Maintenance-What does it look like for you?

Thank you, everyone! I really am listening to everything you all are saying. I want to make the best and right decision for me (and I tend to research something to death before I make a decision. ;-) )

I'm the same way. One of the things I did that was super beneficial for me was to read through ALL the old posts here in the VSG, RNY, and main forums. I had a lot more free time pre-op than I do in my post-op life! :D

Yes, I'm trying to do a lot of reading.

My maintenance looks pretty much like my pre-op years. The main qualifier here is that my wife had her WLS several years before, so I had evolved into WLS maintenance lifestyle (though at roughly double her volume) years before I had WLS.

When we first started seriously researching WLS (about 15 years ago) we started cleaning up our diet to get a start on the typical insurance mandated diet/exercise program. Understanding how well weight loss diets work in the real world (not good!) we worked to get a better fundamental grounding in nutrition (as distinct from "dieting") and work to drive our diet/lifestyle in that direction to the greatest extent that we could do sustainably - short term quicky fad diets provide no real value over the long term - it was what could we do to drive our tastes and preferences in the right direction on a "forever" basis. Someone else's "ideal" diet is of no use if you can't stick with it forever. If that effort could yield total weight loss such that we could join that lucky 5% that can make diet/exercise alone work, that's great, but ultimate weight loss was not the essential goal; indeed, weight loss was incidental to overall improved health and nutrition. For my wife, it didn't yield spectacular weight loss results, but did help once we got her on the table and through the WLS gauntlet (self pay in her case after going through all the insurance games at the time.) For me, it worked better, yielding a loss of around 50 lb or about 1/3 of my excess that I needed to lose and made WLS a more questionable proposition (VSG wasn't a viable option then, lapbands were a no-go, RNY and DS seemed to be overkill) so I went into sustaining mode - continue tweaking and evolving things to see if I could take it lower but being satisfied with learning weight control - how long can I maintain this? Fast forward 5-6 years and the VSG was starting to be approved by insurance, weight was stable but still 40ish BMI so I went with it. Had I regained back to where I was or worse, as typically happens, I would have gone with the stronger, more regain resistant DS instead, so this waiting time was good for understanding more of what my needs really were.

Post op and losing phase, once past the initial transitional diet phases, was basically the same, but adapted to the lower volume and calorie levels driven by the WLS. Protein levels as appropriate for my metabolism, but otherwise a fairly balanced and nutrition oriented non-protein segment of the diet, without regard to any of the popular macro count or ratio worries that are common in the diet world, since I still wasn't really "dieting" as it was simply an extension of what I had been doing before, and would be doing again at a higher calorie level once the weight goal had been reached. And indeed, that is where I am, though things have evolved some as I try to drive my tastes to allow a greater variety of fundamentally healthy fair, which can best be described as "a little of everything, not too much of anything." There is really nothing that is part of a normal, healthy human diet that is off the menu (though we could never get into fish...that will never happen) but fruits, veg, legumes, whole grains, meats, cheeses, nuts - no problem. Find what triggers you to crave bad things, or to overdo good things, and avoid or learn to control them - no need to eliminate broccoli and apples to avoid scarfing Doritos as some would have us do.

Restaurant eating is pretty normal if you don't mind doggie bags - my wife is still disappointed if she can't get two or three meals out of a restaurant meal - after 13 years. Some things just don't make sense anymore - like a good old classic sub sandwich (the real kind with a big French loaf loaded with meat, cheese, mayo, etc. not Subway). We had dinner last night with our monthly support group of mostly 10-20 year vets and you wouldn't know their history, other than overall being somewhat lighter than average. And the somewhat nerdy guy with the laptop at one end talking about some kinda esoteric medical things. Quite a few take home boxes though. I had a lamb shank (well, half of it) with a bit of the pasta that came with it, my wife had falafels, others had steaks, salads, etc. I normally have a decent sized salad for lunch (leftover meat, spinach, avo, scallion, tomato, snap peas, carrot, broccoli - whatever else is in the veg drawer), berries and yogurt sometime during the day - snack or part of breakfast - protein drink concoction as an occasional exercise recovery drink when I lift weights, grains of some kind for breakfast - whole grain english muffin with some turkey bacon or sausage, protein pancakes with sausage or bacon, or layered with the berries and yogurt, crepes with berries/yogurt, etc. Basically normal food.

If my weight creeps up some, it's pretty easy to cut it back by 20% to bring it back in line, or to do so proactively in anticipation of a low activity period like after plastic or orthopedic surgery - no real need to "go back to basics", "reset" diets or anything other than to emphasize the higher nutrition/lower calorie end of the normal menu.

Thank you for taking the time to write such a long, well thought out post! Your first paragraph addresses some things I've been trying to do for the last year or more. Specifically, trying to instill positive habits. More veggies, different veggies, different colors, more water, etc. No weight loss is happening because of it, but I still see it as a good thing. Some good things are becoming second nature.

I followed my nutritionists advice to the letter pre-op, even for the most part through Christmas and New Years which fell during that period. If you look at my signature you see that I dropped 1/3 of my weight during that time (6 months pre-op). IMO, I think doing this makes it easier to get into the mindset needed, to be healthy for surgery, to heal quickly, to adapt to eating differently, and to exceed the average loss expectation Post-WLS.

I really eat simply, and if you didn't know I had surgery, you wouldn't guess. I eat small amounts at any one meal but not like a starveling. I eat lots of Greek yogurt and cottage cheese, hard boiled eggs. These are staples. I like chicken and fish, but again, I do not eat a lot. I personally do not chew my food a super long time. It doesn't do anything for me. And I also don't keep liquids always away from food. If I want to drink a little coffee with breakfast, I do. Just slowly so I don't get overfull. I never eat pasta. Don't eat bread, rice, potato, desserts. But if it is on the menu I may have a little. I find not being extreme is the solution to maintaining. I am doing well. Last, being more active helps, and having the right snacks around is important. I always have a protein bar in my handbag, and a few in my office desk. When I get hungry, or my body shows signs of being hungry (sudden fatigue, grumpiness) I know there is something close at hand that can address the issue quickly. They do help. But of course, real food is better. It is important that my surgery has helped me to being below my goal weight and being healthier, but it is also important to have a great quality of life including eating. I would be frustrated to have life so restrictive that I can't enjoy it. I do enjoy... food in moderation, good choices and protein first, and if I want to try a bite of my husband's birthday cake, I do so. Live life well. And live life normally. And am happy.

Yes, that's it exactly. I think I would be frustrated to have a life so restrictive that I can't enjoy it. At least, that's my concern right now in deciding if surgery is the right option for me. Thank you!

I did not read any of the replies. It doesn't matter, because they would not change my answer. I have been in maintenance for about a year. I am almost two years out from surgery.

Maintenance means eating the right way most of the time. It means eating poorly a very little bit of the time. My shrink (aka the psychologist assigned to my bariatric group) said I should be eating 80/20 - 80% good food and 20% bad, or what I "want". I don't do that. I am more like 90/10. It has worked for me this far. I've lost 224 lbs and in better shape than I've been in almost 30 years. I intend to remain that way. So far I have suffered no regain.

I'm 12.5 years out from duodenal switch and very content. (DS has sleeve stomach with added malabsorption).

I do not eat like a dieter. I don't eat stupid either. I eat high protein (meat and cheese), full fat (no low fat or fat free artificial foods) and low carb (majority of carbs come from veggies, but I do enjoy a daily sandwich with real bread).

To eat dinner with me, you'd never guess I had any wls. When going out to eat, I usually leave some behind, often enough for a doggie bag if I didn't sweet talk them into giving me a half portion of something. For instance, I love steak houses. I'll eat a caesar salad, 6-8oz ribeye, prime rib or filet and half a loaded baked potato. I may even get crazy if they bring a basket of fresh bread, too. Some might say I'm a lighter eater, but to me it's normal and not so small that I create attention. Does that help?

I have been getting 100g of protein with real food since my first year post-op. I hate protein shakes and they aren't fond of me either. It took a year, but I can enjoy big gulps of beverages now, too.