I need a little encouragement today.

Hi all, I am in need of a little encouragement. Last week I went home to visit my family for the first time since WLS. For the most part it was a good family visit. I only had one weird incident when my oldest brother asked my why I was eating a candy bar (it was a protein bar.) It felt weird anyway. But I gained 4 lbs!! I know it's not much but it is still scary. I went from 198 to 202. Something about going above the 200 mark again. Anyway, I'm less than a week away from my anniversary date and yesterday I ate and ate. I'm wondering if my head has turned on some kind of sabotage mode. Can anyone relate? I'd appreciate any words of encouragement or advice to get me back on track. Thanks K. Reed 311/202/145

I can so relate. I reached my goal and it seems like all I want to do is eat carbs and drink soda! It is almost like I can accept reaching goal. I have been gaining and losing the same 5 lbs for 3 months now, so I wouldn't worry much about the 4 lbs. It could be water weight. Try to take one meal at a time, one day at a time. We still have the old demons that plague us. As I have said before, they didn't operate on our heads. You are doing awesome! You have lost a small woman. And isn't it great to get her off your back. Take care Alicia

Hey K! Sorry to hear about your family visit- I know my family can trigger a major weight gain even when I DON'T visit!!!! The important thing is that you noticed your gain right away... keep in mind that depending on the time of the month, etc., sometimes some of that can be water retention (or if you were eating saltier foods). So now that you've noticed, just do something about it! Go for a walk instead of snacking... or I've found recently that I'm snacking when I'm thirsty instead of drinking- try to drink more and eat less! You can do this- look how far you've come already!!! Keep your chin up! Lots of love, Dawn

Hang on, K., we all have these discouraging times. I know how depressing it must have been to see the "over 200" numbers on the scale, but we just have to NOT let ourselves sink into that self-defeating thinking and behaving. I know EXACTLY what you mean by knowing that you are sabotaging yourself but feeling powerless! But remember that we are absolutely not victims anymore. We have many years of terrible choices and behaviors to overcome, and it is inevitable that we'll have little setbacks (and this is really a very, very minor setback for you--hopefully a quick one to overcome). I too am at the point that I'm struggling more w/ grazing, even though I'm not eating "junk"! I'm finding that I just eat little bits here & there that I don't need in the least, and before I know it, I've consumed 100's of unnecessary calories. Nothing like what I ate post-op (in quality or quantity), but still not what I should be doing, just eating compulsively. As I'm getting very close to my goal, I too wonder if I'm unconsciously fearing/avoiding that final success. Intellectually, I don't think so, but emotionally, I just don't know. I'm losing very slowly now, just a lb. or so every couple weeks, and it's harder now that I don't have that immediate gratification of fast weight loss! Hopefully, we can remember how far we've come. We KNOW what to do--keep busy, get out of the house (even just go out in the back yard or something brief to occupy our minds!), drink, drink, drink--or whatever has helped us in the past year. I'm pulling for you, as we all are! Jo 295/157/150 -138 lbs.

Everybody, Thanks for the encouragement. It really helped. I have gotten back into drinking my water and doing extra exercise. So far down two of those pounds. I'm also trying to figure out what it is that I was trying to tell myself with the extra eating. I think that my brothers comment made me angry and made me want to rebel. Like "Who are you to question what I eat. I can eat anything I want to thank you very much. After all I have lost all of this weight this past year without your monitoring everything that went in my mouth." Of course it would have been a lot better if I had actually said that instead of eating to prove my point. Oh well, better luck next time. Thanks again, K.