Update

Hey guys, wow it's been a long time since I've posted, probably 2 years.  I don't know if anyone will remember me, but you can check out my previous posts to get a refresher, but basically I was doing it, losing weight, the non-surgical route, due to multiple reasons.  I had been doing great for about 8-9 months starting in April of 2013.  I went from 364 to 204 by mid January by sheer will power and a very strict regiment.  I was doing great and then all the sudden life went deep into the crapper.  I won't bore you with all the details, but starting in December of 2013 I started having some difficult health and life issue**** me one after the other.  In January of 2014 I went off my regime and started eating crap again.  For the next year I was back on and off the "diet" multiple times.  The good thing was, it felt more normal to me to be eating healthier than eating junk, so it wasn't hard to actually get back on the diet, but it was hard to stay on it.  Especially since after I stopped being so strict I sank into a pretty devastating depression and using food to cope was the only way I was able to get through.  By January of this year (2015) I was back up to 290, which was basically gaining back half of what I had lost.  When I saw how close I was to being over 300 again, something snapped inside of me.  I didn't put in all that work and go through all that I went through for it just to mean absolutley nothing.  So towards the end of January I went back to eating healthy, more calories this time to make sure it didn't affect my health negatively.  I stayed on for a couple of months and lost 40lbs, down to 250 and then struggled the whole summer until about mid-October, where I fluctuated between 230 and 218.  Now it's been 2 and a half months since I've been back to eating healthy and I'm down to 194.  Which means I've now lost 170lbs.  Sometimes I think about it and I still can't believe how far I've come and how much I've changed.  People actually think I'm skinny now.  I go shopping for clothes and can't get certain pieces because they don't have my size, a smaller size! lol.  I feel normal now.  I still have about 40-50lbs I want to lose, but I can't believe how little I have left to lose compared to what I have lost.  I still want to eat.  It's not as "cravey" feeling as it was before.  I just miss the freedom to just go into the fridge and eat what I wanted, but I know I can't go back to how I was before.  Sometimes when I see a pic of me from before I cringe.  I knew I was big, but I guess in my mind I always tried to picture myself looking how I actually do look now and I just look so different.  I guess my point of this post was to maybe give some people some insight and perhaps even some inspiration.  I know that not everyone can get wls or maybe some are to scared to and you have all those statistics that without wls 95% of people will gain their weight back and for me that's a half truth.  I did gain half back but if you really want it and are willing to give it all you have no matter what you can reverse a gain and you can keep going.  I hope you all are doing well and are enjoying the holidays and I wish nothing but the best for us all in this new year, because we deserve good health and happiness

Good for you!! We have to fight this battle every day whether we have surgery or not. I wish you continued success.

I know after losing 100+ pounds several times in my lifetime, I was tired of beating myself up and decided to have surgery. I knew I needed the extra help. 7 years later, my new lifestyle has become routine. Life is good.

Congratulations on a great job! The truth of it is we have to keep our head in the game... ie. stay focused. What you wrote shows that. We don't have the luxury of being unfocused. Someone wrote on here onetime, - don't fall into the trap of thinking you are normal.-- so true. Good Luck!