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Statistically speaking, it's a small group - but of the people with complications that were low BMI to start with, yes, I'd say that I know of at least one, probably a few, that regret the surgery. That's coupling two VST minorities together: low BMI and complications post op, though. You have to go in very prepared and having done your research. That applies to everyone, really, but especially to people that have a nagging feeling prior to surgery that they would rather lose without WLS. I was 242 when I was sleeved. I'm just over 5'1" tall. I wish that I'd had this surgery sooner. It's easy to say that when I had a very easy recovery and reached goal in a good state of mind. But I really mean it. I regret every year I spent obese because I stubbornly insisted that I could lose the weight through dieting. If you've already exhibited a problem keeping the weight off the sleeve could be right for you. But only you are really going to know if you want to take this very big, very serious step. Surgery includes risk and while it might be a very small percentage of patients that have complications, you will not feel reassured by statistics if you fall into the 1% that does. Good luck. I love my sleeve and do not for one minute regret having it. But I waited until I was morbidly obese and diabetic to start my journey. ~Cheri

Thank you for posting about your positive outcome and uneventful surgery. It's good to see both the positive and negative posts so that people researching can get a good idea of any possible outcome. The negative/scary threads do tend to see more traffic but I really believe there are far, far more satisfied and happy patients like you out there. Congrats on both your success so far and your new sleeve. I can't wait to see where you are in six months! ~Cheri

Also works with ricotta. And bodybuilders use "sludge" as a boost: 1 scoop protein, 1-2 Tbs. Peanut Butter, and a tiny bit of Water to mix - it makes sludge. Chill it and eat it with a spoon. Sounds creepy but it works. I could hardly eat in the beginning and used this trick (with almond butter, I hate peanut butter) and it was a nice way to eat something "sweet" before bed that would boost my daily protein count. ~Cheri

I don't know, I think it's really individual. A lot of folks will stop being as active once they achieve goal. I think it's natural. Right now they have a motivator (the scale) to get the the gym, but it's easier to put it off when you're happy with your body, right? I think that despite good intentions, nobody really wants to spend three hours a day in the gym. The people doing it solely to achieve goal will have to adjust something else in their lifestyle once they stop going or they'll have bounce back and regains. think the same thing happens to diet, to some extent. This is the main reason I repeat that tired mantra of learning moderation BEFORE goal. If you've incorporated all you will eat and you can feel satisfied with that in a forever sense, then you've done the hardest part of the work. I thought I'd just leave my calories the same because I was such a slow loser, but after you hit goal they do creep up. In my case, I went from needing only 700-900 calories a day to lose. A few days over that in a row and I wouldn't see any loss on the scale at all. But once I got to goal and fiddled with my diet a bit, I found that for whatever magical reason, in maintenance I can eat about 1,100-1,300 calories a day. And being pregnant, I aim for 1,400-1,600 and am gaining at a normal pace. I wish I wasn't gaining at all, but that's another story. But I intend to take up the failure of Dr. Aceves to issue me a magic wand with my surgery at some later date. Outside of pregnancy, I really was able to eat more. And I eat more carbs now, too. Amazingly, my body redistributed my weight really well in that time frame and I didn't notice any issues holding steady on the scale. That said, of COURSE the idea is to adopt a forever lifestyle change. Even eating more calories and using moderation (meaning that I sometimes eat some of those wonderful goodies I bake) I still eat nothing remotely like I did prior to surgery. And even being tired and pregnant and chasing five year old twins around, I am still far more active than I ever was prior to surgery. I adopted a new life, so for me, the answer is that yes, my diet changed to be a bit more...well, normal. Normal for a person that never had a WLS or a food addiction, even. But I didn't just reach goal and fly off the rails and say, "Ha! I made it, my work is done!" and expect the sleeve to just work magic to keep me at goal. But some people DO experience that. I've seen it over and over again here and on OH in the years I've been around. Some people do treat it like a diet...and diets stop when you reach goal, right? But I think you're on the right track - I think that a lot of folks will eat more and exercise less once they hit goal but if they've done all the head work and did adopt a change its perfectly reasonable. ~Cheri

Maybe try the Syntrax Nectars? They're fruity flavors and not the super sweet chocolate/vanilla that most other shakes come in. They also mix thin and many are honestly very good with Water, though mixing with half water/half juice or with crystal light is an option, too. There are several sites online that sell samples of them (I used vitalady) and you can try a number of flavors without shelling out for numerous tubs of Protein powder. Also try mixing with warm tea, warm coffee, soy milk, almond milk - anything you can think of that will work with your flavor of shake. It's hard to find a good Protein but it's really worth the effort, especially in the first six months post op. Good luck, ~Cheri

It could be: Eating too fast and overfilling the sleeve (I get dizzy and my heart races before I get to the discomfort feeling) A reaction to sugar A reaction to dairy A reaction to artificial sweeteners First step: slow down and be sure you're stopping before you eat a single bite too many. If you're newly sleeved it can take a while to learn your capacity and certain foods will only fit one or two bites, whereas others you can fit four times as much. Second step: evaluate what you're eating and see if your diet is causing the reaction. I hope you figure it out and can eat comfortably soon! ~Cheri

They're not ideal but anything is better than nothing. In more than two years I've changed vites more than six times trying to find the one that works without making me sick for hours. So take what you can for now, but keep trying those other ones because at some point, you should be able to tolerate a better option. Gummies have no Iron, which is a huge drawback. I've been on a prescription iron supplement since just after one year post op because my iron levels were so low. They're also just not as well rounded as traditional multis. Again, take what you can. Taking something is better than nothing. The one I found that finally worked without making me ill was a prenatal Vitamin. I started taking it at about a year and a half post op, at my doctor's suggestion because nothing else was working. Good luck. Keep trying every month or so and see how it goes. It's easy to have a vitamin deficiency in the first year because we eat so little and tend to focus on Protein first. If all else fails, get a panel done at six months and one year post op to make sure you're doing well. ~Cheri

If you have any reason to suspect your fertility weigh this decision carefully after speaking to your surgeon AND your gynecologist. Just be sure that it's the right choice. We did ART both times - IVF w/ICSI to have my twins (before VSG) and then, two years after VSG I did FET with the frozen embryos. I will say that even though many docs say one year, I would say that 18-24 months is far more reasonable. It's perfectly possible to have a healthy, uneventful pregnancy sooner than that and many women do. But my personal experience (yours will be individual to you) was that I really didn't have much capacity until AFTER the one year mark. I didn't start eating more than 1,000 calories a day until after a year and a half post op. And it was only after that point that I could hit all my nutritional goals without a shake each day (though I still have one) and without eating from sun up to sun down. To complicate matters, during pregnancy my sleeve has had more variation than ever before. Some days I can eat a solid 1,400 calories (my goal is 1,400-1,600 daily for pregnancy) and be fine. The next day I'm struggling to get in 800 calories. My restriction changes as I get bigger and with the hormones that are going insane in my body right now. Add in that I already had lactose intolerance AND this baby won't allow me to eat meat without morning sickness...eating is a challenge much like it was three or four months post op for me. And that's just eating. It took me until over a year to finally normalize my Vitamin deficiencies - I had real problems with Iron and B12. I am not saying any of this to scare you. You could have a completely different outcome. But you won't know until AFTER you're sleeved how you'll react and cope. So there are a number of things to weigh before making the choice. If your fertility is great and you don't expect any issues, have surgery first. Wait between one and two years and get pregnant at that point, even if you're not at goal yet. Your pregnancy will be more successful for each and every pound you lose prior, but getting all the way to goal isn't absolutely necessary for a successful outcome. Good luck whatever you decide. I'm not high risk due to my sleeve and the baby has been very healthy and is growing normally. But I will say that this one baby post sleeve has been harder on me than the twins were when I was morbidly obese and had diabetes! ~Cheri

Thank you. Again - I'm a second generation American. I am not removed from the horrors of the Holocaust and our family lost entire branches of the tree because only a fraction of the family in Poland was able to flee prior to the start of WWII. My other grandmother spoke two languages my entire childhood: Russian and Yiddish. So please, I've already apologized for using a term that's offensive to some. But frankly, the entire way this thread that started as a way to say "Hey, to each his own and let's not judge everyone" has completely disintegrated into an argument is more offensive. I swear that my five year old twins communicate more effectively than most of the adults on this forum. ~Cheri

If you buy a bottle of Ukrainian bottle it has no lid. It's crazy. I used to enjoy some vodka (like Belvedere, it's Polish) but drink enough nasty bathtub vodka in this region and you'll lose your taste for it in a hurry. We're heading to the Caucasus region after a stateside stint - luckily not Baku (no offense to any hidden Azeri folks on the boards), though. Great place for single people that love the nightlife, but not so much for families. I'm sure it's changed immensely in the years since you've been there! ~Cheri

Everyone is different but I could not have eaten more than a bite or two of any of those foods so quickly after surgery. If you say you're watching what you eat they might let it slide. I'd stay far away from the spinach and asparagus as many of us have trouble with fibrous veggies for as long as 9 months post op. Try them in tiny bites but they might be harder on you than you think. We're all so different there's no telling. I tried spinach as an early food once I was cleared and just a small bite caused actual discomfort. Steak is notorious for being so dense it's hard to eat. You might get a few bites in but go very, very slowly and chew until you think you've got mush in your mouth. I am more than two years out and can still overdo steak if I'm not careful. It's as if they picked the absolute worst menu for you possible! What about Soup and a nice tomato salad - those would have been easier foods for you. Good luck, whatever you decide to say or eat. Just go really slowly or you're apt to make yourself feel ill. ~Cheri

I think that however many carbs you can eat that will not inhibit your loss is exactly how many you need. Everyone's body is different - and what works for you might not work for me or someone else. So track as you increase and if you notice a problem, adjust. It's that easy. I was diabetic prior to surgery and in the first few months kept on avoiding carbs. It was what I thought I had to do. I was barely consuming 400 calories and 40 grams of carbs a day. My blood sugars were awesome and normal for the first time in forever. But I was also tired, sluggish, moody and felt deprived and resentful because of my strict diet. Once I started really tracking everything I was eating I found I could eat 700-900 calories a day (anything above 1000 in loss phase and I had trouble losing) and around 60-90 grams of carbs a day - a combination of grains, fruits and veggies. I kept aiming for 90+ grams of Protein daily. For me, this more balanced approached worked wonderfully. I felt better and ditched the diet mentality that had me sniping at my husband all day long. I get cranky when I'm hungry. This allowed me the control to work on real moderation and overcoming my personal food demons. I encourage everyone to do this. I think many of us get caught on the numbers that our NUT gives us or on numbers we see other people eat. Track, track, track and see what your body can handle and go with that. Because this is your individual journey and you need to make it to goal AND be able to maintain once you get there. There are folks that can eat 1,500 calories a day and lose weight. I can't. There are folks that have to limit their carbs or they can't lose. It's all too individual for anyone to really be able to advise you on anything except what worked for them. Good luck. I'm sure you'll do fine. If you pay attention to what your body does best on, that's what works for you. And ultimately, that's all that matters. ~Cheri

Keep researching! Learn everything you can about the sleeve and life afterward and then make a choice. That said, I started my journey after my doc suggested I get the band. The band would have been covered by my insurance but after several months of research and lurking on the bandtalk website, I felt it was not the right option for me. I started researching the sleeve. At first I was convinced it was too drastic a surgery, but after many months more of research I was comfortable with the idea of the surgery and had reasonable expectations (mostly) for life afterward. I researched for one full year before surgery. And ultimately, I opted to self-pay so I could have the surgery I want, as my insurance doesn't cover VSG. I'd never get a band, but because I haven't had one I cannot share what it's like or accurately compare my WLS procedure to that one. I'm biased - as is everyone else here, because we all chose the sleeve. Good luck whatever you decide. Read everything you can here - there are many old threads that are still fantastic reads today. ~Cheri

I didn't mean to offend you. My grandparents emigrated from Ukraine on one side and Poland on the other. I am Jewish and so is my husband. And I certainly don't mean to be a hypocrite, either. I didn't state it here, but I have said it elsewhere: everyone is different and what/how each person can eat is very individual. So I'm not saying that because you choose not to make less quality food choices on occasion that you're somehow wrong. I think the all-or-nothing approach from anyone is dangerous, but what bothers me is when people come here and criticize the boards at large for not eating "perfectly." For me, a huge reason I quit diets in the past was that inability to incorporate moderation and the feeling that if I didn't do it exactly right it meant immediate failure. I think a lot of people share similar feelings. I do not for one minute doubt that for a lot of people there are trigger foods. It's been proven that certain food combinations affect us much like a drug. People with problems consuming white flour and white sugar (two of the foods I see people post about most often) in moderation should most definitely stay away. I do not eat at McD's. I've eaten one Krispy Kreme doughnut (though I consumed a couple homemade sufganiyot this past December) in three years. I don't think it's a great food choice. I think there are better choices out there. But I do not think it's my place to just attack someone and ridicule them because they choose to do it. This wasn't a post where the OP was venting about a stall or discomfort and then talked about eating junk. This is a lady that's doing well and seems happy. If she asked "Why can't I lose weight" and then told me about McD's and doughnut runs, I'd be far more critical. I don't like the idea that it has to be one specific way, even if I don't make the same choices for myself. That's all I was saying. I think that it's intimidating for a lot of folks to see this expectation of perfection. I think it makes people scared to post when they are having an issue, too. Because the first thing everyone volunteers as advice when someone isn't losing quickly is to cut carbs/calories. And if someone is genuinely having a problem with grazing or binge behavior, I want them to be able to admit it and get it off their chest so they can deal with it and solve it. Not feel like they'll be attacked for not caring about their health because they don't always make great choices. I really hope you'll forgive me for offending you. I've enjoyed your posts in the past and think you have a lot of valuable information and advice to offer here. I tend to type very long messages every time and in this case, did not include a disclaimer about everyone's body and personal food demons being different. ~Cheri

I still try to drink a shake in the mornings. I still don't like to eat when I first wake up. I usually make it a Protein coffee with two scoops of my Syntrax chocolate protein and 10 or so ounces of coffee. Throughout the day I try to get a good mix of Proteins. I have been having trouble with meat lately (pregnancy) but I even try to make the salads I eat have at least some protein. I eat sides and salads with Beans or chickpeas, particularly if I can mix in some good quality grains or even quinoa for an extra boost. Right now I also consume more than 100 grams of carbs a day but I try to get at least a small amount of protein in with every meal or snack so that I can also hit my protein goals. It's really not that difficult. Even on days I skip the shake I don't usually run into a problem getting enough protein. ~Cheri

Another vote for Syntrax Nectars. I like the Sweets and Unflavored, too. I am not a huge fan of the fruity shakes but I really do enjoy the natural peach mixed with orange Crystal Light. Also consider mixing with Water, tea, coffee, juice, hemp milk, almond milk, soy milk, coconut milk or coconut water, etc. to get a different taste/texture combo going. I can't mix with dairy. First of all, I'm lactose intolerant but beyond that, it's too thick for my tastes. I only mix with coconut milk once in a while - it's really too thick for me, too. Find samples online and keep trying until you find a Protein you like. It's a huge help in boosting your protein levels and even at more than two years out I still drink one almost every day. ~Cheri

I think it's all really individual and a lot depends on how active you are. I feel better on a high Protein diet, but it has to be one that's balanced with a similar proportion of carbs and fats. I aim for 90 grams of protein a day. While I'm no athlete (my "loves the gym" trigger didn't get flipped when I had surgery, unfortunately) I do regularly spend long eight to ten hour days on my feet in my kitchen, catering for other folks or running after my kids. I feel best between 75-90 grams and have a noticeable difference in my overall sense of well-being if I dip below that. It's really up to what you do best on but I know that for me, less than sixty wouldn't be quite enough. ~Cheri

No, I definitely can't drink like I used to drink and it has nothing to do with malabsorption. It's entirely to do with the length of time the alcohol is in my stomach before hitting my bloodstream. Much like sugar can dump post op if you consume too much for the body to process before it hits the intestine, the same can happen to alcohol. Body weight also has something to do with it, as I'm 100 pounds lighter now. The more sugary the drink, the faster the reaction. I seem to metabolize it much faster - I can get completely tipsy from less than 1/2 of one drink or a few sips of beer or wine but within an hour I'm fine again. I used to easily consume two or three mixed drinks and only feel a buzz. One night I drank a mixed drink rather quickly and could hardly walk when I went to stand up! I was never this much of a lightweight before. You'll see a mix of responses, OP. A lot of people report that they're lightweights post op, but some people handle the same quantities of alcohol post op as before. Be mindful of it and be careful at all times because where I would have been perfectly fine to drive somewhere after one glass of wine at dinner before, I could not possibly do it now. ~Cheri

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to life after the sleeve, much the way the one-size-fits-all approach to dieting doesn't work. If it did, we'd all pay our Weight Watchers dues, avoid comorbidities and enjoy life as skinny people after successfully completing our first diet. For people without comorbids, it's usually NOT a health-related choice to have the sleeve. If you don't have high cholesterol or diabetes or high blood pressure, you're not making the choice to do this for the same reason as someone who does. I really dislike the "food Nazi" attitude. It's one thing to criticize someone that jumps on a board and complains about slow loss, stalls or discomfort after they confide that they're eating off their doctor's nutritional guidelines or that they're doing binges and grazing. It's another thing entirely to assume an all-or-nothing approach. For some people, that works. For the vast majority of us that have dieted most of our lives, it doesn't work. It didn't work before and it won't work this time, either. You will see me say this over and over again. The sleeve is NOT A DIET. It's not. If you treat it like one, odds are good that you'll experience the same success you achieved on all those diets you did before you finally opted to have surgery. The sleeve is a tool. Yes, we should make good quality food choices 90% of the time. If we can do that, why would we restrict ourselves with the other 10% of our choices? I did not remove most of an organ so I could stay on Atkins for the rest of my life, sorry. It's easy to be a carb Nazi in the first four or five months post op. But at some point, sanity has to set in and you have to learn to eat normally. This is not about getting to a set weight on the scale. That is the easy part, believe it or not. The challenge is STAYING THERE. It's being out there, post op and able to eat a larger portion of a larger variety of foods and being able to eat without doing it emotionally, grazing or binge eating. Maintenance is infinitely harder than the loss phase, and maintenance lasts forever. So learning how to eat in moderation, how to deal with the social customs and rituals we've built around food and doing it all without feeling deprived and resentful is a huge part of this journey. If you lose 100 pounds by eating 400 calories and 30 carbs a day, congrats. Your loss is no less a success. But tell me how you're going to stay there for the next thirty years without regaining if all you learned on your journey is how to diet more effectively? Good luck. It's important that we realize that VST is a place for us to share a wide range of experiences and feelings about this surgery and life afterward. Attacking someone for choosing a different way to live, when that person has shown success and isn't complaining, is not okay. ~Cheri

I was never given a timeline for alcohol. I'd wait until you're at least done with the special diets post op. Alcohol will hit you harder than prior to surgery - or at least, it does most of us. In the beginning, I sincerely doubt you'll be consuming even remotely close to 700-900 calories a day, let alone what you'd been eating pre-op. There is nothing wrong with the OCCASIONAL indulgence. You have a choice: treat your sleeve like a diet or treat your sleeve like a tool that can help you learn moderation for life. If you choose the first option, remember that you still have to learn how to eat in maintenance. If you choose the second, maintenance becomes infinitely easier. In any case, always be wary of transfer addictions. Freshly sleeved we can't eat our emotions and there are numerous threads on VST about transfer addictions - to alcohol, in particular. So remember that the long term goal is control over food and our emotions, as opposed to letting food and our emotions control us. Do not feel bad for asking this question, OP. For every question you ask, you'll get as many varied responses as their are people on the internet. You have to choose what sounds right to you and what you can live with, but ultimately it's your choice and it's up to what your body will tolerate. ~Cheri

I'm sorry the OP is having such a bad experience. I agree with gmanbat's and Mason's posts, though. I also tend to take more of a moderate or diplomatic approach to things, though, and would say that jumping on a message board and telling people that anyone that says recovery is simple is trying to fool you is a bit much. That said, clearly the OP is in pain and not in the best frame of mind right now. Barring major complications, odds are good OP will post later without regrets. I, too, am amazed at how many surgeons medicate heavily post op. I felt far worse after my laparoscopy done in 2008 for endometriosis (in the US) than I felt after having most of my stomach removed in Mexico. I do attribute part of that to the technique of the surgeon and also to the fact that I was doped up on Morphine and Vicodin in the states but given Supradol for inflammation and half an Ativan (to help me sleep) in Mexico. I bounced right back after my VSG and there was ONE single day where I was in enough discomfort to ask for a pain pill. I was off of them before five days post op, and just threw out the two boxes I bought in Mexico because they'd expired and never been needed! I spent three days in bed (and walking when I was able) at home and had the most horrible gas pains in my shoulder for days after my '08 lap. I was in pain and used the entire script for the Vicodin and still felt run down when it ran out. It's different for everyone. I am truly sorry for the OP and I am grateful she chose to share a negative experience - all experiences are valuable. I just disagree with the idea that everyone will have the same reaction. It'd be similar to me posting, as a patient that felt minimal pain/discomfort and recovered easily, that anyone that says differently has a low pain threshold or is exaggerating the pain. That would be absolutely an unfair assessment to make. Much like I can't say that childbirth is never painful simply because I had very easy deliveries with both of my pregnancies - I cannot speak for every individual experience and it could be perceived as insulting to some if I tried to do so. Best to the OP - I hope you recover swiftly. Being in pain and unable to eat makes everyone irritable! ~Cheri

As for the emotional side, the biggest thing I had to do was confront my baggage. I thought that losing the weight would make me insta-happy. Surely my lack of confidence, my anger, my unhappiness were all tied up in the obesity I'd been battling since fourteen. Once I got close to goal I really had to reevaluate that idea. Because I still wasn't happy. I wasn't overeating or using food as a crutch - I'd shaken most of those habits. But I still felt angry. I still wasn't happy. I couldn't figure out what was going on. And then I started to really think about why I was obese in the first place. And it all led back to hurts from my upbringing and bad relationships with family members. For the first time I confronted my parents on the truly miserable and rotten job they did. I'm not exaggerating here or being melodramatic. Plenty of kids grow up thinking they could do things better or differently than their parents. But mine were truly awful. No kid should know the names of the state DCFS investigators and social workers by name and sight, but they visited our house more often than my grandparents. I was able to really get through to my mom and it was huge. We're never going to be the absolute best of friends but we've come a really long way and are pretty close now. I had to eliminate the toxic relationships. I had not realized how much having certain people in my life was damaging me. But it was! And I was angry and resentful without really even realizing that I was the one in control - I could very easily choose to simply walk away from those relationships. So I did. I don't speak to entire branches of my messed up family tree anymore. And that's fine. It's actually really, really liberating. For me, a lot of what I had to shake was the anger - I had to either forgive people or forget them entirely. And I had to forgive myself and accept that I deserved to be happy despite mistakes in my own past and despite the fact that people had been tearing me down my entire life. I am not perfect. We all carry around things from our past. I still struggle sometimes but I really feel like the bigger part of the journey (and I say this all the time) is finding out what makes us obese in the first place. Because in my case, I had a lot of issues that I was burying under food. I'm very different now. I like the changes in myself. I'm happy and can't really remember a time in my life before this when I ever just accepted myself for who I am, faults and all. I'm also more friendly (though it took a while to learn this) and affectionate. I don't feel shame - not of my body, not of my past - and I think that really helps me. Anyway. I think this is the real thing people should focus on. For some people, this is just a way to shed fifty pounds. But for so many more I think it's a way to shed years and years of bad feelings, bad habits and bad experiences. I think that without overcoming these obstacles, I might not have been able to maintain. Being unhappy all the time probably would have made it easier to fall into those old emotional eating patterns. ~Cheri

YES. I'm not looking for a relationship but I have had to learn how to let people in. I spent years insulating myself with my fat and my bad attitude and now that I haven't got the fat and no longer feel the attitude I'm having to learn how to interact with people. For a year or so there, I was truly socially inept. I just...don't do friendships or closeness well. I've only got one person I let in, and I married him! So I understand this and it's been a challenge for me, if in a different way. I have a fabulous friend that had the sleeve less than half a year ago and she felt the same way you do. I keep telling her that this is not about anyone else loving her. It's about her loving herself. Once she finally decides that she's enough, I truly believe she'll start attracting the "right" element, instead of the sleazy guys that just want to hook up. Best of luck to you. I have seen my single friends struggle with finding relationships. It is NOT easy out there to find the right person. I know my circumstances are different, but I truly feel that we don't see the right person until we STOP looking so hard. ~Cheri

You know, I'm sort of questioning the same thing. I love being a mom so I half think I chose to have another little one right now so that I could put off long-term personal goals and achievements for myself! Not that I don't "achieve" something with my kids. I'm a pretty good mom and I love spending time with them. But it's not quite the same as going out there and doing something solely for me, you know? For ten years I have followed my husband around the globe and we'll likely do the same for the next ten years. Usually I'm perfectly content with this. I enjoy our work, I enjoy the travel (though I miss the states sometimes) and I love my husband so much it doesn't really matter where we are so long as our family is together. But there are those times when I feel like I haven't done anything "mine" in a really long time and I'm left wondering what that thing would be if I had the time/money/perfect location to do it. I've spent so long focusing on external and internal me that I kind of lost sight of the rest of the picture. Being married and having children makes it easier for me to say, "I'm happy here and have enough." But sometimes that feeling nags...like I could do something else. What should I focus on next? I suppose for the next five years it will be the next child! But then what? So I understand, to some extent. I just don't have an answer, either! I will say that in my years of moving around/traveling I shake any accents unless I'm back in the town were I picked them up. I naturally mimic the way people around me talk - I don't mean to, it just happens. So when I'm home in the Chicago area I find after a few days that I'm talking differently. Same goes when I visit family in Texas. Can't help it! The rest of the time nobody has a clue where I'm from, and that works, too. I have a dear Kiwi friend here and every American in the community loves her accent to bits. She always tell us, "I'm not the one with the accent - you are!" ~Cheri

A real stall is three weeks or more at the same weight. I'd say that you're actually not a slow loser, even though you might feel that way if you compare your loss to some of the very swift losses that have been posted lately. Butterthebean has posted some really excellent articles and advice about stalls - you should search them out. They'll comfort you. It's a normal part of the journey and one that's hard to deal with because when we restrict ourselves we really expect instant gratification on the scale, showing us that our diligence is paying off. It's unfortunate that it just doesn't work that way! Hang in there. Don't fiddle overmuch with your diet or routine unless you're feeling like you want to be more active. It can't hurt your body but it might affect the scale. Just know that going in. The best way to break most stalls that carry on for more than a month is to up your calories and carbs, believe it or not. A lot of people restrict far more than they really need to. The idea is to track your food so you know the upper limit of your intake - that point where what you're consuming stops your loss - it's often more calories and carbs than you thought you'd be able to consume. Good luck. Hang in there, it's perfectly normal and you're lucky it took five months for your first one! ~Cheri