9 Years ago today

Today I celebrate my 9 years since my surgery. Have I been perfect on this journey? No. Have I gained weight? Yes. I reached as high as 211 in January of 2014 but lost down to 187. Do I consider myself to be successful? Yes. As of right now, I have kept off 78lbs of my weight. My weight the day of my surgery was 265 lbs. I continue to struggle with sugar. That is my worst enemy and that is what I pinpoint as the cause of weight gain. Once I began following the rules of the pouch again, the weight began to come off. To the people who still criticize me for my choice, I tell them this: This has been the hardest thing I have ever gone through and there has not been one step in my journey that has been easy. This decision has saved my life. As of today, I celebrated by taking my dogs to the park  for an hour and walked, ran, and played with them. I then came home and did my Focus 25 workout (where I can almost do the non modifier), did 20 minutes on my Eliptical. I feel like I am in the best shape of my life. Compared to 2005, where I had to wear a heart monitor to monitor my heart when I walked because my doctor was afraid I would have a heart attack. I am no longer on 4 different Diabetic Drugs for my Diabetes. I am on one because I allowed that 211 lbs to come back. At 187, my Diabetes is controlled and I run a close to normal A1c. I find it still hard to do this without support but I tell you what, you have to find it in yourself to thrive and find what works for you. If you have gained a lot of weight, don't be embarrassed just use it as a learning experience and don't be afraid to get back on track. I hope this finds everyone doing well!