Lissa

I like the Genie bras at Walmart that someone here suggested. They are very comfortable and much more supportive than a sports bra. Even on my incision sites they sit well. Before I found them, I used the sports bras unless I was working because they didn't rub that top incision. It does get better. Soon you won't even be able to find that incision unless you've had major problems with it.

Great job! It's definitely strange to not be the biggest person around. Now I'm usually not even in the top three biggest people around. Yippee!! Keep rocking that sleeve! You'll be at goal in no time.

Meg is right. Even now, I try to go easy on buying clothes. My surgeon says that I'm near goal, but I've lost the last 3-4 sizes in 20 pounds over the last 6 months. While the pounds aren't going down, my sizes go down quickly. I just bought size 16 jeans 2 weeks ago and I was SO excited to be able to wear them. I pulled them out of the dryer a few minutes ago and I can tell they aren't going to fit for much longer. They will be too big!!! I'm thinking that I'll have to buy the next size down within 2 weeks. They were only $20, but my jeans/work pants are getting loose so quickly these days that they might as well still have tags on them. I'd wait until they were truly falling off me, but I wear both to work in and must look somewhat decent daily. Oh well, there's always Goodwill.

I have some excess skin at almost a year out, but I am also seeing improvement in everything except my upper thighs. I have a plastics consult tomorrow to talk about skin removal and possibly a breast lift. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how everything is shaping up. I just posted a new picture this morning to show my progress.

BTW, I wanted to mention that I love that you are always wearing your best accessory...your huge smile!

According to my WLS surgeon, I should be transitioning to maintenance at this point, but I'm still slowly losing. I work out daily and eat pretty much whatever I want to eat, with an emphasis on Protein. Because I'm working towards building muscle, I'm trying to increase my protein intake a bit. I imagine that maintenance won't be much different than my daily routine now. It will still include daily exercise and meeting my Water and protein goals. I'm more concerned with keeping myself healthy than a number on a scale, but I will probably build in a little bounce weight like Meg and others have done. This is the best journey I've ever taken and I plan to enjoy the ride AND the results!

You look amazing!!! Love the song!!

Great job!! Congrats!!

Yes. It's too soon to do anything more than walking. My doc said walking only for the first six weeks, then I could ease into weight lifting. Jogging would definitely be too much this early.

lmao He didn't give you that gum. You STOLED it!!!

Candy, I think the therapist is a GREAT idea! All of us have issues surrounding food or we wouldn't be here. Your pendulum has swung from eating everything to eating nothing. While that allows you to have rapid weight loss, you didn't have surgery so that you could restrict yourself from life. You had surgery to live a happy, healthy, NORMAL life. Correct? You need to really push yourself to try more foods. You need the nutritional benefits of veggies and your tummy muscle inside the sleeve needs the workout of digesting more than the few foods you've tried so far. I know a woman who had GB and eats nothing but Protein shakes and Water. She has reached goal, but done major damage to her body. She frequently ends up in the ER with dehydration and malnutrition issues. Her skin looks like an old woman's skin and she's only 42. She has no muscle tone and no endurance for physical activity. It winded her to walk less than a block the last time I saw her...and she kept pleading for me to slow down. Please work on this issue so that you can have a healthy, happy, rest of your life! (((Hugs)))

Everyone else has said almost everything else I would say, so I'll just add this. One of my inspirations was an aunt who has had over 20 operations due to her uncontrolled diabetes and obesity issues. She "only" weighs about 250, but she's 5'1, so her BMI is astronomical. She nearly lost a foot to gangrene (may still lose it); she's had numerous operations to save the little sight she has left (can't see her grandchildren's faces); she's had operations on both arms to combat the rigor mortis that's already settling in there. She's ONLY 54 years old! I finally decided that ONE operation to help reverse my morbid obesity was much less scary than 20 to combat the effects of my morbid obesity. I was also under a death sentence of lose weight or die...and the doctors weren't sure I'd live a year. Here I am, more than a year after they predicted my death, happieir and healthier than ever! If that's not a sign, I don't know what could be a sign. Good luck, whatever you decide.

You're right, Barb. It's never too late to start measuring yourself!! I just did my measurements this morning and I've lost another inch and a half from my waist. I'm sure that measurements have kept me sane throughout this journey!! Congrats on 30 inches gone FOREVER!!!

PDX, I think I'm going to up my protein goal to 100g from 70g a day, with a corresponding jump in water consumption simply because it's HOT this summer in South Florida. I will be losing my health insurance soon (pending divorce), so it's now or never for me on that plastics consult.

My PCP, who I've been seeing since I was 11, has always been weight phobic. EVERYTHING got the same answer from him "Lose weight and this will go away". I've been to him once since surgery, for my annual checkup. His nurse (and wife) actually required ID before she'd believe it was me. I had a few minor issues and his answer was "You need to lose weight". Um, yeah, I'm down a very visible 60 pounds (at the time) and you're still saying all my problems stem from my weight. Gee, thanks for nothing. Until last month, my pulmonologist was actually handling most of the issues a primary care doc would normally handle. I'm shopping right now for a PCP with a tad of common sense.

We shouldn't do it, but I have weighed pre and post BM before as well.

Rock on, sistah!!! You look fantastic and SO much happier!!!

You all need to take your measurements NOW and then compare them during stalls. I walked out of my first pair of pants during my first stall. The pants fit one day and then fell off me the next day, even though the scale stayed the same. You really can't "break" a stall unless you're stalled because you're eating too much. Basically, our bodies are adjusting to the changes we've made. When we stop eating so much and start adding hydration, the body says "Whoa!" and tries to hold onto the weight because it thinks we are in a famine of some kind. Once the body metabolism resets itself, you will drop weight, and usually dramatically. Those stalls are when I lose sizes and inches, always. I'm learning not to dread stalls but to look for the NSVs (non scale victories) during them.

Great job!! You're truly rocking that sleeve!!

PDXMan, I think you may have inadvertently answered a question for me that I didn't know I had. I've changed up my workouts (again) in the last two weeks and been eating more than normal. I've been actually hungry and it has worried me. But, while I haven't dropped pounds, I'm shrinking again. I had, in passing, wondered if I was stalled, but now I think that I'm actually in a muscle building phase again and my body is needing the extra Protein for muscle building. I think I need to raise my protein goal for a bit. I have been concentrating super hard on abdominal exercises (along with the other stuff) because I have a plastic surgery consult this month and I'm trying to see what I can accomplish before then.

Good luck! I'm totally decaf now because the caffein addiction was SO hard to break pre-op!

I started doing 10 reps of arm exercises with 2 pound weights a few days after surgery. I firmly believe in low weight, high reps to reshape my body. My arms, back and thighs look great and I'm getting good waist definition and my butt has definitely reshaped itself. Now I do half the weight machines at my gym every day, plus 30 minutes of cardio. I keep changing it up, but the core muscles ALWAYS get worked at least 3 days a week. I also walk stairs and do circuit training a few days a week. So far, so good... and I'm not at my personal goal yet, although my WLS surgeon says that I've come as far as possible without surgery. I'm keeping my plastics consult later this month, but I'm also still working hard on sculpting and reshaping.

I don't do lunges or squats. I do tons of elliptical and recumbent bike because of bad knees. I think my tush and legs are shaping up well... and I even took a picture, but I don't want a butt pic on the net! LOL

You're being selfish if you DON'T have surgery. Your obesity is making it harder for you to do your job as a parent and a wife. Once that weight starts coming off, you'll feel so much better that you won't let your family's crazy comments register. It's time they all learned how to help you a little bit...and you're doing your kids a disservice if you don't make them learn how to take care of themselves. No time like the present for them to learn this lesson. BTW, your husband has the right to say something to you privately, but he does NOT have the right to express his opinion in front of your kids. HIS job is to support you, mentally and emotionally, as well as financially. He needs to support you in front of the kids whether he agrees with you or not. You guys aren't running a democracy...it's a benevolent dictatorship and the kids need to learn that now. Good luck. I'm sure you'll make the right decision, but IMO you should have the surgery now and start that journey to a new, healthier, life.

I went into surgery expecting to die, and accepting the gamble because of all my health complications. I woke up and went "What?" because I truly didn't expect to wake up. When they wheeled me into my room, I got up off the recovery bed, walked around the hospital bed, and sat in the chair. I never did get in that hospital bed. My only pain was in my thighs from trying to use my leg muscled instead of my tummy muscles, but that went away quickly. I took pain meds three times after surgery, then refused any more pain meds. I drove myself home the day after surgery, about a 40 minute drive. I started walking up and down my hallway the next day and I've been high energy ever since. In 10 months I've lost 110 pounds, plus I feel amazing!!! This is the third best gamble I've ever taken (having my boys were #1 and #2).