Hi all not so great not so bad this week ......hanging in there! Start weight 318 Surgery date 8/22/08 Last week 197 lbs This week 196 lbs Loss for this week 1 lb Total loss 123lbs hope to do better this week!!!!! Hugs Pamela

Hey everyone, Well needless to say the last three weeks have been crazy. Everyone in the house has been sick, for some reason, I don't know why, since we moved into this house 2 years ago. It seems as if someone is sick every month and that is no exageration. I recieved a glorious gift for Mothers day, the worst case of the flu I have ever had. My throat is sooooooo sore, when I try to drink something I literally feel as if I am going to choke or I can't breathe. It is so scary. Anyway, I don't weigh myself very often, maybe once a month, and this is because I used to be a scale addict and I refuse to be attached at the hip to this gizzmo any more. I am down 106 since surgery and 108 from my heaviest. I am attaching a picture of me right before surgery and an after picture. This was taken when I was 90 lbs lost so I will have to get a new one. I am now wearing a size 10-12 and size Medium in woman shirts. That more than anything blows me away. At my heaviest I was wearing a 26XXX for plus size woman and I have even gone down in shoe size from a 9.5 to an 8 or 8.5 weird huh. The best thing is that after joining ballys, I was able to purchase some really awesome protien mix. My husband mixed 2 scoops of my mix, with a pure protien bar, milk, and ice. I sip on this through the day and it is a total of 70+ grams of protien a day, however it is between 650 and 700 calories, so I have to be really careful what I eat the rest of the day. I am glad to be back and Love you all dearly, Trish

You said something that really hit home for me. That you hate it that you will gain only 4lbs but it feels like 40. I really saw this in myself over the weekend. Now, its crazy I know but I got weighed at the docs on Thursday night and I was down 3-4 lbs from 2 weeks before when I saw him I have such tremendous fear of gaining weight again that I really believe that is one of the reasons I feel and think like that. Secondly, it is the same mind game I have played my whole life. No matter how much weight I have lost in the past I still ALWAYS felt and looked in the mirror like I am a big fat girl. Something that has changed for me, is this: I have gotten to the point where I truly saw myself as who I really was on the inside. A Healthy thin woman. Not perfect, but really healthy and lean. I just need to work on keeping that image and repeating to myself over and over again that I am that woman and not the fat unhealthy woman I used to be. Thank you for posting some of that, I really needed to hear it. Love Trish

I've still got some clothes but I'm getting rid of more and more of them. The first thing to totally go was underwear. I threw ALL of my old ones out in one day. Everything. Panties, bras, slips, hose..............it all had to go! I'm losing weird. I'm down to a 12-14 in pants and jeans but I still need 16-18 blouses or extra-large and that's WITH a minimizer bra. I'm only a c cup but just still really big through the rib cage and back. I can't find a DRESS to fit to save my life. I look horrible in all of them! And yes, the arms MUST be covered to at least the middle of my upper arms. I think I need an arm lift more than I need a tummy tuck. I keep holding on to my old blouses because I still think they'll fit since I'm wearing such large blouse sizes but women's sizes don't work for me at all any more. They're all too boxy. So I need to let go and get rid of it all but it's hard to believe I won't gain this back. I still don't quite believe it.

Hi everyone! I hope all of you had a WONDERFUL Mother's Day! Highest known weight: 254 Pre-op weight: 221 Today's weight: 151 Total loss: 103 lbs. I gained this week, but I knew I probably would. It's been a stress-filled, messed up, frustrating week and I let my old habits slip back in a bit. BACK TO BASICS and back on track now! I'm doing the 5 day pouch test this week and I'm determined to let last week be an example of what not to do again. No harm, no foul....just a slip. I finally got my grades for the semester-- straight A's! This is semester number two completed towards my goals of straight A's (4.0 grade point average) and earning my degree in Accounting and Business Administration. Have a SUPER week! Brenda