So, what are the cautionary tales?

I'm now one month and one day out from my WLS (VSB) and I'd like to hear from people were didn't lose weight as they should, or gained it back.

I want to make the program work and so I'd like to see how others failed, and avoid the things they feel are pitfalls along the way.

If you could be specific about what the behavior was, and how far along the process you were, e.g. "I started drinking carbonated soda 2 weeks out and I think it had an affect on how much I could eat".

I sure lots of people could benefit from this knowledge.

What surgery did you have?  Your avatar says VBG and your post says VSB and I have not heard of either.  Did you mean VGB or VSG???

Michele

Sorry, I had the vertical sleeve gastrectomy.

I have not posted in a long time but I can give you some advice anyway.  I had RNY in 2003 lost about 140lbs and was at my goal.  I have since gained back abot 30 and m currently working on going back to basics to get that off.  My best advice from my experience is not to get comfortable in the fact that you can eat anything you want and still lose.  I could eat ANYTHING...I just didn't seem to absorb it.  The only problem was that when I did like I was supposed to and did not drink with my meals and did not eat many carbs it was uncomfortable to eat.  So I started to add a little liquid with my meals to make it more comfortable and soon I found that carbs were much easier to eat.  They just go down better (except rice).  Since I was not gaining anything back for the first few years I just ate what felt good.  Well, eventually you do start to absorb more and the weight creeps back up on you.  Now I have found out that I have hypothyroidism and that is part of the cause of my weight gain but not all of it! 
Truth is the reason that this surgery works is because it is uncomfortable to eat.  If you start tweaking too much to eat what feels good you will soon find that you can eat more and more.  However, I have found that if you go back to eating without liquids and eating primarily protein it is still uncomfortable and the pouch still works.  It would have been easier had I just continued to eat correctly to begin with.