LilMissDiva Irene

*Hugs* You so deserve better than that. As for her telling your business well I sincerely hope she doesn't do that! Come here anytime to vent!! This is such a rough journey in a lot of ways... so much changes and no one knows better than some one else who is going through it too.

Fantastic!! Please do check in and let us know how you're doing.

IMHO, don't give the naysayers a moment of your time. It's probably a good idea to just keep this information to yourself or those who have a vested interest on your life. I could count on one hand how many people I told pre-surgery... that I was even HAVING the surgery. It's honestly no ones business. If you feel you're making the right decision and can fork over the money to have this done, then everyone else can go fly a kite.

Sasi, I know that hurts a lot when people you trusted and initially cared for move on over such superficial reasons. However, it's better to just know that's all your friendship was ever really about. Being the "fat" friend... You honestly don't need friends like that in your life. It really is their loss. You will someday find friends who love you for YOU, which you might have some already. Focus on those ones, they are the ones who deserve your attention now. I almost cringe at the term "best friend". What does that even mean? My "best friend" is my husband. Other than that all my other friends are equal to me, I don't love, cherish or confide in any one more than the others.

I do enjoy cracking sunflower seeds once in awhile. One thing I always notice though is that they also give me Water retention. I try to limit them to maybe once a month. Other than that they are nutritious and sure better snack than chips!! Which, I need to stay far far away from... LOL Good luck!

Raine, EXCELLENT POST!!! Brava my friend. Every single day I wake up I have to remind myself that I'm eating to live, not living to eat. It's like that movie 50 First Dates with Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler. Somehow, Someday and Some Way it will just be ingrained in me... Keep up the excellent work. You've really done fantastic!!!!

I have been extremely lucky in that I have not lost a single good friend since I've had my VSG and have lost all my weight. In fact I have a really close girlfriend here at work who does have a weight issue, and yet she always remains supportive and is my biggest cheerleader here. She once asked for tips on weight loss and I've convinced her to read the Atkins book as well as the South Beach book. She has started the Atkins book. She's even highlighting a lot of passages. Yes, she knows about my surgery, but I've explained to her that its more than cutting the stomach. You have to have a plan too, and I told her mine was of the hi Protein / lo carb type. I hope she does well!!! I suppose I have a knack for seeing the genuine in people. I don't really go out of my way to associate with folks who come off phoney or superficial. I'm kind to all of course, but my real true friends are few and I know for them they'd be my friend no matter if I'm 900 or 90 Lbs... and I'd be the same way for them in return.

I don't know but these numbers are looking really good to me so far. I hope more will vote!! Re: no gains... geesh... lucky is an understatement. Though I'm far out enough that I know my fluctuations and confident I'll lose that and then some - it just would be so nice not to deal with that at all. Either way - I love my sleeve!!!

Glad to hear it! Keep us updated...

Do you HAVE to use her evaluation? Maybe you can still go with the Bariatric Center's psych eval. I remember when having to do mine, I was the one who delivered the eval to all necessary. If it has already been entered, maybe if it does affect the outcome of the decision for your surgery you can get a second opinion? You might want to find out about that.

I set mine up about a month out I think, but that was my choosing. I believe the wait time is pretty short. Give Nina a call and find out. I wouldn't imagine it would be more than 2 weeks.

Im glad to hear everything went well!!! Sip, Walk, Rest, Repeat... hang in there every day is going to get better and better.

CONGRATS CHERI!!!!! Whoohoooo!!! Keep it up, you're doing GREAT!!

Yayyyy!!!! Finally got one!!! You look GREAT!!! Keep up with the excellent work - so inspiring!!

So here I am… over 11 months post op now. My Sleeversary is on the 15th of every month, and my next one will be ONE FULL YEAR!! When I decided to get revised from Lap Band to sleeve, I had gone from my low of 227 Lbs all the way back up to 281 Lbs. I was only 2 Lbs. away from reaching my Lap Band surgery day weight of 283. That was not a good time for me. I was quite literally depressed. It’s not easy making a decision like this… let alone a second one. How was I ever going to get myself back on track to get to where I’d wanted to find myself? One thing I needed to ask myself was – is my heart in it? Yes, no doubt about that. I have a lot of friends who still follow me from my Lap Band days, and they’ve seen me struggle like no others. They would tell you, I was always fighting, trying, starting over, crying, rejoicing and everything else that goes along with a lot of weight loss and gains over the long years of obesity struggles. So, my Lap Band and I just didn’t get along. We were enemies before we even met. We were never destined to get to the Promised Land together. It is what it is though, no need crying over spilled milk. All we can do is go our separate ways and in my quest to find happiness, like so many other failed relationships out there, continue my search for “the one”. Well, here I am today, not even a year later after finding “the one” and I’ve hit all of my major goals already. Some I never ever dreamed of hitting, and one in particular was one that I just placed on myself to see if I could do it… and I did. My major goals were first and foremost getting lower than my Lap Band weight. That was such an awesome day for me. I’d prayed and prayed so many times to do this with my band and that elusive 227 Lbs forever haunted me. I felt really good at that weight, and look at me now!! That was nearly 50 Lbs ago now!! It’s still hard to imagine as I look back and reflect. I’m far beyond that at this point, and really seems like a dream come true. My second major goal was to weigh less than my darling husband. Wow, what an excellent day that was for me to yell at him with joy and dance around saying I finally did it… he’s finally the man of the house!! LOL I’m not really sure if most understand this, but in my world, I should never weigh more than him. I felt so unladylike and especially out doing him by more than 120 Lbs even. Granted he’s not a really big guy. We are about the same height but still… he IS a man. He SHOULD weigh more than me… and now he does. In fact we have a good 25 Lbs between us now. Oh happy happy joy joy!! My third and ULTIMATE goal I’d set for myself was to fit into some cute Size 8 Levi’s that I had. I bought them right around the time I had my surgery, or not long after. I had this particular cut and brand jeans that I just love and I’d often as a larger woman still wearing Women’s Sizes often go over and look at them… daydreaming. They looked so itty bitty to me then, and I never dreamed I could actually make it there. When I bought them I felt a little embarrassed because I knew the clerk would see the size and I also knew the clerk would probably laugh at me buying such a small size. Well, I went to a guy clerk after imagining this in hopes for the chance they wouldn’t notice. I’m not sure if he did or not, I just bought them and ran out!! Hahaa!! I’m so glad I did though!! I kept them hanging up on my wall, looking at them and imagining myself in them someday. Well right around 205-208 Lbs, I was finally able to squeeze into those suckers!!! I was in total amazement, and yes I even cried a little bit. It was such an awesome time for me! It was truly truly a spectacular moment. One I will NEVER FORGET!!!! Ok, so imagine my surprise at being able to get them on and not even having reached Onederland yet. I figured I’d fit them around 190… and that was even wishful thinking. So, since I’d really only had several actual real scale related goals and the most major one being Onederland I had to keep pushing forward. I decided then to make my new goal Size 4 Levi’s of the same cut and style. Wow, when I bought those jeans I about died. They look so small I can’t even describe the angst I felt. I really hate making myself goals that I don’t feel confident I’ll make. The reason is simple… if I don’t make it, I will be left feeling like a failure. I’m a super strict perfectionist. I’m really tough on myself if I don’t end in success, and I think that has a lot to do with my weight issues…stemmed from the past. Anyway, I kept pressing on. I think it was about a few weeks later that I hit my most favorite goal to date. ONEDERLAND!!! OMG I can’t express to you how amazing this goal was for me. I haven’t seen the One’s prior to this for over 20 years. I fought so hard for it too. My scale was going to C-block me (sorry for the language folks but it’s true!!) as much as it could before letting me get there. My scale has always hated me. It still does. It will NEVER let me have what I want when I want it. I’ll also never ever be 125 Lbs. There’s just no way in the world… that said… it was nice to me for that split second. I was happy. Case closed… LOL At this point I’m beginning to believe that my journey though not complete yet, is a total success. It was around that time that I started to enjoy my weight loss journey, and started to recognize my fluctuations and just going with them and being patient about them. It was also around this time that a few others of my notable goals were met. I’d finally run an entire 5K event, and did quite well. Now I can run a 5K without issue and really go for 3.5-5 Miles 4-5 days per week without fail. I’ve also gotten my waist size to less than 32”, which according the the Health World is ideal for a Woman to have, as anything more we are predisposed to diseases such as Diabetes, etc. My panels are all excellent, save for my iron, which is not out of the norm for me. My blood pressure is completely controlled and I never have any problems with it anymore and do not need additional medications for it. There are countless others, but these are my most notable. Oh, and did I mention I was able to get those Size 4’s on? Yeah, I did. There’s a picture of me wearing them in my Signature line. Yayyy!!! So… where do I go from here? Well, I can tell you this, I’ve never had any kind of real actual Scale goal to reach. I have no idea where I want to land at. I can tell you this though; I’m completely satisfied with me right now. Size 4 is pretty small. I’m getting my breasts augmented next Thursday. Ladies, I can honestly tell you, a lot of us (not all!! Everyone’s different) are going to lose the boobs. I held mine really good (Full D Cup) all the way up until I hit Onederland. It was about overnight that they just deflated, like as if you would poke a tiny hole in a large balloon. *Whoosh!!* Gone… so I’m having them “re-instated” so to speak, heehee I will likely come out a full DD or maybe even a DDD. Wow… LMAO!! Like I said, go BIG or go home!! I’m also getting liposuction on my thighs and knee areas. I find that normal size clothing doesn’t give extra room for those of us with thicker thighs. I’m always stuck having to wear a larger size than I need to compensate and left with a baggy bum and waist area. It’s really frustrating. So, I’m going to get those areas addressed. Not only that, it will really accelerate my running with more comfort. In closing, I just want to say that in reality I am at goal. My brain still needs to catch up however. I’m going through a full fledged surgery and a few other procedures, so my brain is on overload right now. I’m not going to deal with the struggles of “maintenance” until I’m completely healed up and fully back onto some kind of workout routine. I think it would be foolish of me to try to up my carbs and calories right now, especially not being able to compensate by any type of calorie burn. This was really weighing (no pun intended) heavily on me and making me feel out of control. Oh, did I mention I’m a control freak too??? Hahaa!! Anyway, if you’re still with me, as I know this is in an incredibly long read, I want to just say that I don’t regret one moment of my sleeve experience. I did right after as the first month is quite hellish, but now? NO WAY!!! It truly has saved my life, and has given me what I’ve dreamed to have for so many years. Also, no pictures in this update... I want this to be about my long journey more than anything else. Be blessed!!!! Source: My 11th Month Sleeversary Update

Well I for one have always wanted to weigh less than my husband. I personally do feel in my own little wrold that I *should* weigh less than him. I do now so that's neither here nor there. He was very happy for me when I reached and passed him up. I'm also clearly smaller than him in all the photos of us together. It doesn't appear to bother him at all. He just glows and is beside himself on how I"m looking these days. However, he has recently agreed that it would be a good idea to maybe get in shape himself. I have him on a low carb diet and he's doing really well with it. Its only been 3 weeks and his belly is already gone. I'm h appy for him too and thoguh he doesn't weigh in nearly as much as I do he figured he'd wait for a month to see. He may have caught back up with me again, who knows... LOL

I use Protein shakes almost daily. I drink them right after my early morning workout to bump up my daily caloric intake a bit and because I'm on the go to get ready for work, these are simply ideal. These shakes will hold me and keep me satisfied for minimum 3 hours. I say if it works for you and you're continuing to lose weight, and they are not harming you physically then drink up! I'm not sure why they were mentioned as empty calories. They are very nutritionally dense. Empty calories are calories consumed that provide no nutritious benefits to our bodies... so I'm just a little stumpified by that one...