Two weeks and two days

[WouldYouEva 0]

Hi, I'm Eva. I'm 55, live in Howard County with my college student son and my spoiled kittie, Valentine. I was married for 26.5 years to my best friend and love of my life, not to mention my favorite writer!, but he died on Feb. 11, 2005. My first-born lives nearby with his girlfriend, and I visit them and my "grand kitties" often.

I got my sleeve on June 22, 2011. I had been watching various friends having Roux En Y done and knew that was too drastic for me. I had thought about getting a Lap Band but then my osteoarthritis went into overdrive, and I knew slow weight loss was not for me. What finally got me off the fence was a bad breakup with a guy who took me for thousands of dollars and turned out to have been cheating on me the whole time. I never want to be at the mercy of someone like that ever again.

So, how am I doing 16 days later? I'm OK. I've lost about 19 lbs. My knees hurt like crazy since I stopped my post surgery meds but I can't take my arthritis pain meds, except for Tylenol and Viocoden, which makes me sleepy. I miss my job--I have my dream job getting paid to edit and webmaster for a division of the National Weather Service.

I've lost most of my craving for food but it's been hard getting those 60 grams of Protein per day. I can only drink so many Protein Shakes. As of this week, I'm adding in eggs and cottage cheese, and I seem to be tolerating them well.

I was a skinny kid, so skinny my mother dragged me to the doctor to find out what was wrong with me (also, I had a pica--eating dirt--that freaked her out). He assured her it was a phase and I would outgrow it. And sure enough, come puberty, everything I had eaten for the last 13 years popped out. I always subconsciously thought of myself as that skinny kid who could eat anything (well, not dirt!) and it wouldn't affect me. I'd like to go back to being that skinny kid.

[sunnyd 32]

Hi Eva! Welcome to VST! You will love it here.There are so many people offering fantastic advice and motivating stories! It sounds like you are off to a good start- 19 lbs in 16 days is great! Good luck as you continue on this journey- and getting closer and closer to that "skinny kid" again