Setting up for success

It seems that WLS success is very routine oriented - what are your routines that help you be successful?

I am still very early in my process but so far I've found these to be helpful.

1. putting my exercise time into my work calendar so I make the time
2. planning my menu for the next day each night and putting it into my food tracker
3. dessert flavored herbal tea before bed

Excited to see how you help yourself succeed!

I love this question and live for routines. I prefer to stay on a schedule of sorts and hate feeling unprepared and left to fend for myself with no plan.

1. Menu planning. I plan my menu the night before. I don't always eat what I planned, but normally it is something similar, or something similar in calories at least.
2. I check in here on OH. Maybe I don't post that day, but I still always look. I like to see what has been posted on the menu threads particularly.
3. When I am feeling fidgety, or feeling head hunger come on I make a cup of coffee and add an oz, or two of premier protein. Or just warm tea does the trick.
4. Maybe this isn't a routine, but I am more mindful of my health overall? I park in the back of parking lots, I get up and move a lot more during the day, I actively choose to go to the gym and don't begrudge it.

I think #4 is a great thing that becomes instinct Over time! I am hoping I develop that instinct at some point!

Great question, Jen! And one that really makes me think since I am two months short of five years out, and have about 28 lbs to lose. REGAIN. The most feared thing in WLS, and one I swore I wouldn't experience. You see the posts everyday - "100 lbs down, never coming back!". Well, I can't speak for everyone, but I was a hard core rule follower until goal and I never saw myself gaining back almost 30 lbs. Hell, I had plastic surgery, I am active, I am conscientious...but a few years after surgery, there seems to be this maelstrom of things that happen.

1. Your new weight is "normal". No more compliments, no more drops on the scale, you're just "at goal"
2. Malabsorbtion (if you had RNY) which was minimal, is now gone. So every single calorie is absorbed.
3. The pouch is more mature ie larger. While a half of a chicken sausage stuffed me at six weeks out, now I can eat 1.5 plus a side dish.
4. Diet fatigue. Yeah yeah, it's not a diet, it's a way of life blah blah blah. But honestly, after 1.5 years of declining the chips at the Mexican restaurant, having a soda water while everyone else has wine, etc...it can be easy to fall back into old habits like "Well I went to the gym, so I can have these chips"

I have digressed, but what I want to say is that when I think about when I was most successful (the year after surgery when I went from 351 lbs on day of surgery to 160 lbs two weeks before my year surgiversary), my routines and keys to success were as follows (I saved my initial "lost 100 lbs!" post and at almost five years out, it's sort of fuzzy, but thank god for copy and paste!):

1. A kitchen scale. This is a MUST, in my opinion. I got a digital one on amazon.com. I weigh EVERYTHING. I cannot eyeball 3 ounces or a half cup. I need measurement.

2. MyFitnessPal app. I log every bite or sip that goes in my mouth. I don't care if it's a 10 calorie teaspoon of soy sauce - it goes in the app!

3. No carbs. I know there are many camps when it comes to carbs. I choose to stick to 20 g per day, and I admit occasionally I go to 30 or 35. This means no bread, no crackers, no rice, no pasta. AKA none of my formerly favorite foods. And sure, there are times I wish I could have a bowl of noodles. But I think it's more important to walk up hills, to sit on an airplane and have the seatbelt fit, to not worry about sitting in a folding chair at a wedding, to be healthy...

4. I don't test my pouch. Am I a dumper? I have no idea. I have not had even a bite of a cake or a lick of an ice cream. As the vets will tell you, THIS is your honeymoon period. Why test what I can tolerate? I have a food plan from my nutritionist and I can assure you it does not include sweets. Does this mean I will never have a lick of ice cream. Hell no! But for now, I am still in that early period of weight loss and I am sure as hell going to capitalize on that.

5. EXERCISE. I think diet is 80% of my success, and exercise is 20%. I am at the gym 4 or 5 times a week, doing the treadmill and working with a personal trainer. Yes, this is an expense. But I am no longer buying Marlboro Lights, margaritas, or nachos...so what better thing to spend my money on? I burn at least 400 calories per workout (according to MyFitnessPal) and I do NOT eat back my calories. So sticking to a 700 calorie per day diet and burning perhaps 400, well you can imagine this helps.

6. My FitBit One. I bought a FitBit One that hooks to my bra and I track my steps every single day and try to beat the day before! My daily goal is 10,000 steps.

7. Gwinnie Bee. Basically clothes that you "rent" for a monthly fee. As my sizes change day by day, I can order clothes from here without commitment :)

8. Recognizing and dealing with head hunger. After a long, and stressful day, I find myself being "hungry". Before my TOM, I find myself "hungry". I have learned to find new things to take my mind off of this head hunger. I might read. I might call a friend. I might go for a walk. If I can't shake the "hunger" then I might have 2 pickles. They are crunchy, they are calorie free, and they help fill that supposed void.

9. ObesityHelp.com. This site helps me more than my doctor, support group, nutritionist, friends or family. I can talk to y'all on here about things like non-scale victories, lack of poop, recipes, and more. The people on this site GET me. I consider many of you to be friends, from far flung places on the earth.

10. Being well-aware that I don't know sh*t. Check out the vets' posts and advice. Some of them are 5 years out, 9 years out...and maintaining. Maintenance is a ***** from what I can tell LOL. I could sit here and say "100 pounds gone and I will never see them again" but we all know that many people regain. I can already eat more than I could two months ago. I can't pretend to know how I will feel in two months, in two years, in twelve years...

*******

It's crazy for me to read #10 at this stage in my life. Hey, at least I was aware back then that I didn't know **** ;)

So when I think about my recent regain, I realize I have fallen off the wagon in a lot of these. I am back to eyeballing food. I don't log every bite. And I have tested my pouch and sugar doesn't affect me at all. The rest, I have stuck with, but I am seeing that dragging out my kitchen scale and weighing my food was a huge part of my success and I need to get back to it.

Sorry for the super long post...but I think I just worked something out in my mind!!! So thank you for bringing up this topic!

I love this post and your "moment in time" look back! I'll be at my sisters for a long weekend this week and again for a week at Thanksgiving, I just ordered a food scale to be delivered there for me, lol

Dcgirl,

You have posted a very good post of how people that love routines set their life in order, to get on track and maintain.

With your extreme limits on carbs, what you are thinking of as head hunger could be a blood sugar response. Consider... One of the key symptoms of rapidly falling blood sugar is sudden hunger 50-90 minutes after eating.I found by increasing my carb portion by a small amount...ie. a 2 ounce portion increase by one ounce... stops these drops. Carbohydrates function makes the pancreas release insulin for protein digestion ( according to the Mosby Nursing Manual) and if the amount is too low OR too high blood sugars will drop.. while proteins are being broken into useable unit.

Yes getting on track and staying on track is so important and this board helps everyone who posts in some manner...

I am one of the early WLS surgery veterans, Over 2 decades ago. Like you have struggled with regain at periods in life. It is important for you and others to know that many things affect your loss/re-gain. One of the hardest things to control is stress and the hormonal releases that come with stress. I experienced this with caring for MIL and Parents. Yesterday, I got on the scale, and was once again UNDER my orig goal weight. ( My regain was 45 lbs, over 2years of massive stress) This was the first time in several years.

I am also one who hates routine . I get stuck in one often enough- to not make additional ones.( Just my preference) I do use a certain amount of routine... as in a set amount fo meat for a serving. rotating my veggies, and yes i use small amounts of pasta, potatoes,and rice for carb servings..I have had a little ice cream, my serving size is 15-30 cc,Literally eaten with a tasting spoon and savored.. it is a rare summer treat. For other high carb items,my serving size is not the half cup or 4 ounce servings, allowed by ADA, but somewhere between 1 and 2 ounces depending on what else I am having. My diet is mostly a balance of carbs and protein with little fruit and a rare bite of a dessert... so in that manner i have a routine..I try to limit my carbs to below 50. Most of the time I do well. There are days...just does not happen. One day of going over my goal by 20 carbs does not lead to 30 lbs weight gain. Daily overages of my prescribed diet WILL. It is important to get on track as soon as one can...

My goals are 90-110 Gm protein, carbs to 20-50. I live in a rural area, and my yard is my gym. I have a push mower and weed trimmer, chickens to care for, and a small garden I am expanding...and building soil for.

The main thing that I do every day is care for my pouch! I eat small portions. meats 3-4 oz, everything else can not be more than the balance to be a total of 6 ounces. I still separate my liquids and food by a space of time. Unless I get in distress. I will sip a little coffee,(less than an ounce) and walk to relieve gastric symptoms.

I am blessed in that I estimated food portions as part of my job for 30 years. I have estimated then measured enough i no longer need a scale, I use "non standard" measures (anyhing known measurments already..ie. a regular eating spoon,a 3 oz plastic a fruit cup container.).to understand and eyeball my portions. If you have time this might be a good skill for you to develop... The way I developed this was to place my portions in small cups, estimate. write that down. then measure them and see how close I was on estimation. Having this estimation skill is really helpful when eating out.

If any item is a trigger food, There is no way I would eat that food. I know that certain foods make me release heavy on insulin and have to extemely limit those..all the time, for blood sugar control. I suspect that is what triggers early hunger issues in many. Chips with a tablespoon of salsa available, while waiting on food. Yes. Caloried drinks ,no. Soda or carbonated drinks, of any type, No. Water, or black coffee, thank you very much.

I do my daily walk as soon as I put Ian on the bus. If I put it off until later, I'm far more likely to come up with a good excuse not to do it!

I stick to the same food items on rotation. I eat at least one salad (with protein) EVERY day. If I eat out, it's either chicken wings or a salad. I'd rather not eat out, but my family like to, so I've had to come up with a diet strategy to not eat white carbs.

I pretty much eat by the clock - 9am scrambled eggs and mushrooms, 12 noon, salad, 6pm dinner, 8pm yoghurt. I actually do wait until exactly 6pm and 8pm too - weirdo, right?

I also track food and exercise every single day now.

I think living in an autism household with routines makes this plan seem somewhat normal from the inside lol, but even Jim describes me as obsessive!

You forgot to mention that you just lost almost 50 lbs of regain which is INSANELY DIFFICULT and nothing like the first year or two after surgery! So clearly your routine is working for you!

Funny that you have dinner at 6 and a snack at 8. I found that if I eat dinner at 6 I end up eating either a "fourth meal" or a snack, so I have shifted my meals to 9:30 or 10 am breakfast, 2:30 or 3 pm lunch, 8:30 or 9 pm dinner. That helps me from the nighttime munchies.

My mom maintains a low weight not via WLS but via routine. She has the same exact food pretty much every single day. Way more fruits than I would ever eat, but it's impressive.

And now I want chicken wings...

I think I need to work on the meal schedule thing, I have noticed some big gaps because I'm not getting hunger queues. Could be creating future issues by not addressing that now.

My curiosity is piqued. Real or canned mushrooms?