Arrrrrrgh, I've GAINED!

I hate the holidays. Why does my mom have to cook sooo good? Why couldn't I just say no & resist eating a little bit of this & that? And why have I allowed myself to eat dark chocolate????? I saw 189.9 about 2 weeks ago but now I'm weighing 195 (just got on the scale to check ). Even when I posted on the weigh-in post by GG I was weighing 191 (didn't I post yesterday? Geeeezussss!) and now I'm not even that . Someone tell me this has happened to you and that the pounds went away the day or week after? Advice, I need advice & input. Thanks. Elisa

Aww Elisa it will be ok! I gained 4 pounds a month or so ago. I FREAKED out, but it was gone after only a week or so of behaving myself and no gorging!!! Take a deep breath.........you will drop back to where you were and go PAST it!!! Its ok, I promise!! Get right back on track and you can reel in those run away pounds!! Kisses to you...........!!

Thanks Michelle , I needed to hear that. I do need to start behaving. I have been kinda bad. Like today...I told myself no chocolate covered almonds--and I went and had some. I need to stop doing that. I know...why complain if I'm no****ching what I eat...it's just that before I was able to get away with being a little bad and now it doesn't seem to be that way. Serves me right, huh? Elisa

Dont be so hard on yourself Elisa!! It doesnt serve you right!!! You work hard and will continue to work hard. The important part is, you pick yourself up and try to do better as you move forward!!!

After Christmas I showed a 4+ pound LOSS yet felt physically terrible and guilty about how I ate all day long for like four days surrounding Christmas. I only exercised 2x that week. I JUST KNEW that number couldn't be real - I just couldn't get excited about it at the meeting. But I think because I saw A LOSS after all that bad behavior, I didn't get 'scared' into eating better, and NOT drinking and over carbing it thru New Years Eve. I weighed at 188ish first thing New Years morning - that was almost a 3lb gain over last weigh in. Oh crap. I knew I SHOULD gain, but I didn't WANT to. A sat down and read a bunch of old posts on OH, posts from lifers, from people around the same place, people struggling with the holidays. I think the advice was good to get right back on track, but I wasn't sure HOW. I am on WW but I sure wasn't following my points too well these past two weeks. Like I said, I was eating a lot of not good stuff, and snacking a lot. I never stopped with my fluids, though they probably weren't quite as high [and the whole negative effect of the alcohol] and I never really stopped with my morning protein shake. I was even exercising EVERY DAY after Christmas to counteract the sheer volume of crap I was eating around the clock. I noticed how YUCKY I felt. Not just about the gain, but I was moody, I got the first cold I've had since WLS, I was gassy and lethargic. So more than the scale not saying nice things, I didn't FEEL good - I didn't FEEL like watching my intake - I didn't FEEL like cutting bad carbs [carbs lead to wanting more carbs]. I cried to a friend online because I didn't FEEL good but I didn't know how to make it stop. I started making some resolutions on Friday for the coming 2007. Eat healthy, exercise are my top two. And I put pen to paper and journaled HOW I was going to accomplish these goals. I read and re-read the pouch rules, even wrote them out in my journal for reference. I examined my WW plan. I think the points were helping me see what a normal portion was, however, I could eat all my points in carbs and lots of times did. It is too easy to eat carbs like pretzels and baked potato and bread and just count the points. I was following program, I WAS losing [right up until the week after Christmas where I was down 25 pounds form when I started WW], but I was feeling like a failure. I journaled, examined my emotions and WHY I think I'm feeling this way, and read more profiles and really tried to narrow it down, and for me, it was plain to see it simply comes down to following the pouch rules. The points plan was making it too easy to forget those rules, so on Monday, I switched to the Core plan [which has me counting less - which I love - and only foods from the Core plan list - which is pretty large {no more bread and pretzels but yes to brown rice and sweet potato}. This plan is all about eating in your 'comfort zone' and has you rate yourself on a hunger scale 0=starving to 5=stuffed. Thru journaling every food I ate, and trying to journal the emotions I was feeling when I wanted to eat, and my comfort zone. I found I am eating much less, and it's so much easier to make better choices. I am also really going to shoot for perfect rule following. I broke my morning shake up, it was 2 scoops in 32 ounces - then I'd have lunch, but I'd usually be hungry/thirsty very shortly after lunch and I think I was drinking too soon. Now I make my morning shake only 1 scoop in 32 ounces. I sip that over almost a 2 hour period. Then I lunch with protein and high density veggies. Then I wait an hour and start another 1 scoop 32 ounce shake. I sip on that till it's gone, around dinner time [our dinner time varies, if I fini**** sooner, I go refill more water]. Dinner has been protein, a good starch and more high density veggies. Then after about 1/2 hour I do my treadmill on the highest incline for 40 minutes - making sure I stay in my target heart rate the entire time. After a cool down period I fill up another 32 ounces of water, lemon water or light limeade/water mix and sip that till bedtime. I am VERY used to a late night snack. Tonight I had ff/sf plain yogurt, 2 packs of splenda blended with vanilla and about 1/2 of canned in water apricots, with some Kashi cereal on top for crunch. It was sooo good and was LEGAL. I am also looking into ff cheeses and other high protein Core list items for snack - either that or I will add another scoop of protein to the mix. So, in closing HO-HAHA, I made a plan and am sticking to it. I am eating more protein and it's spread out more evenly thru the day. I am increasing my fluids. I am making exercise part of my daily routine. And guess what? The NEXT DAY I showed a 3 pound loss. Today I weighed in at the meeting 184+ pounds, another half pound down from my last week number [so I lost all the weight I gained over that week after Christmas in about 2.5 days - granted it HAD To be a lot of water, but who cares?]. Better yet, I FEEL GOOD. I feel comfortable following this plan. I feel proud of myself for sticking to the RULES OF THE POUCH. I feel excited about exercise and excited that I CAN lose the rest of my weight, I CAN eat healthy because I've discovered I FEEL BETTER when I do. So that's my advice, eat to feel good not emotionally, but physically feed your body stuff that makes it run well. Pay attention to your body and how you feel if you have this and that and chocolate and getting on the scale every day. Then make a plan and see how you feel when you follow it. I feel like I can guarantee you will physically feel better eating high protein and banishing the bad carbs for a while. And I think the scale will be nice to you, too. First you have to be NICE to YOURSELF. So what's your plan? HTH xosm

GG!!! I was hoping you'd reply. Thanks for taking the time to write about your experience & plan. I really need to sit down and make a plan myself. I really don't have one and to be truthful I don't think I ever did. I had the surgery and thought everything would take care of itself. I would read other posts about how hard later on to lose weight and I just couldn't believe it or probably thought "yeah right...it ain't going to happen to me". Boy, was I wrong. From your post I realize there are a several things I need to do here. 1) READ the POUCH RULES 2) Listen to my body 3) Exercise 4) Stop eating so many carbs 5) Journal and 6) Be nice to myself . Thank you so much. I'm going to start working on these things. Elisa

You don't have to work on them all at once, that seems overwhelming, but I bet if you do one at a time, it will be easy. Really being nice to myself and listening to my body have made it so much easier to stay on track with food [my scale is still moving down]. Good luck, I know you can do it! xosm

GG-I re-read pouch rules too when I am feeling down. It does help a lot for some reason. You are so right about carbs...chips and french fries just go down so easy. Too easy. I've had bad experiences with pure protein too...so my "excuse" is that I have conditioned myself towards these bad carbs...which is a load of crap, because we all know that we have healthy high protein foods besides chicken...lol............ignorance can be bliss....UNTIL YOU SEE A 6 POUND GAIN LIKE I DID...LOL!!!!!

I guess I am really lucky that I don't have any problems with protein. I also managed to get used to my protein supplement. In the beginning I hated it, I just dreaded it, but I've watered it down more and more, and now I'm just used to it. But one of the things I wished that I didn't HATE beans. I can't get past the consistency, let alone the taste, and I know they are so healthy. When I hear people rave about Wendy's chili I want to gag, and I'm jealous too, because I wish there was a convenience food [besides carbs!] that I loved. A six pound gain seems scary, but [skip this if you've heard it before] I remember when I lost 110 pounds on WW before I had my baby, I would regularly [about once every 6 weeks or so] have a gain. I think it was just part of being a woman. I think the 'listen to your body' think has been a really invaluable tool for me. Last night I 'dumped' on plain yogurt over apricots. I WAS NOT hungry, it was not long after my last meal and I knew I was already physically full, but I WANTED it. And it made me sick. I *should* have listened to my body, but I chose not to and I paid the price. Hopefully it will be a lesson learned. You can do it, I'm sure of it. xosm

Hi Elisa! Try not to beat yourself up about it...And rest assured that you are not alone. I am feeling that way as well. I am "stuck" and want to get into the 180's soooo bad and just can't do it. I have tried to be good, continue to stay away from all sugar and try to eat as much protein as I can and still. I think I need to try that plateau buster diet. I know I have seen it on the posts before. I was weighing 191 like you a few days ago and then low and behold I get on the scale this morning and it was 194. I thought, "surely this cannot be possible"...I have been soooo good lately. Maybe we are retaining water. Is it that time of the month? Well, let's just keep on keeping on and we will lose...let's not give up! Well, I just wanted to let you know that I'm with you. Loretta