M2G

Mine are posted over in the BEFORE/AFTER Photo thread that is a "sticky" under the General Sleeve Discussion board but I will post them here too!

Congrats!! I have followed your journey the whole time and it's great that you have a NORMAL BMI!! Woo hoo!!!

GREAT ARTICLE!! I encourage all new sleevers to fully take advantage of the honeymoon period. Get moving and keep moving, stay away from sugar and carbs as much as possible. I'm nearly 2 years post-op and I can definitely eat more slider, junk, carbs and sugar. However when I'm eating dense protien truly my limit is about 4oz of meat, fish, chicken, pork, etc. I cannot eat more than that. My honeymoon really only lasted about 4 months. After that, losing weight was much slower and I felt like I had to work much harder to lose. I hit a wall before my one year and stalled for about 4 months. Then went on to lose a bit more, but I've been stuck almost this entire year. I'm not the only one either who "hit a wall" in regards to loss, so definitely work your tool to the best of your ability. As for hunger, when I eat normal regular Protein and stay away from sugar/carbs I still have virtually no hunger. When I eat sugar/carbs it definitely makes me want more. Thanks for sharing this article!

Yes. I went first. I started the insurance process in April 2010 and I wanted him to do it too. He was 100% supportive of me but wasn't interested for himself. Then about 3 months into my journey he had a change of heart and decided he wanted to do this too. We both had Dr. Snyder at Rose. I was in Oct. 2010 and he was in March 2011. Unfortunately we have high-dedcutible insurance and surgery was $5K out of our pocket each time since it was in two different calendar years, but it was totally worth it! How has your experience been so far?

Congrats girl!!! I know what you mean about the arms...but keep working on it! I'm also working on self-acceptance.

Wow congratulations on the Doctoral acceptance...wow, just wow! Hang in there during this stall, it too will pass!

My husband is sleeved and donates blood regularly without any issues. He is 18 months post-op though and just started donating again regularly about 5 or 6 months ago. What part of Colorado do you live in? We are in Centennial!

Congrats to not only you but your wife as well, that is amazing!!! My hubby and I are both sleeved (I'm 22 months post-op and he is just shy of 18 months post-op) and I am so happy we did this together. What a great thing that even though your wife is a non-op she has shed weight right along with you. That 5K picture is priceless, what an accomplishment, congrats!

Awesome congrats on the first -100 being GONE! You know the sleeve was started as a two-part surgery for the super-morbidly obese, first part Sleeve then later a DS would be added (switching intestinal tracts to create malabsorption) but what many drs. and researchers found was that even super-morbidly obese would have the sleeve and NOT have to have the DS later, because THEY ROCKED THEIR SLEEVE!!!!. Thus fueling the modern day VSG as a "stand-alone surgery" and Patrick I think you will be in that category. Just keep rocking your sleeve!

I've always said that you were beautiful before but STUNNING now! Congrats on the 2 year and congrats on keeping your self in check...WOO HOO! Love that you have always rocked your sleeve Sophia!

Wow!! Congrats on your loss, and I'm guessing there is lots more room on the bike nowadays. My Dad goes to Sturgis every year, I've never been only seen pictures.

I am proud of your creativity and committment also! My surgeon's rules were no drinking for 1 year and I did 1 year plus a week so IT CAN BE DONE!! Now I'm not single and going out to bars but there were plenty of opportunities for ME TO DRINK and I DIDN'T PARTAKE. Now that I'm closer to two years post-op I do enjoy drinking every now and then but it definitely hits me faster than before and I get tipsy after 1-2 drinks. My hubby is also sleeved (16 months post-op) and he says drinks don't affect him like they do me, but neither one of us are big drinkers. It's definitely an occassional and social thing for us.

Absolutely incredible! Congratulations you are just about 6 weeks behind me (Oct. 22, 2010) and you have definitely rocked your sleeve. Congrats!

Well, I hate to say it but I might be *mostly* at goal. I've been the same weight for about the last 6 months now and while I'm not at my personal goal, I am extremely happy with where I've landed. I'm definitely NOT giving up but I wouldn't be sad if I was to stay at this weight forever. That being said, I decided to go ahead and post my photos over in the BEFORE/AFTER photo thread on the General Sleeve Discussion board. I figured I might as well share them here also. I was 21 months post-op on July 22, 2012. I'm 5'6" tall and weigh about -100lbs less than when I started this journey. Thank you sleeve! Click on the attachment to view larger...

Lovemylife...YES!!!!! I lost hair. But it was never big chunks. As you can see in my before photos (which were all taken during the 6 months before I had surgery) you can see that my hair is shorter. Well, I grew it out long thinking that when I lost hair (went into surgery KNOWING that a large % of people experience hair loss after WLS even IF they are taking all their vits, and getting all their Protein like I was) I would just cut it short again. But I decided I like it longer and have been keeping it a bit longer ever since. I started losing about 4 months post op and quit "shedding" about 10 months post op. So for 6 months I was losing hair everywhere, the brush, the shower, the floor (killed a vaccuum cleaner...yep!) But losing a bit of hair was a fair trade to losing the weight. Plus of course, as you can tell it's not like I went bald. :-)

I've been photo-documenting what I've been eating lately. You can find it on my blog. http://thisonebody.blogspot.com/ BTW, I'm over 21 months post-op...

LOL, are you the bald one in the avatar pic? I started growing my hair longer before surgery with the idea that I would just cut it all off once I started losing it. I didn't lose big chunks, but rather went through a shedding process starting about 4 months post-op and ending about 10 months post op. I definitely have less hair today that I did before surgery, but I decided to keep it longer and I really like it. I posted before/after photos if you want to compare before surgery hair and after. I would so lose the hair rather than be morbidly obese again though! http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/46481-21-month-photo-update/

Thanks Coops, your support has been amazing, I know I wouldn't have made it this far without your support! You are such a wonderful friend, thanks for always listening!

I used to work out EVERY day! But alas I started working full-time in Jan. of this year and dropped to 2-4 times a week. I do have excess skin but it's not as bad as I thought it would be. Would I like to have plastic surgery...maybe. I don't have the $$$ for it and I'm scared of the surgery/pain, so I wear a lot of shapewear and just deal.

Yes, I'm a pateint of Dr. Synder. I often do his seminars on his patient panel because it drives me nuts that unless I gather a few of my sleever friends we have no representation (everyone is usually band or bypass!) So I go to get the word out about the sleeve.

Thank you all for your kind words. I know the before/after photos really helped me when I was contemplating having the VSG. I had a wonderful full and happy life before surgery and now everything is just THAT much better because I don't have to lug around an extra 100lbs!!! My 10 year old daughter climbed into my lap the other day and she is probably about 75-80lbs and I thought I would die from the extra pressure and weight and I started thinking "how in the world did I carry around an extra PERSON all the time?" So yeah, looking good is a extra bonus but feeling good is what really counts!! If you click on my profile you will find a link to my blog...I started it about a month before surgery and have kept it going ever since...

Cheri, congratulations!!! You look amazing! I will continue to follow your journey as you go through pregnancy, I'm sure you will come through with flying colors!

That is great news! I remember when you were in a funk and stuck on the scale. I'm so glad you found a way to not only break your stall but go on to a new low, congrats!!! I went back to work full-time in Jan (after working only PT for the last almost 12 years) and found it to be very hard on my strict workout schedule. I need some of your motivation to get to the gym more often!

WOW! What a difference, CONGRATS you are looking GREAT!

Okay I decided since I've been basically the same weight for the last 6 months, I might be "done" losing scary thought, BUT I'm not going to change my ticker yet, as I still have an aspirational goal that I would like to someday achieve. But I finally am putting up my before/after shots...It truly is astounding to see the difference!! (Click on them to see them larger)