iegal

Forgot you guys don't have them there!!
Refried Beans
Refried Beans (Spanish: frijoles refritos) is a dish of cooked and mashed beans and is a traditional staple of Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine, although each cuisine has a different approach when making the dish. Refried beans are also popular in many other Latin countries.

Bureaucracy can be tedious. You are strong and patient to change your future. Good luck to you with a hopefully quick response
Hugs- I love my sleeve and have no regrets

Wanted to send a note to each of you encouraging you to hang in there even if just until the end of today. Tomorrow you can start fresh knowing you can handle this. Yes, it is tough, tiring and emotionally draining fighting old habits. You are so close!
Hugs for being willing to fight this battle

Phew! God is good! So glad you are better.

The doc decided at the last minute the night before that he wanted to wait a little longer.My Bariatric Surgeon has been doing this a while and he just wanted to give my sleeve a little more time to do what it needed to do.None of the swallow studies or scopes gave any indication there was a problem with the sleeve itself.We waited and watched me eat in hospital and they rehydrated me and he sent me home a couple days later and I had a follow up 2 weeks after that.Things are much better I am just taking it day by day trying to get enough Protein in:)

I am doing much better I believe I am going to be alright. Thanks for all the support and prayers I really think that prayer is what did it:)

YES. I'm not looking for a relationship but I have had to learn how to let people in. I spent years insulating myself with my fat and my bad attitude and now that I haven't got the fat and no longer feel the attitude I'm having to learn how to interact with people. For a year or so there, I was truly socially inept. I just...don't do friendships or closeness well. I've only got one person I let in, and I married him! So I understand this and it's been a challenge for me, if in a different way.
I have a fabulous friend that had the sleeve less than half a year ago and she felt the same way you do. I keep telling her that this is not about anyone else loving her. It's about her loving herself. Once she finally decides that she's enough, I truly believe she'll start attracting the "right" element, instead of the sleazy guys that just want to hook up.
Best of luck to you. I have seen my single friends struggle with finding relationships. It is NOT easy out there to find the right person. I know my circumstances are different, but I truly feel that we don't see the right person until we STOP looking so hard.
~Cheri

I love this forum..
The emotional side of the transformation is the hardest.
I saw a girl I have been working with for 10 years for the first time in a year (she has been on maternity leave) and she was actually in tears seeing me. She has seen the pictures on Facebook and the like but hadnt actually seen me.
I dont think I ever really had any concept of how big I was, until I see pictures. Same as now I dont see how small I have become.
My journey has been well document, one of my friends even made a video/documentary of the changes. Everyone seems to find me inspirational. I struggle to feel that about myself. I felt like it was a necessity for my life, I wanted to be happier.
While I struggle to understand the skinny me, the fat me hoped that being skinny would solve all my problems. I struggle with that, as it doesnt. I am the same person just in a more socially acceptable body. I used my weight to hide who I was, it was my excuse cause I was scared to let people see the real me.
Now I dont have that shield around me and it is hard to letpeople see me, the real me.
I thought it would be easier to attract the opposite sex, seriously I thought I would be in a relationship by now, but nope, it is probably easier to have a random hook up but to find someone real just aint that easy apparently no matter what size you are...Letting someone love me is the last step in my journey...

You should read the book "The End Of Overeating." It talks about how food companies have done research and found that there is a certain ratio of sugar, salt and fat, that when blended together in any recipe, will make people physically crave that food more and make them eat even when they are not hungry. It's a biochemical reaction, not a lack of self control, and the food companies are designing their foods to take advantage of this....from processed foods to restaurants...all of them. So yes, any foods with those 3 ingredients will push your will power. And if you look, all "yummy" processed foods have those 3 in abundance.
BTW....it's not an evil plot by the food companies and restaurants. It's just what they've found that sells.

I am having a different experience than ProudGranny. She says she was looking back on 59 years of her life, so maybe you were heavy all your life, ProudGranny?
I was not. I was a skinny knobby kid, gained a little weight after the babies but in my late 20s slimmed down and kept if off very well until early 40's. I actually got painfully thin during a divorce. Then I remarried, life centered around the kitchen, and a couple years later had a hysterectomy and went on HRT. I gained a lot of weight, and while the HRT didn't help, most of it was just overeating and poor food choices. I love sugar, preferably blended with a large dollop of fat.
So, when I see the normal weight person in the mirror or the big window, it shocks me, not because it is a new image, but because I finally got me back. I gleefully recognize the former me, just a lot older and grayer!
Somehow I always knew that I'd find a way to get rid of the weight, that I would not always be so heavy, I just did not know what it would be or how it would come about. I am forever grateful that we have such good medical procedures, and that I could manage to scrape up the funds to take advantage of it.
I know we all have demons to face every step of the way, and now I have to face The Maintenance Demons. We are all determined to keep the weight off once we reach goal, but just look through this forum and on YouTube and various other places, and you'll find folks who regain. Some a little, some a lot.
Of course, I am scared to death to regain. I just don't want to go back there ever again. But I know I'm human, and I still crave that sugar blended with fat!! I already let myself gain a pound over my birthday!
That is the emotional thing for me, fear of losing me again, not dealing with the rediscovery of me. Does that make any sense at all?

You can actually down load them off you tube. They have all forts of classes.

You know, I'm sort of questioning the same thing. I love being a mom so I half think I chose to have another little one right now so that I could put off long-term personal goals and achievements for myself! Not that I don't "achieve" something with my kids. I'm a pretty good mom and I love spending time with them. But it's not quite the same as going out there and doing something solely for me, you know?
For ten years I have followed my husband around the globe and we'll likely do the same for the next ten years. Usually I'm perfectly content with this. I enjoy our work, I enjoy the travel (though I miss the states sometimes) and I love my husband so much it doesn't really matter where we are so long as our family is together.
But there are those times when I feel like I haven't done anything "mine" in a really long time and I'm left wondering what that thing would be if I had the time/money/perfect location to do it.
I've spent so long focusing on external and internal me that I kind of lost sight of the rest of the picture. Being married and having children makes it easier for me to say, "I'm happy here and have enough." But sometimes that feeling nags...like I could do something else. What should I focus on next?
I suppose for the next five years it will be the next child! But then what?
So I understand, to some extent.
I just don't have an answer, either!
I will say that in my years of moving around/traveling I shake any accents unless I'm back in the town were I picked them up. I naturally mimic the way people around me talk - I don't mean to, it just happens. So when I'm home in the Chicago area I find after a few days that I'm talking differently. Same goes when I visit family in Texas. Can't help it! The rest of the time nobody has a clue where I'm from, and that works, too.
I have a dear Kiwi friend here and every American in the community loves her accent to bits. She always tell us, "I'm not the one with the accent - you are!"
~Cheri

Git alon' lil doggie.

OTR I wish that was true
Spent 10 weeks in Sept/Oct last year travelling the US, bit of attention not too much.
Will be back in Feb in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, and then NYC.
Lets hope there is more attention then
I do like the US and the accents over there too

Next is a trip to the US so all the guys can go nuts over your sexy new body ant extremely hot Aussie accent, while you just kick back and enjoy all he well deserved attention.

All my life I have wanted to be fit, healthy and relatively good looking. 36 years on wanting it and not knowing how to get it or achieve it.
Then I made it...I lost about 170 pounds, I wear a size 10-12 (my happy curvy size).
So whats next?
I have had this goal for so long, and then it became a reality. I spent last year working every inch of the sleeve and my body to get here and I did it!!!
But now I dont know what is next?
The world really is my oyster, but I am having a hard time figuring out what I want...does anyone else wonder where to now?

Why do you think my shakes are so good? Cause the damn vitamix was so expensive. It drops tiny microscopic bits of fairy dust into the shakes which help with weight loss and prevent thinning hair.

I've been away from this forum for way to long. Happy to see this new group. I felt lost with all the newbie questions before. I'm 18 months out and 23 or so lbs from goal. Been stuck for the past 6 months. I can't seem to get out of the 160's. And the holidays didn't help. I was at 158 for about a week before Christmas time, but gained and back up to 163.

God knows my wife buys the dark chocolate mint ghiardelli's and they are so friggin good.

I am 13 months out. I feel like a vet! LOL
I have lost 10 POUNDS since Thanksgiving. That is wonderful for me, considering how far out I am and getting close to goal. My frustration is I haven't lost an ounce in weeks. Now I am sounding like a newbie...lol
I eat low carb, I follow the rules and I work out regularly. Well, except for the last week due to a minor health setback....
Anyway, life is good. So thankful for my sleeve!!!

So when can we officially consider our selves sleeve veterans? I am just about 10 months out. Anyhow about getting back on track, I'm with you there. I did notice when I add just the tiniest bit of carbs to Breakfast my day is downhill from there. I usually have 2 boiled egg whites and 2 small turkey sausage. Yes it's boring but it works and it keeps me on track.
My downfall is exercise. I always use the excuse that I work full time and go to school. Never mind this semester I'm full time as far as school to. So I'm usually running around like a mad woman. However this semester I added an exercise class and I have to go 4 days a week and I will be graded on this class, so I hope this will help my transition back into the physical fitness routine.

As mentioned in the other thread, I will do my best to monitor this forum closely. If you see new topics started here that relate more to those who are just starting out, let me know and I will be happy to move it to the appropriate forum.