Whatcha Eating Today VSGers? Tuesday 8/15/17

I think we all go through this. YOu are not alone. Between hormones and frustration with the realization that we can no longer be couch potatoes and expect to maintain that which we have sought and fought for during this journey. It gets rough. Seeing a therapist can help a lot. I learned from my journey after getting to goal in 2009 that walking away from here was the first bad choice in my maintenance plan. Accountability is #1.

Thank you all for the kind words. As hard as it can be to come clean on these boards and fight the urge to ostrich my head in the sand there is a certain relief and depressurization with laying it all out there, warts and all. Seems to help me stop the runaway train and slowly reign in bad behavior.

I hit my all time low of 140 at about 18 months out then couldn't deal with not having weight to lose (yes, it's weird). Yo-yo'd up and down by 5 lbs for a year but from October 2016 until June 2017 regained to about 175. Hated it. Hated myself. Felt like a sausage whose casing was too tight. I'm back down to 150 with the help of Vyvanse to deal with those binges and lots of mindfulness but it is work every single day. Like marriage, LoL! I'm married to my sleeve and have to make the relationship work. Divorce is not an option.

Thanks again, everyone. These boards serve all of us more than we know, even the lurkers.

OMG! So very true!!! But cheating is possible, and everyone knows!

I'm just entering maintenance, but I already understand not being able to comprehend not losing. I'm so, SO afraid that when I truly let go and stop trying to lose that I will go completely the other direction.

I read on a VSG blog (and I can't recall her name... Sheila, I think) a quote: "100% compliance is a lot easier than 90% compliance". And it's true. Making the resolute decision to not indulge in a little bit of something or just one bite is so much easier than trying to hit that 'a little bit is ok" balance and figuring out when to stop. Weirdly enough it was sugar that started my descent and it's weird because I was never a sugar fiend before. I could take it or leave it. It was always salty, crunchy food. Now, sugar is the albatross around my neck. If i Have any outside my one morning coffee, I'm in a world of trouble. So, you never know what will trigger you after surgery so best to stay as clean as you can.

You are doing so awesomely!! Keep riding that wave and don't let your guard down. A little fear is never a bad thing. rock on, sister!

In my case, I'm struggling with the fact that my capacity doesn't allow me to be 100% compliant and maintain unless I eat 8 times per day. I've added in fat, but I've found by doing that I end up lower protein than I'd like. But, if I add more protein I can eat such small portions that my calories go down. I will figure it out, but YES...maintenance is already hard!

The last few days I seem to be eating too much, which is still around 1000 calories, but more than I think I want to be eating to get off these last 26 pounds.

QOTD: The thing that has surprised me the most is that the weight hasn't come off any faster than previous weight loss attempts where I was eating twice as many calories (roughly 10 pounds a month). The benefit I see long term is not being able to eat as much as pre-surgery where I was a bottomless pit, but I would have thought half the calories would mean twice as fast, but it doesn't seem to work that way for me!

B - coffee, yogurt, and raspberries

L - protein shake

D - smoked salmon frittata and salad

S - jerky or cottage cheese

I think we all kind of have our own personal rate of loss that doesn't vary too much. 2+lbs per week consistently isn't anything to scoff at though! My overall average is 2.9lbs per week, but of course, that is sometimes very little and sometimes it falls off!

I agree, nothing to scoff at and I'm pleased it's coming off! I just thought it was interesting that halving my calories with this effort didn't make more of an impact on my speed of loss. Makes "calories in, calories out" seem oversimplified like it's missing something in the equation .

You put my thoughts into words perfectly on this one Cecily, this surprised me too.