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Clothes. What a total and complete change of feels about them for me as well. I hated clothes shopping in the past. Hated buying crap from Casual Male or any other big & tall store.....or bigger & taller. Now....it's so much easier. Any store has my pants or shirts in stock.....whether it's a clothing store, a sporting goods store or even Walmart. The new sizes are much, much cheaper than before, too. Levis, Dockers, Izod, Polo brands but at cheaper prices than I was paying at the no-brand b&t stores. I actually enjoyed the last shopping trip I went on. This may have been the first time in history that I can say this. Unforeseen NSV. You look great !!! It's gotta feel good to wear fitted clothes again and rock 'em like you are. Well done. Nooooooooooooo not the butt.........

These are the fun NSVs! One day at about 6 months post op I noticed I was sitting on the bed with my legs crossed Indian style! I hadn't done that since the birth of my youngest son! He is 34 years old! Last week I had another one! Both hubby and I are morbidly obese. Now I am normal, he is still morbidly obese at 285lbs and 5'10". I used to be heavier than him at 310, same height. Anyway we went out to dinner with my son and granddaughter. They are both normal size. We got a booth, I slid in and told hubby to sit next to me. Normally we sir across from one another. I am so small that he fit in with me and we still had a lot of room! We used to have one kid next to each of us! He was in awe when he saw how much room between me and him and me and the table. He looked at me and said you are so tiny I can hardly believe it! I just looked at him and grinned like a Cheshire Cat. He got the good boy award for the day, making me feel so good!

Exactly one year ago today I got my sleeve. As part of my process of losing weight, I have decided to post my story. Warning, emotional dump below. Thank you to everyone who reads. I am so grateful to BP and to everyone who has the courage to share as I learn and am inspired by your stories – so I decided to post my own. I cannot imagine going through WLS without BP and you all. Figuring out why I got fat – and how to heal myself I have literally spent the past 30 years in different types of therapy trying to figure out why I do not take care of myself, love myself or feel worthy of love. Through the process, I have learned a lot about myself, done some hard work yet was still very overweight (high 421) and struggled daily with basic self-care. I am a social worker and have also spent the past 25 years working in the helping profession, yet I was not helping myself. I am so grateful to be able to say now that I am taking care of myself, really for the first time in my life of 44 years. Thank you WLS. I have been in talk therapy on and off since I was 14 when I tried to kill myself because of nightmares and flashbacks from childhood trauma that scared the hell out of me. I was in a group for sexual abuse survivors for many years because of the sexual abuse from my grandfather - a known sexual perpetrator that my mother moved into our house for free babysitting. I have done focused healing work on my abuse from him and the immense abuse and neglect from my mother. I have done somatic body work and EMDR for trauma, couples therapy with my husband to work through how my trauma and his trauma trigger each other, a formalized emotional eating disorder program for my binge eating (and of course Weight Watchers numerous times, nutrisystem, South Beach, Optifast, you name it) and copious amounts of psychoanalysis, CBT, solution-focused therapy, hypnosis, acupuncture, psychotropic medications, self-reflection and journaling, self-help books etc… And I weighed 421 pounds. Enter my decision to get the sleeve. I had been resistant, buying into the myth that if I tried hard enough, I would figure out how to take care of myself and not overeat. After struggling with enough energy at 421 pounds to run a non-profit, take care of my family and go to school for a masters in social work, I took a year off from school and signed up for the weight loss program at Kaiser. I always heard that in order to take care of others you must take care of yourself, but for some reason I thought I could be the exception. I was finally motivated enough for WLS. A year later I got my sleeve at 385 pounds, and today, exactly one year after my surgery I am at 253 pounds with another 100 to go. I could never be here without WLS and my learning to finally and truly start taking care of myself. I realized that the solution was inside me the whole time – realizing that at my core, I felt I was a bad person and had to show everyone else this by my weight. I was using my weight as a boundary because I couldn’t say no or take care of myself. In addition to WLS, I have started mindfulness training, worked hard on self-compassion (based on Dr. Neff’s work) and letting go of the shame that kept me big (Brene Brown’s work). I still have a long way to go, but today I wanted to honor how far I have come from the scared little girl who was traumatized to the adult I am today who finally is not scared to be healthy and take care of herself. Happy one-year surgiversary to me!

I wanted to share a NSV that I had last night...I attended a pre-conference event at our church and decided that I wanted to take notes...for the first time I think EVER I was able to lay the book on my "lap" and write..then amazingly I did not have to move the book when finished I just left it there and when i needed to write again could...that was an amazing feeling. I am feeling so blessed and thankful!

I have reached a lot of NSV that I never thought about before. Sitting curled up, fitting in the middle seat of the car, comfortably fitting in benches and chairs when out with hubby, crossing legs, sitting with knees to chest, painting toes, wearing "regular" clothes, buying a form fitted dress, wearing heels without feeling like my feet will fall off, Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using the BariatricPal App

@@csawesome - the NSVs are THE best in my book. I love the scale moving, because I am a scale junkie, but I REALLY love the NSVs! Did you measure yourself? A lot do, I didn't, but I do have a pair of shorts that I was wearing that were tight pre-WLS.

Despite my scale going up by three pounds this week, today my regular pants wouldn't stay up. I put on jeans that were too small when I bought them three years ago. From a 26w presurgery to 22 (with a small waist) a little over 2 weeks post op. Embrassing the stall. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

@@trishrnyoung - Stalls are part of the process - expect, them...EMBRACE them...measure yourself, you may be losing inches. The losing inches is a NSV (NON scale Victory) - those are THE best. I am allowed some Miralax, if needed. Keep Water with you all day, in the car, at work, at home (sip, sip, sip). you "got this" Welcome to the family and the losers bench!

This is in "ladies only" but I don't really care if men read/respond to it (though I have no idea why this would interest menfolk) so... just a disclaimer. Ever since I fell in the "morbidly obese" category my periods have been irregular. Usually I could count on my period to come every other month. Each time I got my period it would come with wicked PMS and menstrual cramps that rival labor pain - funny, when I gave birth and reached 8 cm I thought to myself "Huh, this is what my worst menstrual cramps feel like." Just so people know what kind of hell I've lived with each period! I'd have to take 4 Advil and 1 hydrocodone every 4 hours just to manage the pain. If I missed a dose, I'd be curled up on the floor and weeping. And when my cramps woke me in the middle of the night and I had to wait 45 minutes for the medicine to kick in... unbearable. Anyway, after I had my baby my periods blessedly vanished (probably due to breastfeeding for 6 months). Got my first period 9 months postpartum - no PMS, no pain, just blood. Thought I was just lucky. Periods started up every 2-3 months, painless, just blood. I thought I was living the dream. Then I lost 30 pounds and now it seems like my hormones are sorting themselves out again. I am suffering from my monstrous PMS again and feel the volcanic buildup of menstrual cramps. It's normal to see a regularization of menstruation after losing weight, yes? Anyone here go from periods every 2-3 months to going back to a 28 day cycle? I guess this is kind of a back-handed NSV I'm not particularly excited about this one. My uterus is retiring from childbearing so if anyone can recommend BC methods that stop periods and don't cause a surge in appetite I'd appreciate it. I hate having my period!!!

@@imala74 - embrace the stall...search for the link on BP. Remember stalls are going to come and go. Some are longer some are just a few days. STAY OFF THE SCALE! measure yourself, find a piece of clothing from before WLS and try them on...NSVs (non-scale victories) are the BEST! especially when the scale isn't moving. STAY Focused!

all of these posts are excellent NSVs!

Gosh it's been a while! I've been so busy with my new promotion and moving, plus celebrating my 7th wedding anniversary and my husbands birthday this last week. I have an update! Currently I am down to 240.2 which is 50.8 down per my surgeon's chart but 43.4 on my scale the morning of surgery. I use both for checks and balances; I like knowing the difference between the two scales. His goal for me was 50 lbs by our 3 month check up which is the first week of May. At this rate, I will have annihilated that goal!!!!!!! The past week seems to be where I've hit my stride. I didn't work out once but I dropped 5lbs!!! It's crazy! I'm hitting 600 calories everyday and I'm eating Protein first always. I am accustomed to only being able to take two bites of my food before I'm full, and I'm fine with that. This whole process has been amazing and I am super excited about where I'm headed. My husband and I had a marriage blessing at church on our anniversary and I wore a size 14 Alfani dress!!!!! It fit perfectly!! Other NSV's: I am back to my weight from before I got pregnant with my daughter in early 2014, I can wear all my size 16's and 14's comfortably and the 16's are borderline too big, I went out to a bar/lounge to Celebrate my husband's birthday and had not a single drop of alcohol - that's how focused I am, and I feel amazing!!!!! Hopefully I can remember to keep the updates coming! Hoping everyone is doing well!

Since being sleeved last October my dog walks have got longer and longer as I have dropped the pounds and got fitter. I'm loving every minute of my weight loss journey and each NSV which is achieved. Just thought that I would post a couple of pics for all you Americans using this site. These memorials are in the Royal Park, Bushy Park where I walk most days as it is only five minutes walk down the road from where I live. Some of our more elderly residents can remember the day the Yanks came to town and still tell stories of how they brought some cheer to the local kids - mostly in the form of gum and candies, but also in organising activities and film shows for them. So you see, even in this corner of Surrey, there is a place for memories of our American cousins.

What I hope I will achieve with my Sleeve. *taking a bath and when the Water drains out, there won't be a damn of water behind u in the tub *not having to sit in the dinning room chairs without the arms bc you can't fit in the ones with arms *cross my legs in a chair *painting my toe nails without having to use 3 different level props so u can reach your toes. *not sweating between my folds *being able to sleep on my stomach *sit Indian still without having to lean back to u can breathe *tie my shoes without having to prop my foot up to reach my shoe *sleeping without pillows between my thighs so they don't chaff FatKellyRN>soontobe<SleeveKellyRN

Oh and you cannot believe how exciting it is to cut up your Lane Bryant card! When you realize you cannot shop in a plus size store ever again, it is a great NSV!

That is a wonderful NSV, congrats! I think most of us feel this way. There are still times where I walk into Express or banana Republic and I am surprised when the sales girl hands me a small, or even better an extra small. I literally want to hug her everytime, lol. You will eventually begin to feel less fraud-like and more fabulous!

I did over 5 minutes on the elliptical. This may not seem big for many but I had only used the elliptical one other time since I joined the gym and barely made it to 3 minutes. Tonight I decided to give it another try and actually did over 6 minutes. It was much easier this time. So happy! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I had my yearly checkup last week and everything looked good in the office, but I didn't get my labs back til today and I am please to announce I do not have diabetes, high chloresterol, high triglycerides or any of that bad stuff! I could dance for joy! My only "problems" if you can call them that, is that my iron is a little low and my B12 is a lot high. LOL so I have a message in to my NUT and waiting to see what she wants to do with that. But I am soooo excited to not have diabetes because my parents, my living siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, and my grandparents when they were all alive had diabetes and I had gestational diabetes in my last pregnancy, so to walk out today with perfect health and perfect numbers was AMAZING! I am the first one in my family to almost reach 40(still got 9 more months) without having diabetes!!! It was the NSV of all NSV's! This surgery really has made my life better! [emoji4]

I've had some medical issues over the past two months (not surgery/sleeve complications), so I've been preoccupied and not paying close attention to my weight loss. I realized a few days ago that my clothes are falling off. I decided to get a few things at Target, which led to today's NSV: I bought my first non-plus size shirts and dresses! My shopping experience was surreal. I started in Target's extremely inadequate plus-size department, but then I decided to try on the largest misses size (XXL). I started with a striped maxi dress. I couldn't believe it when it actually went over my body. I really couldn't believe it when I didn't want to break the mirror. Sure, I'm still "fluffy," but for the first time in years, I felt like my curves were attractive. This is a EPIC accomplishment for me. Outside of the dressing room, I felt like a fraud, though. I'd already confirmed for myself that I could fit into misses XXL, but I felt like people were judging me for straying outside the plus-size section. I actually felt paranoid that someone was going to walk up to me and suggest I stop looking in the misses section. For years, shopping for clothes has been demoralizing and painful for me. I guess it's going to take some time to get over that history. It seems silly to get so emotional over shopping, but I couldn't help my feelings. How do you feel as you shop for smaller clothes?

I can only fit in normal, knee-high boots when I am under 140. I started at 237 and I had mailman calves- thick, muscled, calves. As I dropped weight, I did a lot of running so I still had big calves, but they were slightly leaner. They still didn't fit into boots. It was only when I dropped beneath 140 that regular boots fit me and I tend to wonder if part of the reason for that is I was doing a lot of walking (recovering from plastics) as opposed to running and the muscle size was reduced. Some of us just have annoyingly thick calves, but at least for me they did eventually drop in size to a point where I can wear boots. As an NSV, this year when Target put all of their boots on clearance, I ended up getting about 8 pair. Part of the reason involved the fact that I was totally stoked that they all fit me, lol.

my wedding rings came back!! Size 11 to an 8!!!

Thats great that you don't need a scale, but it's how I hold myself accountable. And I like those scale victories!!! Every 5 pounds down makes me so happy. But I don't compare myself to others...that just creates unwanted stress! As long as I am equal or less every week I have a huge smile on my face! And don't forget those NSV, fitting into a new size of pants makes me ecstatic too!!! Good luck and enjoy your weight loss!!! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

we need more nsvs yall! my fellow g​amers will ​appreciate this...i made my first average sized avatar in a video game...never had that before! btw, rory mcilroy for xbox one has been great fun.

NSVs have been my motivating force the last few weeks! Here are some of mine: 1. I was able to comfortably cross my legs at church yesterday!!!!! YAY! 2. I was able to wear my wedding rings for the first time in 2 yrs. 3. I actually went to a work out class today at a local gym and didn't die! lol 4. I actually look forward to doing things more physical or being outside whereas before my surgery I would stay on my couch. Celebrating these victories is so important! Congrats to all you!