Search the Community

I had a pretty satisfying NSV last weekend. My wife and I were visiting her sister's family in GA. My brother in-law has not so good naturedly ridden me about my weight since we met 15 years ago. He was bragging about maintaining his 38 inch waistline. I didn't say a thing, but my wife told him "Bryan wears a 36 now". Needless to say, it shut him up. Bryan

Don't let others judge unless they walk in your shoes. I know I am off all my meds! I took 6 pills a day just to eat food and when I had the band I had my hernia repaired. My blood pressure is perfect, those pills are gone. That part is not being a failure but a NSV. Have you taken measurements and seen those numbers change? I use to wear a size 18-20 plus size jeans and now wear a 14 misses. I don't share with anyone but my husband and this site how much I weighed, how much I weigh now or how many pounds I have lost. Enjoy your weekend and don't let others bother you. You will do fine.

Congratulations! That's a great NSV. I'm with you -- pantyhose make me feel very feminine and like I look better in clothes. I should get a pair out and try them on....

Congratulations llewis on your NSV....however, I'm with Wavydaby....I hate pantyhose too. Did the corporate scene for over 30 years and got so sick and tired of pantyhose. The burning inner thighs from them rubbing, the sweating, the stinky feet.....and yes, I bathed on a regular basis....LOL. I hope I never have to do the pantyhose thing again. I wear very dressy formal pant suits when attending functions like Weddings.....they sometimes look like a female version of a tux. Again, congrats.....I'm happy for you. Carol

@@aNewLife14, I'm dying to try Crossfit! My surgery is on May 28th, so it'll be a while until I'm able to work out hard, let alone hold my own in a Crossfit class, but that's definitely a NSV I'm looking forward to! Also, I'm a lot less concerned about losing pounds than I am about wearing smaller clothes and having a low body fat percentage. Here's hoping the sleeve helps me get there!

Congratulations! These are all great SV's And NSV's. You are doing great!

No more queen for me!!! Happy Valentine's Day everybody!

40 mins. at Curves today......my scale was kind to me this morning.... I'm happy to report I've lost 5 #'s since Sept. 4th (when I joined Curves and started taking Trimspa) Bluehill: See, you must be loosing inches for yor Chiropracter to notice your weight loss. Yeah!!! Congratulations on that NSV. Roberta

Today is my 37th b-day and I am in the best shape of my life (very literal statement)! Down 170 lb from my last b-day and @ 17% body fat. DOS: 07/02/2012 SW (5/8/2012): 360 DOSW (7/2/21012): 335 GW (2/27/2013): 180 CW (5/8/2013): 190 Time to live life to the fullest!!!

OMG....got such a laugh! Congrats,Taking! What is nsv?

I love the nsv posts...I officially retired my pre-surgery jeans and a few pairs of sweats even! My winter jacket is too big too. I'm also able to di stairs without huffing and puffing! :-)

Great NSV and you couldn't have made a better choice. The creativity, intelligence and vibrancy are almost overwhelming. The documentary, "Hamilton's America," is equal to it.

So today is the first day I woke up without a weight loss. I know this is super normal but emotionally I just feel like I’m doing something wrong. My clothes fit better- but nothing is too big for me in my closet yet. The second something is too big is going to be the best NSV ever. I’m gonna let myself have a bit of a lazy morning- getting some laundry done then I’ll go walk at the gym and just keep moving forward. One day at a time.

Ok, today I had to stop my husband from walking out of the house....in a pair of my skinny jeans. Bahahahahaha! This would NEVER have happened in my size 22 days. He's like....Ok, I thought they fit weird, but I couldn't figure out why. D'Oh!

Oh my Garsh! He's added Journals! I was just thinking of starting a journal on my 'puter and have been using my NSV thread for journaling...heck, thw whole board...this is TOO COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Did I say how cool this is? Can't wait till the tweaking is done. I'm patient!!! LBT is Da Bomb!!!!

Congratulations!! I often think the improvements to our quality of life far outweigh the victories over the numbers on the scale. You have had some pretty huge NSV with your health it sounds like Thank you for sharing and the inspiration!

AWWWWESOME NSV CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is no guarantee that you won't be one of the few people that can not eat spicy food or bread post surgery. That is a small risk to take vs being obese and all of the potential health issues that can come with it. Look at all of the positive aspects of your life that can happen: better health, living longer, more NSVs than you can shake a stick at, comorbidities that are significantly reduced or go away, etc.. Using straws or drinking carbonated diet beverages is a heated debate. The only time I use a straw is on infrequent occasions when I buy a diet fountain beverage from a convenience store. I do drink diet carbonated beverages without problems. Even my surgeon and his head nurse both think that carbonated diet drinks (when appropriate to drink, post WLS) stretching your sleeve is a myth. But out of fairness, they prefer Water as the beverage of choice. Also, diet sodas can be acidic and may contain caffeine. My hair did thin a little post WLS, but I never had any issues with significant hair loss and don't have a problem now. WLS is only a tool. We need to commit to a lifestyle change to make them very successful.

Today I am 24 month, 2 years post-op. I just went back today to read what I posed a year ago. At that time I was super happy with my weight loss at the time. 4 months later I was not as thrilled with my weight loss. I was fairly miserable and in the middle of a complete identity crisis. Now 8 months later I feel a lot better about everything. At this point I am pretty scared about long term success because there is so little support for long term “successful” WLS patients. If you are regaining or never reached goal that is a lot of support but if you are “successful”, it is mostly a pat on the head and “keep doing what you are doing”. The change from being super morbidly obese to being a “normal” size and under 200 pounds has been very mentally taxing. Like I said there is little support for it. There is little support in the bariatric community because most people never do it and there is virtually no support outside of it because it is a real rarity. I spent a lot of time and money trying to find a therapist that could help and there are basically zero with any experience, so I was left on my own to find my own plan to work it. Which luckily I was able to do. Everyone, even medical professionals (perhaps especially medical professionals) seem to think losing weight solves all your problems and that is really not the case at all. Losing created all kinds of new problems for me that I never even knew existed. Weight at 1 year post-op 231 Weight at 2 years post-op 186 If I was just going by the scale as a measurement, I would be disappointed right now because I have only lost 45 pounds in the past year and I wanted to be down 50 by now. I stopped eating for weight loss about 5 months ago, and while I am not necessarily trying to eat for maintenance, I am not eating to lose either. In that time period I have still managed to lose 10 pounds. The goal right now is to lose another 15 pounds total over the next year, and hopefully lose another 5 pounds before the end of the year. I could lose it faster if I tried but it is better for my mental health to stay weight stable. Physically I am already at a size I like. 8/10 is pretty perfect for my height/frame. I am pretty sure with skin removal I will be a 4/6. I have lost a lot of inches, and more interestingly my body shape has changed and adjusted a lot. I have a 34 band and I don’t even think my band size was that small in HS. I can’t ever recall buying anything with a 34 band, so that a huge shock, NSV for me. Last fall I really wanted skin removal surgery very badly. Now I see that would have been a tremendous mistake. The surgeries I would have picked last year and the results would have been lackluster. I definitely see the advantage of waiting for plastic surgery. Your skin, fat, body distribution changes. The body is amazing thing and watch it repair and rebuild itself is amazing to witness. I always took a lot of pictures of myself. I have never been camera shy even at my heaviest. Now I take multiple pictures a day as a way to become accustomed to how I look. Pictures and my clothing sizes are my size validation. My face is so different now, the shape is totally different. It has gone from round to square, which requires different makeup application and accessories. Inch loss I have lost 65.5 inches total since last year Difference Bust (fullest part of bust): 6 Pecs (just above the bust line): 4 Ribs (top of rib cage just below the bust) : 5.5 Waist: 10 Abdomen: 5 Hips: 8 Right Upper Thigh: 4 Right Lower Thigh: 4 Left Upper Thigh: 4 Left Lower Thigh: 4 Right Calf: 2.5 Left Calf: 2.5 Right Upper Arm: 3 Left Upper Arm: 3 Totals 65.5 I have so many NSV almost daily it is impossible to list them all. I appreciate the wonder and amazement of what I can do now. In some ways I look forward to when this is more normalized but I kind of hope it never is so I don’t forget. I love my new sports car, I worked hard for it, and I look great in it. I would have never been able to fit in it comfortably before or get in and out of easily. My lap dog really enjoys my lap now that I really have one. I can fit anywhere and shop anywhere. My total losses HW 377 SW 358 CW 186 Size 28/30 at Surgery Currently 8/10 Measurements Difference Bust (fullest part of bust): 26 Pecs (just above the bust line): 19 Ribs (top of rib cage just below the bust) : 26.5 Waist: 35.5 Abdomen: 28 Hips: 25 Right Upper Thigh: 12.5 Right Lower Thigh: 13.5 Left Upper Thigh: 12 Left Lower Thigh: 12.5 Right Calf: 4 Left Calf: 4.25 Right Upper Arm: 9 Left Upper Arm: 8.5 Totals 236.25

Hello all, I am going to be sleeved on Tuesday (19th September 2017) and I found myself on this website this evening creating a profile... I suppose I am on here for some support and guidance, but also because I thought it might help center my own thoughts about my journey to 'have to' type it out. Mini therapy, I guess. I also couldn't find - maybe I was being lazy - too many people sharing their journey with my sort of stats, so many I will be helpful to some younger, female patients on the 'light' side of the scale in terms of what to expect etc. We are all in this together! VITAL STATS Age: 26 Height: 159cm or 5'1" Weight: About 86.5kg, or 190lbs - I will verify this and put it on my signature when I am weighed pre-op. Female Location: Australia, home for the operation but I live in London, UK. Surgery + Date: Gastric Sleeve 19/09/17 JOURNEY TO NOW I suppose I always had a bit of a problem with my weight. I have certainly gone through periods in my young adult life where I was slim. The trouble for me, I suppose, is that I have an identical twin sister who has always been slimmer than I have (maybe 5-7kgs) and, as such, I have always subconsciously felt like the 'bigger' twin. My twin is tiny - she is now about 20kgs lighter than me and it really gets me down. She lives in Australia still and I am in London, but imagine living with a 20kg lighter version of yourself! Someone who is exactly like you but 25% less weight. It can be hard, although she is really supportive. I am a really emotionally stable and rational person, but I have self-control issues and I emotionally eat. In the last 2.5 years, I have gone through 2 serious break-ups. The first was with my boyfriend of on-again/off-again 9 years...and the second was with a man I loved possibly more. I turned straight to food and alcohol (which I seldom drank prior) to forget the pain I was feeling and to be able to get on with work. Over this 2-2.5 year period, I have gained about 25kgs. I remember being 62kgs at Christmas 2013, and when I was weighed a month or so ago at the surgeon's office I was 86.6kg. To say I was devastated was an understatement. Although I admit I have self-control issues, I certainly have it within me. I guess I would classify as an 'all or nothing' person; I can easily eat and eat and eat, but when I reallllllly get on a roll with a diet, I am the type to be able to starve myself. This has lead in the past (over 10 years) to yo-yo dieting and I have tried it all; starvation, protein shakes, exercising, duromine/metermine pills...really anything. Sometimes it has worked, sometimes it hasn't. My mother has been overweight my whole life and although she doesn't have diabetes, her mother did. I live in a family of eaters and providers, and I see patterns in my own behaviour that mirror my mother. My mother was a very attractive woman in her youth - she is still attractive now actually - but I do not wish to see the same health and aesthetic issues she has repeated in my own life. I find myself not wanting to go out and socialise because I have nothing to wear; my clothes don't fit and I always tell myself I should lose weight before I buy more...I say no to outings, I hide away and eat. I am embarrassed about my weight - I hear myself telling people that I 'put on weight recently' and over-compensate for it by saying how I used to be slimmer....I go shopping and I don't even bother to look at perfectly normal, lovely clothing because I seem to have subconsciously (or otherwise) decided that I could never wear something like x, y, z. All of this might seem extreme given that I seem to be less overweight relative to some people on this forum - but I am sure these are issues we all share to varying degrees. Also, I am so short and small in frame that my weight is probably largely as evident as others. All in all, I suppose I subconsciously 'decided' I was chubby years ago and have become obese as a result. It is such an unhealthy pattern. GOALS First goal: get under 80kg. Second: get under 70kg. I want to take it as it comes. But, longer term: to be 60kg or under. 55kg would be ideal. 60kg would be great, too. NSV: Throw out all the old clothing I have been wearing to cover up - aka my 'fat' clothes. NSV: Buy size 28 jeans for comfort, like I used to. I am currently in a 32 of the same jean. To be honest it's really hard to write my goals as I have not yet even conceptualised this working! It has been so long since I lost weight and felt good that I can't even remember....perhaps I will work on the goal list later! I'm also gonna post some headless pics....I think that will help me... Anyway, this is a start. I have an appointment on Monday to see the Dr and take bloods...then it's straight to it on Tuesday. Wish me luck!

Huge NSV today!! I got a new job at one of my favorite jewelry stores (yay!!) and the manager said my work wardrobe was too boring. I needed more personality (moi?? Gasp!!). Excuse to go SHOPPING! I usually hate shopping. There are no plus size stores in my town and I usually have to go 45 minutes away to find stylish clothes. I decided to try my luck in the plus size section at target to see if I could find anything that didn't resemble a sack. EVERYTHING THERE WAS TOO BIG ON ME! I ventured to the regular sizes and tried on some really cute stuff in XXL and it all fit!!!!!!! I even got some stuff in XL!! It was the greatest feeling ever! I was in tears! I'm so excited to start dressing for work now. I haven't been able to do this.... Ever! I'm loving my sleeve. I just wanted to share this NSV with everyone

I've met nearly all my NSVs so I'll not bother to post them. I just wanted to comment here that whatever you are looking forward to, know that you can have it all. I've been lucky enough that it's happened to me so I know that it can happen to you all as well. Good luck!

So, it is Africa hot here in NJ. I had a scheduled 5k race I was not going to miss because of a little warm temperature. I ran the Mountain Top 5k, which by its name I should have realize had hills, not matter the fact the race website said it was a nice flat course. It was 94 degrees at 10:30, when the race started, and the humidity was so high, I think I saw fish swimming through the air. I ran the first mile in 8:26 and was feeling pretty good, but I bonked because of the heat and ended up at 32:16. This was only slightly better than my last 5k time of 32:38, but the diference was I noticed I was finishing with people who looked like runners, rather than the casual or first time runners. I ended up 48th out of 104, which made me happy, then when I got home and checked the web I found out I placed 2nd in my age group for men! This euphoria was short-lived, because I found out there were only 3 men in my age group, but placing is placing baby! :tongue2: I waited until 6:50 p.m. to do my long Sunday bike run, for both heat and rest and did 15 miles in 75 minutes. I got home, downed some water, went to the scale, and yep, down 7 pounds for the day. :smile: Of course, this will mostly all come back, but it felt good to see that needle dip. Only a little over a month left until my triathlon, and I can't wait.

Brandy, what an awfully insensitive thing for your mother to say. I'm sorry that you had to endure that after such a wonderfully cathartic day (and I'm thinking it was probably a great NSV for you, too). My mother would probably say something similar, but I do know that in her case, it would be because she doesn't throw a darned thing away and she's from the Depression Era. Even if it doesn't fit or is out of style, it stays because it cost money. Unfortunately I have gotten that packrat mentality and I've got to get control. I hope to be able to do what you did today and clear stuff out. Good for you for doing that.

Thank you for sharing your story. I am very happy for you.. I love your NSV. Best of luck to you, Toyia