Honeymoon is now officially over.

Okay, after almost a year, the honeymoon is officially over. I find I can eat things that I ought not to eat, in small quantities **** cream, cheesecake, bars, chips), but still cannot stomach much protein in the way of steak, pork, eggs. I do not like the fact that I can eat these bad foods and need some help/advise on how to stop the bad habit before it gets out of hand and I revert back to eating "bad".

My understanding is that the honeymoon period lasts for the first 18 to 24 months.  So I'd guess that you are still squarely in the midst of your honeymoon and still have time to take advantage of it.  As for eating the bad foods that got you to the point where you needed WLS in the first place. ... sounds like you need to really focus on your head instead of your stomach right now.  I have found that if I'm not making a conscious effort to really work on the mental stuff that I fall back into old habits very quickly.  It's a daily battle that we must fight with all our power.  You're eating ice cream, cheesecake, chips and other crap because you are ALLOWING yourself to eat them.  Get that stuff out of the house.  Don't allow it to be brought inside.  It is a lot easier to say "No" once at the grocery store than it is to say "No" 4 or 5 times a day in your kitchen when you have that stuff haunting you.  So make a decision right now not to let it in the house.  (Yes, even if you have family members who can eat it, let them eat it somewhere else.) Also know that some of the things you mentioned as being "bad" don't have to be.  You can make protein ice cream (put your favorite protein shake through an ice cream freezer) or protein cheesecakes (check out www.theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com).  Check out soy chips or dry roasted edamame.  There are definitely healthy protein-based foods out there that are delicious and WLS friendly.  You just have to be committed to eating the right things. Dense protein is hard.  It really makes us realize that the pouch is a tool and if used correctly then we can literally feel how it works.  I can eat 3oz of dense meat, but put a bowl of popcorn in front of me and I can eat like I did before surgery because the pouch doesn't hold those slider foods.  But if we follow the rules we got at the beginning and focus on dense protein FIRST, we can make this thing work. So set some hard and fast rules for yourself and make the commitment to follow them.  This is your chance.  You have to grab hold of it with both hands and make certain that you are putting your ALL into this change.  * NO junkfood in the house
* PLAN every meal and snack at least 1 day in advance
* WRITE DOWN every morsel of food that passes your lips in a food journal
* EAT your protein and do it happily You can do this!  You've come this far, don't give up now!  You are strong enough and you deserve to succeed! Pam

I'd also like to chime in. It's always been my theory not to waste food, even the crumbs on a knife when you've cut a cake. So instead of throwing it away, I'll put it inside me, thinking that's a better choice. I'm a dumper and I still do it sometimes. I'm beginning to realize these things would be better off in the trash. I do a lot of cooking for my grown kids & grandkids, thinking I need to have good desserts for them. Being that their mother/grandmother needed gastric bypass to lose over 200 pounds, it's possible they don't need to be eating a lot of sweets either, so am I doing anybody a real favor by making them Paula Deen's ooey gooey butter cakes with toffee sprinkles? Probably not. As of this week, our family night dinners are becoming friendly for diabetics, hypoglycemics, Chronies (my daughter's BF has Chron's Disease), and RNY'ers. We're all of those things. When you eat something good for you, say a grilled chicken salad with light dressing, doesn't it taste as good as a bag of potato chips or candy? And definitely makes us feel better after we've eaten it. So why in the world would we want to eat something awful like that? I guess we just want what we shouldn't have. Just stay away from that stuff. The more you indulge in it, the more you'll want, and it's just not worth it.

Thank you for words of encouragement and the strong voice they are issued in. That is exactly what I needed. I have gone far below the goal I set for myself and as such have let the voices of friends and family start to sway me into believing I can eat "real food" cause I need to gain back some weight. I did some real soul searching and have come to the conclusion: BS! I may be lower than my goal, but I feel good about the way I look (excess skin aside) and the small sizes I can wear. I don't ever want to go back to the way I was before. Therefore, it is back to good proteins, fiber, vegetables, and fruit in that order. If it is not good for my nutrition than it is not good for me.

Ramona.... "Get thee to a nunnery"... or stop eating the damn carbs and get yourself some ketosis strips to get your body back to burning the fat... T.