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I love this community, and have found everyone on here to be so caring and compassionate. Although I will never actually meet many of you, I feel like part of a large sleeve family. Anyways I just wanted to share my first NSV. As a child I played soccer, it was my favourite thing to do and I would do nothing by look forward to the next time I could play soccer. Then I hit puberty, and started gaining weight. I stuck it out for a few years but at 15 I stopped playing, I couldn't physically keep up, and was depressed. The weight held me back from doing the one thing I truly loved to do. The key word is held, because its not stopping me anymore, now that I am 70 lbs down I have joined soccer for the summer and in the mean time am going to play indoor soccer. My first game is tomorrow, and all I can say is how excited I am to have my life back. Please feel free to share your NSVs, I love to hear them.

WOW! An amazing NSV! Congrats! I hope I lose more weight soon to have that much of energy!!

Wow,you're rockin it! I love NSVs more than I do scale victories.lol The NSV's are the ones that boost our self esteems through the roof!!!!

That's progress in the making! I love NSV's! I can't wait to hear more about wonderful things that are happening. Keep Rockin that Sleeve!

Those NSVs are as important, maybe even MORE important than the scale victories! YAY for you!! One of the first milestones I hit was car related as well, when I realized that my butt fit in the seat and the seat belt didnt dig into my hip anymore.

Day 28: "Impatient" Today is a good day, but as I've mentioned in my previous blog entries -- time seems to be standing still and I'm having to learn the art of patience and distraction. My weight loss has not happened as quickly as I'd hoped, but I'm still loosing 4-5 pounds per week. Nothing to sneeze at. So long as the numbers are going down, I'm stoked. Can't wait until the next drop in clothing size. My tops are loser for sure in the waist and arms, but I can't go down yet due to my bra size. If anyone has any good exercises for making the "girls" smaller, please let me know! So I now know what dehydration is all about, and it sucks. It's bittersweet because I had to learn it during two of my early NSV moments. First, on Friday I walked 2.5 miles in an hour. The furthest I've gone in years! And I felt great during the first 2 miles, very little pain in the usual places, good heartbeat. Then I bonked at the end, and even worse a few hours after I got home. I had a low-grade headache, some nausea, and muscle spasms. Not to mention I was as weak as a bird. I knew it was dehydration, but I was perplexed because I'd been drinking plenty of fluids and had water with me on the walk. So I upped the intake even more, to nearly 100oz of fluids! When I wasn't urinating very much, I got worried. Went to bed, hoped I felt better then next day. And I did. Saturday was a little better, I drank more, and seemed to be getting better. My husband and I went for an 8.5 mile bike ride over 1.5 hours and I FELT GREAT! I can't remember the last time I felt that good on the bike. Considering my history is heavily cycling related, it was a little overwhelming emotionally. My husband commented about how great I looked, my balance was better, and our pace was much faster than it had been in the past few years. What a difference taking a small, 30+ pound monkey off your back will do for your endurance! Then I bonked, again. A few hours later, I was weak, headache-y, twitchy, yadda, yadda, yadda. I had a full 22oz bottle before riding (along with breakfast food and shake) and finished the same 22oz second bottle while riding, and drank like crazy after. WHAT WAS GOING ON!? I take a potassium pill from my doctor that is the size of a horse pill. Don't worry, I dissolve it in water and drink it down. But my sodium and magnesium levels were low. I looked at my food journal and somehow the foods I was taking in were much lower in sodium and magnesium than previous days. Not sure how what happened. So I took some magnesium citrate as well (powder form in water), and drank and rested yesterday. Just a 45 minute, slower pace walk. Today I'm feeling much better, and I talked to my NUT. She wasn't too concerned, said to continue with the potassium, magnesium, and work in more sodium where I can without taking too much. It's amazing how fragile my body still feels. It takes so little to change the chemistry and throw everything off! It makes me a little sad, that I will forever have to watch every single thing that goes into my body. I'm OK with it so long as the scale is going in the right direction, but when it's not moving very fast -- it's not as easy. I knew there would be up's and down's, as I talked about in my first blog entry. This was both. A great victory for my physical endurance, but a slippery slope in my health. Let's see how the next week plays out!

Wonderful story! I am so glad you were able to share with your family, and demonstrate to them that this isn't just a diet, that you have it figured out and are doing great. I would give so much to be able to have another huge dinner with my abundant family and let them see the new me, but that can never be. Enjoy every minute of it. What a NSV!

Its awesome feeling to know that food will no longer control your life, as the other posters have said it only gets better form here! Congrats on your 1st NSV!

This is a fantastic NSV! I do have a question for you. When was your surgery? I remember reading something from you very recently that you had just had surgery? Maybe it was an old post? I'm feeling somewhat confused. Thanks

That is the best NSV I have heard in a long time. I am so happy for you.

PQ, that is a wonderful NSV! Congratulations! Sharon

Twice, I was out walking this past summer,,I made it about 1/4 mile and it took me about 10 minutes to do that. I ended up in ICU both times due to respiratory distress because of a rare autoimmune disease I have..it sent me into a Myasthenia Gravis crisis. My muscles in my chest wall just couldn't do the work..not to mention the extra weight those muscles had to try and lift. Today,,I walked at 2 mph on my treadmill for a mile!!!!!..no distress, no pain,,just energy and enthusiasm. I just thank God that this is finally happening for me. Steroids put most of the weight on and by golly I'm going to fight to get this weight off and get well!!!

We look forward to you healing and taking the baby steps, and hearing about your NSV's - as well as anything else you want to ask or contribute.

LOVE IT! GREAT NSV! AND I WANT ONE OF THOSE TOO! Are they on sale yet, so expensive LOL!

My one year anniversary was on 2/22. The year has just flown by. I have lost 106 pounds and have decided to change my goal weight to be 140 - only 7 more pounds from where I am now. (My original goal weight was 135). I talked to my surgeon and my primary care doctor this week about my goal weight. I have pretty much been stalled at this weight (+/- 2 pounds) since around December 1st. I am still gradually losing inches, even though my weight hasn't been dropping. I am happy with my size - except for my waist, belly and upper arms. I am hoping that exercise and losing those last few pounds will help me there. If at the end of 2012, when I am at goal and have been stable for quite a while, I will seriously consider a tummy tuck to fininsh off the process. Here's some stats: I started out in size 26W jeans, size 3X tops and size 24W dress clothes. I am now in size 10 petite jeans am wearing medium tops and either size 10 or 12 dress clothes. I have lost 11 inches from my bust, 15 inches from my waist, 13.5 inches from my belly, 12 inches from my hips and 7.5 inches from each thigh. I started out controlling my blood pressure only with the help of two medications. I have been totally off of blood pressure meds for months, and my blood pressure is rock solid steady at 120/65. I had sleep apnea and had one of those damn CPAP machines. I no longer have apnea and got rid of the machine. My cholesterol and tryiglycerides were out of control, even with being on two meds for them pre-surgery. I had dropped them into the normal range with no meds by 6 months. At 9 months post-surgery the cholesterol went back up to 233 - which is high. (It wasn't what I was eating - this is heredity.) And the ratio of HDL/Total cholesterol was also high. I decided to try everything I could to lower my cholesterol without going back on a statin drug. I switched to high Protein oatmeal (from Bariatric Advantage) with flax seeds and flax oil added for Breakfast, and garlique, red rice yeast and cinnamon supplements daily. I have also upped my exercise to 3-4 times a week for Zumba and 3-4 times a week on the elliptical. Well - SOMETHING WORKED! I lowered by "bad" cholesterol by 41 points in 3 months. It is now 192! My HDL level stayed the same, so the HDL ratio lowered from 4.1 to 3.6. And, my triglycerides dropped from 147 to 102. That means all of them are in the normal range! And my Iron levels are finally in the normal range - so all of the iron supplements are working, too. I really haven't had trouble with much of anything since surgery. I was only in the hospital one night, and was off work for about 3 weeks. It took me awhile to get my energy back to normal, but that was probably related to low iron and B12 levels. My estrogen levels went nuts for a couple of months due to the stored estrogen being dumped into my bloodstream from the fat cells, but that went away (Thank goodness). I have had continuing tenderness on my left side where the largest incision was. I had a abdominal sonogram to rule out a hernia or something bad. None of that showed up, so it is just some random nerve effect left over from the surgery. A minor intermittent annoyance at most. The hardest thing for me since surgery is controlling the urge to abuse food when I am nervous or bored. I am working on controlling that every day. One thing I did to help was to take a six week class called "The Success HAbits of Weight-Loss Surgery Patients". It was offered by the head of the WLS Support Group at one of the Baylor Hospitals here in the Dallas area. It was a wonderful class to prepare me for living as a person of normal weight. I have a sub forum started here (not much there yet) to put information from the class there. The class is bassed on a book of the same name by Colleen M. Cook. Here are some photos: The first two are current onex from this week. The one of the two pairs of jeans are my before and current jeans. The headshot of me in the green T shirt is about 10 days after surgery. The headshot of me in the black suit is from 9 years ago - I am back into that suit (in fact it is a little loose!) The next picture is my husband and I Christmas 2010 (shortly before surgery) and the last picture is the two of us Christmas 2011 SKC Headshot.BMP

What a great NSV!! I love going into the dept store and grabbing something I like, and NOT trying it on. But, getting home and having it fit perfectly! Great thread and motivator. Karen

Congratulations Pookeyism!!!! What a great NSV and what a great friend!!! Love the pic. You look awesome!!!! and sooooo happy!!! High five!!!

A very good friend and I were in a local mall and she was asking me what size I wore and I told her I really wasn't sure since I had no time to even try on clothes recently. We were just outside The 'PINK' section of Victoria's Secret and she looks around and pointed to the 'PINK' sweatshirts (if you aren't familiar Victoria Secret has a line of sweatshirts/tshirts/sleeper shorts, etc. Called PINK.) and she said "you can wear that in a large". I was just kinda laughing inside - she is super encouraging, and I just thought she was being pleasant. But then she takes me by the elbow, walks me over, gets a lime green 'think PINK' sweatshirt and says "go put this on". Not try it on or see how far, but a straight command to put it on. AWKWARD. I was just hoping she would not be embarassed when it did not fit...but it did. I just stood there and looked and was like "what???". Then it sunk in, OMG I am wearing a LARGE from Victoria's Seceret...BALLS! lol. I walked out and I wasn't a big girl in a big size, or a big girl in a too tight top. I was LARGE. The pretty little thing helping people out didn't do that Lane Bryant thing of over enthusiastic "that's soooo you". She looks up and goes oh, yes...that is a great color for you. That's it. Later in Macy's she picked out a size 12 and size 14 in jeans (no size 16 in these) and told me "Go try them on. Neither will fit, BUT I really want to to understand how close you are getting to these sizes." I could pull the 12's up totally but no hope of buttoning them. The 14's I might could have buttoned except I really cannot deal with tight clothing! So I guess I am a size 16. We had to leave just after so I would not be late for school, so I still haven't tried on any new jeans - except for some 16's given to me by a co-worker. They fit! Below is a pic of me in the sweatshirt. Yes I am aware the shorts are sagging but they are also about 4" too big in the waist!

That's a great NSV! Congrats! Here's to crossing

Forens(my iPad won't let me type your full screen name)...anyway congrats!!! Today almost the same thing happened to me, and to try to get my hubby and 16 year old son to understand what it means to go from wearing a size 24 pants to today...buying a pair of 15/16 lady wrangler was huge for me. For the first time in 20 years, I did not even try them on until I got home. Fit perfectly. I simply can't wait to be a size 12 so to be in a 10 like you... whoot hoot! So here is to all of our NSV for Saturday!!! Take care all

I'm 25 days post-op and these are my first NSV's: - 7" gone from my waist - 5" gone from my hips - two people at work did a double take when they saw me last week - two people have called me out for wearing clothes that are "too big" - I can see my collar-bone I'm sure there will be more to come... lovin the sleeved life!