roundisashape

So I have coworker who is quite lovely, but since she lost a lot of weight she sometimes forgets to wear pants to work. Today was one of those days, and it occurred to me while we were engaging in a fan vs. space heater battle that she has no idea where or how to shop for her new body...and that I probably won't either! I've been shopping in plus size stores or online as far back as I can remember and don't even know what's out there. If you've gotten out of the "plus" world, what are your favorite stores? If you haven't, is there someplace in particular that you're itching to be able to shop at?

Oh wow, that must have felt AWESOME, @@OKCPirate!

If a guy is going to have a problem with it, I prefer to find out as soon as possible...I'm 38 and running out of time to waste on guys who are going to get weird on me, lol. I usually bring it up on the first date if it doesn't come up in conversation before we meet...just casually. Like going bowling and he goes, "You want fries?" and I'll say, "Oh, no thank you! I had weight loss surgery, need to stay away from those" Sometimes it backfires and the guys get weird, sometimes - surprise - they'll go, "Oh me too!". Sometimes - true story - they'll ask a bunch of overly intimate questions about the state of your skin and how it felt to be "so huge", then they'll disappear. Better to know now than a month in after you start to catch feelings, right?

I have a new one (for those aware of the old one, I finally got that weirdo out of my house, lol...it took him 3 days to find another girl to mooch off of). Tried a new site and got a response before I finished setting my profile up. He seemed nice! I wanted to be fair because I'm still not thin and my first picture was just my face, so I asked him to go look again since I'd added full body pics and make sure I was what he was expecting. He said he did and it was great! He really liked me! We didn't talk a lot but kept in touch over the course of about a month while both of us had stuff going on and didn't have time. Finally we were supposed to meet on Saturday. I got there, paid for parking, went into the pretentious coffee shop of his choosing, paid for my overpriced "flower scented" coffee and texted him to let him know I was sitting by the front door. He sends back a message saying he's not interested, and pretty much accused me of trying to lie about what I look like, and he was calling me out on it for my benefit of course. The whole thing was a setup to embarrass me because that's somehow supposed to help me magically be a size 0?!? Slap in the face after losing this much weight, and the fact that this 40 year old loser put the time and effort into pulling this off just astounds me. What gets me more than anything is that this jerk is supposed to be a teacher. How does he treat the chubby girls in his class? Between that, the weirdos, and the "sure I want a relationship and a family! Except I really just want a booty call and btw I had a vasectomy" guys, I can't do it anymore. Deleted all my online profiles. I'm tired, lol.

Ah, I'm sorry - yeah, that dude was just looking for an out for whatever reason, and would've hit you with anything that seemed like a viable excuse in his head to make it your fault. You're beautiful and you deserve better! As for the cats, well, over the summer I met a great guy. I thought he liked me back. Around that time, I found a very tiny kitten and was hand raising it. He was playing with the kitten and about to head out for work so I knew I wouldn't see him for a while (he was military) and instead of just saying, "Will you be coming back or is this it?" I said, "So I'm kind of at that intersection where I either need a relationship or more cats to keep this guy company." He puts his arm around me, says, "Don't get more cats...you're a great girl, you'll find someone." To add insult to injury, not 20 minutes after he left my neighbor's granddaughter showed up at my front door with another stray.

There was a hilarious meme on Facebook a while back about that - the conclusion to why we're still single? We're overqualified!

Just curious - for those who have had skin removal, do you know how much it weighed? I know the variation is going to be pretty wide from person to person, just trying to process in my head at what point I might want to start heading down this path (like, when I have 20 pounds left to lose, is there a good chance that's skin and I should probably start thinking about getting some consultations, etc).

Thanks! It sounds like I still have a lot of researching to do. It's funny, when I started I thought, "I'll be happy to be under 300". Then, "maybe I can get under 200". Now it's, "why not be as close to normal as possible?!?"

Especially any kind of lifting - not that I'm lifting anything really heavy or anything, but basically any weight bearing exercise. It doesn't last too long, but it's very sharp and unpleasant. Anyone else experience this? Better yet, anyone find a resolution??

Sorry for the delayed response - I thought I answered but didn't. It seems that it mostly is a hydration issue. I was hitting my Water goal earlier in the day but not drinking much in the evening around gym time. I'm trying to do better with this and noticed it doesn't happen as often or as much. We're also playing with my blood pressure meds, I needed to step down again.

Glad you dealt with it! I ended up with a fissure early on and it was probably in the top 5 most painful things ever. I'm about 15 months out and still take 2 fiber gummies and a fish oil every morning. The combo helps keep things moving without sending me in the other direction.

Kathy - he's not!!!!! I can't make him leave. It's seriously getting to the "get the police involved" point, he's got some mental health issues I just wasn't aware of. At this point, I'm seriously considering moving and leaving him there, lol. @@roundisashape is he gone yet?? i hope so 1 month is one too many months keep up the great weight loss good luck kathy

Hi! So I'm a year out now - how did THAT happen? I'm not done yet, but it's been a pretty wild ride so far. I'm down 105 pounds from my starting weight, 101 from the day of surgery (I lost 4 on the pre-op liquid diet over 2 days, lol), and at LEAST 135 from my highest, which was earlier last year (that scale only hit 330 and I maxed it out). Along the way, I've discovered a few personal realities - they may not be true for everyone else, but for me they are. - Some days I look at stuff I've worn before and think, "There's not a chance in hell that's going over my head." Every single time, I'm shocked when it does. - Lots of people treat me better now that I'm more "normal". But every time I start counting on it, along comes some jerk...and that's okay. I think I need the reminder that it wasn't always about me anyway! - I need to leave my credit cards at home. Shopping is a lot more fun now. - It's easy to fall off track with counting Protein, watching calories, and taking Vitamins. It's like I rolled over one day and just felt like a regular person. This is going to actually require diligence and consideration for the rest of my life. I knew that when I signed up for this, and I'm going to do it - I just didn't think when I came out of surgery that there would ever be a moment that it wasn't in the front of my mind. - I need treats now and then or I won't succeed. The urge to binge and passive-aggressive desire to eat something just because I shouldn't will NEVER, EVER go away - the sleeve keeps the binges from being too bad, and if I build treats into my plan and track them, I'm a lot less likely to go off the rails. (pizza happens, y'all, and for ME that's okay - YMMV. 3/4 of a slice once a month now vs. an entire medium pizza with garlic dipping sauce, ALL the wings, and half a box of cinnamon sticks every Friday before...it's still a win in my book). - When I'm hungry now, I'm HUNGRY RIGHT NOW! Gotta keep Snacks at hand or I will tank and hit the floor. Either because I've passed out, or because someone is going to check my hanger and KNOCK me out someday, lol. I've been trying to date and think I scared one off when he watched me shovel a salad into my face like a farm animal. He was late, I was hungry. - Someone can watch you successfully lose weight, and still want to interject their opinion about how you should be doing it. Nod, smile, and go back to what you're doing. My "instructional guru" has gained 30 pounds back in the last couple of months and STILL wants to tell me how to eat. Life is far easier now that I've learned to take that with a sense of humor and not get angry about it. - If you never liked exercise, you probably still won't. It'll just be easier to do. Then again...you might just find something you like! I'm a total couch potato but always used to fantasize about running for some reason. Finally launched C25K this week, and something tells me I might like it if I can keep my knees from blowing out. - I need kleenex around ALL. THE. TIME. My nose runs when I'm full, it runs when I'm hungry, it runs when I get hiccups...sometimes I even sneeze when I've taken one bite too many. - Speaking of sneezes, sometimes when I sneeze I vomit. I don't have to be overly full, I can eat exactly the right portion for my sleeve, but if I sneeze too close to a meal when everything seizes up it just sort of launches everything back out. That was unexpected. - I've met guys who care that I'm still heavy. Some who think I'm not quite big enough and are afraid I'll lose more weight, some who think I'm too big, some who think I'll get bigger again. The ones who ARE into me the way that I am don't give one iota about my "shrinkles". I haven't met a good mental match, but no one I've had any physical relationship with cares. I was pretty worried about that but it's been a non-issue so far. My need to indulge in the use of "artistic lingerie placement" (ie, I always manage to keep my tummy covered somehow, lol) has never once been challenged. - I was lucky to have a respectful, attentive PCP, but I've had issues with medical providers before. The smaller I get, the fewer issues I have. - It should be basic knowledge for doctors, but if you need to go to the ER, watch out. I've been twice since surgery (once for a car accident, and once when my cat scratched my eyeball) and they're quick to dispense the 800mg ibuprofen even with a full medical history and a "no nsaid" note in the chart. With the eye, I took 'em anyway (along with the other, better drugs). I would've let someone hit me in the head with a bat to make that stop hurting! But it does illustrate the need to be aware and always prepared to advocate for yourself. - It's so nice to have a lap now. I can hold my computer! My critters! My nieces and nephews! It's wonderful. - How I see myself is not always how others see me. My boss and my friends all look at me and think I should be done now. I look at myself and still see a butterball. The charts say I'm still 55 pounds overweight, but my doctor (who won't give me a goal) says I shouldn't be aiming that low because she's shorter than me and small boned and weighs what the chart says I SHOULD weigh. At first, I wasn't worried about where to try to settle because it seemed so unbelieveable that I would ever get there. Now that I know it's possible, picking an end point is HARD (and harder still when I factor in a bit of dysmorphia, because I'm not sure I'll ever look in the mirror and see someone small enough to go to maintenance). - Sometimes I discount the journey I've made, or I want to eat something I know will make me sick and have a momentary pang of regret. I don't feel bad about that anymore, I just try to go do something I couldn't do before to remind myself what a great decision this was. Sitting in a bathtub, going to a store and trying on something in the misses department (that actually FITS), running up the stairs (instead of having to practically crawl up them using my hands for balance), going through my closet and bagging up something that's too big, stuff like that. - I knew that things wouldn't change in my life by magic, and that not all of the stasis I was in was caused by my weight. It's true that the poor physical condition and lack of confidence both contributed in a very big way, but it wasn't all of it. I understood that, and decided to work REALLY HARD on the areas I wanted to change the most. What I wasn't anticipating was that, in some of those areas (like finding a relationship), the work hasn't seemed to pay off either. I took that pretty hard. Ongoing therapy is an absolute must for me. You may not need it, but if you DO, then GET IT. There's no shame in it. - Once you've been sleeved, you'll always be sleeved. That built-in off switch is ALWAYS going to be there. I've had some stretches where my eating has gotten a little out of control, but the beautiful part of this is that the sleeve keeps me from going too far. I can recover from those mistakes now, too. More protein, more liquid, and I'm right back on track. That's why I got this - not because I ever had any delusions that I could or would be "perfect" at it, but because I knew I COULDN'T and I needed help or I was going to die. Suicide by donut - it's a morbid joke my siblings and I use about our parents, but I was on my way there too. - I have to resist the urge to act like a salesperson and let my results speak for me. My sister and my niece both desperately need to do something and have vacillated on surgery for a while now. I never felt good and healthy as an adult and it's such a huge difference - sometimes I want to shake them and scream, "BUT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH BETTER YOU'RE GOING TO FEEL???!!!???". The reality is, I have to shut up unless I'm asked a question and just live the best life I can as an example, because if someone had harped at me about it a couple of years ago I probably wouldn't be sleeved now. It hurts my heart to see people I love in the state they're in, but everyone has to take their own journey and live their own lives. - Tiny goals are where it's at for me. I never set a goal more than 9 pounds away - no double digits . I tried to assign meaning to all my goals, too, though ones I had to split up to stay under 10 pounds are just "split goals". But things like "driver's license weight", 20% EWL, 50 from highest ever, graduation weight, etc. I was blowing through them pretty quickly at first, but now that things have slowed down a lot keeping my goals close together is helping me stay motivated. I can't wait to see what the next year holds.

Oddly, lettuce was one of the first veggies (other than canned green beans) that I could eat from the minute I was allowed that texture - but it IS awfully fibrous so I can see where you might have issues! I'd wait another few weeks and try again

Wow! Impressive job!

This is usually my time to grab a shake - most days I'm a stick in the mud, I throw a fist full of frozen berries into some chocolate Matrix and call it done. If I'm really hungry I might have an egg or something. Then, there are days when I completely fall off the wagon and stuff a Peanut Butter and jelly sandwich in my gaping maw. It's a process, lol.

Next up, I THINK, might be the "Freeze Your Buns" 5k for special olympics in January.

I like the taste and they seem to be fairly comparable on the label to flintstones...but 2 of them makes a serving and it seems like I'd go through them pretty quickly at 4/day. Also checked them against the recommendations from my center and there's no Iron, and they come up short on thiamin and copper.

Good info - thanks! I plan to follow up when I see the surgeon too, but he rescheduled me for January.

The sugar/protein thing is worth a shot too. Gummy bear Protein shake? lol. I get the dizziness and lightheadedness too, usually after cardio (especially if I change positions, like if I do my cardio on a bike and then stand up). At this point I'm willing to try anything, I stall when I don't exercise enough and this kinda sucks.

Thanks! I know I need to do better with hydration, but didn't consider the blood pressure situation. I'll try that, too, and see how it looks!