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We sometimes worried so much about the scale numbers and stalls but have you ever compare your starting sizes clothes with your current ones? This is progress Real progress and the scale numbers mean NOTHING

It's been a while since I have posted. I frequent the forums, but only read the ones that stand out. As of today my weight is 239 pounds. That is 72 pounds since I got sleeved. I can definitely feel my strength returning. I can lift, and carry things. I can go up and down the stairs without a problem. I can do an hour of cardio plus weight training and still go on with my daily routine without having to take a nap. I fell great! I think besides the occasional migraine from my neck tension all is well. I think it is time for me to get that much needed massage. I deserve it! I haven't been as strict with my eating habits as I was in the beginning...I do admit. I definitely still make an effort. Where I lack in effort is preparing my meals and eating every 2-3 hours. I think if I ate every 2-3 hours then my metabolism would speed up. I've upped my carbs to about 100...sometimes 150. It is not necessarily low carb, but I can feel my body needs it when I work out. My workouts are way more productive and I don't feel light headed when I get my calories, protein, and carbs in. I don't really eat bread. I tried it a few times, but I just didn't like how it made me feel and pretty much avoid it now. I love quinoa! It tastes great with some chicken. As far as my hair loss goes...I chopped my hair off. It was annoying me and now it is much less noticeable. It is still falling out, but not so aggressively as it was before. I am not too attached to my hair so it was no big deal to chop it all off. And it is summer so it is much cooler. Some nsv's I don't need a daily nap My feet shrank I can do lots of cardio I don't avoid stairs Last month I only lost 10 pounds...I went on vacation for 2 weeks and didn't work out or eat right. Hopefully I can lose 15 pounds this month

Afternoon all! I'm writing this on a super awesome day: my one-year post op date! This day last year, I weighed 387 pounds and was in recovery after my bypass. This day two years ago, I weighed 450 pounds and saw very little hope of making it past 30. Today I am 207 pounds and perfectly healthy. How times change. I've learned so, so much in the last two years since I started down this road towards health and happiness. Some of the things I learned were tough lessons, some of them were illuminating and freeing, but all of them together have brought me here. "Here" is a place I never in a million years thought I could be. "Here" is an entirely different Abby, an Abby I thought was sort of a childish dream, or maybe a fairy-tale I told myself to comfort myself during the painful years I spent being obese and incredibly unhappy and uncomfortable. I still struggle every day with the person I was, the person I am, and the person I am becoming. I struggle to regain my self-image, and to regain an understanding of who I am outside and inside. I struggle with the social and emotional changes that have happened since my surgery, namely the way that people suddenly treat me like a human being because I am no longer painfully obese. I struggle to forgive the cruelty that I experienced at the hands of so, so many people, including my own family and friends. Including myself. I struggle with food cravings occasionally, and with the gravity of the change my personality and habits have gone through. I struggle with that tiny voice of fear in the back of my mind that tells me I couldn't possibly keep this goodness up. I struggle not to compare myself to others and I struggle to keep clothes on my back as I continue to drop sizes. Every day is a struggle. Every day is also a miracle. I would do this again, and again, and again... forever if I needed to, if it would bring me back here every time. This road has been a little bitter, a lot of sweet, and a wilder ride than I could have possibly imagined or prepared for. And it ain't over yet! From the bottom of my heart, thank you to all of you here who have been a part of this journey with me, whether you realized it or not. Thank you to all the vets who slapped some sense into me and the kind strangers who listened during times when my anxiety was out of control or when I was feeling so bad about myself that I felt hopeless. You all share a little piece of my victory with me. I wouldn't be here without you and the enormous host of other people outside of this site who have supported me and encouraged me and been proud of me the whole way. THANK YOU. I have a life now, and a future that simply did not exist for me two years ago. I am ecstatic to be able to share these pictures and my progress with you all today. I love you all. <3 Cervidae (Abby) Stats! Starting weight: 450 lbs Surgery weight: 387 lbs Current weight: 207 lbs Weight lost since surgery: 180 lbs Overall weight lost: 243 lbs Jean sizes lost: 20 (size 34 to size 14) Waist inches lost: 28 in Hips inches lost: 35 in Neck inches lost: 4 in Shoe size lost: 1.5 sizes

3 years ago today I had the VSG! So much has happened in the last 3 years in regards to my attitudes, abilities and awareness surrounding my body, what I eat, and how I exercise. I will do my best to keep this short! First and foremost, I am one of those people who had a surgical procedure to help me lose weight. And I hit a "low" weight and then, in the space of about 10 months, regained about 20ish pounds. Nothing is more humbling than being a "statistic" in this way. I had always heard that this regularly happens to WLS patients and a part of my brain said "oh that won't be me!" Haha. Lessons learned the hard way are sometimes the ones that stick with us the most. So if any of you have the question "is it possible to regain weight with the sleeve?" ...the answer is YES it is possible. The regain is actually quite easy. You quit tracking your food, you eat a few more calories than you need to, extra "treats" find there way back into your life, and you slack off on the exercising. Losing the extra regain...well notsoeasy. I have lost -12lbs of my regain and will continue to fight until the regain is gone. Here are just a few quick things that are true for ME, personally. 1. We can live on a lot less food than we think we can live on. If you take nothing else away from this post, please remember that statement. During the time that I had regained some weight, I found myself wanting to eat more and the truth of the matter remains that my daily caloric intake needs to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,400 calories or less for me to maintain or lose weight, regardless of how much I exercise. This is completely reasonable, doable and normal for me. And I am finally OK with this. (Yours may be completely different!!) 2. Don't underestimate the importance of exercise!! It's taken me a while to finally push myself out of my comfort zone when it comes to exercise, but I've found out what a really challenging workout does to me mentally and physically and I know when things get to easy that I need to push myself farther. If you have never exercised before in your life, then your goal is to GET UP OFF the couch and DO SOMETHING. And if exercise is not completely foreign to you, then you need to set some goals to push yourself harder. 3. Plastic surgery. I have not had any...yet. I went for an initial consult this past May. It was really hard to see how much damage being morbidly obese has done to my body and how much it would cost to get a nice "perfect" body. I've had a lot of time and space to think about what I learned at that consult and what I realize now, is that I'm not sure I can afford perfection. Or that it necessarily exists. I just know I could put one of my kids through college for what I was quoted for plastics. So I'm currently on the fence and in the mode of trying to be happy with where I am and not worry about chasing a down a body that might not exist for me. 4. I constantly drink Water. I drink (half-caf) coffee (usally 2 cups a day), I rarely drink alcohol and I never drink anything carbonated. I've been carbonation free for over 3 years now. I also rarely use any type of crystal lite, or flavor enhancers etc. Sometimes I drink plain (unsweet) tea. My net loss is somewhere around -90lbs. My husband is also sleeved and did NOT regain any weight. He is 2.5 years post-op and seems to maintain his more modest loss (-70lbs) more effortlessly than I do. He also can eat more calories than I do, so right there are complete differences among sleevers! I just don't think we can ever "give up" ...and there is no "finish" line! There might be a GOAL WEIGHT, but once you are there, it's still a journey to keep the weight off. And for that reason I'm eternally grateful to my VST 'family' for always being here! BEFORE VSG 2010 AFTER VSG 2013 (all of these photos have been taken in the last 2 months) SIDE BY SIDE

I was sleeved at 11:16 AM on May 23, 2014. I lost 5 lbs on Day 3, and have been hovering between 154.8-155.6 for almost a week. I probably need to lay off the scale but there's just that intense feeling of validation when your weight drops- I'm still waiting on that. Even though it's WAY TOO early to be bugging about this, a loss shows I didn't go through this for nothing. Except, I'm following my surgeon's instructions to the letter, and I probably just need to chillax and get through the first few weeks, which I am hoping are the hardest

Hey guys, Its been awhile since I've posted until today, but I wanted to share something with the group that has really helped me. I have been feeling very discouraged with my surgery progress so far. I started at about 192 lbs, and am currently sitting at about 155 (give or take up and down a few lbs). Its REALLY hard for me to get down below this weight (this was my old skinny weight), as I now have to start trying extra hard, and pushing myself to exercise more. I also love my wine. Anyway, I have really been getting down on myself, and today I decided to listen to a support podcast that the company I had VSG through gives to their clients. The entire topic was about how we have all come SO far, but yet we all seem to focus on the negative and how much farther we still have to go. She spoke of patients who had lost 120 lbs, but could only still focus on the extra weight that still had to come off. She then asked us all to think about how we would have felt about ourselves and our current weight situation post VSG when we were pre-op. Could that person who lost 120 lbs have even fathomed that before? Probably not. We, along with our tool have made this our reality, and let's savour it! Even if we do give in once in awhile and have those chips, or the scale doesn't move for a week or so, remember : WE ARE IN THE 1% of people who can actually lose it! I know if you would ahve told pre-VSG me that I would lose nearly 40 lbs, and maintain a steady size 6 I would have jumped for joy. Old me could have got there, but would have promptly balooned up and put the weight back on. I could never have imagined getting to this steady size, even if I still feel like I have another 15 lbs to lose. I went on Facebook today and looked at pics of all my progress: Wow, have I gotten thinner month by month! I tried on clothes that used to be my "skinny clothes". They all fit or were baggy! AMAZING, but yet, I still focus on the negative. I will change this, I will curb it. I urge you all to look back at your incredible progress and revel in our victories- we've come a long way baby!

It’s been a month and I’m finally feeling better. I’m feeling more secure, sleeping better and taking the complements in stride. This week a lot of my co-workers have finally noticed that there is something different. A lot of them think it’s different makeup or hair LOL. I want to say no it’s the 25 lbs. + I lost, but I’m not ready to tell them what I had done. I’m just about ready to officially drop a size because my pants are falling off of me; unfortunately the next size down is still too tight in my tummy. I’m losing in my legs and bottom first. I go in for another fill on Tuesday… I hope I hit my green zone soon.

Havent posted progress in a while. Just past the 11 month mark. Sleeved 12/31/2012 High weight: 303 Surgery weight: 297 First month: - 31lbs Second month: - 11 lbs Third month: - 13 lbs Fourth month: - 10 lbs Fifth month: - 10 lbs Sixth month: - 9 lbs Seventh month: - 4.8 Eighth month: - 8.6 Ninth month: - 6.8 Tenth month: - 4.2 Eleventh month: - 6.2 Current weight: 187.2 Total lost: - 115.2 lbs Average Calories: 1300-1400 per day. actually walked in the store this weekend and bought 32x30 pants and medium shirts... from a 44x30 and XXL

(/wailing) I can't SEE a difference. I just had my husband snap an 8 week picture. I compared it to my 1 week picture, and I just don't see it. I've attached them (sorry the lighting is terrible…) Can YOU tell which is which? I've lost 40 pounds. I'm in 1-2 sizes smaller. My clothes are telling the right story, as are my measurements. I *do* see the difference between now and a picture that was taken of me in July. But I purposely did a photo in the same place as the first one. Nothing. I've decided all I can do is file this, and save it, and take the next photo when it's time. Maybe over a long amount of time I will see the difference. Okay, you may now return to your regularly scheduled programming while I return to my regularly scheduled whining.

Hey guys! It's Sarah again! So I'm 8 days out from surgery and down 15 pounds Here are my stats: Highest Weight - 375 (January 2014) Surgery Weight - 337 Current Weight - 322 THAT'S 53 POUNDS I'VE LOST IN A YEAR!!! I still have 160lbs to go but I feel that it's better to focus on the positive right now and show just how big of a difference -50 pounds is. Here's a before and current pic- I'm so excited! I can see little differences everywhere! My boobs are smaller, my legs are smaller, my waist is smaller, my face is smaller! I'm so proud of myself! AND I lost most of that weight pre-op so wooooo!! So pretty much I just want to encourage others to take a minute and Celebrate how far you've come instead of how far left you have to go. Think positive! Let yourself see the changes. You are awesome!

Hi Everyone - How are you Sept. Sleevers doing? My surgery was Sept. 25. At first I was doing a GREAT job getting all of my Water in, but now that I am back to work I am finding it harder to remember to sip, even though my water bottle is right here with me. Also, as they say, the surgery is on your stomach, not your brain... Prior to surgery I was pretty good at keeping to a good workout schedule. Now I'm struggling with that. I did have multiple pulminary emboli in both lungs 1 week post-op (in spite of 6 short walks every day) and I was required to curtail exercise for awhile, but now I am having a hard time sticking to a schedule. My daughter and I are starting a new exercise plan together tonight! : ) I also have HEAD HUNGER like CRAZY. I called my Dr.s office and said "I AM STARVING!" and the nurse practitioner said "No, you're not". LOL! The GREAT news is that I am losing the weight! I have 6 sizes of clothes in my closet and I have shrunk out of the largest size and my second largest size are getting big! I am curious about other folks triumphs and what other people might be struggling with.

Ok so as of 3/6 according to my nutrionist I am on track with everything. I dont feel that way but she was happy. She wants me to be 218 by my 3 month mark which is 4-14.I am currently 233 was 270. Thats a ways away and only 15 lbs but with the way I get stuck on a weight for over a week at a time kills me. I need to start exercising more but I still have a hole in my side. That prevents alot. I am absolutely horrible at getting my protein in! But I found that the french vanilla protein works well as a cooffe creamer. Plus the coffee masks the protein taste. Oh and I do it in room temp coffee mix it and then add ice. I loooovvveee cold coffee. And caffeine free of course. I was quite pleased. I may try chocolate next week. Make like a mocha. Anywho...Happy losing!

I wanted to FINALLY post a pic. The before picture is a couple days after surgery...probably about 300 pounds. In progress photo is my current picture (on my way to the gym) at 208. I am 5'6" My highest weight was 311 before surgery, but got down to 298 on my 1 week liquid diet for surgery day.