Baby Steps

I know this topic is probably been hammered to death, and it may make some thinking about having surgery have second thoughts. Dont, its the best thing I ever did.

Well, my day went well. A great accomplishment I had today was not drinking with my meal at lunch time. For some reason when I go out to eat thats the hardest time not to drink while eating. I order a tea while waiting for the food and I just keep drinking. I ate a chicken cesar today and didnt order tea or water. Waitress looked at me like I was crazy when I said I didnt want anything to drink. Anyway, baby steps! I way upped my protein today, had a shake for breakfast, salad for lunch, shake for afternoon, leftover superbowl chili for dinner. But, sitting watching tv I fell off. So, if I feel the need for snacks next time while watching it will be fruit or cheese.

I may not post everyday, but I almost feel the need to post like a journal to keep myself accountable. Anyway, keep the faith!

JOHN-I read your "tragedy" thread from yesterday, but never got around to responding, so let me talk to you now, my brother...

I consider myself an EXPERT on the "regain after WLS" subject....not something I was ever proud of...until NOW...Hey-maybe I can help YOU!! Summer before last I admitted to being 60 lbs above my losest..after still being 25 from ever reaching "goal"...well...I was actually 72 lbs above my lowest, but could not bring myself to admit it-not even to my TMB family...but...I finaly got ANGRY with myself, got my ass on track and relost the majority of it..and you WILL too!!!

What helped ME was retraining my BRAIN. I had to have a "restarting" point. I did the "plateau buster" and the "the 5 day pouch test"..each back to back. By the end of that 15 days I was ready to face the world. During that time I wrote down EVERYTHING, and was PERFECT-like a NEWBIE...like we were all gonna be perfect in the beginning...You sound like you are already off to to a GREAT start. You can't beat TEAM SPIRIT. I never could get thru a day of this journey ALONE...we're all in this TOGETHER..

I'm here for you!! And I need YOU, too--so glad to have you posting again!

Thanks Gina! Yeah, you I think a big reason a lot of of quit coming here is the shame of regain, and other drama as well but thats another story in and of itself, lol. But I think we all need to understand no one is going to judge us, thats what this board is for.

Once again thanks for the encouragement. (As I drink my fresh strawberry prtein smoothie made in my bullet)

I'm on board with you Brother J! Didn't do that great yesterday. Well, I say that and then I look back, not sooo bad! I had grilled chicken thigh and leg for lunch. I did have a little corn on the cob and green beans. I had homemade beef/veggie soup for supper and a pickle for a snack. All in all not as bad as it could be....just more of it than I used to be able to eat! My big ole problem has ALWAYS been the drinking while I am eating!! Something that Bill and I never managed to break the habit of!!!! I could easily drink a gallon of tea throughout the day!

I do have the "don't wannas and don't cares" but that's for me to work on I guess. Like Becky said, it's a kind of "burnout" feeling! Hard to explain or hard for some folks to get!!!

I sure don't intend for our plight for support to deter anyone from having surgery!!!!  One thing I want Newbies to realize is that we are a long way out! Most of the folks with regain problems are 4+ years out! Realize this, WLS was still "New" then, the surgeons were still in the learning phase and there weren't "longterm" statistics for them to go by! Who knew that the surgery wouldn't fix our head or even that our head needed fixing??  Let me say this, if I gained 30 more pounds, (50 total regain) or more I would have still had the surgery. Only thing I would have done differently is that I would have done it sooner and sought better after care! I know that folks going through WLS now are more apt to have better follow-up, more psychiatric counseling, better nutritional guidance, etc.   I am very happy for them and I am not whining, I just wish I had known that we needed things like that! So again, don't let our problem as long-term post-ops change your decision! It's the best thing you can do for yourself, your kids, your grandkids, etc!

I hate that we are not alone in our plight, but I'm also gald that we can be here to support each other! I can and will get this extra weight off! I just have to get my brain in gear. Notice I said brain, remember they didn't fix our heads!!!

Gina Gayle is my hero and mentor and I will truly look to her as my guidance counselor through this all!!! I wish I had a hug or a good kick in the arse from her right now!!! She knows what we are going through and she always has great words of wisdom!

I offer my love, support, prayers, hugz, swinging chickens, whatever-the hell I can to help us through this rough patch in the road!! We can do this!! But we can only do this together!!!!

Hugz,
Gina L