Prayer Request

Suz you are so awesome!! And you can be less than gentle with the kick!! And thanks for the positive thoughts. And you are right in that I have to try and live letting moderation be the key. I am going to have to stop being afraid to eat those so "bad" foods and learn to try them in moderation. And you are right, we can and will do this! And you "January Lovelies" don't know how much I appreciate you!!

Hey Stephanie. Dont feel so bad. None of us are perfect and we all have days like that. My thing wasnt sweets pre-op...it was bread. I LOVE bread. And I know I could never just not eat it again. So what I do is I still have my bread, but now I eat the whole wheat lite bread. Every once in a while I will splurge and have some "real" bread. Like the yeast rolls my BIL makes at holidays. LOL But I feel like Stacy...if you completely deprive yourself its just like every other diet we have ever tried and failed. You really like sweets, so its not feasible that you will go the rest of your life with no sweets...know what I mean? So my suggestion is find a close second, like areally good protein bar or shake you like and make that your daily sweet treat. Then on occasion if you want a piece of cake, for example, have it! And while youre eating it tell yourself Im eating a piece of cake, but pre-op Id have eat 2 ( or 4, you fill in the #..lol) So Im doing great and I dont feel guilty!! Im a night time eater...bigtime! Used to I could go alkl day and eat nothing but at night id scarf down a sandwich or two, some tomato soup, some chips...you get the idea. I still like to eat at night...surgery didnt change that. But now i dont starve myself all day and when I have my snacks which I usually save for at night, it is something healthy like a protein bar or a string cheese.... One day at a time. Thats all we can do. But we are ALL strong women and will get through this! Mary

Thanks Mary!! And I know it is not realistic to expect to never eat those things again..I was just trying to make it for a year! lol But that did not happen and I am going to work on using the moderation thingy. Thanks also for sharing your personal struggle area..it helps to know I am not alone! ((HUGS))

Steph- Definate prayers coming your way!!!! I think you're about 6 weeks -2 months behind me- that's when my honeymoon ended. I didn't dump either and that is so scary. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get back on track. That seems to be the mindset that works best for me at this point. I agree with Suz- we won't go a lifetime without special treats- so we need to work them in in moderation and that's the tricky part. Holly

Thanks Holly! I am dusting myself off now and ready to get back on track and not to set unrealistic expectations for myself. And yes not dumping stinks!!

Prayers coming your way Steph. It's so hard to resist our trigger foods. I totally understand. Try not to forbid yourself of these foods (chocolate, pasta, whatever is your trigger) and just limit how much you have. Don't be so down on yourself, have you looked in the mirror lately? You look fantastic!!!!! I don't dump either. sigh...

Thanks Janie!And you know my eyes have not caught up with my weight loss yet...I still see me the way I looked pre surgery..how crazy is that? And why don't we dump? I wonder what makes ppl dump and why some do and others don't...oh well....I am starting each day fresh and new!

I don't know, I wish we did dump Steph. IT would help keep us in line, ya know? Tomorrow is a new day, let's all make the most of it. ***HUGS***

Stephanie, To paraphrase Suzanne, I'm not a praying type of girl either lol, but... some encouragement I can do, along with some positive energy. You are NOT crazy, NOT failing, NOT...perfect. We were all food addicts to one degree or another, that's just a given if you look at our pre-surgery size. You have done wonderfully well so far, and you will not just revert to old habits. I read every week how much you love your new self and your new size. But, and it's a big one... we are at a dangerous point, those of us who started out over 300 lbs. The people who had 100 or a little over to lose are approaching their goal weights. We larger folk, unfortunately, are only a little over half way to goal. SUCKS hugely, but true. So you have the psychological triggers of appetite returning, along with food cravings, the knowledge that you, once again, are (in your own head only) far behind our peer group in terms of weight loss (it's soooo easy to forget that we had that much more to lose to start with, because we want to be done too!) and we are all starting to fall back into old "dieting" habits to maintain our loss. I've been thinking about this for a while now... as I and probably most of us who have a long way to go have also been having food issues. Truly, honestly, no BS I thought I was going crazy, doing stupid stuff to undermine the loss and then feeling like a failure and beating myself up... so I talked to a co-worker who is 3 years out from surgery, and looks so great you would never know she had it at all. Here is what she told me, very bluntly too hehe: #1 You have to stop thinking of this as a "diet" ... you also have to stop dieting i.e. no more liquid diets to boost our weight loss ... doing this repeatedly leads to head cravings... and you end up where you are right now. Doing 1 liquid diet as a pre-cursor to starting back at the beginning to lose weight is one thing, using them frequently is another... I was doing that too #2 The head cravings and games never go away... so stop beating yourself up. Just learn to play the games with yourself to win. For example, if you want something bad for you, go out and buy the smallest portion of it you can, take a bite and throw the rest away. #3 More protein than they tell you is actually better ... aim for 100g and 72-80oz of water a day... for life. #4 Weigh yourself often if needed to keep yourself on track. #5 (this one was a biggie for me, hehe, so had to add it) No excuses, get off my butt and exercise. So I'm lazy, deal with it and get on the treadmill (which sits in my living room!) and stop whining. #6 Give yourself a 10 lb (or one clothes size) range of variation, but if you get to the upper end, get off your butt and exercise more and watch your food --- this is once you get to goal. She was about the same size as us to start Steph, and it took her about 15 months to lose all the weight to get to her goal. She looks great, is healthy and follows these rules.. and STILL plays head games with herself about food... so we better learn to adapt Believe me, I'm still fighting this same battle every day, trying to follow her advice, and well, my weight loss is not awesome by any standards, but at least I've stopped thinking I was crazy and needed to immediately find a psychologist to explain why I was sabotaging myself. I'm slowly dropping... and trying to make myself talk more on this forum, which has been hard for me. I was soooo embarrassed to admit any of this. Mostly, we are human hon, and humans hunger. Learning to make the best choice we can in any given moment, well quite honestly that's the best we can do. And we ARE doing it, YOU are doing it... so keep the faith! Sorry for the long post, Michele

Thanks, Michele...these are some things that we probably all needed to hear. It helps all of us when we are able to be truly honest and open with one another. I really appreciate your post. ~Suz