Thought It Was Time For Some Pictures!

[AndyPandy88 12]

Hey Everyone,

So I was sleeved on June 27th. I've been having an extremely easy time with my sleeve. I guess I'm just lucky, especially when I read about some of the problems others had. The worst part for me was just being on full liquids for 3 weeks. Those darn Protein shakes get old after a while. (Although, after I found the Mint Cookie Protein... thanks to this message board, it wasn't nearly as bad. I still have a mint cookie Protein shake for Breakfast everyday!) After I started on real food it was a real breeze for me. I think the other reason I'm having an easy time is because I always have not liked carbs. I hate Pasta, not a huge bread fan, so I'm lucky in that eating Protein rich food has not only been easy, but I enjoy it more. My husband hates it though cuz he's a big Pasta eater, and I'm like "Sorry honey, we can't have pasta! I can't eat it" then i snicker.

I've been fortunate in that I've never stalled. Some weeks I still loose up to 4 lbs a week, the least I've lost in one week is 1.8, so in that regard i'm very lucky! In some ways I wish I would stall, because when your still loosing weight, it's REALLY hard to motivate myself to go to the gym. I'm like "Well I'm still loosing, so why do I need to go!" I'm a full time college student and work full time as well, but I still need to find time to go to the gym.

The sleeve was literally the best thing i've ever done for myself. I'm only 23 years old, but have been overweight since I was 8. I passed the 200 lb mark as A SEVENTH GRADER, and weighed 225 lbs my FRESHMAN YEAR of high school. All throughout high school I weighed between 225-290. After high school I got my first boyfriend and got serious about my weight and through strict diet and exercise I was able to get down to 215 (lost about 75 lbs in 5 months). This literally consisted of me watching everything I put in my mouth, rarely eating out, and going to the gym at least 5 times a week if not more. After college started though, everything went downhill. I no longer had time to go to the gym, and watching what you eat when your so cramped for time is extremely difficult. You rely a lot on to go food and fast food when your constantly on the go to classes. Within 2 years, I was back up to 290 where I started. My weight hovered here for about a year despite trying to diet and exercise. In march of this year one of my co-workers was planning on having the sleeve done and I was like "how can you? Your BMI isn't 40?" And she told me that if you have a BMI of 35 with a co-morbidity, then that counts as well. I had always thought about bariatric surgery, but my BMI always was around 38-39, and I thought it was silly to intentionally gain wait just to have surgery. But this opened up a whole new world of possibilities!

I work at a sleep lab as a sleep technologist, so a co-morbidity was easy to come by as I could just be studied for sleep apnea. So I had a sleep study and sure enough, there it was! Sweet! So I met with the surgeon and busted my butt off to get everything done so I could have my surgery while I was on summer vacation from school. Luckily my insurance didn't require any medical weight loss before surgery, so all I had to do was a psych appointment and then obviously the dietitian appointments. I got it all done in about a month and a half, and by the end of May I had my surgery scheduled. My co-worker who I was talking about above had surgery (the sleeve as well) at the end of May, so I had to wait for her to get back to work for me to leave, so I had my surgery at the end of June. It was SOOOOOOO nice to have someone go through this roughly the same time I did. It was helpful for moral support as well as the typical text messages I sent here like "um i just noticed this, is it normal?" Or "Is it normal to feel like 'WHAT THE HELL HAVE I DONE?'" ha ha. I loved having someone else I knew very well go through this with me. We are now such good friends that her husband calls us "Will and Grace" from the TV show (since i'm gay and she straight, and we are pretty much joined at the hip now.)

Surgery was pretty boring according to my surgeon, I guess that's a good thing. He did say i had one of the BIGGEST stomachs he had ever seen, which makes sense to me. The reason I gained weight wasn't from snacking or grazing, I pretty much never snacked, but when I ate meals, I ATE A LOT. I was pretty sore for the day of surgery and the day after. I ended up staying 2 nights in the hospital because on my swallow test, there wasn't a leak but they said everything in there was super "tight" and not moving very quickly, so they wanted to keep me an extra night to make sure Water and the Clear Liquids I was having were getting through ok. By the time I left the hospital, I felt pretty good. A little sore If I bent over but other than that I was doing good.

Now here we are almost 4 months later, I'm down 73 lbs from my starting weight and still loosing, I'm almost below the 200 mark for the first time since middle school which I'm super excited about. I had a job interview last week and had to go buy new clothes since none of my previous dress clothes fit me. I was able to buy a MEDIUM dress shirt, which was shocking to me, and I was down 6" in my pants size which is AWESOME. I've already had to buy 2 belts because my old ones weren't fitting anymore.

Overall, this was the best thing I ever did for myself and I have absolutely no regrets! I'm an open book so if anyone has any questions, or wants advise about surgery or anything feel free to ask! Now here are some pictures! The first one a picture at the top of the empire state building (me and my now husband got married in New York City at the end of May. I'm the one on the far left). The other one is from the beginning of september, I think my weight at that point was about 220 lbs, so I've lost about another 13 lbs since that picture was taken.

Again if you have any questions, post them here or just PM me if you don't want the whole world to see!

Sorry for the long post as well!

[shastadaisy 20]

how does one AVOID even having the sleep study (when someone already has comorbitiies)

ps - your even more adorable now...congrats on the wedding.

[mwrarr 244]

I didn't have the sleep study. I was initially supposed to have one bc i was waking up dizzy or w/headaches, but then they realized it was bc I had a pulled muscle in the base of my skull.

Congrats!! You look fabulous!! And congrats on your nuptials! :}

347*294/285/135 (*347HW/294SSW) | @Mwrarr | mwrarr.wordpress.com

[jd13 25]

congrates! u look great!

[mistyw 14]

I never had a sleep study. Insurance paid.

[It's all new 453]

Looking good! Congratulations on your success!

[Skyjack1 105]

You look great Congrats

[Sannah 258]

Hey Everyone' date='

So I was sleeved on June 27th. I've been having an extremely easy time with my sleeve. I guess I'm just lucky, especially when I read about some of the problems others had. The worst part for me was just being on full liquids for 3 weeks. Those darn Protein shakes get old after a while. (Although, after I found the Mint Cookie Protein... thanks to this message board, it wasn't nearly as bad. I still have a mint cookie Protein shake for Breakfast everyday!) After I started on real food it was a real breeze for me. I think the other reason I'm having an easy time is because I always have not liked carbs. I hate Pasta, not a huge bread fan, so I'm lucky in that eating protein rich food has not only been easy, but I enjoy it more. My husband hates it though cuz he's a big Pasta eater, and I'm like "Sorry honey, we can't have pasta! I can't eat it" then i snicker.

I've been fortunate in that I've never stalled. Some weeks I still loose up to 4 lbs a week, the least I've lost in one week is 1.8, so in that regard i'm very lucky! In some ways I wish I would stall, because when your still loosing weight, it's REALLY hard to motivate myself to go to the gym. I'm like "Well I'm still loosing, so why do I need to go!" I'm a full time college student and work full time as well, but I still need to find time to go to the gym.

The sleeve was literally the best thing i've ever done for myself. I'm only 23 years old, but have been overweight since I was 8. I passed the 200 lb mark as A SEVENTH GRADER, and weighed 225 lbs my FRESHMAN YEAR of high school. All throughout high school I weighed between 225-290. After high school I got my first boyfriend and got serious about my weight and through strict diet and exercise I was able to get down to 215 (lost about 75 lbs in 5 months). This literally consisted of me watching everything I put in my mouth, rarely eating out, and going to the gym at least 5 times a week if not more. After college started though, everything went downhill. I no longer had time to go to the gym, and watching what you eat when your so cramped for time is extremely difficult. You rely a lot on to go food and fast food when your constantly on the go to classes. Within 2 years, I was back up to 290 where I started. My weight hovered here for about a year despite trying to diet and exercise. In march of this year one of my co-workers was planning on having the sleeve done and I was like "how can you? Your BMI isn't 40?" And she told me that if you have a BMI of 35 with a co-morbidity, then that counts as well. I had always thought about bariatric surgery, but my BMI always was around 38-39, and I thought it was silly to intentionally gain wait just to have surgery. But this opened up a whole new world of possibilities!

I work at a sleep lab as a sleep technologist, so a co-morbidity was easy to come by as I could just be studied for sleep apnea. So I had a sleep study and sure enough, there it was! Sweet! So I met with the surgeon and busted my butt off to get everything done so I could have my surgery while I was on summer vacation from school. Luckily my insurance didn't require any medical weight loss before surgery, so all I had to do was a psych appointment and then obviously the dietitian appointments. I got it all done in about a month and a half, and by the end of May I had my surgery scheduled. My co-worker who I was talking about above had surgery (the sleeve as well) at the end of May, so I had to wait for her to get back to work for me to leave, so I had my surgery at the end of June. It was SOOOOOOO nice to have someone go through this roughly the same time I did. It was helpful for moral support as well as the typical text messages I sent here like "um i just noticed this, is it normal?" Or "Is it normal to feel like 'WHAT THE HELL HAVE I DONE?'" ha ha. I loved having someone else I knew very well go through this with me. We are now such good friends that her husband calls us "Will and Grace" from the TV show (since i'm gay and she straight, and we are pretty much joined at the hip now.)

Surgery was pretty boring according to my surgeon, I guess that's a good thing. He did say i had one of the BIGGEST stomachs he had ever seen, which makes sense to me. The reason I gained weight wasn't from snacking or grazing, I pretty much never snacked, but when I ate meals, I ATE A LOT. I was pretty sore for the day of surgery and the day after. I ended up staying 2 nights in the hospital because on my swallow test, there wasn't a leak but they said everything in there was super "tight" and not moving very quickly, so they wanted to keep me an extra night to make sure Water and the Clear Liquids I was having were getting through ok. By the time I left the hospital, I felt pretty good. A little sore If I bent over but other than that I was doing good.

Now here we are almost 4 months later, I'm down 73 lbs from my starting weight and still loosing, I'm almost below the 200 mark for the first time since middle school which I'm super excited about. I had a job interview last week and had to go buy new clothes since none of my previous dress clothes fit me. I was able to buy a MEDIUM dress shirt, which was shocking to me, and I was down 6" in my pants size which is AWESOME. I've already had to buy 2 belts because my old ones weren't fitting anymore.

Overall, this was the best thing I ever did for myself and I have absolutely no regrets! I'm an open book so if anyone has any questions, or wants advise about surgery or anything feel free to ask! Now here are some pictures! The first one a picture at the top of the empire state building (me and my now husband got married in New York City at the end of May. I'm the one on the far left). The other one is from the beginning of september, I think my weight at that point was about 220 lbs, so I've lost about another 13 lbs since that picture was taken.

Again if you have any questions, post them here or just PM me if you don't want the whole world to see!

Sorry for the long post as well!

[/quote']

Hey!!

Thanks for sharing your story!! What a success you have been!!! I am curious if you can tell me about the mint shake? Is it premade? Do you mix stuff up? I LOVE mint and I am super curious.

Best,

Sannah

Sent from my iPhone using VST

[AndyPandy88 12]

Hey!!

Thanks for sharing your story!! What a success you have been!!! I am curious if you can tell me about the mint shake? Is it premade? Do you mix stuff up? I LOVE mint and I am super curious.

Best,

Sannah

Sent from my iPhone using VST

http://www.amazon.com/Syntrax-Matrix-Mint-Cookie-Powder/dp/B00402T7TO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350883814&sr=8-1&keywords=syntrax+mint+cookie

This is the Protein powder I was talking about. It's made by the same people who make nectar. It litterally tastes like a shamrock shake from McDonalds. I use a cup of milk, couple handfulls of ice, and a scoop of Protein Powder and blend it in my blender, so delicious and has 32g of Protein (if you use milk). I look forward to my daily protein shake... Before I had this I dreaded having to drink another shake. ha ha. It's so delicious.