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Dinner went well. I had about a tablespoon, maybe a bit more, of salmon and about a tablesoon of mashed potatoes. My intention was to have the broccoli instead, but it wasn't soft enough. I should have requested them to cook it longer; I will know for next time. Hubs let me choose what meal I wanted, and he ate the rest. It was so nice to go out. The funny bit was that the people sitting next to us kept staring. I think they were worried, lol. How do you navigate people who don't know why we eat like we do; especially in the early months.

not sure what u would classify as a "normal" meal...cuz i dont think i had what would be characterized as a "normal" (small-portioned) meal until after maintenance, for reals. but if ur asking when i first ate something not liquidy nor mushy...it was probably around 1-2 months and if i remember correctly, it was a fried shrimp.

we are/were ALMOST surgery-stat twins. i was 46 when i had my sleeve in 2018, i'm 5'2" and weighed 235 lbs 2 weeks before surgery...so a BMI of 43. Yours is 44.3, so yeah, ALMOST-twins! I got to goal around 7 months, and yes i has saggy skin. For me though, i had little underlying fat so it wasn't so much rolly-looking, but more like wrinkled-lumpy-bedsheet-looking. what fixed it? plastic surgery (i had a tummy tuck, arm lift and breast lift). my butt is pretty saggy still, and "hangs low" lol, but i can live with it. also the vertical skin lines on my neck gives away how old i am now but i can also live with it...sort of, ha! (in the link to collage below, the last two pics in the middle row are me 2 and 3 months before plastics. the last row is entirely post-plastics. i keep meaning to update this collage with more recent ones, as im 4.5+ years post-wls, but im lazy! i am still basically the same weight just not as defined anymore...i don't exercise nearly as much as i did back then.)

I hope all goes well with the surgery. I can relate to a lot of items on your list. Hopefully these will soon be replaced with healthy and good habits after WLS. You got this!

don't worry about the issue, just stay on top of it. As I said above, I take a capful of Miralax every morning. Lots of us do - that or stool softeners, fiber (like Benefiber or Metamucil), eat a few prunes every day - whatever it takes to stay on top of it. I rarely have problems with it since I've started the daily Miralax - but if I skip it for a couple of days, yep - the constipation comes back. It's just one of those "features" with WLS - at least for some of us. Taking daily MIralax vs weighing 373 lbs again is a no-brainer for me.

Maybe I have too much of a caffein addiction habit.

I love thrift/second hand shopping- you can find some great deals and you are almost guaranteed not to see yourself coming and going. My daughter loves it too, and we have fun shopping for little hidden gems.

I totally agree with you that most of people are nosy and ignorant and will turn into instant experts when you tell them about WLS. It is just that I'm not used to keeping stuff from my friends. I've only told two of close friends and I'm glad I did. They were very supportive. One of them is considering having WLS next month 😄

Addiction is the right word to use in my case haha. Now that the weight loss has slowed down considerably, I need some sort of motivation / rewards to keep me going. That is where new clothes come in. I now dare myself to try new sizes and styles that I've never dreamed of wearing before WLS to see how it fits. Yesterday I tried size S polo shirts, size 32" slim fit jeans, size S slim fit dress shirt and all fit me nicely. I ended buying all. My wardrobe is full of cloth now and I need to stop. As for insecurities, I'm really insecure about how my thighs look. I seem to have lost weight (a lot) from everywhere but my thighs. I need to do something about that for sure. I hope the weather improves soon so I can go back to cycling again.

I really co-sign both of these! I'm fortunately more addicted to thrifting clothes than buying new, but I still have to stop myself and consider if I really really need yet another pair of jeans (I absolutely don't!). And #5 - oh boy, yep. I love how I look in clothes and in turn, how clothes look on me (I had no idea that under all that fat was a pretty good "coat hanger" body), but out of clothes is another matter entirely. The loose skin isn't super bad, but it's enough that I'm self-conscious, and I'm now also conscious of how bony I am. I suspect I'm on the cusp of being told I'm too thin, despite still being in a normal BMI. I've basically swapped one body insecurity for another.