SKCUNNINGHAM

I think that is a great answer. Although if you have a number you want, don't let anyone dissuade you from getting to it. It's none of their concern what your goal weight is. When people ask me the same nosy question I tell them I haven't decided, and I will know it when I get there. Which is in a large part true - I know what I think my goal weight will be (135 pounds on the doctor's scales) - but I my stop before then or go lower. Also, as I start exercising more - it may be a matter of a size rather than a weight (muscle weighs more than fat for the same amount of volume). You are doing great! Don't let the world of nosy buttinskies get you down!

I am so happy for you that your relationship is getting better. Best of luck to your and your wife both - on strenghthening your bonds and on continuing your weight loss!

Good luck to you - I agree the last pounds are the hardest. I CAN NOT WAIT to get these last 23 gone!

You look wonderful! Congratulations on the payoff from all your hard work.

You look positively wonderful! I love the picures! Have someone take a picture of you from the back (not looking pregnant), thn another one profile to show the "Tatum bump". You are so beautifully thin I bet you really CAN'T tell from from the back. I know you have a son - is he excited thinking about a new baby sister? Or is he at the "too cool to care about it" stage? I bet he will make a wonderful older brother, and help you and your husband spoil her to pieces.

I registered the 95th pound loss this morning. And, when I measured on 10/1, I had lost an even 12" from my waist. I am now fitting into 14 petite pants and 12 or 14 petite blouses (depending on the cut of the blouse). I can now wear any size L T-shirt or blouse with no worry about it fitting - before surgery, a mans XXL was tight! Attached are my before headshot, a headshot from today, and a picture of me and my elliptical. The third one was shot after my morning workout - I had taken off my shoes, and had my husband snap the picture. As you can see, I have saggy, loose skin - but I wanted to show the reality of how I am now. Life is good - I am really enjoying this journey.

I'm thinking of either going to a salon and having a body wrap session and a manicure and pedicure - or buying myself an IPAD when I hit the 100 pound mark. I think I am going to stop buying clothes until I settle at a stopping weight. I have enough for the size I am now, and just a smidge smaller. And my final pants size will depend a lot on how small I exercise my waist down to. I have no butt and not much hips, so my pants are all waist-driven.

You definately aren't getting in enough Protein. If you aren't eating protein, you are losing muscle mass and will have a problem with hair loss, big time. Are you journaling what you food and drink? It would be easier to give you ideas of how to break the stall and make changes to your eating program if you reply with what a daily intake of food and drink looks like. I am curious what you are eating if you are only eating 30 grams of protein. I have been sleeved about 1 week longer than you. I eat around 80 grams of protein per day, and get around 800-900 calories in. Breakfast is either an EAS Protein shake (~20 grams of protein), or a smoothie made in my magic bullet with a scoop of Protein powder (24 grams of protein) and some frozen fruit, ice and Water. lunch is a protein (chicken, tuna, salmon, etc) and a serving of veggies. It is usually another 21 - 24 grams of protein. Snack around 4 is a baby bell cheese (6 grams of protein) dinner is a protein and a serving of veggies. Look forward to hearing from you.

I think your mental unease could be attributable to a reaction to the meds and anasthesia. I fell asleep at random time for a couple of weeks, and had disturbing dreams of the surgery / after effects during the unplanned naps. Do you normally worry about other decisions you have made, or is this a one time occurrence of post-decision worry? It is also common to have some "what have I done to myself?" second thoughts in the week or two after surgery. This worrying you are doing could be how you are manifesting this. Try to reassure yourself that you will monitor your recovery closely, and any worrysome symptom you will follow up on. This forum is a great source of opinion on post-surgery symptoms that might bother you. If you put a topic out here with a title like "Recently had surgery, should I call my doctor?" you will get quick responses from people. This sight also has a search capability that you could use to look for topics on your symptom. Also, your surgeon's office will be happy to answer questions - mine did. Good Luck

I had surgery on 2/22 of this year. I waited to go back to work until after my 3 week checkup. After that, I worked remotely from home for the rest of that week. (I have a two hour drive each way). Then, the next week, I worked 4-6 hours a day, and stayed in town at a hotel so I didn't have to drive the four hours each day. My doctor didn't want me riding in a car for over and hour without getting out of the car and taking a break and walking around (clot worries). I didn't have any problem with recovery. Good Luck!

As you rapidly drop weight, the estrogen stored in the fat cells in released into your bloodstream. For women, that is like being in puberty again, or being hormonal during pregnancy. I was a basket case - bouncing from being weepy to becoming very angry at a moment's notice. It subsided after a while - but mine was a couple of months of mood swings.

I am not a coffee drinker, so I have no advice there. I did enjoy alcohol pre-sleeve - usually tequila sipped like cognac or irish whiskey the same way. Occasionally I would drink a mixed drink, glass of wine and rarely a beer. I have tried alcohol twice since the sleeve to see what happened / how I tolerated it. I really have no interest in drinking until I hit goal, because alcohol is worse than carbs from a calorie standpoint and turns to pure sugar once you drink it. It is 7 calories per gram (Protein and carb are 4). The first time I tried tequila, 2 mouthfuls and I had a buzz. These were after I had eaten food, and spaced a little apart. I had the same reaction after drinking about 2-4 oz. of beer. If I am that sensitive to alcohol's effects with food in my stomach, I cringe to think what it would be on an empty stomach. So to me - booze is out until I am maintaining after hitting goal. When I have had to be in a social setting where people were drinking alcohol, I drink a glass of bloody mary mix with a lime wedge. No carbonation like sparkling Water would have. Or, you could tell your friends you are watching your weight, and are skipping the added calories of alcohol while you are in the losing phase. Good luck.

Asking me to pretend to have surgery would have been just as successful for me as abstinence as a form of birth control. I could be successful for short stints, but not the rest of my life. (that, of course, applied when I was young and had to worry about birth control - happily that worry is LONG past).

You had an IV. Each pint of liquid they pump into weighs approximately 1 pound. The bags are 1 liter, which is bigger than a quart, so over 2 pounds. You had many bags of fluid - which you haven't had a chance to get rid of yet. Your body is in shock - it didn't like being cut on - and is retaining fluids because of it. The previous poster is right - stay off the scale for a few days. Just remember what you weighed before surgery, and then maybe a week afterwards.

http://www.healthche...weightchart.htm The link above is from the Metropolitan Life Insurance company - it is their official height / weight tables. It lists the target weight ranges for women assuming 3 lbs of clothing wearing 1" heals. It also lists the ranges by frame size (small, medium and large). If you don't know your frame size - it also tells you how to measure and determine that - by using the distance between the two prominent bones in your elbow when your arm is bent at a 90 degree angle to your body. So first, determine your frame size. Then, find your target weight range from the chart. Determine how much weight there is from where you started to both the top and bottom of the target weight range. That would be the high and low numbers for how much excess weight you started with. My surgeon told me a VSG sleve patient usually losing 85% of their excess weight in the first year. So take 85% of both your excess weight numbers and subtract that from your original weight. That will give you your high and low numbers for how much weight you will probably lose in the first year. Here's an example using my numbers: I started out weighing 253. I am 5'4 barefoot Using the method described on the link, I measured the distance between the two bones in my elbow at 2". This means I have a small frame (hard to believe). Going to the chart for height and weight, a 5'5" women with a small frame should weigh 117 - 130. That means I was carrying between 122 to 136 pounds of excess weight. (253-130=122, 253-117=136) 85% of these numbers are 104 and 116 pounds projected weight loss at one year (85% *122=104, 85%*136=116 both numbers rounded up) So my goal weight for one year is most likely between 137 and 149. Hope this helps

You have done great - congratulations! I bet this bounce you are experiencing will stop and you will get back to your previous weight. Good luck, and hope to see your around the forum. Sharon

Coops - there is no way you gained a pound a day through what you are eating. It has to be the medicine. I think your body is responding to the trauma (injury) it has sustained, too, and you may be retaining some of the Fluid you are drinking. How about being particularly nice to yourself and put the scale away until your injury is healed, you are off the medicine, and you are back to exercising? Your measure of success could be your food journal and your tape measure. Continue to do what you are doing - you are doing the right things. That should be your "yardstick". Don't be ruled by the damn mechanical / electronic device! You are going through enough aggrivation to willingly dump more on yourself. Good luck to you. I hope your injury heals quickly.

I picked up an issue of Oprah’s magazine in my doctor’s office, and saw the article on the inside back page, titled “This I know for Sure”. The title captured my attention more than the content – because it rang true for me. In life there are things we know and believe to our very core – items which we are sure of in every Fiber of our being. Here are some of my items that I know for sure . . . VSG was the right decision for me to make positive change in my life I will never go back to the way I was pre-VSG. This is a forever commitment I have made. I will not hold perfection up as a goal for myself – I will strive for making sane, healthy choices. Nothing that I have lost, left behind or can no longer indulge in is important to me in the grand scheme of things. There is nothing in my cabinets or fridge I need to fill my life with. I will fill my life with LIFE.

Dr. Nicholson and Dr. Barker in Dallas are co-owners of the Park Forest MEdical Center - a hospital that specializes in Bariatric Surgery in Dallas, TX. Dr. Nicholson (my surgeon) gives a good deal to self-pay patients - particularly when you go to the Park Forest hospital. Both docs are very experienced Bariatric and sleeve surgeons. Dr. Nick's website is www.nicholsonclinic.com

I will be 55 during the Christmas holidays. But - I will be the size I was when I graduated high school and college - which is a heck of a lot better than being fat and 55. For you youngsters just turning 50 - wait until the folks at AARP start sending you info in the mail! I have just now stopped tearing it up and started reading it (they have a huge staff and some well researched material). I might even join those guys at some point - you never know. Also, thank God for clothes to hide the pleats of wrinkles that puddle at certain places on my body. And thank goodness my husband is near sided without his glasses, so I am just a fuzzy out of focus smaller woman, and he can't see all the wrinkles all the time.

Had my surgery 7 months ago this morning. I have lost 92 pounds to this point. I am down over 100 pounds from my all time top weight in September of 2010. I started out in size 24 Women's and now I am in size 12 petites. Don't know what size I will be when I get to goal. I am attaching a picture they snapped of me at my office yesterday. They insist I need a new picture for my ID badge.

If someone is looking at my skin closely enough to see stretch marks, I assume they are a close friend or family member. If they aren't and are looking at them critically, then poo on them. How about viewing the stretch marks as signs of accomplishment? If you don't like the way they look either use the fade creams or cosmetics to hide them.

I just checked my glasses temple - space between the temple pieces and my temples! Yea! Thanks Rootman, I hadn't noticed that. I think big ears on a guy are lovable. Who wants to have lttle tiny ears?

Thinoneday - what is happening to your facility is happening at others too. My sis is a PA at a low cost health care clinic, and the same stuff is going on there. She was killing herself trying to see way too many patients in a day. There certaininly doesn't seem to be any good answers coming from our leaders. How about substituting beef Jerky for licorice? Individual small packages of beef jerky are high Protein, low calorie (relatively) and offer lots of satisfying chewing. I go for those when I just have to chew. And I drink flavored propel Water or peach mango crystal lite instead of diet coke. Hang in there!