Have you missed me?

Well OH Family I have been in hiding.  Before Thanksgiving I made up my mind that I would not gain weight for the holidays.  I did everything by the book and when January came around I not only did not gain but I went to the Dr on Jan 8th (my 2 year anniversary) and posted a big loss.  She was very proud.  I was happy....

It seems like in my mind I crossed the finish line and dropped the ball.  I slowly forgot all the rules and started to gain.  I stopped checking in on OH I stopped posting I stopped exercising.  I stopped caring about me and why I was doing this.  I was allowing myself to eat what ever I wanted because I was so good for the holidays.  I have to report that because of this behavior I gained 8lbs.  What was I thinking.  Well I will tell you.....If I eat this I won't gain back ALL the weight I lost.  If I eat that I won't gain back ALL the weight I lost.  Week after week I allowed myself to hide from you my scale and my band.  I saw that my pants were getting tight and my face was getting fuller.  But I ignored the signs.  January turned to February and February turned to March...But before March turns to April, I am back trying to gain control of myself.  I have to tell you even with the band you can easily gain if you allow yourself to lose yourself.  I refuse to be in the next size up.  I commit the following

1- Track every day

2-Be mindful of what my stomach is telling me

3-Remove trigger foods from my house

4-No more slider foods

5-Eat Breakfast

6-Visit OH and go to support meeting.

Thanks for reading.  And if you feel like encouraging me please do.  All words of wisdom are helpful. xoxo

Butterfly, seems to me like you've got it all figured out!  I'm kinda new, just got my band in January.  2nd fill and THINK I'm doing OK.  I'm up for a third fill on Wed.  May skip it.  I'm so new to this, and I don't have it all together like you seem to have.  I have figured out that it;s still work and good choices must be made.  Gonna go walk my 2 miles before I talk myself out of it.  Congrats on your decision to continue. YOU WILL SUCCEED IF YOU REALLY WANT TO SUCCEED.  I try to remember that for myself.

Oh please don't think i have it all figured out.  That is the last thing I have.  I am such a mess. I am so mad at myself I am sad and depressed.  I wish I could be one of those people who get it right 1/2 the time.  I stumble and fall all the time.  I have a friend who did the surgery 4 months after I did we weight the same when we both had our surgery and now  she is 40lbs less them me.  I know I shouldn't compare myself to other but sometime we do.  I want to cry.  I wrote these things down and a visual to myself now the trick to to keep the promises.  I hope I do.  Thanks again for the response I really need to feel the support from my OH family.

Thank you for posting somthing I was feeling unloved.  I need so OH lovin...lol

You know...I guess most of us WLS or not know the right things to do and eat.  It's just doing it and eating that right way.  We are both gonna get on the losers bench.  I did go and walk my 2 miles.  And I ate a protein rich breakfast.  About to eat a cup of 15 b3ean soup for lunch.  BTW are you a Bishon fan.  I have a rescue.  Love her!

Mine is a rescue too.  They are so lovable.  I have her 3 years rescued her at 10 years old.

I'm a newbie too.  I'm only 3 weeks out and haven't even had a fill yet.  I fantasize about being as successful as you have been.  You have done so much work already...YOU CAN FINISH THIS JOB!  Best of luck.

You are not alone!  In fact, I believe it's quite normal to struggle when you reach the one year and/or a 100 lb loss. 

I call it losing momentum, but I've been around long enough, (and experienced this myself), to know that there's something about reaching those mile-stones that cause many of us to stop losing weight. 

Personally, I call that time for me my big Mental Sigh.  It wasn't conscious at all, but after my first year and losing 100+ lbs I started eating like I was on maintenence rather than in losing mode.  I started adding back into my diet foods I didn't eat for the first 9 month post op and I stopped measuring portions.  I also started some maladaptive eating behaviors like eating a lot of soft foods, soups, chili's and sliders to avoid having to eat using bandster rules.  I didn't lose any weight for a year.  I'd gain a few and lose a few, back and forth, back and forth, all the while frustrated because I still had 35 lbs I wanted to lose.

That went on for a year and then the holidays' came and I willfully started eating cookies, cakes and lots of other sugary foods.  I gained 16 lbs from where I was which was already 6 lbs over my lowest post surgery weight.  I was simply out of control.

I tried a lot of things and made a lot of promises to my self, but it was only this past January that I finally realized that I needed to find my next meaningful goal, tap into my next great passion, in order to get my compulsive eating back under control.  See, once people started getting used to the thinner me, I wasn't getting the verbal recognition.  I wasn't getting the big drops of weight on the scale to motivate me and I was basically uninspired and floundering trying to keep focused on getting to goal.  Therapy helped me identify what was missing and since that time I've done a lot of thinking about what I am most passionate about.  If you get Jean M.'s newletter there was a great article written by Tom about this very subject.  It was very inspiring.

Anyway, what I decided is that I needed to mix up my food program.  I had burned out on so many foods I ate often during my post op days that I needed a change but a focus still on healthy eating.  I joined WW.  I like the weekly accountability with the scale and I love their new tracking system and website.  So far I've lost 12.2 of the 16 lbs I gained during the holidays and will soon be working on the other 6 lbs I had gained from my lowest post op weight.  It's not a magic cure and I'm not specifically endorsing WW, but I was ready and it's working for me.

I'm so glad you're back!  You've been a dedicated contributor to this forum and your story is important to all of us.  

We are here for you during the highs and lows of this journey so no more hiding, o.k.?

Welcome back!

Lisa O. 

Lisa thank you so much for your candid reply.  You made me cry and feel inspired.  I promise to be here more often and do what is required of me to succeed.  Thank again.

I think we've all been there, but you have your plan all set so you'll get back on track. It's so much easier to slip back to the old habits than to work on the new ones. Just keep at it, practice practice!