5 years post band

I find myself going back into my old ways.  I need help anyone with ideals?

Tell us more!  Are you at goal? Are you regaining? Do you have restriction? Wrong foods or just too much? Grazing? Liquid calories? 

There are a lot of things.  I've made a lot of wrong food choices, grazing as well.  I've had more ice cream too.  I need help, just not sure what to do at this point.  I only have about 20 more pounds to go.  I need to exercise more than I do.  I feel like I'm going back ward in place of forward.

My thoughts

1.  Cut out the high sugar foods, including ice cream

2.  No drinking with meals 

3.  Protein first, produce second, whole grain carbs if there is room

4.  No liquid calories (except low-fat milk, if you choose)

5.  Exercise ... Start where you are, increase a little each week

6.  Journal your food

7.  Get a fill or Un-fill, if needed 

Sounds like you already know what you need to do. To me, it's soooo easy to revert back to old behaviors. Why? Because we have lived an unhealthy lifestyle for decades. How do you expect to just stop doing those things immediately because you have surgery? True. People with more permanent surgeries have a built-in traffic cop. But, they also can stretch their new stomach. There are revisions because people don't use their surgery as a tool. Instead, they use it as a means to limit their food intake. 

I encourage you to seriously consider what you want your life to be like. Maybe 20+ is okay for you. Maybe it's not about the number but the way you look, how you feel or the energy you have. Daily exercise is key for me. By daily I mean eveyday I don' take off Saturdays, Sundays or try to do 3x a week. It's what ramps up the daily caloric burn rate aka Basic Metabolic Rate or the number of calories you burn everyday regardless of activity level. I think BMR is simply metabolism.

I am no better than you. I have my own challenges with my behaviors. It's not the band, however. It's my choices. What i eat, why I eat, how I eat (planned vs. grazing or bored eating) and if I choose to move my body everyday. 

Think of this as a journey. We each follow our own path. We can stray, we can fall but we can pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and we can set a new course. I have every confidence in your ability to reach whatever goals you set for yourself. Look how far you've come. You have to want those goals you set for yourself more than you want the icecream. 

I haven't been on here since 2011. I'm almost 6 years post-op...and unhappy with where I am today. I've let myself slip into old habits. But I'm turning things around. I was happy to see your post. Not because you are going back to old ways, but to know I'm not alone. 

What are you doing to get yourself turned around?

I'm back on here for support. Joining a gym tomorrow. :) And I've started to journal my food again. I have no idea how much I weigh because I don't want to get on the scale. I haven't been on one since this last Spring. I just know if my weight starts with a 2 I will be  devastated and not able to do anything. So, it's better I don't weigh right now and just move forward. 

I really do understand.  I am 8 1/2 years past-op and since losing all my excess weight quite quickly, have had two times of regain.  I did manage to shift both; never got back to my lowest weight but I didn't want to because that was too thin for me. My regain was simply by slipping into bad, old habits.

the only way to get back FOR ME was to get my head sorted out! Eating with the band requires so much self control that if we don't really WANT to stick to our plan, it is almost impossible.  Here's my way.

1.  Have a real, important reason!  The first of my regains, my daughters warned me two months beforehand that they were taking me to a smart shop and buying me a designer coat for my 60th birthday. No way that could happen when I was size 14!!  A real incentive. On the day, I was able to buy a 10!' 

The second time, I looked in my wardrobe before going to stay with friends and realised I only had two outfits I could wear. It was either lose weight or pack away my wonderful size 10s (including that coat!!) and go shopping.  A real wake-up call. 

And I had a health scare which helped motivate me!

2.  Check the fill level; neither too loose nor too tight.

3.  Everything else as Kathkeb says except that I drink with meals and don't journal! 

Does it make you eat more when you drink and eat.  When I wait, that doesn't seam to make a difference.  I think it's almost worse.