jintycb

Hi October pals. Nearly 59lbs down and 24 to go. Loving feeling the way that so do. Stuck in a mini stall but do I care? Nope. June 9 '15 was the date that a pic was taken that showed me looking like a barrage balloon at ballet company (that I was in during the 70s) reunion. That was the straw that broke this camel's back. I feel GREAT. I'm costing my husband a fortune in new clothes and shoes as wearing stylish, fun things for the first time in years is just giving me such a buzz!!!!! He hasn't quite sussed my on-line shopping spree yet as I'm still dazzling him with my colour schemes!!!!!!!!! God help me when he realises that I am no longer wearing camouflage tents!!!!!!!!

Excuse me purleese Ms Valentina!!!!!!!!!!! I read Jonathan Livingston Seagull in the 70's and the last time I looked I fairly sure that I'm still alive!!! Cheeky mare!!!!! Think if I look hard enough I might find my original copy as its a book that I never wanted to throw out. I am, by the way, a very accomplished hoarder. Either that or it's because I am a Scot and you know what they say about us-thrifty to the point of parsimony!!!!!! I've still got a pair of Brook's cowboy boots that I bought in '76. Bit battered and worn, but still perfectly serviceable. Like me really x

Welcome to the UK x

Hi Rosie, find this post and you will get LOADS of info plus a good laugh. Just make sure that you aren't drinking any Irn Bru whilst you are reading some of the posts as it will be evacuated at speed through your nose! Those who drink diet pop post-op {Only nice comments PLEASE}

Weigh in day again and I'm back in a stall. Hey ho. Am I fed up? Am I despondent? Nope. Not one bit. I have got so many NSVs happening that the fact that the scales aren't budging this week doesn't bother me. I feel great. I look a damn sight better than I did 5 months ago and I have ditched 40lbs of useless flab - so far. I started swimming last week and by Friday I was clocking up half a mile (without stopping) in 35 minutes in the pool. The dogs are getting one to two hours walking per day so they are thrilled with my weight loss and fitness gain. My jeans without belt loops (thus nowhere to anchor a belt) are beginning to slide off my arse and I have to hoik them up, when no-one is looking, when I'm out and about. I can get a beautiful pair of Frye boots on that were too tight around my calves not that long ago. I've bought a couple, or three, new pairs of jeans and can get into two pairs well before I expected to. I've still got a way to go yet but just to be able to see and feel results so quickly is just wonderful. I don't feel that my weight loss is too slow. I am only too aware of how long it took me to put it on and it didn't jump onto me over a matter of weeks that's for sure. I spent fortunes and untold hours at Weight Watchers meetings and although I managed to lose weight it never, ever stayed off. Having the VSG has been one of the best things that I have ever done for myself. I just wish that I had done it sooner. It has given me the mental kick up the rear end that I needed to get my eating habits under control. I'm still learning a new way of approaching food but now I have a physical 'stop' button in the shape (literally) of my sleeve. So, I embrace my stalls because I know that my body is juggling and rearranging it's composite parts during these times.

I was 59 when I had the surgery 8 months ago and I am LOVING every minute of my journey and my life now. I'm the sort of woman that you worry about when you see them out on their own wandering around with an idiotic grin on their face. That's me these days. It's fine when I have the dogs out with me as people think I'm grinning at their antics but on my own in the supermarket? I look highly suspect, just a little odd but ever so happy!!!!!!

People who are filling up at the gas/petrol station and once they have paid, sit in their cars sorting out their wallets, handbags, make up-anything that they shouldn't be doing, whilst there is a f*#^€$£ queue of cars waiting behind them to fill up! Jeez. Also, drivers who fill up, see the queue behind them but go to pay and have a browse through the shelves, get a coffee, make a call, have a chat with the cashier about the price of plums before sauntering back to their vehicle to then do all of the things I first mentioned in this post. Eedgits! I want to get out of my car and rip the shit out of them but they would probably not even hear me as they're probably carrying on a conversation on their phone!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr................

Thank you for having the balls to post your fall off the food wagon. Your honesty does you proud. No flannel, just the facts. OK, you know what you should be doing so JFDI!!! You can. Of course you can. You didn't go through serious surgery to start the weight loss marathon to fall at the first mile marker. All I can do is to repeat the old mantra-get your protein and water in and stay off the refined carbs. Get a copy of Queen of Crop's book (Amazon), read it, and use it as a handy touchstone. It helped me. Stick close to this site too. Hey, I don't know why I'm even trying to teach you as you appear to know EXACTLY where you have tripped up. C'mon girl. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and think of all the health benefits AND gorgeous clothes that await you. Go girl, GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oooooh, get a padlock on your plastic!!! You are on the slippery slope now to a shopping addiction. I started with designer jeans and well..................I'm well into my stride now and it's not just jeans. Enjoy!!!! It is so nice to buy what you like instead of what just covers you.

I had a starting weight of 203lbs on my 5'3" frame. I'm eight months out from my sleeve surgery and am now 146lbs. I am going slowly but surely and have no complaints whatsoever. I feel WONDERFUL. Best that I have for years and years. Still want to lose another 26lbs but am more than prepared for it to take a while longer. After all, the extra pounds didn't just pile onto my frame over a few weeks. Oh no, that fat was stealthy and sneaky and slipped on without me paying it too much attention. I just turned a blind eye as I gave my full attention into sinking my teeth into something sweet and carb rich!!!!!

Nor me

Wasn't even a video with me Lulu-just a pic taken along with a bunch of other retired ballet dancers and I was the only big 'barrellina' there. Just the grand battement up the rear that I needed!!!!!

Just woken up, sitting in my pit having my first cuppa and thought I'd dip into this thread. Being in the UK I kinda feel like the little pig in the middle of Aus and USA time wise but it works for me. I really was laughing out loud-very loud and there was a definite snort when the white, preferably padded room was mentioned. Ooooooh.........eeeeerrrrrrrrr........ You don't think all this laughter could damage my sleeve/pouch. I have been gulping in air during my laughing fits and I'm SURE that I must be swallowing most of it. Need to finish this post as I must search the web and failing getting any scary info there will contact my sister-in-law's third cousin twice removed half brother's niece as I heard that she knows what's she's talking about as she thought about having WLS. [emoji6]

......or should that be Rip van WRINKLE as I'm addressing the instigator of the Great Arse Face Experiment?!

Morning Rip van Winkle [emoji6]

I did too dance with Fonteyn and Nureyev!!!!! No, I haven't been at the gin-wee bit too early. I wrote that post at about 6am. Really Mr KindaFamiliar! What sort of girl do you think I am? I USED to be a gin sodden old lush (sod the gin-just give me anything was my motto) but I haven't had a drink for 12 years. It's that old obsessive personality you see. I was the same with the cigs and of course the food. No, I am not going into my sex life just now.............maybe when we are better acquainted[emoji6]x

Just back from dog walk-don't need a cup or a straw. Raining so hard that I can drink what's dripping off my head!!!!!

Can I book my seat for the excursion please? Makes me think of a line from 'Orpheus in the Underworld' courtesy of Messrs Gilbert & Sullivan. Goes something like: Bound on a trip to hell are we, what glee! Please don't think that I am trying to make you think that I am cultured. Never let it be said. I only know it because of dancing in a TV production in the early '80s and we had to learn all the words!!!!!! Mind you, did dance with Fonteyn and Nureyev in my youth so 'spose there's a bit of culture lurking in my bones somewhere. Yeh, I know, us old gits have a habit of name dropping. Well dears, when you get to my age.............!

Yeh, right my little marsupial pal. As if you would ever be scared!?! You would relish the idea of that certain moderator getting her mitts on you and giving you a good............................ Now, as for straws. If someone can explain the dynamics of a tube inserted and therefore immersed, into liquid, and that liquid is sucked directly into the gob, where does the air get a chance to sneak in? I'm no scientist but I can't see how all this supposed air enters one's stomach-if you get my drift. So, if any clever person who has a scientific degree out there can take me through the whole process and explain what goes on, I'd love to know. Please back up any statements with sources in the form of PROPER papers please, not just, my aunty's best friend's mother's second cousin once removed read it somewhere....... Right, must go and make another cuppa. Might drink that with a........no, need to gulp tea!!!!!

Oh Rosie, Rosie, RosieCheeks!!!!! You have let the Glesca IrnBru brigade down but, it has to be said, in a very good cause! My husband is from Coatbridge so he knows all about IrnBru addiction. I of course am originally from the opposite side so didn't develop quite such an addiction, I just stuck to food!!!! Lots of food!!!!!! Back on track today with the food intake back to normal. Head no longer hanging in shame. By the way VSGMB, don't worry about the 400 calories. Just get your protein and water in and let everything else just wait for a bit. I had protein shakes, soup, gallons of tea and water for the first couple or three weeks and I'm still alive and kicking. Told you, don't stress. No point wasting what energy you've got on something as negative as stress! Just got home to Surrey from our quick visit to Droitwich so need to hunker down with the dogs and cats and get some rest. Husband drove home like the 54 year old boy racer that he likes to think he is (in MY car) and how he didn't get nicked for speeding God only knows! Even the dogs in the back seat were shielding their eyes with their paws as they watched the countryside by the M40 flash by!!!! Husband got severe reprimand for childish behaviour and for nearly missing M25 turn off. Think I need a Valium due to my stress levels having gone through the sunroof! Does anyone know of a foolproof way to train one's nearest and dearest to act their age not shoe size?!

A friend's mother once said ' better to be looked over than overlooked' and I have remembered that. However, that friend was the one person who I didn't tell that I was having WLS. She thinks she knows everything and I really couldn't be bothered to explain to her. I have used the ' oh, so when did you last qualify as a doctor?' on her before and it shut her up at the time but she has a very short memory! I knew that her response to me having surgery would be negative. A mutual chum did tell her and apparently she was very quiet about the whole thing. She knew it was a case of put up with it or STFU! She has STFU. No comments. Zilch. Just the odd mention about the fact that I am losing weight but it sticks in her throat. Why? I'm now slimmer than she is and she looks really mumsy whereas I am now rockin' the clothes!!!!! So..........the point of all this waffling on is to say to you, tell your co-worker to FO, mind her own business and to be honest I would either do it front of all the supposed colleagues who have supposedly been indulging in Chinese whispers in the loudest possible voice that I could muster but without shouting, or of course, go to HR and complain as she is overstepping any boundaries that are acceptable, in any form. Keep going with the poundage pounding and enjoy each ounce dropping off you. You are doing brilliantly so hold your head up and smile-especially at the witch from work!

No problem here. Another cast iron sleeve.

Oh Jobey. Stop fretting honeybun. If it makes you feel any better I had my left kidney removed when I was 16 and it left an 18" scar down my left back/side. This was in the dark old days before keyhole surgery. To be honest, even when I was young, single and was able to attract the opposite sex it never once crossed my mind that it would put anyone off me. I had a full and varied love life (no you ARE NOT getting any details!!!!!) and scars were rarely, if ever, a topic of any protracted conversation, a passion killer, something that put guys off or anything negative at all. I now have a scar where my right hip has been replaced, a scar where my rotator cuff was repaired and one where my cartilage was repaired, and of course, my sleeve scars. They don't bother me (or my husband) either. The only thing that is slightly concerning me is that, at my age, 59& 3/4 for anyone who might've remotely interested, my shin is not tightening up as quickly as I would like. Think I might have to try some arse face cream called 'Preparation H' on my stomach KF. I actually went and bought some the other day but have yet to try it on my bags under the eyes!

Thank you nyteacher125. I shall try that. Who ever thought that one up. How do you even think about rubbing yourself with a dryer sheet? Answers welcome on that one. Maybe I've led a very sheltered life! Listen, if it works, who cares. Will add these to my dog walking bum bag for days when the mossies are rampaging. Will let you know if they work for us x

I remember that first scrambled egg. It was like a real from heaven. I savoured every delicate, tasty mouthful. You will find that gradually you will be able to manage most foods but it will take as long as it takes. Soups are a brilliant way of getting nourishment quickly and easily and home made stuff is far, far better than any ready made-although there is a place for the chiller cabinet ones when you are out of your own concoction. I used to make a pressure cooker load and keep it in the fridge-the soup, not the pressure cooker-do keep up at the back there-and dipped into whenever I felt the need. I also still do that with turkey mince chilli and I'm now onto seafood stew/soup for a go-to Protein hit. Very yummy into the bargain. As someone who does not want to be caught out for being a hypocrite I think I had better own up to my DISGUSTING diet yesterday. There were extenuating circumstances (deciding at the last minute to drive two hours up the M40 to go to my pal's birthday barbecue) but that's no excuse really. I ate (head hanging in shame) 3 drumsticks, a load of grapes, handful of cashew nuts, handful of toffee popcorn, half a mini baguette with butter, cheese and ham (that I took for the husband for the journey but that he didn't eat), pack of Waitrose mango pieces, about 10 fruit pastilles, 1 large latte (whilst doing a four mile walk with the dogs), I Starbucks skinny cappachino, few cups of tea and to add insult to injury to my poor stomach, one Diet Coke! Phew.......that's better now that I've confessed. I shall be back on track today I can assure you. Just shows how easy it is for me to have a slip and slither back to old habits. My excuse, for what it is worth, is that I am seven months out from surgery and my brain is still catching up with the rest of my digestive system. It's a bit slow on the uptake. Either that or I can use the excuse of early onset senior moments! Anyway, enough waxing lyrical and confessing, glad to hear that my (tongue firmly in cheek) order Miss VSG has been duly noted! R&R for you. TLC for the self. As for you Miss RosieCheeks, I trust that the cat kennel painting was a triumph. You don't want (free of charge) two rather resplendent four poster, fully furnished with mattresses, bedding, curtains etc, cat beds? We made them a few years ago when we had numerous mogs but now that the clan is down to two they prefer our bed. Off to make another cuppa so wishing you all a lovely day. Don't know about you lot but the sun is shining, sky is blue and the birds are singing their socks off. Bliss.