2 old posts 2 and 3 yr wall and the ditch....

Worth a repeat old saved posts from 2004.... This is in reference to our "lively" meeting and what not to do. It Would behoove you to read this and think about what you are doing and to Think about what went on at the meeting. Enough said. 2 and 3 year walls These are my names for these 2 phenomena that seem to happen to so many of us. Since our major window of opportunity starts coming to an end 18-24 months, somewhere in there, we get "used" to the idea of losing, no matter what. With a little cheat here, a little cheat there, we kept losing, even slowly. So, we really didn't NEED to avoid milk & sugar, or take all that protein, did we? And grazing is nothing but small meals closer together, right? So, even when we start out doing The Right Things, round about 2 years, we think we are too cool for all that. Some have even been told to ACT as close to normal as possible. Unfortunately, we are not normal. Never were, never will be. At about 2 years, the complacency catches up. That "just one" cookie a day starts to stick to the hips, like it did in the old days. Stopped reading sugar g on labels? So, getting lazy about things like applesauce or fruit juices has moved the sugar tolerance higher & higher. And now, it's time to pay the piper. The ride ends and the pay off begins. Regain. We're scared, we're indignant, we can't believe it! Surely the surgery is broken, because I've not done anything really WRONG, and besides, I was losing weight the whole time. But no, we were still on the slide THEN, this is now. By now the nutritional problems are starting to kick in, and all those vitamins and protein drinks we didn't take are showing up in lab work. The lack thereof is showing up in cravings. And the total result is the 2 year wall. The 3 year wall is a little different. If the 2 year wall is about attitude, the 3 year wall is about the body trying to normalize. As the pouch stretches, and the common channel tries to take the place of the ENTIRE intestine, more absorption of calories is possible, though not much more in nutrients. The less nutrition we had on the way to this point, the More severe will be the body's attempt to compensate for it. We might have had reasonably good behavior to this point, maybe even surviving the 2 year wall. This one also sneaks up and is especially cruel to those who THOUGHT they were doing all the right things. Scares the daylights out of us who worked so hard to get to goal. These 2 things are not documented AS SUCH, but regain is documented. Many will ASSUME that our "will power" wore out, but the docs deeply involved in the nutritional and behavioral ends will disagree. These two theories, as I've described them are my attempt to explain them. Michelle Curran [email protected] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For those of you that have not read "The Ditch" by Ray Hooks The Ditch The Ditch is part of a story told to me by my father. My grandfather once took three men out to test them for being a buggy driver. He drove them up to a ditch and asked them to tell him how close they could drive to the ditch without going in. The first driver said he could easily drive within a yard of the ditch. The second one said he could go within about a foot of the ditch. The third one said he would not drive anywhere near the ditch and to count him out of the running. The third driver was hired. The object lesson to WLS is to stay away from The Ditch by not trying to see how much of this or that you can eat. The real key to long term weight loss through WLS seems to be the adoption of a new attitude towards food. The small size of the new stomach allows us to achieve a feeling of satiety with much less food. The trick seems to be to recognize that the smaller amount of food will be sufficient and not to tempt fate by trying to see how much we can now eat. The Flanagan Pouch Study (cottage cheese test) showed that relative pouch size, i.e., 4 oz vs 8 oz, had little to do with weight loss success. What mattered was whether both the 4 oz and 8 oz person developed new eating habits and stayed away from The Ditch by Ray Hooks _________ Jamie

Jamie, Hun thanks for posting this, it is always good to read that what you are going through or will go through is normal! This is the time when it REALLY gets hard! Wow this is the one single thing I have been working my hardest on and I guess it will be that way for life! That is all good by me because the benifits from this new "healthy" way of thinking and living sure is great! Thanks again hun, your the best! Debra P

Lucky me. I'm hittitng the wall 8 months out. Got my labs back and my thyroid is on the very low end of normal. I'll have to look into that. Thanks for posting Jamie. You always have good things to offer. xoxo Amy