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I slowly shed those last fifteen (to my goal) after one year post op, too, so it's definitely possible! It's much more painfully slow once you have less to lose (or was in my case) but it can happen if you keep working at it. You look great, congrats on your one year and also on your success in that year! ~Cheri

Looking great, congrats! Honestly? The way you look will likely change a bit over the next year, even if you maintain a very similar weight. Between one and two years post op my body shifted tremendously. Over the period of a few months where I lost only a few pounds, I also lost a pant size and needed an entirely new wardrobe. My loose skin tightened up and my fat redistributed back on my hips, behind and boobs. This was a tremendously welcome change, I promise! I do say aim for the normal BMI weight if you can do it and still be happy. It's much easier (than you'd like, even) to regain a few pounds if you look sickly. But losing while you're still in that loss phase is going to be easier for you than trying to shift out of maintenance to do it in a few months. I chose my goal as the top end of the normal BMI. Deep down? Oh, I'd love to be ten pounds smaller. But quite frankly, I've been able to maintain this weight almost effortlessly in the past and now that I'm back here again I have no desire to fight for more. If it comes off, I'll take it. But I'm not beating myself up or letting my idea of success hinge on that number on the scale or chart. Take it as far as you can if you need it for you or if you need to prove it to the doctors. That was my motivation. I was tired of getting "that lecture" every time I went in for any kind of appointment. But that doesn't end - I got that same lecture last time I went in and I was only a few pounds overweight and had a baby four months earlier! So you know what? Do what you want. Your figure right now is definitely going to shift around a bit, though, so if that's what's holding you back you can't count on what you're seeing in the mirror now. It changes! ~Cheri

Such a fabulous post! Congrats on all your success so far. You are absolutely on the track to long term success in so many ways. Congrats on those mediums (I still remember the first time I could buy a shirt with no X's on the label!) and on maintaining an upbeat perspective. I never hit the double digits in loss after the fourth month out and it didn't stop me from reaching goal. Oh, and we have similar stats, too! I'm shorter (5'1") and weighed 242 day of surgery. Pretty darn close. ~Cheri

Oh, it's so hard to be alone with the kids when you're not used to it! I understand - there's absolutely no break for you. It's also easier for me to make poor food choices - it's like my food is the only thing I can control - if I have to be challenged all day long I feel like giving up the food, too, is just too much. You might need more regimented eating just to help your brain deal with the food. I slip more when I don't plan my days. You plan a fast day, right? Why can't you plan a feast day, too? Keep those calories on track. It's hard but it might help you feel more in control. And you may find that your "out of control" eating isn't as bad as you think it is. In any case, it can't hurt. It was incredibly hard for me to lose pounds after being in maintenance, too. You watched and cheered me on! Now I'm cheering you on. It's hard and it's hugely disappointing. It doesn't matter why we gained, the end result (for me at least) was a feeling of failure. Like I was treading ground I'd already covered. It was frustrating and disheartening and incredibly slow going. But I did buckle down and I did force myself to be diligent even when feeling pressure and stress in my life...and it did work. Hang in there. Give the St. John's wort some time. If you really need help I hope you have someone local you can just kick back with and do a vent session to. I never have anyone local (curse of the military life) but have a dear friend in Indiana that always understands. I hate it when I can't vent about my kids or my husband or fifteen measly pounds to someone that understands. It's critical to me to have that outlet without being judged. Parenting is hard and it's doubly hard when you're doing it solo. I totally understand. Tonight when those kids are in bed, skip the cleanup and take a long soak in the tub or curl up in bed with a book. Really. You deserve some sanity and the mess will still be there tomorrow. ~Cheri

Thanks for all the great info here. The stat still seems to be roughly the same to me - 60% EWL maintained at the five year mark. Statistics don't tell a whole story. But I do think this is pretty accurate. I think that it doesn't have to be accurate, but that unfortunately, people just get lazy or tired of doing the work. That sounds harsh. I don't mean it to be. I realize that regain can happen to any of us. But it doesn't happen because our sleeves stretch 600%...it happens because 1) we eat around our sleeve, 2) we choose not to be accountable about our weight or our food intake, 3) we forget we are obese people with the habits and disordered eating that entails. You'll see the occasional regain due to a huge stress or a medication, too. As for people not getting to goal? Some people do everything "right" and still can't get there. It's sad but true. Some people have to work twice as hard to maintain. That article FYE posted not too long about about someone with a 20 pound loss having to eat as if they'd had a 40 pound loss is something I believe - we cannot do this work and then just assume we're normal and our bodies will always respond well to the diet that works for everyone else. I have to cut my calories down pretty low to lose. I have more flex with what I can eat (for now) but I can't expect to just lose a pound on 1,200 calories a day. It simply will not happen. We're not the same as other people. If we were, I truly feel many of us wouldn't have needed surgery. Almost everyone here tried dieting for more than a decade - really tried, really put effort into it - and we all got sleeved anyway. But I do think just the boards are a little indicative of what happens. We have very few people here over a few years out. People that were the Laura and Butter of their day - people that posted daily, all day long and got to goal...then vanished. I truly believe that regain is a part of that. Oh yeah, we get busy and don't make time for it anymore. But we're not even seeing the "Hey, I'm 5 years out, look at me!" updates. That tells me regain is a part of it for at least some people. As far as the deficiencies? In my case, I have always been pretty bad about taking mine regularly. They make me horribly sick. I have had issues with deficiencies my entire life, though. I started taking Iron supplements and eating an iron rich diet at age four, when I had surgery and the doctor told my mom I needed iron. Being forced to eat liver at a young age was traumatizing! The fact that I'm still deficient? No surprise. And hey, let's not forget that lactose intolerance can really affect your levels of D, too. I'm lactose intolerant and fortified dairy is simply not a part of my life anymore. I've chosen, at this point, NOT to replace that dairy with soy or rice or hemp milks that might replace what I'm missing. Quite frankly, I can hardly eat the Protein I need, the carbs I want/need, the shakes I need and still have room for excess food/beverages. I don't. I'm still sipping my Water all the way up to bedtime just to get in my 8 glasses a day, on top of my shakes. All of this to say what? Basically that so much of this boils down to perseverance and doing the right things. Hey, a huge portion of people never maintain their losses (or reach goal) with other surgeries or with traditional methods. A huge part of that? Perseverance and doing the right things. 1) Don't avoid your scale 2) Don't eat garbage all the time 3) Even better, check your intake every once in a while to be sure you're not eating more crap than you realize 4) Get your annual labs done 5) Take your supplements 6) Get some damn exercise (this is directed at me, too, I'm terrible about structured exercise and really getting my heart rate up) How many people have you seen fail to get to goal or regain while doing all of those things? I promise that they're the tiny minority. I know some people struggle more than others. I know that the hunger doesn't go away for some people. And I know that the hunger returns the farther out you get (or so I hear...mine's not back) but truth? Just because you feel hungry does not mean you need to fill that space with crap. It does boil down to willpower - and I hate that, but it's true. If you can't beat the food addiction and disordered eating with headwork, you're going to have a harder time maintaining. Because sometimes? I go to bed wanting to eat something. Sometimes I cave. But by being sure that I don't do it all the time, I'm making sure I can stay at my goal weight. I still swear that more than 90% of this is the head, not the body. Studies aside, I still see nothing to show me that we can't maintain 100% EWL if we give it 100% and don't quit. Maybe I'm just feeling optimistic today. I think that the stats are indicative of how few people really have it in them to do this for the long haul. Right around two years out you realize this isn't easy and it's never going to end. I'm sure that's discouraging to a lot of people. ~Cheri

Wow, I hope nobody's fasting. Clearly I have food on the brain. I should start my own food discussion/food porn thread and keep the naughty stuff there.

I was a little high on my fast day but did okay. Like you gals I just felt hungry. So was 600 by the end of the day...but it was a Roadside Lemonade Protein Shake that took me from 500-600, so I'm hardly calling it cheating. Down again on the scale, WTF? Seriously - I am not complaining. I'm just not used to losing weight several days in a row. I am used to seeing the same pound go up and down. Maybe I hit a certain point and my body's like, "oh YEAH, I forgot I'm supposed to stay at this weight." I imagine that if I try to go lower than 135 I'll hit a wall again, like I did coming out of the 140s. Well, if it happens slowly but surely I can't complain. Well, I can complain. I probably will complain. But you know what I mean. I'll log an official weight on Sunday and record it in the weight thread. Today is Friday; tonight's Shabbat. That means challah is rising on the counter. It means far less to me than before - I usually skip having a slice at all and only eat the bite I need to eat after the blessing! Crazy...bread used to be a food that made me crazy. I love that I can absolutely take it or leave it now. I can't say the same for salt and vinegar potato chips, but hey. I'm a work in progress. I'm far more excited about the roasted chicken and the yummy chicken salad the leftovers will make tomorrow. Oh, and the stock the carcass (+ a few wings and a quarter I saved in the fridge) makes will be yummy, too! Homemade matzo ball soup next week. My husband turns 41 next week so there shall be cake. Instead of trashing half a cake later in the week because there's no way we can eat a whole cake, I'm making cupcakes, keeping a few here and sending the rest into work with him. I started to cut back on what I was sending in but his coworkers panicked. Baked goods are in demand, so I choose not to feel guilty about fattening up his office! I hope everyone is doing well. Laura, how's your son doing? We're almost at the end of the first week - has he adjusted a bit? ~Cheri P.S. That soup sounds lovely! Now I'm wondering if I should make soup tonight. I usually do, but we didn't invite guests this week (we usually have a few people over) and I didn't want to make too much food for our family. We might be five but the baby eats purees, the twins and I together make one person with a normal appetite and my poor husband winds up feeling like he needs to eat the food until it's gone. Or until I stop him. He's getting better about it. Anyone else find their LOs eating up their portions, too? I'm always shoving food off on my husband and I'm not entirely sure he appreciates it anymore.

Ms Skinniness, somehow I missed your huge loss! Congrats! GT, there seem to be more ups and downs with 5:2 and it's been incredibly difficult for me, too. I thought I was past all that but no...seeing a two pound gain after a day of fasting was starting to make me feel homicidal. Well, the scale disappointment and the desire to eat combined are probably both to blame! Update: I'm down a teeny bit more today and saw 138 on the scale this AM. Not sure what's up. I went nearly a month without a real loss. I guess I'm "chunk losing" as payback. Sometimes I just need to shake things up with my body. I can eat way up in calories on a fairly regular basis and not gain. But I don't lose until I cut them way down. I'm logging my fast days between 500-600 calories (very rarely will I have a day just under 500) and my feast days are down to normal person dieting levels. I do feel more hunger - and I'm starting to suspect it's increased acid. I already had issues on fast days and I think I might need to up my dose to daily until I'm out of loss entirely. I set my goal weight high. I know that and my doc knows that. I try to both count for the loose skin (gotta be ten pounds of that!) and my age and that I've had kids. Also, that the last time I weighed less than 135 pounds for more than a week I was eleven or twelve years old. So being smaller on the one hand is desirable - who doesn't want to be smaller? - but it's also something I almost consider impossible until plastics. And even then I fully expect to just be a little larger. I'm still fuller figured, even as a smaller person. I'm still boobs and hips and thighs. It's a blessing, I guess, but it comes at a price on the scale. Anyway, it's a relief to be able to say "I'm back at goal" (or more truthfully, in my window) but I know that I should be smaller. I wish I was taller!! I'm off - you gals have a great day. This is the only place I've been checking in lately but I've been trying to get things done. Maybe later today I'll have time to go see what everyone else has been up to all week. ~Cheri

I'd like to hear the experiences of anyone sleeved that is/was on coumadin or warfarin. My mother is wheelchair bound due to an aortic aneurysm and has watched me reach goal and maintain the past three years. I would love to be able to see her have the surgery, too, but she has autoimmune issues and is currently on coumadin. Please share your experience, as well as your surgeon's info and any special tests/considerations that you encountered. My mother is in Texas and I'd consider Dr. Nick Nicolson for her (I considered him for myself in 2010) but am reluctant to start the process or speak to his office until I hear about other experiences first. ~Cheri

M2G and Laura, don't be too frustrated. Really. I mean, I know I feel the same way when it happens to me but you can't let it bother you too much or it will ruin your mood. I have trouble every time I drop out of one range into another on the scale, Laura. Every single time. I go up and down and up and down for weeks before finally settling in at a lower weight. And Sheila, I had no real results for several weeks running - and even started GAINING after my fast days until this past week, so don't let it bother you. I think eventually your body just agrees to give those few pounds up. Update: I've been busy and sleep deprived, what else is new? I am reluctant to share because I keep getting disappointed but I've weighed for the last several days in my maintenance range. Last time I reported it I swiftly gained that pound back! In any case, I saw 139 on the scale today but even if that bounces back up tomorrow, I'm hoping I'll still be 141 or less. That makes me officially in my maintenance range, and everything from here out is gravy. Or the cherry on top. That sounds more appetizing. Labs came back. No issues with my thyroid. Seriously deficient in Vit D and Iron (as always) so they put me on a supplement for the D. And I'm already on Ferralet for iron so the're putting me back on Bifera. We'll see what happens. I was told that if my labs are still low in 90 days, I'll need to go on the IM iron shots. Yay for that. (HARDLY!) I have repeat labs ordered for 30, 60 and 90 days already to measure my levels. I'm hoping that between the two supplements, I will feel less like a zombie. I know that feeling tired with a baby is part of it all but I seem to be having a real hell of a time. Oh, and per doc the hairloss is normal. I'm not sure losing a small rodent a day is normal, even if you've just had a baby but I'm tired of arguing with them so until I have bald Patches I guess I'll deal with it. I did adjust my feast day calories downward to see if it would help my loss a bit. Instead of aiming for maintenance levels, I'm shooting for 1,200-1,300 a day. It means I've been going to bed hungry and waking up hungry. But I've also lost three pounds in the last week. If it stays off, well worth it the trouble. And the going to bed hungry? Not so much real hunger, methinks. I built the habit of late night Snacks with my pregnancy and only kept it up while the kids were here and we kept longer hours. Now my body just wants to eat at night. I shut that nonsense up with Protein Shakes. Good news? My Protein has been upwards of 100 grams all week. Bad news? I really do wake up hungry. Hope everyone is doing well. Now that our guests are cleared out I'm working hard on finishing up the last dozen boxes we need to unpack and getting all of the organization done. I hate moving. I also hate that my husband travels so much and can't grow a beard. He's clearly in the wrong career field. He can retire next spring but I think we're in for a bit more. The job market is just plain ugly out there and most of the jobs he'd transition to are contract/DOD things and I think we're ready for a big change. He's talking about going back for his PhD...we'll see! ~Cheri

I figured I'd post this so that I have this sort of extra note to myself about how I'm going to stick with my fast. But also so we can share menus and ideas and compare our fast days. ~Cheri Today's Menu: Water, lots and lots and lots Protein coffee: 120 calories Hard boiled egg: 80 calories 1 egg scrambled with cheese, 2 strips of turkey bacon: 180 calories Protein shake: 100 calories Total: 480 calories Add in whatever flavored drops/Crystal Light I'll be drinking in that water and I'll hit 500 today.

I'm waiting on some labs but wanted to ask about the post baby shedding we experience. Moms that have delivered babies post sleeve: Did you notice more shedding, along the lines of the month 3-4 post op hair loss, after your baby? I've been losing quite a bit and while I'm not frantic I'm certainly not pleased. My doc ran a panel and is also concerned about my thyroid but in the meantime I'm just curious if anyone else encountered this after having a baby, too. This was my third pregnancy and both previous pregnancies I had increased shedding after delivery. While it was noticeable, it wasn't a huge amount of hair. I'm currently experiencing loss similar to what I had in those early months post VSG. In other words, quite a bit! Any input or shared experiences are appreciated! ~Cheri

Happy Birthday! Watermelon sounds delightful...and something I've never made are fig newtons...might need to check that out! I make a yummy breakfast cookie that has dried figs, nuts, granola, etc. but my kids LOVE those "Fig Newmans" and would eat them every day if I let them. Maybe a homemade version would go over well. My update: still battling that same up a pound, down a pound on the scale but I might be doing it for a while yet! Fasting today. Trying to put off my morning shake until ten but having a little trouble getting there. I'm slowly trying to get used to eating closer to that 16/8 but it's a challenge for me. I feel completely out of sorts, shaky and foggy if I go too long without eating. It makes it even more clear to me that my diabetes is simply "in remission" and is highly likely to return with age. Insulin resistance doesn't go away. I can "reverse it" (sounds like a cure but it's really remission like the diabetes) but some of the symptoms have never gone away for me. Anyone one else previously diabetic with similar issues? Tracking my blood sugars shows almost no spike and fall pattern, so I'm wondering if I'm attributing the way I feel when I don't eat to my blood sugars but they aren't responsible. I'd go see my doctor, but, well, I have Tricare and receive care at a local military hospital, so I'm actually better off figuring out a solution myself and treating it myself, too. It's a waste of time and energy to even see the doctor! Still waiting on my labs - they should be back next week. As a few of you suggested the doc was thinking that a thyroid issue could be to blame for the hair loss. Maybe it's wholly hormonal? Normal post pregnancy hair loss exacerbated by my already screwed up hormones? In any case, I suppose I actually need to start lifting weights and getting into shape. I was asked to be in a wedding next summer and would hate to be thin but saggy, you know? It's my arms, mostly. They got much bigger with the pregnancy and are a bit batwingy at the moment. Maybe it'll be like the first year post VSG, though. Maybe when Shevi is a year old I'll find my body back where it was (mostly) prior to pregnancy. Oh, that would be a delight! I am not fat by a long shot, but some days I FEEL fat, mostly because of how my body weight is distributed now! I swear, the entire eight pounds I can't lose is planted on my thighs and butt! Hubs is delighted, of course, but I'm not so keen on rocking the saddlebag look when I wear anything but jeans, know what I mean? Hope all you ladies have a fab Monday. I know most people hate Mondays. To me, they're my "back to normal" day. Remember, I'm a SAHM and every day is like Groundhog Day around here if I'm not careful! Oh, and on another note, I managed to cobble together (with the help of another sleever here) a local group. We're doing our first meeting in an area restaurant but I'm hosting September at my place. I'm gonna talk about navigating food functions and the holidays with a sleeve, I think, and put out a nice brunch spread of sleeve friendly treats! Exciting. If any of you are in the D.C. area PM me and please come! ~Cheri

But I almost never fall below 80 grams of Protein a day and most days I'm between 90-110 grams. I've pushed protein from just a few months out and am one of the few still doing protein shakes at three years out. Getting in more than 120 grams of protein a day would be tremendously challenging (restriction is a blessing and a curse) and would likely put me on two or three shakes a day just to get there, not to mention keep me from drinking much plain Water and eating as much protein at my regular meals. Hmm. Now I'm wondering if something will come back on my labs. My doc was concerned first and foremost about a thyroid problem, so we'll see what happens. It may be that this is a hormonal thing or it might be an issue other than diet. I eat a diet chock full of protein and healthy fats, but I have a number of hormonal issues (insulin resistance and endometriosis, and a doctor convinced the answer lies in taking more hormones to combat those issues) so I'm starting to wonder if this is something else. But what I'm experiencing is not the same as my usual post pregnancy shedding. And I never really got the nice, thick head of pregnancy hair, either. This is my third pregnancy/fourth child - I thought I knew what to expect on this front, but it's my first child post sleeve. However, it could just be more noticeable this time because my hair never fully recovered and went back to it's usual thickness. Oh well, we'll see what the labs say and just in case I'll boost my protein a bit anyway. Thanks for the ideas! ~Cheri

I don't, honestly. I'm a SAHM to three - so my days are on my feet most of the day and running errands. I don't fit structured exercise on a regular basis. When I do work out it's after my husband is home and the kids are in bed, so it's not my favorite thing to do! ~Cheri

Oh, and if you have a large supermarket near you - one with a solid "natural" or "organic" section that includes a fridge and freezer case they'll have your extra firm tofu, too. ~Cheri

We do the same thing - if you skip the step of frying first like Laura does I find the texture unpalatable for anything but Soups or salads, though. My son who will hardly eat meat at all loves tofu. I make it just marinated and baked sometimes and other times I'll fry it then cool it and bread it up and make it like a chicken parmesan. He likes that, too. His favorite way is just sticks of it lightly breaded with seasoned flour and fried with a touch of oil. He'll gobble those up by the dozen if I let him. There's an AMAZING recipe for corn chowder by Nava Atlas - uses silken tofu instead of cream. We love it in our house. If you like tofu and seitan, buying one of Nava's cookbooks is a sound investment. We have several left over from our veg years and still use them frequently. ~Cheri

We can do it, Laura! I'm detoxing. Turns out that I'm mid-cycle now and the weight jump isn't too surprising, nor is the desire to snack. Was back to my same 'ole number this morning. The very day after I reported my loss here I bounced back to the number I've been pretty constantly seeing (142.4) for several weeks now. I got a little up, go a little down, but I always settle right back here. Dang it. At least I'm not up like yesterday. So, confession: I've been logging my food at the end of the day instead of at the start of the day. This is not working for me! So today, I already have my food planned out. I am drinking two Protein Shakes today and eating Protein heavy meals all day. I'm hoping to kick the carb cravings - I got some bad habits while the kids were here because they eat a lot of snack foods we normally don't have in the house. Why can I walk past an entire container of homemade Cookies or danishes but not a bag of salt and vinegar chips? All that stuff is leaving the house - usually it's not here, if we want chips, I make them. So the processed stuff needs to leave because right now I'm having a hard time staying away from it all. Introduce any stress and it gets much harder for me to abstain. Sure, I only eat a handful of chips. But I do it EVERY day. That can't be good. Secretly, I'm scared that one day I'll just lose my mind and hide in a closet and eat them all. The fact that it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it can't happen. There is no longer a skinny woman inside me screaming to get out. There's a fat woman inside me and she wants the food. ALL OF IT. So I have to shut her up with protein shakes. chocolate ones. I've got my limits. Anyway, I'm also curbing my coffee intake. I've been drinking quite a bit of it and want to see how I feel without it. You know, besides tired. And I'm proud to say that once I decided a few weeks ago to stop using alcohol daily I have only had a drink here or there. Nothing regular and there's no time of the day where I just feel like it's beer or wine time and I need a drink. This is a good thing. Hope everyone is well. Happy Weekend! We're dragging the kids off to tot Shabbat (ugh...as if spending an hour with thirty other kids six and under wasn't bad enough we're doing it outside in the muggy buggy woods) because hubs insists and I've been finding excuses not to go for the last two months. Ah well, I knew it couldn't last. ~Cheri

Hey everyone hope you're all doing okay. I did okay yesterday but I did not eat well today. I don't often go off the rails but just chose to have an IDGAF day. In truth, I might not have had one if I hadn't gained AGAIN after my fast day yesterday. Bleh. That's two fast days in a row that I followed up with a gain instead of a loss. Bummer. Logged in at the end of the day with 1,700 calories. Bleh. I suppose that in all honesty, it's not really an off the rails day if you go by calories. But if you go by what I ate today? Yikes. In any case, back on track tomorrow. It's always harder to be diligent when I don't feel like it's doing anything. I don't usually use that as a reason to do whatever I want, of course. Who knows, maybe I'll see one of those "why doesn't this make any sense?!" losses in the morning. One can hope! Alright, off to bed. I'm hoping for some decent sleep! Hubs takes the early morning feeding on the weekends, which is awesome. I do have a stomachache, though, courtesy of all that crappy food today. I feel like I spent the day at an amusement park or the fair. Yuck. Tomorrow I might fast just because I feel so gross tonight! ~Cheri

It's totally individual, so if you're just trying to get an idea of the range of success other people have had, that's great. But remember that comparing your particular loss pattern to anyone else's usually just makes you feel discouraged. I had a BMI of 45.7 day of surgery. It took me 17 months to reach goal and lose 107 pounds. I lost 23 pounds the first month, 11 the second (34), 10 the third (44) and 12 the fourth (56)...from that point forward I never lost in the double digits again, and my biggest loss month was month six where I lost 8 pounds. By one year out I was down 92 pounds. It took me six more months to shed the final 15 pounds to goal. From six months out, I lost roughly a pound a week if you average it out, but I had a nine week stall in that time frame and I also had a number of weeks where I logged losses in the tenths of a pound, too. ~Cheri

You didn't stretch your sleeve! It's actually incredibly difficult, not to mention painful, to stretch the sleeve even the tiny bit it will give. Your sleeve will have more space as it heals (I had a big jump around six months) and will relax a bit with time. The size my sleeve was at 14 months post op is the same size it is now at 37 months post op. How much I can eat depends entirely on what I'm eating! I can eat a cup to a cup and a half of food at a meal, depending on what I'm eating. If you're worried, weigh your dense Protein and eat that until you're full for one meal. I eat in a way that intentionally allows me to eat more food - going for the foods that slide a bit first, and eating bites of protein throughout the meal, instead of first. I do it because I'm three years out and need more calories (and variety!) at this point. So reassure yourself with the protein first and then relax a bit. You're not eating too much unless you're gaining weight. ~Cheri

Congrats! You look wonderful and your daughter is adorable. Mine will be 5 months in a week and yes, life is SO much better now that she sleeps "through the night" (though I still dream feed her at 10:30-11:00 pm and usually she wakes me around 5 am for a short feeding or her pacifier) but I'm amazed at how quickly it passes, too. It feels like I just had her a few weeks ago! ~Cheri

No, MY husband is killing me! His insistence that we not have pork in the house means, you guessed it: NO BACON! At least not the real stuff. There is this beef bacon out there (Facon) that cooks up darn close but it costs way more than the real stuff and while it's good and crisps up nicely and is almost the same...it's not the same. Anyway, you don't really want that bacon. I mean, you think you do. But even if you could eat it, I bet you wouldn't even be able to get a whole slice down. So, feel better. You might be denied bacon while on a post op diet, but I'm denied the porky, crispy, salty and smoky goodness as long as I'm married to my beloved husband! ~Cheri

I have a new baby (and five year old twins) so my "me time" comes in little ten minute bursts. Just long enough to enjoy a few lives on Candy Crush before it's back to the grind. I don't have time to read yet and likely won't until this little one starts taking regular naps and sleeps well at night, so Candy Crush remains a nice, relaxing outlet. Congrats on your loss! ~Cheri

I can't speak to your motivations but I do know that for me, in the beginning (when I wasn't telling anyone) it was because deep down I believed everything my doctors, skinny friends and The Biggest Loser told me. Basically, that being fat was entirely due to being lazy. That if I did anything other than exercise ten hours a day and eat a special diet, I was somehow cheating. That if I would just try harder, one more time, I'd finally succeed and do it the "right way." You know, without slicing out part of a major organ. So I didn't tell people because just having surgery felt like a failure to me. Yes, it was a big step towards never being morbidly obese again. But it felt like finally admitting diet defeat. It didn't help that the only people I knew at that point that had surgery were bypass patients that were over 400 pounds - my 250 pounds made me feel like I was cheating the system. Now I'll tell anyone. I don't really care what people think. I've come a long way from there. I had surgery, yes. Some people wouldn't agree with that. But I'm going to maintain my loss. And it wasn't the easy way out, no matter how many people think so. Those people that busted their butt on The Biggest Loser while being shouted at and physically challenged to the extreme almost every day? Only a handful maintained their loss. I chose a sustainable way to live my life. I'm already a success and I'm not going to stop being one. My success wasn't dependent on a personal trainer and chef and ten hours of exercise a day. In the end, I chose what works for me. How could I possibly be ashamed of that? ~Cheri