depressed

Most of you don't know me, but I got my band 4 years ago and did realy well,I lost 87 pounds, then something happened and I have gained most of it back, I believe right now I am down only 30 pounds. I have been having problems with my health which has slowed me down from my exercise. But I am starting to feel better and can now do some physical things. I think my restriction is ok,because I really can't eat a lot, it is my choices. I need a buddy that can help keep me on track. Is there anyone out there that want to help me keep on track. I don't want someone to yell at me, just someone to help me keep encouraged until I get back on track.

You can do this, you did it before! I highly reccomend you start excersising, just do what you can do and graddually increase the duration/intensity. I found a low fat/ low carb/ high protein works wonders for weight loss. Lots of lean meat and veggies. I snack on nuts (1/4 c) and low fat cheese. Feel free to send me a personal message. Best wishes!

Thank yu so much, you're right I CAN do this.

You will get lots of support here on the board. Go back to the bascis, follow the rules, dense lean protein, exercise and drink plenty of water. It works, you just have to be kind and patient with yourself. You will succeed!!! I know you can!!

Embrace the journey!

Thank you so much! I am going to try to be on the board way more often!

I understand how you are feeling. I have chronic pain problems that worsened late fall and until April and have only lessened since, not gone away. It was nearly impossible to walk all winter and even seated exercises were excruciating. Being cooped up led to some crappy eating. (Oh and I had an unfill of over 2cc late Dec. and only got another fill last week. My point? You need to give yourself credit for ONLY gaining back 49% of your weight. That means you have held your course to the tune of 51%! Congratulations! When you look at it differently you can begin to see how well you have done. Beating yourself up will not get you anywhere but down. I have been a past master of this and fall back into it easily. I did just this week, looking at some pictures. Some were at my too low weight yet I see this huge belly, even more enormous now that I am up 7 pounds. (I gain first in my belly and just a very few pounds make a huge difference going up but going down it doesn't). Then I realized that a) my goal was to get healthy. I did that. b) get to a normal BMI. I did that and am only a bit off, yet. Over all my quality of life is much better so what am I whining about? Before surgery I would have picked up 25 pounds in the same amount of time. Do you see what I mean about the way you look at it?

You also need to forgive yourself for not being perfect. This is super important. Do it out loud. Perfection is not realistic and will also harm you. You are human. You have a chronic disease; obesity. It does not get cured with losing our weight or having wls. It can be put into remission but the fat lady inside will always be with you.

I would not start with a major overhaul. It is often too much. I would suggest that you start small, like getting in all your fluids and journeling your eating on an online site like sparkspeople or myfatsecret, which is the one I use. Then concentrate on eating dense protein and veggies. If you need to eat some of the things you consider "bad" then clean up one thing at a time. Whether you start with the thing that is most troubling to you or the one that is easiest, The point is that you don't have to do it all at once. We tend to be "all or nothing" people but that only encourages failure.

Good luck to you. As Swoosh says, "Just keep on swimming".
Sue

PM me if I can be of any help.

Sue-
Thank you so much for pointing out somthing that I have never consideed. Obesity IS a cronic disease, it doesn't get cured, only goes into remission....When I think about it that was, it seems different. It is somthing that I will always have to deal with. I will have to keep an eye on it and never let it take over me again. Thank you so much for that insight!

Hi Robin,
I remember you!  Good to see you and I'm sorry to hear about your health problems, but glad to hear that you are starting to feel better. 

I understand how it feels to gain back weight, I did this years ago before I had the band.  I lost 125 pounds with WW.  I didn't have health problems, just maintained for about a day and then started the process of gaining it all back and more.  What an awful thing to go through, but I learned from it.

Wherever you are at on the scale now would look great if you continued to gain, so just "start over" now and make small behavior goals that will get you moving forward again.  Don't try it all at once.  Simple goals would help like : just for today I will journal all of my food  or I will walk 5 minutes today or x amount more than I have been doing.  etc etc.  Celebrate the things you can control.  I might have a really good day and the numbers on the scale don't always show my hard work.  So if I can feel positive about a healthy behavior it really helps me.

I believe you can do this.  Tell yourself positives everyday!  You are worth the effort!
Kristi

Hi Krisi-

I remember you too. Thanks for taking time to respond to me. You're right, even though I'm only down 30 pounds total now it is a big difference from where I started. I can do this! I'm going to be on this website more too, I know it will help me.

thanks again.

You know I'm here for you!  What can I do to help?  Do you want  to send me your daily food intake? 
You know what might be a great jump start?  Come to the OH Conference in Bellevue on July 16.  You can come sit with my Support Group and meet a great group of other bandsters!  We are also having a party at my house on the 17th and Jean M. will be here.  I'd love to finally meet you after all this time. 

At the very  least, come to this site daily.  It helps me stay mindful of what I need to do to stay on track and get support when I need it.

When's the last time you saw your surgeon?  Nut?  They are there to help, you know?  Use them to get back on track.

You can do this once and for all.  You CAN! 

Let me know how I can help.

Lisa O.