The trade-off...

SO SO SO True!! Thanks Nik!! :D

Huggles!!
~Sarah~

That wa so helpful . THANK YOU!!!! THANK YOU!!!! THANK YOU!!!!

I remember the "old timers" when I was new here.... Jupiter.... Terri R..... Jenny R..... wow I worshipped them..... well not really, but I really liked to hear what they had to say, because they were here and successful. Shari and I got along because she and I both started from a similar place (approx same starting BMI, approx same mega-loss before WLS, approx same body build)..... and She told it like it was.

I really liked that. Not everyone "got" her and a lot of people slammed her continually for being so, as they thought, negative. But I really enjoyed what she had to say....she was one very VERY smart cookie, she was eloquent, and she really REALLY cared. For her troubles, she'd get poison-pen PMs from people telling her that her pictures weren't "Dancing with the Stars" they were more like "Dancing with the Scars" ..... just evil vituperative stuff.... the kind of stuff that drives off us oldtimers. Mostly because she didn't paint the perfect postop picture that one wants to hear.

This is HARD.... freaking hard for people with serious complications, or who never lose much because their endocrine system is outta whack, or who lose too much and engage in a fight to keep weight on so they don't die.... it's hard for the people who find that life isn't perfect at 120 pounds, and in many ways HARDER at that smaller weight.....

This isn't a walk in the park, and I agree wholeheartedly, the whole "taste of thin" ....WTF.... I mean seriously? I have to say that Chocolate cake sure doesn't taste as good when I'm dumping as it tasted before I dumped..... and a plate full of fried stuff isn't as awesome as a lower cholesterol, lower BP, and no GERD causing me to revisit my meals over and over...... What I have got out of this IS better than what I had going in, I don't doubt that, but I certainly sometimes wish to have my guts back the way they were before.... no dumping, no restriction. With the pain I've had this last few weeks, I am to the point where I'm wondering if having NOButtAtAll is really worth the pain of this surgery that was essential once I misplaced my huge set of buttocks.

For MOST people, in the end, it IS worth it..... worth the difficult and sometimes seemingly impossible journey....and when you are in the depths of despair..... I hope you can cling to teh idea that it might some day be worth it....even if you can't believe it in the beginning.

I miss Shari too. I like to envision her at the Amish market picking up some delicious ham loaf.

You're right it can be very hard on occasion. Most of the time I do very well and so happy with my restriction and feel so good about myself. Other times (not often)  I eat and try to force feed myself because it feels good to shove food in my face like I used to. Problem is, I feel like **** and I hate that feeling. So what used to comfort me now makes me feel horrible. Yes, I know what's what the surgery is supposed to do but when you decide to go on a diet you can take "breaks" if you want. There is not "break" from RNY. It's there and it doesn't take weekends off.