so surgery was 24 June 2013 at University of Tennessee. Great experience after two liquid diets. First one abandoned as I had to go home for a family emergency to England an cancel my first operation date. So how do I feel 2 years on.? I have no regrets. I was 247 pounds and 5'5" so pretty big. I was getting sicker and more unhealthy. I stayed at 162 pounds for a short time.. Didn't get any further down. I am currently 175 pounds my body seems happy at that weight however I want to take ten more pounds off. I baked a lot at Christmas and nibbled too much. This gastric sleeve is just a tool so you have to work at it. I have just swapped my treadmill in for a static exercise bike and have finally made myself start exercising. I can eat about 7-10 mouthfuls per meal depending on what it is.. Happily still not much. I don't like admitting that I have a Sweet tooth and I have to constantly remind myself why I did this. I can eat anything at this point fortunately not much. I don't buy much processed food if I want something I try to bake it. Right now I am focussing on salads and beans..my struggle is my 6ft 4 husband can eat anything he had a lapband. He loves junk food so I recently told him he can't eat that stuff in front of me..
For all of you just starting out. Make the most of losing that weight in the first 6 months as it is harder later. But I am not going to beat myself up that I haven't reached 150 pounds that I wanted to be... I am a size 12 and 56 years old.. For me this is realistic. I can runaround and I feel great. I don't feel my age unless I am tired, I love the fact I can choose the clothes I want now, rather than a shapeless floral sack just because it fit me. I realize I am not going to be very skinny and frankly I don't want to be too skinny..as I am, I feel good I did this surgery to be healthy and that's the bonus I got all my lab works done 2 weeks ago and the young doctor she told me I had labs of a 20 year old.. She read everything out and was amazed so I must be doing something right!! I have never had good cholesterol so I left the doctors surgery on cloud 9. No regrets .. And I will continue to work at this for the rest of my life - I wrote a pretty comprehensive blog starting in March 2013 kind of stopped last year.. So am just popping in to say hi and wherever you are in your journey be strong and keep at it as it is well worth it.. So glad I did this.

And for anyone who wrote to me and got no answer forgive the silence I have been busy with life here in the mountains of NC. Heather