deedee

Good luck! You CAN do this.

Carolyn- CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! Twobluecats- you're rocking that sleeve, great job! Bella-welcome to our weekly weigh-in (sometimes Mondays, Sundays, Tuesdays, whenever;-) Nana-I'm sure the constipation has a lot to do with your stall, I am the same exact way. Good luck on getting things moving again!

Well, I live in the mid-atlantic region that now finally on the end side of an enormous snowstorm (my county is actually still under a blizzard warning). Due to this I am homebound and thought this would be a good day to accomplish some things. First I started the huge process of cleaning out my closets, dresser, and laundry room (where I also store a lot of clothes). With the help of some others on here and a phone conversation, I decided it was time to get rid of my 14's. I even got rid of most of my 12's (saved one pair of jeans that still fit great) and quite a few of my 10's. I've only gotten through half of one closet and a couple bins from the laundry room and my jeans drawer, but I feel so much better. I took the time to try on every single item. So here is a picture of the half of closet I did. I usually prefer to wear more spring and summer colors, but now there is a definite lack of color in the wardrobe I have left. I also usually do not hang my jeans, but my closet is looking so bare:-( About an hour into the closet organizing project, my husband wanted to do another snow shoveling round outside and since I didn't help with the first one, I got dressed and went out to help. I again am amazed at how much better my life is since I've had this surgery. I was able to shovel so much and felt sort of bad about how before losing this weight I never had energy to do much around the house or with my husband. Overall, a very productive day!

Congratulations on your date! I had to do a modified Atkins diet for the month prior to surgery and 2 days of Clear liquids before surgery. For the high protein/low carb diet, I purchased a South Beach manual from Target (I think it was the induction phase or phase 1) and kept my carbs under 30 grams per day. Good luck!

It really will end, but I know that doesn't help you right now. My stall began at 2.5 weeks out and lasted 13 days. I bounced between 1-1.5 pounds up and down, but couldn't break below 202 pounds. You are doing FANTASTIC with your weight loss!

Hi, I had my sleeve surgery on 8/4/09, weighing in at 222 lbs. (I did a month long pre-op diet during July losing 16 pounds before surgery). I never really set a goal initially, just wanted a normal bmi, and fluctuated between wanting to lose 90-100 pounds. In the end I set my goal for a 90 pound loss, which would put me at 148 pounds. As of today I am 0.5 pounds away from this goal, taking me from a bmi of 39.6 to 24.7 today. Good luck on your research!

Great idea Tiff! Thanks for sharing them.

Okay, I'm an idiot. It's not Monday:-)

Okay, this morning I weighed in at 148.5. I will definitely take it!!! Half a pound to go to reach my goal. Really going to work hard at limiting carbs this week and hopefully shed this last pound, but if not this week, I know it will happen eventually!

This is one of my favorite WLS cookbooks! It's great for every stage because it has a little key next to each recipe and even gives variations of how you can use the recipes in different stages.

I loved it! The song was fantastic, thank you for sharing. My husband has bugged me this whole process to make a vlog, but I just never got it together. Excellent job on the weight loss!

Not really at this point, but I did mourn it some the first 3-4 months when I'd sit down with a plate and start in on the meat and realize I was absolutely stuffed with a couple of oz. I can now eat more and I just think my brain is used to it more, so it's not such a big deal. Like Oregondaisy wrote, I eat what I want and get full, there's really not more I can do about it.

Time sure has flown by these past 6 months. I feel so blessed that I was given this opportunity to get healthy and have ZERO REGRETS that I had it done. I've gotten a few private messages asking about my experience, so I thought this would be a great time and place to post a recap (as well as I can remember it). These thoughts are pretty random and just share the ups and downs of my journey so far. I began my journey with researching wls in April of 2009. Attended a seminar with my surgeon in May, and set up my consultation visit for June 24. At my consultation I weighed 238 lbs. (down 3 pounds from my all time heaviest). I started my pre-op diet (modified Atkins) in July 2009, and had my surgery on August 4, weighing 222 lbs. Today I weigh in at 149 pounds! My starting clothing size was a woman's 22-24. I am currently wearing a 6-8 and actually just bought yesterday a size 4 dress that fits beautifully (it obviously runs large). I never dreamed, planned, or hoped to be this small and still don't see this person. In the mirror I still see the same larger person with flaws and scars, but when I take pictures and compare them I can tell the difference. My biggest struggle as an early post-op was with protein consumption. I was lucky to get in 30 grams of protein per day the first month out (some days I did well, but not consistently). I had a very difficult time finding protein drinks that I could tolerate. I found Chike Orange Cream and thought it tasted pretty good, but early out it would give me such bad cramping. I then found Bariatric Advantage Sangria flavor around 3 weeks post-op and did pretty well sipping one each morning. Another struggle I faced (and still do to some extent) was with constipation. There was one time that I was constipated for like 8 days. Adding in apples and spinach seemed to help in that area. Around 3-4 months post-op I decided to try to lose the remainder of my weight following a more balanced diet...up until that point I was pretty much sticking to no more than 30 carbs per day. The weight loss definitely slowed down when I upped the carbs, but for me it was okay. I figured if I could lose weight following a more balanced diet, I wouldn't have to worry so much in maintenance about gaining much weight back (who knows if this will actually be the case). As of today, I am still 1 pound away from my goal weight and if I don't hit goal in the next couple of weeks, I plan to low carb it for a while. One of the BEST things I think I did during the post-op process was to establish a good, solid exercise routine. Each day from 1 day post-op, I walked A LOT. During the first month I walked the boardwalk and built up to 2-3 miles per outing. When I was cleared for exercise (4 weeks out) I started back to Jazzercise and signed up for water aerobics. The water class did not work out for different reasons, but I stuck with Jazzercise and by two months out was attending 5 days per week. I have now added a tap class (my favorite) into my schedule and have cut back one day of Jazzercise to accommodate. Each month I notice myself getting stronger and capable to do more (my energy levels are through the roof) and I feel I owe this to the exercise routine I've got going on. During this last month, although I haven't dropped much weight on the scale, I've definitely noticed myself toning up a lot more. Again, I attribute the exercising to this. I feel so blessed that I have this tool and just want to say again, I LOVE MY SLEEVE!!!

I have always been lactose intolerant so I use Lactaid fat free milk. For my Chike protein drink I used milk and ice (heck I even used 1/2 cup of no sugar added vanilla ice cream when I got desperate). For the sangria flavored one, it is more like crystal light so I used water, milk would have made it really gross. Looking back, people were right, that stage doesn't last too long in the whole scheme of things. Good luck!

I think it is totally doable. At 3 months and 1 week out I was 51 pounds down. I am now 1 pound away from my goal weight and with a normal bmi at 6 months out.

Great news, glad you're on the move again!

Woohoo Judy!!!!!!! I'm so excited for you, excellent job!

Well, I'm in the middle of another mini blizzard. We have about 20" of snow outside and they say it will not end until this afternoon. Of course my body wouldn't let me sleep in past 5:30 AM, so I've been sitting here trying to plan out how I can be productive today. I've decided I will clean out my closets again...I've needed to do it for a couple of months now. My question: what larger sizes, if any, do you plan on keeping? The last time I had a closet clean out I was a size 12-14. I kept many of the 14's that were really nice "just in case" I needed them again after I have a baby (God willing). I'm now in a size 6 (barely), 8 (some are getting pretty lose, but most fit perfectly), and 10 (for higher-end designer clothing). I'm now wondering if maybe I should let go of my 14's? What is everyone else's plan or what have you done?

I'm so sorry about the party...but maybe you and your husband can plan a date out (maybe Valentine's) so the great dress doesn't go to waste??

I definitely don't take it wrong...it is pretty funny if you step back and think of it, especially compared to where I was this time last year (size 20-22). I just haven't gotten it into my head that this size is a permanent thing. I never planned on getting below an 8 (and that was supposed to be only the larger sized 8's), and then figured I'd be a 10-12 if I was blessed enough to have a baby.