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So it warmed up enough today to get the old motorcycle out today. I haven't had it out since my surgery in October. I'm down 88 pounds. Forgot about all my gear! I looked totally ridiculous in my chaps, couldn't even fasten them! Sent from my SM-N920V using the BariatricPal App

@@Elode, I don’t have any practical advice for you, but I do want to wish you luck and congratulate you on your upcoming procedures! I am so glad you have found a surgeon you like. What a nice NSV to be told by a doctor you can’t lose any more weight! You have worked so hard, and it has been a pleasure having you share every step of the way.

!?!?!?! What happened!?!? Two months after I was sleeved (in 2014), my dear hubby was diagnosed with cancer. It went into remission during his chemo treatments. Yea! But 6 weeks ago we learned that his cancer has come back and more aggressively this time. So his doctors decided (and hubby and I agreed) to treat it aggressively with more powerful chemotherapy. The first chemo treatment a few weeks ago knocked him on his ass -- so much so that he's been in big trouble. His white blood cells / platelets are in the basement -- barely any at all. He really could have died and still isn't out of the woods. Also this week at home, he passed out twice and hit the floor due to not following my instructions about staying seated when I am out of the room. So some of my additional NSVs for the week are that he didn't: (2) get a concussion, (3) have a stroke, (4) have a heart attack, or (5) break a hip. The good news is that he is slowly improving. But he's still weak as a kitten and negotiating hard with me to let him drive by himself. Men! Jesus!

NSVs this week -- * Decided a week ago to kick my new dark chocolate habit -- and haven't had a single bite all week. * Hubby didn't die. Not kidding. Really. * I finally had time to take a shower. (And that's what they call burying the lead.)

I see my toes!!!! I'm three weeks post op. And there I stood butterball naked taking a step onto the scale. And as I peered down to look at my weight it hit me like a train on the green line in Manhattan!!! My toes... OH MY GOD I SEE MY TOES AND I'M NOT HOLDING IN MY STOMACH. ARE THOSE MY TOES?? YES YES THEY ARE! (OK, so more like toenails.. But still!!!) ???????????????????? Sent from my 6045O using the BariatricPal App

I've read so many posts about stalls, I know they're normal and expected and embrace the stall and focus on NSV's and all that. But every time I've had a stall I worry that the weight loss will not pick up again. My understanding is that eventually the weight loss does stop, and my fear is that it will stop before I reach goal, even despite following the plan. So how can you tell if that's happening or if it's just another stall? Any insights would be appreciated, thanks!

First of all, congratulations! What a flurry of goodness you have coming your way! I guess I never rewarded myself for reaching the mini goals. Meeting them was reward enough. I mentally acknowledged them, probably posted it online and moved on. Even reaching my final goal weight was anticlimactic.....I really don't even remember when it happened (the date on my ticker is my best guess). I did, of course, reward my self with new clothes, boots, and even a saddle when I settled into my new size, but these were necessities. My dozens of NSVs served as rewards as well. But I do like the above suggestion of a massage! And I keep saying I'm going to reward myself with a new truck but no one ever "rewards" me with the required $$$$

My NSV is that I just saw a posting on my Facebook reminding everyone that this is the last weekend for GirlScout cookie sales. That means I have made it ALL the way through GS cookie season without buying or even having one! Wow!

Oh and NSV. My surgeon said not to lose any more weight! She said she makes her TT tight so I will be really small in the waist after. Never thought I'd hear that!

NSV= My butt doesn't touch both sides of the bath tub!!! Lol Sent from my SM-G925P using the BariatricPal App

Yes. You are going to gain and lose and stall throughout this entire process. Just get in your protein and fluids, take your vitamins, stay away from carbs, enjoy the NSVs and SOTFS.

NSV - can't get used to them!!!! October 26 Shirt Size 3xxl Pants - very tight! Today - Put on a XL shirt and pants 12 sizes smaller and very loose! I am a strutting around work today like a peacock!

I have both scale and NSV today! 40 pounds down as of this morning. So excited! For NSV... I performed at a show last weekend and for once I didn't hate my pictures. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Haven't seen one started yet, so I thought I'd start one for this week. I have a couple of NSVs this week: Finally got my wedding band and engagement ring resized. They were literally falling off. Now that I've been maintaining for 6 months, I figured I'd go ahead and get them sized to their FINAL size. Ran 7 miles for my half marathon training last weekend. Bought a new FitBit Blaze. It arrives today! What were your NSVs this week?

NSV today. I dropped my dry cleaner off and the nice lady working there asked me. "Do you mind if I ask you something?" Me "no, go ahead " Her "how much weight have you lost? You look great." I thanked her and continued with my day. This is a drive thru dry cleaner , all she can see is my face ????

I hate to sabotage @@betterme38 's "self sabotage" thread. But to answer your question, I was pretty strict. But not perfect. Probably did 95% of what I intended to do every day. Here's a post I made on my first surgiversary, which I posted on another message board: * * * A year ago yesterday I was sleeved at age 68. I knew I had the energy for one last shot at getting healthy. Like so many of us, controlling my weight was the one thing in my life I’d been unable to manage. Failing at that was a tremendous embarrassment and disappointment to me, not to mention the cause of mounting medical comorbidities that had almost sidelined me from life. A year ago I’d already been on this forum for 9 months. I could not WAIT to get my WLS show on the road. I’d already lost almost 20 pounds on a 2-month 1,400 calorie diet of my own and, later, my surgeon’s 14-day pre-op diet. I’d been practicing for months the behaviors I’d learned here—eating slower, chewing more, no more soda, a lot less coffee, no NSAIDs (ouch!), walking more (yea, Fitbit!), and my favorite tool of all—planning meals and tracking my food and drink onwww.myfitnesspal.com. Fast-forward to yesterday morning, my first surgiversary. I weighed in at 143 pounds. I feel great, physically and mentally. I look so much younger (I’ll be 70 years old in December). And I truly feel like I’ve been reborn. The New, Temporary Avatar I’m on the down-low about having had WLS. Basically, only hubby and two friends know about this. But so many online VSG friends want to know what I look like, so enjoy my new avatar while it’s up. It’s coming down soon. Tough titty. BTW, I’ll put up a full-body shot of me later. Again, tough titty. But this morning I didn’t have on “the right outfit” to show off my skinny ass. And hubby’s not here right now to take a good photo of me. How I Lost the Weight I was lucky—had no complications, had a great surgeon and team, healed well and recovered fast, and have had more non-scale victories (NSVs) than you could shake a stick at. I’m full of gratitude and amazement at all of WLS’s benefits for me. Below is a list of things I did (mostly pretty well) that led to my success. As always, your mileage may vary. This was my experience. Yours will be yours. • Ate the minimum amount of protein—at least 60 grams to start with (hit that target on Day Five post-op) • Ate Protein first at every meal • Drank 8 glasses of Water daily (or at the very least 8 glasses of liquids daily) Protip #1: Dehydration slows weight loss and makes you feel like crap. Protip #2: Our kidneys work overtime when we’re losing weight rapidly and need lots of water to function well. Protip #3: You can actually die from dehydration. • As healing happened and restriction eased, added healthy (colored) veggies, then non-starchy fruits, then whole grains • Took my vitamins/minerals and Rxs daily and on schedule • Ate 3 meals a day • Chewed my food well and ate more slowly • Didn’t drink 15 minutes before or 30 minutes after a meal • When I got hungry (not bored), I added one or two Snacks of healthy food • Didn’t graze between meals (note that “a snack” and “grazing” are different things) • Avoided / minimized highly processed, high-carb foods and slider foods like potatoes, white rice, white breads, crackers, Cookies, chips, ice cream Protip: These foods slow weight loss and, for some people, trigger binge eating. • Moved more than I used to move and gradually kept moving even more • Followed the Number One Exercise Rule for Old People: Don’t injure yourself! • Got some sunshine daily, which kept me full of happy thoughts and Vitamin D • Tried to sleep 8 hours a night • Minimized stress—for me, this meant I stopped sweating the small stuff and learned that most stuff really is small stuff • Am seeing a shrink, even though I’m not crazy, to understand better why I couldn’t or didn’t care for my health better prior to WLS and to learn how to do better in the future (as the saying goes, they operate on your stomach, not your head). Unsolicited Advice: I’ve been at or below goal for 4 months now. Here are some things I learned while losing weight and during maintenance (at which I’m still a newbie). Some of these things have surprised me. And as always, your mileage may vary. • Don’t feel pressured into telling the world you’re having WLS. Do what is best for you. Just know that “telling a few people” may not be the best way to keep your WLS private. There are a lot of mouthy people out there. • Don’t overeat, but don’t starve yourself either. As your healing continues, eat more healthy food and raise your calories gradually. Otherwise, you may wind up reaching your weight goal but only able to maintain it eating 1,000 calories/day. Ugh! At 143 pounds, my daily maintenance calorie budget is 1,700 calories/day. I am over the moon about that. I think it’s because I didn’t starve myself while I was losing weight. I ate 800 calories during Months 1-4, 1,000 calories during Months 5-6, and 1,200 calories during Months 7-8. As my calories went up, so did my protein grams. I still aim for 100 grams of protein daily. • Post-op, don’t just eat to lose weight—also eat to become healthier. Learn more about nutrition—macronutrients, trace elements, vitamin and mineral supplements. Read articles and good research. As smart as I thought I was, turns out I didn’t know nearly as much as I needed to know to care well for myself. • If you’re craving sugar, you’re probably already eating sugar. The only way I know to kill those cravings is to cold-turkey the sugar. • Don’t let anyone pressure you into having WLS. This is a life-changing deal. A year down the road you’ll probably be able to eat pretty much anything you want, although not in massive quantities at one time. And you’ll need to always be vigilant about your nutrition, meal-planning, eating behaviors, etc. • WLS won’t prevent binge-eating or emotional eating. It will discourage it, but it won’t prevent it. There are plenty of WLS patients who’ve learned to eat and drink around their tools. I personally know folks who’ve wasted their sleeve, bypass or band with (sigh) sweet tea, Mountain Dew, beer, Wheat Thins, ice cream, chips and dips. What those drinks and foods all have in common, other than being high-calorie and lacking in nutrition, is that the sleeve cannot challenge them. They move rapidly through the sleeve and into the small intestine. You can eat that crap all day long and never start to feel full. Remember, it’s a shame to waste a sleeve. Very, very best wishes to everyone out there considering a VSG or other form of WLS. You can change your life with WLS if you use your tool well. But you must understand it’s only one tool in a bigger healthcare arsenal that you must acquire and use daily. Thang ya. Thang ya verra mudge.

Congrats. What a great NSV! pam

That's the best NSV I've ever read! Extremely encouraging. Thanks so much for sharing. People at the gym can be so challenging however, you handled that situation like a pro! Sent from my SM-G900T using the BariatricPal App

Waaaaaaaa! Just felt like whining....I know it will pass...I'm sticking to the plan....but I'm pouting all the same...was sleeved on 10/26....down 56 pounds....lots of nsvs....but still felt cranky enough to whine. Thank you!

I haven't had surgery yet, but I'm very close and have completed most of the pre-surgery homework... but I just wanted to share a pretty awesome moment I had recently! In my excitement to start my weight loss journey, I've tried to get in much more exercise in, since I'm feeling VERY gung-ho! I'm playing tennis more regularly, I went on a backpacking trip, and I just joined (again) a Cross Fit gym. ....A little backstory: I've gone up and down and up and down with my weight over the last 15+ years, yo-yo dieting and trying every exercise and eating trend in order to fight the obesity disease (sound familiar?) losing 20 or 30 pounds using these diets and workout trends, just to gain them back and more once I slip. And I don't think that people who haven't been overweight understand this, and assume that every challenge can be solved with white-knuckling the problem and often stigmatize and judge tools like weight loss surgery, rather than the traditional "just work out more"... So, anyway, back to me joining this new gym. I really liked the vibe, the trainer was totally not a "bro" trainer, he was very nice and encouraging, and the gym was filled with a variety of body types and ages. MUCH different than the last CF gym I'd gone to! I was excited! But then the trainer told me he was going to do everything in his power to convince me out of surgery (which I'd disclosed to him earlier, privately). It was like there was a spotlight on me and my choices and my weight and my seeming choice to take the "easy way out". And my social anxiety almost had me tucking back into my shell like a turtle. But here's where it gets good. OLD Sarah would have slunk down and maybe even quit the gym out of embarrassment, or worry that I'd be pressured into changing my mind on a very personal decision I've already committed to and gotten excited about and am completely ready for! OLD Sarah wouldn't have said a peep. This time, I spoke up for myself and told him that while I totally hear him, and appreciate the encouragement, I won't be changing my mind, but I WILL be trying my hardest to teach my body how to work harder and do better with his class. And then I asked, "Deal?" Right then and there I cut off the judgement and the opportunity for this (well intending) trainer to think he gets to decide for me what's best for me, instead of me! It doesn't seem like an enormous moment, probably, to most people. But I have such a confidence issue that it was a shining light into my future of even more confidence and I'm really really happy about that. So I thought I'd share it! Have any of you ever had people try and chime into your decision, try to talk you out of it, or make you feel bad for this decision? I've largely kept it pretty private, with the exception of my husband, my boss and a few close friends, because I don't want others to think they can proffer their opinion about it, when it's not their deal, it's mine! Ahhhh! Anyway, that's my pre-op non scale victory!!

@@James Marusek hmmmm maybe i'll try it interesting NSV!! who would have thought!!!! wish me luck kathy

I had an NSV I had to share with you. Yesterday after work I got in the car and realized how much room was between me and the steering wheel. Before I could not turn the wheel around with one hand because my belly would get in the way. There used to be no room between my belly and the steering wheel. Now I have a LOT of room between me and the steering wheel.

There was a tiny spot on a bench seat on the train today. I was able to easily fit my little butt in there. It was easily half the size of any gap I would attempt to sit in pre surgery. Why are my NSVs always about using public transport???

I fit in some capris that were too tight the Saturday before, wore them to church and froze.

As I was rushing to get to work today, it was time to put on my shoes. I didn't see my 24" shoe spoon around to help me put them on. I reached down and slipped my two fingers into the heel and easily slid my foot into the shoe. I could have been doing this for weeks and just didn't realize it! I was sooooo accustomed to using the shoe spoon, I didn't realize my surgery had eliminated another issue. I am more and more grateful EVERY DAY for this second chance at a wonderful life.