Yes, family. At four months out (my Mother hasn't seen me in two years) she asked me how much weight I'd lost so far and I said 80 pounds.  She said, hmmm I would have thought it would be more than that.....  So there you go, family.

As shallow as it sounds it is an AWESOME feeling to NOT be the biggest person in the room!

My attitude was always good, but I am a bit more outgoing and probably approachable.

I still scan a room when I enter to compare myself to others, and now find I am not the fattest person in the room anymore.  I also notice that there are alot of bigger people out there and I always think to myself, don't they know that there is an option.

The biggest change is my relationship with food.  I no longer spend alot of time planning meals and cooking, or deciding where to go out and eat.  I basically leave it up to my family and then have what I can.  It leaves alot of free time left.

I, too, am sorry for their response.  I know exactly how you feel.  I had my 6 month checkup with my syrgeon yesterday and  have lost 70 lbs.  The people there were very satisfied and said I was doing great.  I had a body scan for muscle to fat ratios and it wasn't too bad--they were concerned about some muscle loss and upped my protein amount per day.  Otherwise everything was fine.   I lost 21 lbs during that 3 months.  I am up to walking 2 miles a day.  My fat to muscle ratio has dropped 8 points.  

 Amongst all this at the surgeon's office, my husband, when he heard of the amount lost, said "Wow, you have really plateaued--not much loss since last time (in August)".  What a downer.  So in a couple of seconds, I went from feeling really good and optimistic to depressed and hopeless.  That really ticks me off.  That one sentence can make that much difference in how I feel about myself is a sign of just how precarious this whole thing is.

He says that he just forgot the last amount and thought it was 70 lbs in August, so there was no change.  While I believe him (that its an honest mistake),  I am not buying it.  If that's what he thought, he should have shut up.  Just because it was an honest mistake, does not make the let-down go away.  Apparently he can not see the difference.  Anyway, this is going to take some work to get beyond the disappointment, and I hate that.  I don't want to do more work on that kind of stuff.  I have enough problems with diet and exercise--I don't need subterfuge as well. 

So I feel your pain, and perhaps I should have put this in the rants forum.  Thanks for being here.

I'm going to have to give this some thought.  My weight (even at 400+ pounds) never stopped me from doing anything.  Okay, maybe I couldn't go skydiving, or SCUBA diving or some other activity that might have a weight restriction...but those are never things I wanted to do then (or now).  Traveling on an airplane would have been a bit hard, but I rarely travel so that wasn't a big issue.

You mention not feeling sick.  I have lupus, so I usually feel fatigued and have joint pains - weight or no weight.

Then again, I currently use Darvocet for pain management (pre surgery, I used prescription ibuprofen...and I used it several times a week) of the lupus aches and pains.  I have gone weeks without it.

My CPAP machine setting has been reduced 3 notches (from 9 to 6).

My blood pressure meds were stopped 1 month post-surgery. 

I go to the gym minimum 5 days a week.  Okay, so pre-surgery I didn't exercise much and surely didn't belong to a gym...but my weight didn't keep me out of the gym.

Maybe the attitude has changed a little.  I've always had good self-esteem, but now I've been told I "glow".