One more: Vets and others who flag possible "problem" eating choices

Please reconsider, as you really have drafted so many helpful and encouraging posts!

Oh. Hell. No.

When I had surgery I got my britches in a bunch and deactivated my account. I can't even remembet what it was about specifically

. I was mad that someone told me the truth. They were just trying to save me from doing something that could have really screw up my weight loss.

i realized I needed this website and really tried to look where people are coming from. We can't hear how someone is saying something we can't see any body language when we read someone's post.

i o was hyper sensitive after surgery I thought I knew it all. I thought I was going to empower others. I just laugh at that now.

so many ways people have helped me and supported me here.They cared enough to read my long posts and crazy posts.

i still can't believe I will be at the five year mark. I am still working at getting to my goal weight, I know the scale will always be part of my life. Focusing not only with my weight bit how I feel about myself.

People who have never had WLS have no clue what it is like to have the surgery.

ISo coming here has helped me work on my me physically and emotionally,

II know I went on and rambled but sometimes we don't really want to hear something certain things. It will help.

I stick around because when I didn't I regained 100 lbs. And I give advice when I think it can be helpful because one thing I know is who to fail WLS. I did it spectacularly with what was supposed to be the hardest WLS to fail with. So when I see someone heading down the same road as I did I hope that my experience will be of some benefit to them.

I feel like I have some validity having been through what I have been through and I hope that makes me credible and also that it is clear I have nothing to gain by offering my experience except to hopefully help someone else steer clear of the pain I went through.

To be honest I don't get any thrill in reliving my mistakes but it does help remind me of where I went and where I could possibly wind up again if I don't learn from my mistakes. And hopefully because I failed it can help others avoid the same pitfalls I feel into.

I learn a lot from those who have been successful but I learn a lot from those, like me, who haven't been as successful but managed to turn things around. Hopefully it can give some hope to someone who is feeling hopeless like I did.

Once you fail at WLS there is a despair like no other because WLS for me was the last resort and when I failed with that I had no other options except to accept living with morbid obesity. Having been able to turn myself around from that gives me a great deal of gratitude and the desire to give others who feel the same way I did some hope that you can be successful, even if you feel hopeless like I did.

Also, at this point it has been over 7 years since I have been MO or even overweight and I know when I was new and I saw someone who had managed to keep the weight off for a long period of time it gave me so much encouragement and showed me that it could be done and those were the people I wanted to listen to.

And it also reminds me that no matter how long I have kept the weight off I am still just a series of bad choices away from being back where I came from and this time I may not be so lucky as to come back from it.

If I could like this a thousand times I would.

This.

Ladytazz, I wish we saw a lot more posts from you. You have so much valuable wisdom to share.

And you didn't fail. You turned things around and succeeded.

You're a hero in my opinion. In spite of a spectacular stumble, you picked yourself up, brushed yourself off and did what you needed to do. You give so much hope and inspiration to others who may feel like failures.

No way are you a failure.

I truly hesitate answering this post - I'll be as general as I can and specific to the questions asked.

I have, but very, very rarely caution people about early- on long term eating habits. I really live by a 'you have to learn from your mistakes' mindset- but in this realm those mistakes can be sooo costly. So why I do it, is to to hopefully not to see that same poster post, 'why am I not losing' or ' help me with me regain'. Have I been labeled, called out, name called etc for it,- not that I've kept to memory.

Last thought: Criticisms of early eating (hell- not just early-- any eating) can be very abrasive, especially to a newbie who doesn't know the general style of the forum. This is not sunshine and lollipops-- it's why people should take the time and READ before posting.

I definitely agree that lurking should be a requirement for any online forum before posting! It seems like a lost art.

LOL I lurked for nearly 10 years, and it helped me decide about having surgery!!!

I lurked for 3 years. It helped me figure out the OH dynamic. It was really hard because that was during the infamous surgery wars when the DS'ers were ripping you apart for choosing RNY surgery. Not fun.