Wake up call

Hello my fellow April post-ops, Let me start by saying how blessed I am to have had this surgery, and that my already wonderful life has improved in ways I never would have imagined! I started my journey last June at 400+ lbs, lost 45 lbs as a preop, and now as a post-op I have now lost a total of 142lbs. I have no complaints! It is what I expected and is exactly as challenging as I had been told. Now, here's the wakeup. This weekend I was eating dinner with my girlfriend. I was being careful to chew, I was eating protein-forward, I had made good food choices, I limited my meal to 30 mins but when I looked at my plate, I had eaten significantly more than I ever have before. My support group had warned me that this is a normal thing to happen sometime between month 5-7. It means my stomach is fully healed, and that all swelling from the surgical process is gone. It also means that it is now MUCH easier to get more calories in since the pouch has reached its healed size. It was quite startling to look at our plates and have eaten as much as she did (Mind you, she wasn't very hungry that day, and comforted me greatly by telling me so). If this happens to you fear not, it's normal. But take heed, the tool is shifting now to the habits we have built. So, this week I have restarted my exercise program in earnest (more cardio in addition to daily walking). I am careful to get in my water, I am monitoring my snacks, I am careful to get in my vitamins, and I am careful about what I am eating. It's almost demotivating to be at goal. . .Please understand my goal that was set was very achieveable by design. We wanted something that I could feel successful at. But now that I have reached it, and am still a size 18/20, and over 250 I just feel in my heart that I could lose more. I'd like my BMI to go from obese to overweight. I know that I shouldn't get freaked out until I go to the body analyst and get reevaluated. . . Anyway, best wishes to all, I hope everyone reading this achieves all their goals, ~Lara

Hi Lara. Every time I read something from one of you friends whom I've never met, I learn some valuable hint to help me keep going. Thanks, Lara. I'm really happy you reached your goal. Congrats! I have been pretty freaked out about the amount I have been able to eat lately, and I was getting concerned that maybe I had broken something! I had my surgery April 27th. Nice to know that this is normal. I too am starting to reign it in and am watching things closely. I'm having an upper endoscopy on Friday, Sept. 3rd, to see how my stomach is healing. Thanks again for sharing. I'm sure your thoughts will help others too. Good luck with your next set of goals. Peg