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First I want to say thank you to so many of the veteran posters on here. I hope you gals and guys know how much your experiences and feedback have helped me and I suspect many others. There's just such a fantastic mix of people and experiences - It's great knowing you aren't alone in this journey. The first few months after surgery were easy. The weight was simply falling off, there wasn't anything I couldn't eat or drink - And better yet, I couldn't overeat because of the restriction. I felt fantastic most of the time, had all sorts of NSV's and loved my new life. From August until January I lost almost 50lbs - I was so close to Wonderland I could taste it. THEN reality struck - Suddenly I was one of those "slow losers" - It took almost 2 months to lose 13lbs. UGH, I WAS going to be one of those slow losers. OK, fine, I'm 52 and it is what it is, right? From January until May, I "only" lost 33lbs. Again, every week/month I told myself that I would lose the weight, I was just in some sort of a stall and things would magically pick up. Well, they didn't, I would lose 2-3 lbs and then I would gain 2-3 lbs. Again, "it's normal" I told myself. Fast forward to a week ago - I jumped on here for some motivation (reading stories, etc.) and I took a hard look at what I was doing. Basically, I was being lazy - I was eating whatever I wanted and justifying it by saying "I only eat small portions" - Well, yeah, that was true...BUT I was grazing, I was drinking too much alcohol, and I wasn't tracking. I honetly have no idea how many calories I was consuming (especially on weekends with family and friends). I played mind games with myself and said "As long as I'm not gaining, I'm doing things right." - Well, that was a giant load of (@*$. This past Tuesday (after a weekend of Mimosa's, Crown Royal, and some really great BBQ), I woke up to a 5lb gain (BTW, yes I realize some of that was water retention). WAKE UP CALL. 5lbs? Seriously - Time to go back to basics before that's a 10lb gain. For the first time in MONTHS, I tracked every thing I tracked everything that went into my mouth (water, food, etc) - I did 3 days of liquid - In two days, those 5lbs were off. Rather than what I've done in the past, I didn't stop there - I continued tracking, I continued being cognizant of what and when I was eating. I said "no" to many things that I thought I wanted. I lost 6.8lbs from Tuesday to Sunday. What? I'm NOT a slow loser - I'm a LAZY loser. Folks, for many of us, it's EASY in the first few months, it's EASY to convince ourselves that we're doing OK, it's EASY to compare ourselves to others, it's EASY to ignore signs that you're falling into bad habits, and it's EASY to get lazy. In reality, it's HARD to stick to your plan when you're feeling fantastic and patting yourself on the back for losing so much weight. I'm choosing to be thankful that this happened now rather than 2-3 years into it. I'm glad that reality smacked me in the face and forced me to face the fact that i wasn't doing what I needed to do. Right now it was EASY to get back on track before I let it get out of control. For those of you experiencing the same - Buckle up buttercup, start tracking, weigh yourself often if you need to, and take a good look and when and why you're losing weight and when and why you aren't. Again, a very special thank you to you old timers for always keeping things real and giving out such fantastic advice.

My initial appointment with my WLS surgeon is in 6 days...and I’m 100% committed to showing up and beginning this process of healing my mind, my body, my soul. 31 years of destroying it have caught up with me and now my body is screaming that it’s hurting...if I don’t turn this around it’ll give out. I had appointments for consults scheduled over a year and a half ago but kept backing out and in that time I gained close to 80 pounds, blood pressure/cholesterol/heart rate and sugars climbed, other things declined...my whole body hurts. It’s time for surrender and change. I’m going to that appointment on the 25th...NO EXCUSES.

Hi, I’m new here and having surgery on May 17th, 2022. Im a little nervous and excited about the process. I’m looking for a wonderful support group to get inside knowledge of the before and after the surgery.

Hi, I had my gastric sleeve in March 22,21. My recovery was great and I didn’t had any pain or complications at all. I have lost like 60lbs so far. The problem is I have severe GERD. Since the day of my surgery I been taking PPI, now twice a day . Few days ago I had my one year visit with my surgeon and I he suggested that I should do a revision because taking the PPI long term is not ideal and he said that small percent of patients with gastric sleeve end up with severe GERD and I was one of them. That the only cure is the revision. I think is too soon but the regurgitation in the middle of the night are a nightmare to the point that I have to sleep sitting down. Have anyone one in here had a revision so soon? Sorry for my English is not my first language.

I didn’t tell pretty much anyone, and even now a year and a half later I can count on one hand the number of people I told. I am a very private person though and I have strong a strong philosophical objection to the idea that I “owe” people information on my life. I think social media has given people an over-inflated sense of the importance of their opinions and the need to share them on every occasion - and yes I recognize the irony of me posting this on a social media site like this. 😂. I know people in my life would have had lots of opinions about my own choices, and I don’t care to hear them. Do I think many people assume I had surgery after I lost 175 lbs? Of course. I don’t really care, they can assume whatever they want and when people try to bring it up to me I just don’t engage in the conversation. If sharing about surgery makes you uncomfortable, don’t. If keeping it private makes you uncomfortable, then share. Go to social events and if you want to still keep it private then just find excuses to not take part in food right now. In a few months you’ll be able to eat to an extent that it won’t be immediately obvious.

Congratulations 🎉

Yes. While not ideal 4 days isn’t going to make a big difference in the grand scheme of things. Enjoy your trip!

This ain't no picnic, that's for sure. But it does get easier. I promise.

Yeah, I'm admittedly a "lazy loser" myself. I've never been ANY good at counting/tracking calories, points, whatever. I eat things I enjoy because I know that one of my mental shortcomings is that if I try to force myself to eat things I don't enjoy just because they're healthy, I know I will cheat. I will *have* to eat something enjoyable, regardless of what other "healthy" things I've eaten... so rather than compound the calorie intake, I'll just cut to the chase and eat what I enjoy, healthy or not, but in moderation and smaller portions. Not everyone's brain works the same way, and I know this perspective is likely anathema for others, but it's working thus far for me. 1 year out from surgery date my weight has plateaued as expected, but knowing my propensity to enjoy food, I'm deliberately keeping a closer eye on the scale. I have my fast food and my occasional sweets, but If I see any long-term trend upwards more than about 2-3 pounds, I immediately tighten things up. So far, so good. Just this morning I hit a new low weight, so the the trend is still downward, and IMO that's what's important, no matter the methods employed. Different strokes, yadda yadda yadda...

This is me. I just spent the last 3 weeks eating whatever because I had started a new job. I have had deviations from my diet before but 3 weeks was the longest. I weighed myself today and didnt gained thank God, but still I wasted those 3 weeks. I am a slow loser too, but there are many things I dont do. Like I calorie count but I eat anything, I dont bother with macros or look into how much water I drink. I dont exercise and I dont take my supplements (eek!) Like , I keep thinking I wanna reach my goal sooner but I get lazy because of the effort involved.