How to be three years out
Ok. So we're all three years out now. What the hell? We have gained and lost, made good and bad decisions, felt strong and weak and on and on and on.
What's the issue? The BIG issue is that we have separated from the FIRE of being a fresh post-op's. Remember when we were excited to get on the scale because we KNEW it was going to show a drop? Remember weighing and measuring food? Counting protein grams and avoiding the cardinal sins known as sugar and fat? How about the feeling of being able to shop where we were never able to shop before and know that when we walked into a room, the looks were positive, not negative? The wow moments?
What we did was we SUCCEEDED. Success is a problem. Success means you have found the end of the rainbow after a bunch of work. Success menas that you set a goal and you met it. BUT did we make plans for the day after success? You never planned for that did ya'? We NEVER found that level of success before and planning for the next move after getting to a weight goal was COMPLETELY foreign.
You can do it, even three years out. You can keep the fire stoked. If you don't do it for you, who will? Stop thinking about dieting and start thinking about your diet. Dieting puts you right back to what you struggled with and hated prior to surgery. It's what ruined your metabolism even more than your genes did.
A few years ago I coined the word "Successing". The word allows me to recognize that I have NO intent of finding the end of the rainbow until I am on my deathbed. Successing allows me to keep reaching, expanding my goals. My job is to continue to do what I was told to do three years ago with regard to eating and exercising, mental health improvement and searching for/maintaining support. I couldn't do it on my own before the surgery and that was why I needed it. They laid out the rules and it is my primary job to follow the rules. Without following the rules, I fail. I was a failure in weight management before surgery so why would I think I could handle it on my own now???
Second, my job is to realize that I am not a failure. Poundage gain is not a failure, it is a challenge to figure out what the heck I am doing. Why did I gain it? What do I need to do to lose it? Am I allowing the gain to define me? Am I feeling deprived? If I am feeling deprived, it is NOW my primary job to get more education about that feeling. Weight gain is NOT deprivation. Deprivation was BEFORE surgery when we couldn't buy "normal" clothing, eat without being stared at, see the doctor without getting yet another diagnosis, get up in the morning without our feet hurtingas they hit the floor, hating what we saw in the mirror, feeling less than everyone else simply due to our size and on and on and on ad infinitum. Think about it. Are you deprived? NO. Are you feeling challenged? Probably. Reach out and get support. There are THOUSANDS of us out there and it's your job to connect. No one knows one of us like one of us.
Do it. Get up and do it. You are not deprived, you are challenged into a process of successing.
Love to each of you Three Year Babes!
Shauna
What's the issue? The BIG issue is that we have separated from the FIRE of being a fresh post-op's. Remember when we were excited to get on the scale because we KNEW it was going to show a drop? Remember weighing and measuring food? Counting protein grams and avoiding the cardinal sins known as sugar and fat? How about the feeling of being able to shop where we were never able to shop before and know that when we walked into a room, the looks were positive, not negative? The wow moments?
What we did was we SUCCEEDED. Success is a problem. Success means you have found the end of the rainbow after a bunch of work. Success menas that you set a goal and you met it. BUT did we make plans for the day after success? You never planned for that did ya'? We NEVER found that level of success before and planning for the next move after getting to a weight goal was COMPLETELY foreign.
You can do it, even three years out. You can keep the fire stoked. If you don't do it for you, who will? Stop thinking about dieting and start thinking about your diet. Dieting puts you right back to what you struggled with and hated prior to surgery. It's what ruined your metabolism even more than your genes did.
A few years ago I coined the word "Successing". The word allows me to recognize that I have NO intent of finding the end of the rainbow until I am on my deathbed. Successing allows me to keep reaching, expanding my goals. My job is to continue to do what I was told to do three years ago with regard to eating and exercising, mental health improvement and searching for/maintaining support. I couldn't do it on my own before the surgery and that was why I needed it. They laid out the rules and it is my primary job to follow the rules. Without following the rules, I fail. I was a failure in weight management before surgery so why would I think I could handle it on my own now???
Second, my job is to realize that I am not a failure. Poundage gain is not a failure, it is a challenge to figure out what the heck I am doing. Why did I gain it? What do I need to do to lose it? Am I allowing the gain to define me? Am I feeling deprived? If I am feeling deprived, it is NOW my primary job to get more education about that feeling. Weight gain is NOT deprivation. Deprivation was BEFORE surgery when we couldn't buy "normal" clothing, eat without being stared at, see the doctor without getting yet another diagnosis, get up in the morning without our feet hurtingas they hit the floor, hating what we saw in the mirror, feeling less than everyone else simply due to our size and on and on and on ad infinitum. Think about it. Are you deprived? NO. Are you feeling challenged? Probably. Reach out and get support. There are THOUSANDS of us out there and it's your job to connect. No one knows one of us like one of us.
Do it. Get up and do it. You are not deprived, you are challenged into a process of successing.
Love to each of you Three Year Babes!
Shauna
Shauna,
Thank you. After wiping the tears while reading your post you are right. No one else is going to do it for me but me...
Your post answered my doubts and has given me hope again. From 300 to 148 to 177....and hopefully back down to a weight where I love myself again. I see myself in the mirror and get scared again. Not good...
Thank you so much for taking the time to post...I was touched and enlightened.
Mayra
Thank you. After wiping the tears while reading your post you are right. No one else is going to do it for me but me...
Your post answered my doubts and has given me hope again. From 300 to 148 to 177....and hopefully back down to a weight where I love myself again. I see myself in the mirror and get scared again. Not good...
Thank you so much for taking the time to post...I was touched and enlightened.
Mayra
Most Active
Recent Topics
