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Hello folks! I am now 6 weeks post op! I am doing great. During week 4 thru 5 I had a horrible stall. The scale was not moving. I contacted my surgeons office and talked to my Nutrionist. She went over my intake and my journal. I was on a three week of "softs". It was decided I was doing great getting in all of my protein on my days (80 grams). I was also getting in all of my zero calorie water/fluid...in fact I was exceeding it...I still tend to get 100-120 oz each day. I love my water! My problem was......I was eating too many calories. I was getting in about 1100-1200 on an average, daily. I was asked to take it down to 800 calories per day and still do my best to get in the same 80 grams of protein and the same water, at least 64oz up to whatever I can handle. I modified the calories and WHOA.......the scale has noticed the changes! NICE....losing one pound daily on most days. I have gone down 5 pounds in 6 days. I am sitting at 270 exact this morning and I was 307 when I came home from surgery (Surgery was 12/17-RYGB). I also cut out two mini-meals ...I was getting in 5 daily on softs and I am now just doing 3 per day and a small snack at one point if I need/want it. I am taking all of my bariatric vitamins and supplements like clock work. I think this is SO important!! Dumping: I have had a few small episodes of dumping. When it occurs, I find that I have consumed my food too fast in most cases. I do not have any trigger food that gives me trouble nor do I get sick (barf). When I have any dumping, I get a nausea feeling and sometimes a heavy fatigue. Those last less than and hour, then I am good to go. When I re-measured my body at the one month point, I lost 15" over all. I am a total of 37 pounds since surgery. I am expecting to ENTER THE 260's tomorrow! I wore a 44DDD bra today (Brand new took tags off with out my glasses on)...I thought it was a 48DDD. I was wrong! I wore a 1x shirt (OMG!) and I had on new to me/gently used jeans that are 24's....and they were LOOSE. I don't think I can get into a 22 jean just yet........depends on brands of course! The outfit I wore today (all of the above) made me FEEL SKINNY! I like this saying and I have used it for almost a year as I have been working on ME....I tell people that "I am less married to food, than ever before". For me, it's all about relationships and relationships with FOOD! I am not divorcing food, but I AM way less married to it now, than ever before. I hope this finds you all doing well. I love this forum/bariatric pal and I am thankful to see the comments, questions posed, the ideas, food for thought and NSV's. Kari Jo

Congrats on your NSV!!!!!!

NSV: I've recently started dating again and It's been an entirely different experience for me. I've always dated men who were older than me by a minimum of 5 years and biggest gap 13 years. Nowadays I get approached by soooo many younger guys and I'm not talking 2 years younger. I'm talking WAY younger! It's like the older ones are scared to approach me or something. I went to a bar in Denton, Texas (college town) and these adorable college kids were hitting on me and thought I was 21!!! When I told them I was a 33 year old divorcee and MOTHER of an 8 year old boy their jaws dropped right before they exclaimed almost in unison, "HOT MILF!" I know it's silly but that was the most exhilarating experience in life! I felt so alive, young and vibrant. I mean ME? HOT? 21? I just can't wrap my head around it.

Another NSV is people double-taking on my passport and DL. I'll have to get new ones. But at $200 for the new passport and $25 for the new DL, I'm thinking it'll be the DL first!

I just had a nice surprise. My husband and I are going to Italy and Greece for 2 weeks in June. I don't know what made us start talking about our passports but we did. So he goes and pulls mine out of our lockbox. We got it renewed in March of 2008. Here is where I digress a bit... so, my 'ah ha' moment was in november of 2006 while at my moms house. I didn't own a scale and she had one in her guest bathroom. I jumped on it and saw 267 pop up and realized I can't do this anymore (at 5'2", I was easily 140lbs overweight). It was right there that I decided to do whatever it took to take the weight off. If someone told me shooting horse pee into myself would work, I'd do it. Luckily for me my answer wasn't as gross. I scheduled a consult at the mayo clinic to get the lapband. Mayo has an extensive bariatric program and requires six months of appointments prior to surgery. I jumped in full force. By March of 2008 I was 25 lbs down, tracking my food religiously and exercising regularly. So when I had that picture it wasn't even my 'come to Jesus' moment but wow five years makes such a difference. As many of you know the band didn't work for me. I had it placed in June 2008 and did well the first 2 years. Then I started having terrible reflux and playing what I referred to as my food games ( waiting until 2 or 3 in the afternoon to eat, get stuck, throw up, look longingly as others ate around you knowing darn well you can't even swallow Water but you are starving). In December of 2012 I couldn't ignore it anymore. I made an appointment with mayo again to get an EGD and find out what was going on. I found oyt later that week that the two years of vomiting, reflux and heartburn had manifested itself into intestinal metaplasia. It was then I decided the band has to come out and I wanted converted. Having a friend die from Barrets several years ago, I knew I was done playing. June 2013 (almost five years to the day from my lapband) my band was taken out and I was converted to RNY. I was 220 on the day of surgery and am 160 this week. I am confident I will reach my goal if it takes me another 20 years. God willing horse pee won't factor in. So back to my NSV.. Seeing that picture was a great visual reminder of my journey to this point and reminded me how every step along the way helped me get here. My relationship with food is better than it has ever been, I feel healthy and while I have the all too damiliar freakouts from stalls I never take my eye off of the prize. Me and my worth to achieve anything I desire.

I've heard NSV = non scale victory. That is, one not directly related to the number of pounds lost.

Keish_ Lorrain, NSV means Non-Surgical Victory, and they are so exciting when we get them. Even your pants falling down in public because they don't fit anymore, is an NSV!

Lucky you, I feel like I'm going to throw up everytime I try to reach my toes:( I look forward to that particular NSV.

What is NSV?

Today, I was able to lean towards my feet and trim my own toenails with cutting off my circulation at my belly.

NSV's are everyone's territory! :-) Congratulations!

Hang in there! This will be an NSV for you and your smile will be huge!!

I know this is women's territory. But I'd like to share my own NSV, if I may. I was going through my old clothes, (mostly suit coats and sweaters), which I haven't worn for over ten years and found out they all fit! A couple of my suit coats could even be altered now to make them double-breasted! But my 19-year-old daughter saw me styling them and said "Ugh Dad, those are so '90's!" Little does she know they're actually '70's and '80's! Oh well, more donations for the thrift stores.

Congrats! Great NSV!

NSV at almost one year out. I have ribs! HW: 263 CW: 145

I just had the scariest NSV yesterday coming home from a business trip - i was stopped in customs and in checking my passport they guy says this doesn't look anything like you? I need another form of a picture ID to compare, so i give him my drivers license, and he says - well this looks like her but still not you?? I panicked and just said " I started exercising? " lol there were tons of people around and i really didn't want to get into the details of my WLS?? So he just looked at me funny and said good job and get new pictures. It was the best feeling although those guys really have no sense of humor so it was a little nerve wracking as well. Anyway YAY to my sleeve and YAY to almost goal, i can't believe in only 8 short months how my life has changed :-)

Sheryl- I'm a great believer in 'sleep is a great cure' - without it we really don't function right and when we are so tired it is easy for things to overwhelm us. So glad that you seem to have it under control and that you feel much happier in yourself. Sarah you are a true friend to your friend and I hope that she finds a path/program that leads her to good health. Good fast yesterday and I did see 170 this morning but I am not claiming it until I see it again tomorrow. I just had a NSVS - I ran on the elliptical for 3 miles, most I have done previously is 2 miles. That might not be far to some but for me it was like scaling a mountain and I reached the summit!

It's been a while since I shared my nsvs (last year). Reading what many of you are now able to accomplish is amazing. I'm so happy for all of you. My latest nsv was shopping just before the new year to buy some tops for work. I was in a large which were gimungus on me. So naturally I went straight for a medium. My mind kept telling me ya better try it on before you buy it. I'm so glad I did because low and behold the medium was too big also. Guys, I purchased a small in tops. They were on sale half of what they actually cost so I bought several of them in different colors. I of course cried like a baby in the dressing room because I don't recall wearing a small um ever!!!! Well maybe when I was little but again, I don't remember.

Ok I had to catch up on these nsv's before I could post mine it's been a while but I thought I would take a pic of just my face to see if it was any smaller, ok get ready to laugh I did when I looked at it and my son said hey you don't have a double chin anymore I laughed and said what y ripple chins are gone , then I looked in the mirror and noticed there is a bit of a waddle happening like a turkey's waddle but no more double or triple chin and yes I am seeing the lines fro losing the weight on my neck , I didn't even relize it till my son brought it up , and my Mother , Brother and I we're talking and my brother blurts out what are we having for dinner since Debbie doesn't eat , and I had to say I eat I just don't eat a lot like I used to lol, so I guess these would be considered nsv's .

Don't be discouraged it happens as I lost a good amount in the beginning but now it seems I lose or gain the same 2-3 lbs but I a staying at a good weight I am not at goal and hope to be by at least Sep. of this yr cause it will be 2 yrs. by then my surgeon agrees with me that even if it progresses slowly that it will be better for me and I won't gain it all back and it is up to me to jump, walk or run over my hurdles so just try and be patient wich is really hard for us , but we can do it , and let your sall nsv's sink in also don't worry about the numbers as before you know it your clothes will start feeling looser, so hang in there on your journey and I a in mine.

I was sleeved in November, not a revision. I take Prilosec every day and have no problems with heart burn or acid reflux. I have some hunger, but nothing like the intensity I had for years before surgery, and now I can either ignore it (which I could rarely do pre-op) or I can satisfy it with significantly less food. And since I'm now in the habit of dense-protein-first, I'm a whole lot more likely to make wise food choices. I've had no stomach spasms, and once my incisions stopped bothering me (which was about a week after surgery) I haven't had any other pain whatsoever. The best part, though, is the safety net aspect of the sleeve: When I eventually do give in to a craving and eat until I'm stuffed -- and I'm sure it will happen eventually -- my sleeve will limit the damage I can do in one sitting. I won't be ABLE to eat the entire package of Oreos at one go, ever again! Yippeeee! Then there are the NSVs: I'm off insulin, not taking any meds for my type II diabetes now. I'm off my BP med. I no longer need a daily NSAID for my OA and it's not because I'm just putting up with the discomfort - it is GONE! I'm no longer too warm all the time; I've changed the thermostat in my house from 70 to 73 degrees. I could go on re smaller clothes, etc., but you get the idea. I Love My Sleeve! And I love the suport I get on this forum! Thank you one and all.

Way to go RJ! I started with a trainer this month, too. It's so worth it. Just finished my third week. Sometimes I think I'm going to die it's so hard, and then I'm frustrated because I'm not losing lbs. on the scale. But, lots of NSV's: My lean body mass was only 100 lbs. (out of 211) last spring, and now it's 111 llbs. I gained 10 lbs of muscle since then. Yay! I'm not nearly as flabby and there are actually muscles under there that have been dormant for a decade I can lift and move things that I couldn't before. I don't feel nearly so helpless as I did Best of luck to you in this program. You can do it!

Sorry for us loss. And congrats on that amazn NSV, but surely w that big drop in sizes, the scale has got to b Makn u a happy camper as well:)))

I just had my first NSV....We had a death in the family, so I had to go shopping for something to wear to the Funeral. Before surgery I was a size 22/24. The dress I just bought was a size 16!!!!!!