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I am so very happy that I took the step to get banded! The past couple of weeks have been a bit of a struggle for me because the scale has barely moved - about 1 lb in 2 weeks. But, luckily, just when I was starting to get frustrated I had some awesome NSVs. First of all, I have to explain that I am one of those people who just didn't see myself as looking as fat as I was. When I looked in the mirror I knew I was overweight but the person I saw was not the morbidly obese person who showed up whenever I saw a picture of myself. Last weekend, my family was at a St. Patrick's Day parade and my husband took a picture of my son and I. When I saw the picture later, I just sat and stared at it. This was the first time in many years that I saw the same person in the picture that I see in the mirror each day. This is a HUGE deal for me!!! Then today I went shopping because I was getting tired of having to pull my jeans up every time I take a few steps (I could actually take them off without unbuttoning them). I am now in a size 22 pants (down from an almost unwearbly tight 28) and in a size 18/20 top (down from a 26/28). This is all since I started my pre-op diet on November 18th! While this journey hasn't always been easy, it's these little things that keep me motivated. Even though the scale isn't moving the way I want it to right now, I can see the difference in my body and in my clothes sizes and that just reinforces why I am doing this. I am happier with myself that I have been in years!!!

I hear you Liquid!! Mine is on October 20th!! So much for my docs comment "We may even fill at 3 weeks if you are really hungry and healed well enough!" I figured hey that may get me a fill between 3-6 weeks but 8 weeks!!! OMG!!! and I know I won't be able to go to him between 6-8 weeks due to him being on holiday, could suck up to an associate but I'll see how I go! Well done everyone on the weight loss!! I am not too discouraged as I did start at a lower BMI so I figured I may not lose as quickly after the initial weight loss anyway! Oh and a NSV I just heard. My hairdresser (kate) who coloured my hair also does my sis-in-law and my SIL told me that when she had her hair done last week Kate said she couldn't believe how much weight I'd lost and thought I looked great! :thumbup: Also I've noticed quite a few work collegues giving me that corner of the eye look up and down! I had one girl earlier this week give me it and then comment on how she loved my new hairdo and I said "Thanks and I've been losing weight, got a bit to go but I'm getting there!" and it was an open invitation she was very animated in her reply "You have lost a lot and are looking great!" It cracks me up though watching peoples reactions but weight being such a sensitive thing they don't want to say anything!But I know they notice and it gives me warm fuzzies :smile2:

Way to go Susan!! I know how I felt to finally be able to buy jeans again at Lane Bryant!! I had my own NSV on Saturday - went to a high school rodeo and my boyfriend went to get me some water and I turned to chat with the person sitting next to me and out of the blue I just flopped the ol leg over the other one and actually draped the one on top and not just the ankle resting on the knee. brent came back and asked me what was wrong - I said nothing but was so amazed - It felt awesome..

@@ryan_86 Congratulations on all your hard work! People are just judgmental. Some feel free to comment when your heavy. They will also talk about you after goal. The attention around your weight loss feels a bit uncomfortable right? Even positive attention is an adjustment. I went from invisible to attention. I didn't know how to respond. I had to give myself a compliment scale.( I have no Idea why this helped me) (1) Appropriate- I give a quick thank you and move on. (2) Hilarious - Makes a great NSV story. (3) Creepy - Need I say more. The attention will fade after your weight loss stops. People will accept that this is just you. Keep supportive people around you and ignore the rest.

I am so close to being a Normal Healthy Weight I can almost touch it! Two or Three more days like the last few and I will for sure be there!!! :tongue2:

Just looked at my hands and realized that my "cabbage patch hands" are gone!! You all know what I'm talking about....how the fat in your hands causes those big dimples in your knuckles....i.e, cabbage patch hands! Lol. Not any more!!

Congrats!!!!!!! btw.....what does NSV mean? Carol

Forgot the NSV's that I have had so far... Looser fitting clothing already! I am wearing a T shirt that I bought and wore once 2 1/2 years ago because it shrunk. Now it fits! Fitting into booths at restaurants! I have taken the kids out to eat a few times and I already fit into booths that my gut used to drag on! My knees can already feel the difference!

It is surprising at almost 2 years out how you notice one of these once in a while! Just the other day I was leaving work and the elevator was full, but I hopped on and squeezed into a little spot on the side - and no one moved a bit to allow me to fit!! I would have never even attempted that before, and if I had, they would have subconsciously parted like the red sea to accommodate me. Another thing I notice - and not sure it's an actual victory - is the fact that I am weak now! I can't open heavy doors very well. It usually takes a couple of attempts because I have to really make an effort. I guess I'm still using the same technique I used to use, which would have been use my weight. Now I have to consciously use what's left of my muscle. Another thing like that - I recently went to an "80s Dance Explosion", lol. It was a total NSV that I went, because I wouldn't have even gone before, thinking no one wants to see 300 pounds of fat bouncing around, and besides, I would have been too tired. However, I was shocked that while out on that dance floor, the drunker the other people became the more dense the crowd, I kept getting bumped into, and felt like I was getting thrown all over the dance floor like a limp doll! I was actually afraid of getting knocked over!

LipstickLady... That is so awesome!!! I can't wait for NSV's!!!

You go, what you need is a great NSV!!!Start big and work down. Go to a shop that has woman that can help by judging your size. Best wishes and great shopping! , Karen

Boy that's funny! It's a good NSV, really it is!

That, is a great nsv. Well done, you

Congrats on the successes. For those of you who have slower results, be patient and make sure to get fills regularly to make sure you're in the green zone. I myself was banded April 5 2013 and have lost 80 pounds so far. Lots of NSV's along the way, especially these past few weeks (raiding the back of my closet and finding out that old clothes that I assumed would fit me now, actually are too big!). Lets keep up the hard work and keep moving forward !

Just saw my surgery date ticker and turns out that today, July 19, happens to be 75 days since my surgery on May 6! My highest weight ever was 357 and my weight the day of surgery was 350... today I am 296 meaning I have lost 61 lbs and broke into the 200s! (is that Twoderville, Twonderland, etc ??) At 5'9, my goal weight for now is 200, which means I am 96 lbs away and have achieved 39% of my journey! Now for the NSVs... I have been Instagraming a lot (as many 21 year olds do nowadays)... I hadn't had any pics of myself on my Facebook in years. A restaurant I hadn't been to in awhile has very tight booths - for once I wasn't touching the table at all. I haven't been at this weight since I graduated high school in 2010. My pants really don't fit! They actually were always too big for me (I guess my waist is just naturally smaller) so now it's kind of embarrassing pulling them up all the time so I gotta buy new ones. Have a follow-up appointment on Monday so I am excited to share my progress there and the biggest one coming up... tomorrow is my great-aunt's 100th birthday party where we are first having a pool party - majority of extended family hasn't seen me since Thanksgiving! So much more left but I am so glad I did this... getting my happy back is so important. I don't want to lose focus by being too proud though. Thanks all who have been so supportive and encouraging, especially in my "Miserable inside" thread back in May! ~Mark P.S. Attached one of my Instagram photos so you can see haha.

I know I posted my NSV last night about buying my first dress in like forever, but I just have to post another 'experience'. I am still so new to the thinner me that I need to check it and reinforce the change I've made all the time. It's almost not enough just to see the clothes fit. Heck, I hold them up and wonder how I can possibly fit into them. The other thing I can't get used to is the bus/train seats. For those who take mass transit, you know what I mean. For those who drive, you should know that the seats on the bus or train are notoriously narrow. It's a rare thing to see seven people actually sitting in a row of seven seats. There was a time when I would seek out the empty subway cars just to make sure I had enough space so as not to crush anyone or make them so uncomfortabke that they would get up. Now I'm starting to get used to the idea that I can fit in those seats. Just this morning I got on the PATH train as I always do when I head out to Jersey. It was a crowded center car and there were two men sitting on either side of the empty seat and I politely asked if it was taken. No looks of worry or concern from either of them...that used to happen more than I care to admit. (Again...another reason to look for the empty car or empty city bus). One of them mumbled it wasn't taken and I slid in. I fit fine. Plenty of room. It still moves me, these NSVs and they make me want to cry when I do something that other people just simply take for granted. And I'm not talking about skinny litle girls...I'm talking about normal sized women and men. I am just so thankful to this little tool we have for giving me a new lease on life. Really, I mean it. I do go walking now just like my name says. I made that dream come true. And so many other dreams are coming true as well. I wish all of you success. I hope if you have issues or struggles, you can read positive posts and get yourselves back in the right frame of mind. I hope to see many of you in June. Have a great day everyone.

Hmm. My answer to this is in two parts: A year ago I ran across an old friend of mine from high school/college. We had been really close and had lived together for awhile as roommates. After college, life moved us in different directions and we lost contact. Flash forward a few years and we meet up again rather unexpectedly. After the hugs, and the talk about the 'good old days' and where everybody was it got kinda quiet. I kept looking at her and thinking, "Isn't there more? We used to be best friends and now...what?" It was almost like a stranger wearing the face of a friend. After our meeting was over I felt an emotion that I had never felt before- bittersweet. We had been so much a part of each others lives, that it was strange now to realize that things had changed and that you cannot turn back the clock. That there is no magic button that you can hit and everything POOFS and is fixed. Thus, bittersweet; the yearning for things to be other than what they are, the 'what ifs', to have unfulfilled expectations, even though you are happy in your life. I also think that during this journey our focus turns very inward. The striving to lose weight can become the gold at the end of the rainbow, we obsess over every pound and feel euphoria over every NSV. We experience such strong emotions all around the idea of our weight. Yet even when we reach our goals we still have to get up every morning and live the life that we are living. Becoming a size 6 doesn't mean that our lives are automatically exciting, or dashing, or filled with romance. We do not suddenly have amazing jobs that fill our souls with joy and bring a song to our hearts. The weight loss gives us the physical ability to be able to go find that exciting, romantic life but in the end that final step is up to us. I kind of equate it to the metaphor that we have all been prisoners for a very long time and are suddenly granted freedom. The cage doors are open, the wilderness beckons, yet we stand at the doorway looking out at the sun. We are not used to taking that step into a new life. To throw our self into the unknown with only faith to catch us. Changing the outside can be easier than changing the inside. The prison is gone, but the prisoner mentality is still there. Yet we can learn that all we need to do is take that first step. I don't know if I got any of this right or if I totally misunderstood your post. I'm sorry that you are feeling down and I hope that maybe this helped a little bit. Even if it didn't, know that you do have people thinking of you and wishing you well.

That is wonderful, what an inspiration. I can not wait to be sleeved!!! That is one of the many NSV's that are high on my priority list that I can not wait to experinece. Congrats!!!

Today was 8 weeks since my surgery on March 28. My clothes have been getting extremely too big on me and I realized in a picture that was taken with the family over the weekend that I actually am starting to look sloppy because my clothes are just hanging so I decided to go look for at least one pair pants and maybe a couple of tops that I can wear with a bunch of different things to try to get away with them for a while. ..... So I grabbed a couple pairs of pants and couple tops one size smaller went to the dressing room and much to my surprise I actually needed to go down another size I started out 1st of this year in 4x 30/32 tops and 28/30 3x pants. I am now a 22/24 top and bottom. Can almost get into an 18/20 top. I can't even begin to describe how excited I was, I was almost in tears in the dressing room from excitement. ..... Definitely motivating for me. The scale may not move too much sometimes since surgery even though I am down 33 pounds in eight weeks total 85 pounds since 1st of year, but the inches go down. This has been an amazing journey so far and this has been the best decision I've ever made in my life I still have a long way to go but I'm enjoying every minute of it. Sent from my KFSAWI using the BariatricPal App

Congratulations on all your nsv 's ! Big or small, weird or not, they're all related to your hard work, so give yourself a big pat on the back ! You go girl !

I made another run to Goodwill this weekend because my size 14 were starting to become way too loose. At my local thrift stores, the larger your size the harder it is to find stuff. Getting into size 12s , I had so many clothes to choose from that I got the luxury of being discerning and not just buying some pants because they were my size! And it might have been my wishful thinking, but the smaller size clothing just seemed to all have less wear. Everything I got looked brand new. I spent $30 and got 5 pairs of capris and 4 shirts! I really had to stop myself because as we all know, I might only be in size 12 for a couple of weeks lol

Now, THAT's one of the best Non-scale Victories (NSVs) I've EVER heard of. Congratulations to you, young lady!

Unlike any other. And these little NSVs...they're like small gifts or rewards along the way.

Congrag on your NSV (non scale victory). Take a bow. I'll be so happy to be in the regular sizes also one of these days.

Love the NSV's, I can relate to the bathroom issue. It is amazing how those lost pounds ma like so much easier! {amd cleaner too, lol} Keep up the great work! sleeved 12-19-2011