WOW! You look awesome!! Keep up the good work!

Hey Erika, Well my profile has alot of information in it - feel free to browse through, I update it alot. I'm 18,5"3 and I started at 355 lbs. I had surgery June 14th,2006. I'm 5 weeks out and so far I've lost 24 lbs (I'm one of the slower losers) but I've lost alot in inches. I'm feeling really great, feeling I'm starting to look great and I'm planning on joining a gym! If you have any specific questions - I'll try and answer them, if not I'll try and help the best I can. By the way - it is sooo awesome you live in Alabama, I bet you have a really cool accent lol I live in Montreal,Quebec.

My big thing that I am worried about is the hair. I have thick long hair and I am very attached to it. Is there anyway to tell how much hair is going to be lost.

Hey thanks for the reply! We weren't so much having a private conversation, just not many people responded LOL. You're right - and I found that it isn't possible to go without something sweet. 2 Weeks after surgery I had a bit of D**** cream cake for a birthday and I ate a SLIVER and only the ice cream and a bit of the cookie crumbs - but NOT that icing (its waaay too sweet) but then I had a small piece as a snack for a couple of nights - but only a little bit and only the ice cream and crumbs. I usually took a piece too big (still getting used to the size thing) so then I'd toss i into the sink in shock - me THROW OUT CAKE?! LOL And then one night I had a drumstick - I had a HORRIBLE craving for it. But it made me sick and I don't want one again any time soon. I started to eat a twinkie one day, and I realized I hated the taste of it so I spit it out and threw out the rest of it - another shocker for me!!! And lately I had a few chocolate mint girl guide cookies - a couple here and there, but I usually spit them out because they were gross. Sometimes they made me really feel sick - but it's hard for me to say "NO!" So I'm still trying to get over that. I've got a food diary now - it was supposed to stop me from eating too much, but now that I read over what I wrote down, I'm eating less than I thought - and for times where I was having problems snacking, it was because I hadn't eaten enough for the meals or didn't have enough water. I know this is long and part of this has nothing to do with what we were talking about, but I can't stop typing once I start. LOL

I know that this conversation was between basically you and Cas, but I wanted to add something to the above statement. I too have high goals, but have found that if you completely say no that you have more cravings. Maybe (and at this point it is probably not a good idea at all but maybe in a few months) you can let yourself have one or two M &Ms instead of zero and just sitting there wanting them. I found that I actually didn't really like the same foods that I did before and that sweets (I had a bite of my first sweet this weekend...birthday cake...1 bite) are REALLY sweet, almost too sweet for my liking now. A nice little side effect to the surgery.