Did you ever want a divorce from your sleeve?

For me?  No way.  Granted I am only a year out, but I was so weary of being a prisoner to my ravenous hunger.  I was so weary of eating huge amounts and still being hungry and having room for more.  I was so weary of waking up and trying over again and promising things to myself that I knew I was going to break before long. 

I can still eat amazing amounts of crap if I am being hell bent on self destruction - but - I am thankful that its not near preop amounts.  I havent ever had issues with my sleeve that have made me regret it once, not from the moment I woke up after surgery. 

I really do love my sleeve, and I love the chance it has given me to not break promises to me, over and over again.  While I didnt totally lose my hunger like some others, I am so thankful to not have to fight my biology and white knuckle the rest of my life to be a healthy weight.  I am so glad to be satisfied with some instead of rummaging around for MORE..and conspiring how to get more after nobody was watching, ya know?  Maybe you dont, and that's great for you, but yea - it really has helped me to not be a sneak eater, be obsessed with the leftovers in teh fridge from the restaurant (all night while I was trying to sleep) and just be obsessed about how to get moremoremore.  Ugg.  What a miserable existance that part of my before like was.   On the physical front, I am so thankful to not have back, pain, knee pain, hip pain, feet pain all the time!  I am thankful to sleep thru the night without having to readjust all the pillows so I can find a comfortable spot every time I flip flopped.  My skin isnt the most beautiful in the land, but I will tell you true, for all the unkindness I paid my body, it has not repaid me in unkindness.  I am thankful to be joyfully active and have even noticed that this spring, I am actually out in the heat hot burning up of the middle of the day playing in the yard, planting, pruning, watering, when previously I would be hermetically sealed in the house, always hothothot, sweating, miserable.   I still dont get "cold" like the really thin chicks I know do, but I am much less hot all the freaking time!  How refreshing. What a relief.  Hells to the no about divorcing this sleeve!  I have also had a nice chunk of emotional turmoil in the past year, so have gotten to experience rocky real life without my overstuffing wubbie and havent wished to have my old remnant tum (the Termite Queen, I call her) back for one second. Not one.  not a nanosecond. 

Then, on a PURELY superficial level - have you EVER known what its like to put on an outfit and have it look as cute ON YOU as it did on the hangar?  I have NOT - but now - I do!  I am so thankful to not have buying a pair of pants turn into a self flaggellating sobfest like it used to.  I am so glad to not have to buy the biggest X so that I could just be comfortably covered up.  I mean!!  I have been a 12 and more since I was in 6th grade, as an adult, I lost weight for 3 seconds before I bought my wedding dress and was so crazy uncomfortable in my skin, felt vulnerable and afraid all the time, was afraid I was going to gain it all back and gained weight right back again.   I am SO THANKFUL to know that If I DO gain some weight - I have the secret - all I have to do is resort back to basics (simple, but not easy if you are being some poor choice of food's ***** :}) and I have restriction and use of my tool again.  BAh, just hte knowledge of that helps me to not obsess about the what ifs or the future.  I mean, I have a healthy respect for the what ifs, but not obsessive fear like before.  What a freaking burden off! 

I have wanted to run away from home from most of my relationships at least once, but not with my sleeve baby!!  I will do whatever it takes for that bad boy to stay!  :}  Go to therapy, wear a wig, high heeled shoes, talk dirty, not talk dirty - whatever!

*brown chicken brown cow*

It amazes me sometimes about how we are so alike with some of the eating habits and lifestyle habits. Really surprises me. :) You are like my sleeve sister, literally sometimes...

I, too, have never thought of divorcing my sleeve. I know the bad habits that it's stopped.. I know the pain and the suffering that it has taken out of my life....

There are times when I still have bad habits. Even going through my divorce and all that.... I've been stressed.. I've been unhappy.. i've had issues... and I've ate things like Chex Mix...GrandMa's cookies from the checkout at WAlMart... Hell, today, I'm PMS and I even grabbed one super size peanut butter cup......

The bad habits would come RIGHT BACK with a vengeance if I were to not have my sleeve. It has saved me...

I did NOT like who I was... I wouldn't want that life back at all.......

I don't feel like  a prisoner. I do love having the sleeve. I don't miss big meals where I feel overstuffed. When I'm eating out I am truly satisfied with just having little bits of things. I always envied the women I knew who were thin and just sort of picked at their food - they didn't really care about eating while I couldn't get enough to eat. Now, I'm like them and I love it. In six months there hasn't been one time that I thought "I wish I could have more of this".  My big appetite got me here, and I am thrilled not to be a slave to it anymore.

I do think it is largely due to my attitude going into the surgery. I had just had enough of my previous compulsions. I was ready to change my relationship with food, and the sleeve has helped me do that. I haven't looked back since.

This is my two cents being out 2 weeks 3 days....after surgery I had big time buyers remorse...I told the nurse to bring in a gun and shoot me in the head...because I must be nuts. She laughed and told me everyone feels this way in the beginning. My doctor has assured me that each day it gets better and better ...he even did that two thumbs up gesture with his head nodding and smiling....I wanted to kick him so hard.

Today I am on the mushy stage and I have to say...a 20 pound drop in weight I am delighted....I am in the honeymoon stage with my sleeve...so he and I are not ready for any martial dispute as of yet.

I loved reading the longer sleevers and what they had to say. Also, at my work on Fridays they have huge breakfasts....oh Lordy...when I walked in and saw all that food...it all looked disgusting. I had never been that way before. I would have needed two plates to load up my breakfast. It felt wonderful being in control and not the food being in control of me.

So, as far as your question is concerned...and for my answer today....my sleeve rocks....

what an amazing question.

For me it was the reverse. I wanted to divorce my stomach. I felt it betrayed me. It lied to me all the time and it was a constant pain and irritation to me. I felt a prisoner to my hunger, to my obesity, I was locked out of life.

With the sleeve I can now truly live and I can still eat food, just not as much and with no hunger or irritation.

I am deeply and pashionately in love with my sleeve. We are one now and I will remain loyal to it until the day i die. I will forever be grateful for my sleeve. I will never winge about getting it done for all the freedom it has given me, I will never once think of it like that!

Glad you asked. Helps me look at it with more clarity and gratitude.

Hugs

Chey

Never wanted a divorce. I can say over the past 18 months I have wanted a short separation once in a blue moon though! It is with my favorite food that is good for me BOILED CRAWFISH! However I would say except for the few times a year that I have that feeling it passes just as quick as it comes. Kind of like with my husband, sometimes I want to get him out the house for a night but when it comes down to it I would marry him again. Same with my sleeve I would do it again if I needed to.

That's my favorite food too!
How much of it can you eat now before you're full?

Not sure but maybe a pound????  

NO WAY! I have never had any regret about doing this. Not even in the beginning. Sure, there were moments when I wondered if I would be able to eat anything without being uncomfortable, but that goes away with time as the stomach heals. Now, I pretty much eat whatever/whenever, just a hell of a lot less. I am a few weeks shy of 1 yr since getting sleeved. I made goal this month. I started at 346 and today I am 207.

When people ask if I miss being able to eat "normally" I (to steal a quote I read here a while back) tell them "Nothing taste as good as being skinny feels." So, anytime one of you sleevers feel remorse or sad because you can't eat or drink like you used to, just try a little harder to remember how much more remorse you would have if you didn't have this sleeve to begin with.

Just take a look at my before and after and you will see why I am glad there is no divorcing the sleeve.

There a a couple of good topics on the board this morning.

No, to the divorce of my VSG.  It very occassionally gets frustrating not to be able to turn to my old safety/comforting behavior of gorging myself on everything, but I can still eat anything I want.  It sortof makes me deal with whatever is going on rather than "eat" it away.

My VSG has OPENED doors for me.  I feel better about myself than I have in decades.  I am more confident.  I like myself better-not just physically, but emotionally, too.  It's like some pressure is off and it is okay.  I feel better-more energy to do...stuff!

I retire in 31 months from a fabulous job that will have taken care of my family and me for almost 27 years.  I turned 49 last week and have thought of doing things that were impossible a year ago. 

The VSG was and continues to be the thing dreams are made of for me.  Has my attitude change caused a few problems?...yes.  I no longer cook carb rich meals large enough to feed 6 people ( for the 3 who live here), junk food in the pantry is a thing of the past and Kohl's department store loves me!

I am a "glass half-full" kindof girl.  Most things are what you make of them.  I was at the end of my "dieting" rope and well on my way to having significant health problems.  It was time for a life style change and I could not accompli**** without life-long assistance.  Call me weak for not having the will-power to keep weight off on my own or whatever you want-what I know now is that I have a tool that almost makes it impossible for me to fail if I do just a bit to use it correctly.

My VSG & me-a marriage made it heaven and God Bless it.

Thanks for making this discussion topic, it was good thinking material this morning.Nancy