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I bought a pair of jeans at Goodwill because I just can't afford to be buying clothes so that they fit. I am down to a very few outfits now that I can wear. A great NSV (and a funny one!) We were moving last week and I could feel that my pants were way to big. Well just as I got into the house from carrying several boxes, my jeans just fell to the floor! My BF and I were laughing so hard. it was a good thing that friction held them up for the last 15 seconds or I could have bared my behind to the entire town! And Fastpitch mom I also look like I have a load in my pants!

I had lost 17 pounds in 12 weeks (also following my plan perfectly) I'm now sitting 12 pounds below goal and have been for over 1 1/2 years. The rate that you lose has absolutely nothing to do with your ultimate success. Just stick on plan, sit back and enjoy the NSVs. And stay off the scale if it upsets you so much.

That's a great NSV!! Love it! Good for you

At the advice of my doctor, I went to see a nutritionist this past Wednesday. Well I guess technically she's a "wellness nurse" but my doc called her a nutritionist, and that's basically what she does. I was nervous because I didn't know what to expect. I guess all these years of being treated as sub-human by health professionals because of my weight has really taken a toll on me. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that she was very nice, supportive, and upbeat. Almost a little too upbeat. I think of myself as a generally positive person, but the people who wake up spouting sunshine just drive me a little bit crazy. In any case, she seemed very optimistic about my chances for success. It surprised her that I have already been making so many positive changes, and she was pretty happy with the diet I put myself on. I agreed to start seeing her twice a month to do weigh-ins and some tweaking to my diet. She mentioned in passing that she thought everything I had done so far would be a sign to the insurance company that I am really serious and committed. But she also said that phrase I keep hearing, "Maybe you'll do so well you won't need the surgery!" I would love to not need the surgery, and I'll definitely stay open to the idea that I might not need it, but since all of my past efforts have only gotten me to 370 pounds and frustrated, I have my doubts. There were many times that I have been serious and committed to losing weight, and some times that I did lose a fair amount, but obviously that didn't stay off. But we will see. On a more positive note, I am beginning to gain some ground in my battle against overeating. For a long time now, I have been one of those people who will clean my dinner plate, then eat whatever my son didn't finish because "I don't want to be wasteful." I've been fighting hard to break that habit, and I can say with some measure of pride that I have gone almost a week without doing that. I realized that by eating that leftover food, I am not doing a good thing. It's not all that wasteful to throw out a few spoonfuls of food. Not to mention the extra calories I was "wasting" by eating it! So that has finally begun to sink in. Can I have an NSV before I've been banded? And I've also been sticking to the rule that I set with my nutritionist - no eating after 9 pm. Period. Which was rough that first day. My stomach felt like it was turning inside out, and my brain was screaming at me to go find something to eat ASAP or I would die. I did the emotional equivalent of sticking my fingers in my ears and yelling "I can't heeeeeeear youuuuu... lalalalala" and I survived! So yay for small victories, because sometimes they're the most impactful ones.

shandytx83 welcome its always nice to get new blood in the neignborhood 83 lbs lost - WooHoo telling/seeing you have lost weight,, old clothes don't fit anymore??? getting rid of your "big" clothes - buying new smaller sized clothes is quite a committment thats a great NSV (non scale victory as we fondly call it!!) kindof like "out" with the old - "in" with the new!! many people buy clothes in their transition period at goodwill - then you are not spending lots of money on clothes you won't be wearing long you being 5' you probably want to lose another 40 lbs??? you can't wake up dailty being afraid that you are going to "mess" up eat something wrong - gain the weight back you are 6 months post op losing 83 lbs - still wanting to lose weight - don't think about gaining, don't worry about the future concentrate on "today", continue your great work try and drink more Water, that is important you said - "trying really hard its not easy every day its a new start" every day is NOT easy - you are right there are days that are more challenging than others corny, but if one day you slip, pick yourself up and start again do your "best" thats all you can do i can see you are working really hard putting one foot in front of another you are awesome!!!!! take care nice to meet you keep up the good work congrats on your success

Congrats!!! Great Job! I think I had my first NSV today. I'm only a week out and my hubby and I took a long walk today and it felt great! I easily walked much farther than I could prior to surgery. I plan to do a 5k with my hubby this Spring

1.) Today my niece said "Aunt Kim, you look soo skinny today!" 2.) In church I looked down and realized, I can see my feet without bending over!!!!!!!!!! (First time ever!) 3.) After church we took my 5 nieces and nephews to the circus, and the whole way there I was nervous because the upper bowl at our arena is always smaller seats than the lower bowl. The seats in the upper bowl and slightly too small for my large bottom. We got there, went to our seats, sat down................... AND THE SEAT WAS BIGGER THAN MY BUTT! I had at least an inch on both sides of my hips when I sat down!!! The third NSV is a very important one to me because I love going to events at the arena, but only if I can afford the expensive seats on the lower level. Now I can go to any event ANYTIME I WANT TO!!!!! YAY!!!!

That is AMAZING! AND ENCOURAGING! I love your NSV's...keep up the amazing work, it's definatly an encouragement.

the numbers... lets start there because that's what matters here right!!! when i went into surgery i weighed 233# and today i am 221. i have been down on myself for these numbers mostly because it is easy to get into a comparison game with other wls folks and this is absolutely silly. i have lost 12# in a month and this is indeed spectacular! if i continued to lose at this pace i would be at my goal weight in six months! however, i know this may not be a realistic goal as my weight loss has been extremely slow over the past two weeks...according to my surgeon a 1-2# weight loss a week is what is expected with the lapband and any more than that is phenomenal. i have not been as diligent in tracking my measurements which will be key for me because let's face it, we all need some way to measure success, and if the scale is not moving it can quickly become...well, depressing. i picked up some new vocab while perusing this site and found that NSV's are also a cause for celebration! this may seem like a no-brainer, but i have never thought of doing this the past 800 billion other times i have tried to lose weight. so here are a few of my NSV's... doing some type of physical activity---> daily! sticking to allotted food items--->daily! logging my food, mood, and exercise-->daily! testing my blood sugars-->daily! trying to be encouraging and supportive to at least one other person on this journey--->daily fitting into a pair of jeans that are one size smaller! needing to wear a belt with all of my other pants! improving my time and distance when walking outside finding ways to celebrate that do not include alcohol and food my pain... my pain is virtually non-existent and i can pretty much do everything i was doing before surgery. i still have some discomfort and pain in the area of my largest incision at times. i am still not able to sleep/lay on my stomach and i still have some swelling in this area...(anyone else have this 4 weeks out)? also, i seem to have developed a slight headache issue...this happens at least once daily and i am not sure of this is due to my sugars dropping too low, a sign that i'm not drinking enough, or that i'm letting too much time go by between meals...i'm keeping an eye on it. a lump... i have had what feels like a lump in my throat for the past 3-4 days...i'm also trying not to read to much into this as i have had this feeling before pre-band and it has been attributed to anxiety...anxiety! what anxiety?! i have been off work for almost a month, completed school a week ago, have been eating better for almost two months and have been exercising daily for the past month...what gives? being on this forum i have come to understand that this is sign of other things, like being stuck, being too tight, reflux, gas, and on and on...i have not had a fill yet and i am able to get down liquids and foods just fine...i'm going to see my primary care physician this friday who is also banded and i will discuss this with her. burping... ok...so i am finding that burping has become...weird! about half of the time when i burp instead of going out they go in and then i spend the rest of the night expelling this gas from various places or burping outwards all that i burped in several hours later...does this make sense? anyone else experience this? burping outwards is grand! support... my biggest supporter in this journey, my husband, was banded yesterday! i am so happy for him and happy to have him take this journey with me! he has decided to name his band "wife #2"!!! i am thankful for this site and other social media that i use and for all that have commented on anything or reached out in any way! i am on fitbit, mfp, and youtube as phatkatblue please add me if you use any of those outlets...the more support and encouragement the better:) i have also found that getting on these sites encouraging others and reading their stories has been good for me as well... till next week in weight loss and beyond...

Stalls are very frustrating but I don't give them power over me & my healthy decisions. I know we want instant results (myself included) but we didn't get in the situation that lead us to our sleeve journey over night & we will not get out of it over night. Surgery is a wonderful tool to get us to goal but it's not magic. What's worked for me is not obsessing about the scale & the number but rather the way my clothes keep getting smaller & nsv which are also gratifying. Take the time to recognize them & celebrate them. I get on the scale 2xs/wk to check in but when I'm in a stall I just keep doing what I'm doing & eventually it will show on the scale. My focus is always Protein & I think a protein rich diet changes my body shape/inches & the scale WILL catch up. (FYI.. I'm 9 mos out & 100 lbs lighter). Stalls are common.. don't let that deter you or get you down.. keep making healthy decisions & you will be successful in your journey. Best of luck to you!!

So my whole thing this week was I was going to go on a liquid diet before vacation to kind of balance out all the potential crap I'm going to eat next week. Well, yesterday was WONDERFUL! Not! Two protein shakes and a fight with the dbf gave me the worse migraine I had since before my surgery! I was so nauseous I wanted to throw up but I couldn't, ugh. So I took two advil and closed the blinds in my family room. Okay so two protein shakes, a handful of pretzels because I thought it was my blood sugar that was off, then a packet of cream cheese at Dunkin' Donuts because I thought it was STILL my blood sugar! I get home and eat a whole bag of......wait for it......steamed broccoli with pesto (bad!) and mayo (worse!!!!) but I did feel somewhat better. I was pissed too because I didn't get to excercise. So there's kicks in the @$$ parts 1, 2 and 3! I feel like I'm failing, I've been doing so good 30 lbs in 3 months is nothing to sneeze at! But now I feel like I'm sabotaging myself! I hate it! Today started off fine, I had my usual egg white omlette with veggies and cheese lunch was a disaster. I had half of a tuna sandwich with some steak fries. I feel so bad eating those, I suck at this! Stop the sabotage!!!!! At least I know that for dinner I made something healthy and I'm going to a new excercise class tonight with my friend from high school. This class is free for me (tonight) I need to see if I can make it from the train station. If I like it I'll sign up for it. If I don't I think I'm going to sign up at a studio that has Zumba classes 7 days a week and go on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Tomorrow I'm re-doing the week of c25k that I did last week since I missed a run Monday I probably lost a lot of endurance. Okay, so I f***** up today. Now a game plan for tomorrow. Breakfast: egg white omlette NO CHEESE! While I'm there, I'll get my lunch. They have Kashi cereal and milk. I'll have that for lunch and not even have a chance to meet up with the fries again tomorrow. Lunch: Kashi high protein cereal with skim milk. Dinner: Quorn cutlets with pesto and mozzarella. C25k after work. Don't give up!!!! I don't even want to think about getting on the scales Thursday. If I gained I'll do a liquid diet Thursday and Friday just to get some weight off. I think I would've been okay if I didn't have the migraine from hell. It's such an excuse, but every time I get a fill I'm on a liquid diet and I'm fine no headaches or anything! I need all the support I can get today! Buuuuuttt on a nsv kind of note, I was quite proud of myself at the grocery store on Sunday. I was going to get the ingredients for my dinner this week and I wanted something to snack on since I was stressed. I'm not going to lie I grabbed tortilla chips, had a couple of handfuls with salsa and cheese and threw the rest out. Before this, I would've gotten cookies, ice cream, salty crunchy crap, but none of that interested me (I didn't even go into the Easter aisle damn Cadbury eggs!). Also, I packed some healthy snacks in my luggage for my lay over Saturday. I packed a tuna salad to go kit (it's 200 calories) I'm also going to get some Ritz snackerfuls or whatever they're called and some rice crackers. Maybe some candy idk I'm going to see how I do food wise this week. I'm just hoping my next fill is going to get me into the "green zone" I feel like I'm close. The band is definetly still there!

I'm sorry yesterday was such a rough day for you. I sympathize about the migraines, they just throw everything out of kilter. I am glad you are feeling better today though. I had a rough food day the other day too, so I'm feeling your pain there as well. But yay for the nsv, and double yay for realizing that all you have to do is take a deep breath and keep going forward. I know you can do this!

I have been stressed lately because I can't seem to get the scale to move my way. I am scale obsessed and weigh myself multiple times a day hoping praying that it will move. When it goes up I panic and am depressed when it goes down i feel like it's a good day. The fickle piece of metal and gears totally controls my moods. HELP I was banded Nov 30th. My starting weight was 257 and I weigh about 230 right now. My weigh loss has really slowed down since the honeymoon phase. I have 3cc in my band. I get 1cc every month when i see my surgeon. I usually only lose about 2 lbs a month if I'm lucky. I have only lost 8 lbs in the last 3 months and it makes me sad. I work really hard at the gym 5 days a week. I'm usually chugging away on the elliptical for 30 minutes and then I weight train for at least 45 minutes. In addition to that I work with a personal trainer 3x a week for an hour. I'm just so exhausted. I just can't seem to break some of my old habit. I may not be eating much quanity wise but i eat too often. I am a snacker and it's a problem. I graze too much during the day because I am currently unemployed and don't have much to take up my time. Because of all the stress from not being able to work i can't sleep at night and get can't get energy during the day. I feel so lost. But i'm trying to do better. I track my food but it hasn't really helped me to cut back on the calories. Instead it makes me paranoid and guilty when i go over 1200 calories, which I always seem to do. Does anyone else have this problem????????I guess the positive side is that I AM EATING WAY LESS THAN I DID. Just maybe not enough less to speed up weight loss? So anyways I just wanted to rant a little bit cause I'm feeling discouraged. I guess I should focus on my NSV (non scale victories). At the gym I can do dumbell burpies and bench dips a lot easier now that I have lost 5 lbs. I am going to the gym pretty much everyday. I have gone from a 22 size pants to a loose 18. I can wear XL tops at most stores. I don't have blinding back pain when I walk. My stomach doesn't look like it's holding a baby anymore and people no longer ask when I'm expecting. Some people have noticed that I'm losing weight. My jeans aren't tight and I don't have to strain to get the button done. I'm not spilling out of my bra.... well that's all I can think of right now.

Hopeful...those are some great NSV's and ANY weight loss is still a loss...so be proud of that fact.

I have lost 52 pounds and still have about 80lbs left, but the second picture was taken of me this weekend and I actually thought I looked skinny (ish) and wanted to share. Nice to have these NSVs!

Before surgery I was a Zumba addict. I would go four times a week, five if I could find the time. I did try about three weeks ago and I was so exhausted afterwards. So tomorrow I am going in with a different game face on and Itry it again. I also am thinking about trying the "hot" ypga. Seems like it should be fun. I keep wondering how long it will be before I will get my stamina back. I honestly did not expect to have this much down time with my exercise. NSV today- I pulled a pair of jeans out of the back of my closet that I have not been able to wear in almost ten years. LOL! Yes I kept a pair of jeans this long! It felt great to slide into them!

Nice NSV!! but you know you are dead wrong for having those from 10 years ago!! just kidding!

Clothing NSVs are so encouraging! I have a hard time seeing the changes in the mirror so smaller clothing is very tangible proof. I go to put my jeans on and think those will never fit, but they do! Amazes me every time.

That is more than a mini NSV! That is awesome! I love the feeling of a GOOD hug! YAY to more good hugs for the two of you!!!!!

Personally I think the fact that we can hug and actually make contact belly to belly is a pretty big NSV :confused: GRIN

Best. NSV. EVER. Congratulations!!! Best wishes for a great pregnancy, and here's to the healthy little sprout!!

My REALLY clothes don't fit anymore!!! I am down to size 14, the last size in my closet. I really didn't believe I wore that size and put on size 18. My 28 yr old son, who was going w me to go see 'Lincoln' suggested I change my clothes because my baggy clothes made me look frumpy and I should be showing off my weight loss!! I kissed him!

1st = my heart stayed in the perfect fitness zone during my run instead of jumping out of zone (heart rate monitor speak for my heart is working better at high intensity exercise) 2nd = my fitted UA pants fell off while I was running. I'm glad I ran at home in those :-) !!!

I no longer have to take blood pressure medicine!! YAY!!!!!!! I was diagnosed with HBP a couple of months after being banded. Now it's normal!!! I think this is my best one yet!!:clap2:

Congrats Cyndie, I'm right behind you. Had my NSV last Friday night. Had to break down and get a pair of jeans as my size 18 from Lane Bryant were just too big. Went to a consignment shop 1st but no luck. Found a great pair of Seven jeans at Lane Bryant in size 16! I typically have to buy the Right Fit so I don't have to pay a tailor but I broke the bank and went for the Seven jeans as they fit just right. When I get down to a size 14W, I'll put the money out for a tailor to take them in and get more wear out of them. I wore them yesterday and I felt like a million bucks!