, and as should be our norm by now, take in protein first. I think another suggestion is not to give up. We worked so hard to get here, over come all types of problems in order to succeed. Let stall equate to adjust, that is what your body and systems are doing, adjusting. This new way of eating and lifestyle takes some adjusting. As we continue on our journery I wish us all success.

Guinness World Records called me today. It was out of the blue and I thought it was my shameful little secret. But apparently being startled by a squirrel can help you become a Guinness record breaker. I was in the kitchen messing around and heard some scratches in the utility room. Upon opening the door, I was confronted by a dastardly squirrel. Being a normal (sort of) person, I figured if I stepped towards him, he'd head for the hills. But no, he charged me! Squirrels aren't supposed to charge! They're supposed to hang upside down on the sides of trees and play funny games of tag with each other. It's in the Squirrel Manual. Chapter 1 - Squirrels are supposed to look cute, chase each other, and RUN whenever confronted by things that outweigh them by 300 lbs. This squirrel, obviously, was a dropout. He's the kinda punk squirrel that skips squirrel school, hangs around the pool hall, and smokes. I would add that he's a heroine addict, but I didn't have time to check his little squirrel arm for tracks - I was too busy trying to release the squirrel back into his natural habitat. By that, I mean that I screamed like a girl and slammed the door. That's where Guinness comes in. I thought my shameful little secret was my own, until I got the phone call. Apparently Guinness heard the scream and the door slam at their headquarters and tracked it back to me. I wondered how they tracked it back to me, until I saw the fault line (apparently caused by my slamming the door) snaking across my property and down the street. I now have two Guinness records - one for Loudest Girly Scream from a Man and Hardest Door Slam Without Knocking the Door Off the Hinges. P.S. The Man Club heard about it as well. I tried to explain that I was employing my catlike Ninja skills and the scream was my way of focusing my Chakras - but they weren't buying it. They said they had already given me a break on the whole Monarch Butterfly incident, but they couldn't give me a pass on this one. I now have 2 points on my Man Card. One more point and I have to take a refresher class. :-( P.P.S Does setting the world record for screaming like a girl count as an aerobic workout??????

...Day 17... New Weight: 261.8 Made an egg white scramble with 1/2 c. egg whites, 2 tbs. shredded reduced fat mozzarella cheese, fresh arugula and basil from my garden and sauted onions and bell pepper, ate slow and chewed well, stayed down just fine! Had some pork liver pate on the side (kind of like faux sausage) also stayed down just fine. Went to yoga class again for the first time since surgery. Went well a little pain at the port site when twisting but otherwise fine. I can tell I'm going to be sore tomorrow though. Haven't used all those muscles in a while. Everything is going good so far.

I did not expect this. in learning to eat differently for my post sleeve life, i have evidently decreased my intake even more than i expected and have lost some weight. big deal, everyone here can lose weight, however today when i went hiking in the wilds of northern minnesota my gymn shorts kept slipping down. WTF? I have not had that happen to me in years and i was much lighter then. Perhaps the elastic has worn down, but it felt good anyway. I am heading to my surgery with a full head of steam, aiming to make the most of it right from the start. ten days to go. My daughter is getting married tomorrow and there are all sorts of people here, family people. the same ones that I tend to eat over. but so far i still have little interest in food. very strange, very welcome. We fly back on Sunday and i can get into the security of my routine until surgery. I have told a few chosen people and they have all been highly supportive. perhaps I need to expand my inclusion list.

I was surfing on the tv and found an old Dr. Phil. The obese husband wouldn't go near his wife unless she was under 200 pounds. They have not had sex or kissed in 2 years. She got under 200 and he still won't go near her. He is obese and had the nerve to say he wants his size 10 wife back. Dr. Phil told him off but good. That is a form of abuse according to the doctor and I believe it. I have heard of people that can not handle it when their partner loses a lot of weight and that they leave. That is sad. I know my husband and I have been married 42 1/2 years and have both been thick and thin but mostly thick for us. We are not going any where. Everyone enjoy the rest of your long weekend. Arlene aka 'Eye Candy'

Well I have 5 weeks from today until my surgery on Aug 9th. Can't hardly wait!! Right now I'm focusing on exercise. I have an RN case manager and she said to increase physical activity to be as strong as possible for surgery. I'm doing alot of walking and went hiking the past two nights. It's interesting that I can do more now than 5 years ago and 100 pounds lighter. 5 years ago when I couldn't walk that far on the local walking trail or hiking made me feel like I was going to die I just blamed it on being fat. Maybe I was in denial of how bad my smoking was affecting my health. Now I weigh 100 pounds more and I'm am able to do so much more than I thought possible since quitting smoking over 3 months ago. Of course the bigger you are the more calories you burn and I'm a pretty big girl so I do find myself hungry and stomach growling not long after exercise. I'm worried that during my pre-op diet when I will only be getting 800-900 calories a day that it is going to be very difficult to exercise and that I just won't have the energy. I guess I will do as much as possible now in case this does become a problem. But what about after the surgery? I'll be consuming less calories than that and I'll need to find the energy to exercise. This is something I've been worried about. I will probably just have to suck it up and do it no matter how I feel!! Believe

@BrandyE77Ok I'm just waiting for a call to find out my surgery date. Exciting!! I started this journey back in October 2012 when I accidently found out that my insurance covered wls. I started researching surgeons in my area and attended a seminar in November. December 2012 I met with my PCP to start my six month physician supervised weight loss program which I just completed on June 24th. YAY!! Did I lose weight? No. Do I feel bad about that? No. I will explain.. I actually started losing weight slowly by cutting back on portion size and counting calories. In March I decided to quit smoking after 22 years of being a smoker. I gained about 10 pounds. I beat myself up about it at the time. Also, I really got into excercising since I could actually BREATH. I have excercised more in the past 6 months than I have in the past 6 years. I should mention that I did have two steriod shots in the past 6 months for sciatica. I have since lost the weight I gained from when I quit smoking, but that puts me back to where I started. I decided not to get upset about it because although I didn't lose any weight I made two major lifestyle changes and I feel wonderful about that!! So I've jumped through all the hoops.. seminar, 6 months supervised by PCP, 6 month nurse coach, psych eval, labs, support group meeting, viewed EMMI. Now just waiting on insurance approval which my nurse coach said usually takes 2 weeks. I can't wait!! I am so ready for this!! Believe