Happy 4th fellow July'ers! Long time! :-):-)

Hi everyone, I forgot my password for my former username- MicheleG-- so I had to create a new one. It's been a loooooong time since I've been here. I apologize for abandoning ship, but life happened- I separated from my husband and got a full time 50+ hour week job (as a customer service manager, which I loved) and that took all the extra out of me! My old profile is here http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/members/profile.php?N=G1100365247 with only one picture, but my journey is there. Anyway, how's everybody doing? Living life I'm sure! I'll give you an update as to what's been happening with me and hopefully everyone else will join in! So I had my job for 2 years and I loved it. The job, but not my boss. Finally I got sick of him and quit. A whole lotta stuff happened in between too. My husband and I got back together and are going to marriage counseling to try to make it work. I had my Roux-en-y on July 18, 2005. Highest weight 268, and I got down to 137 in 10 months. Had a lot of issues getting sick. At 10 months out had to have my gall bladder removed, at 1.5 years out had an ulcer that perforated that required immediate surgery to repair. I'm still here. But coping with all this illness and the separation and being a single mother was very difficult for me. I started drinking to cope. Well- excessive drinking and WLS do not mix. I became a chronic alcoholic. Been in and out of treatment programs but I can say today that I finally "got it". I have 37 days sober today and I am grateful for my life. On the weight loss front, I stayed at 155-160 pounds for a long time. That is a good weight for me (I'm 5'7"). But then in October 2007 I quit smoking and got addicted to pretzels. Bad, bad, BAD! I have since gained 30 pounds from the dang things- so my weight is 185 now. The weight charts say that is about normal for a 50 year old chick- but I would like to be back at 160. I hardly eat anything, still dump (thankfully) it's these dang pretzels (which I am eating right now at 6:23 in the morning!!! BAD CARBS!!) My back problems have flared up again. So after this weekend I am going to do the 5 day pouch test and quit the pretzels and get back down to size. I have too many size 8-10 pants in my closet to NOT do it! Been going to the gym a couple of times a week. I'm not working (thankfully I don't have to if I don't want but I'm a better person if I do so I am casually looking) but my days are still pretty full with AA meetings and such. So- that's about enough from me! I want to hear from our former July'ers. Come on everybody, let's see how many lurkers we can get to come out of the closet! I want to know what is going on with everyone!!! Love, Michele

Hi Michele, thanks for checking in and updating us on your continued journey. You and I had our RNY on the same day. Seems like a life time ago instead of 3 years. I too am trying to take off some gained weight but it is so hard. Am finally going to get some of this skin removed at the end of the month, TT and Arms. Scared but excited. I know I won't regret it and it will be worth the process so that is where my head is. Keep up your hard work in AA. You will be so proud of yourself for that hard fought battle. Hope you have a great Summer! Ok, who is next? come out and join in on the 3 year updates everyone!

Hello July'ers I haven't posted in a long time, I usually just lurk. Well life has been very busy I have 3 kids and they are 19, 16, 14 I've been extremely busy with the 14 because she is having her Quicenera this year and I have about 2 wks left to get everything togethor. I never got to my goal weight but do feel great and have been trying to cut out carbs to see if that will get my weight moving again... Nothing major has changed for me, still working like usually and still married..