Newbies be warned: much of your will power is anatomically driven

WOOT!

Let me tell you, I am damn glad there are veterans who have stuck around here and can actually share!!!!!  

Things are freaking easy in the first months and I realize that, but I'm scared to death once the easy is over.    This gives me a whole lot to think about that I probably wouldn't have until it happend.  

Thank you!!!!!

Great post!  I have sworn off nothing -- sweets require moderation due to dumping -- but sweets were not my problem.  There are things that I can't keep in the house because I will eat them all (pretzels, snack mix, homemade breads....)  but I can, and do, endulge occasionally. 

I did not sign up for the everything you eat is going to taste like crap forever plan.  Didn't work before, won't work now.  (However, have found many tasty WLS friendly recipes -- thanks Nik!)

I worry about maintenance -- my weight has been relatively stable since March -- and I really want to keep it here. 

 

Well I have to admit. I didn't swear off anything. Nothing was going to be "lost forever" food wise. I'll eat just about anything. I just eat them very infrequently, smaller portions and in MODERATION. Granted there are somethings I can't eat (like cereal with milk) but most of the stuff I "can't" eat I don't miss anyway. Also my "hungry" feeling never really came back either. I'll eat because it's time to feed the kids, but if it wasn't for them, somedays I'd completely forget to eat! I went for a run the other day in the afternoon and couldn't figure out why I just didn't seem to have any fuel..Well I started thinking about it and I hadn't eat yet that day! DUH! Sorry, OT Lol. But yeah, I figure nothing is a "forbidden" food (unless it makes me dump, or the taste just has changed so much I can't stand something anymore...like regular yogurt, tastes to sweet for me even after a year and a half).

You go girl! I'm a huge advocate of "moderation not deprivation" - as in, I AM THE POSTER CHILD. Of course, I didn't incorporate this until I was in year two....I had to use that first year to break some of the vicious cycle.

Sugar? yep. Fat? yep. Chinese? nope. It's about the only thing I don't eat. Do I love it? Hell yeah! Does it love me? Nope. Dear. God. No.

Oh girl, you read all about me vs. Chinese food. I remember it fondly but I get a mind thing about food when I get violently ill too many times.

Thankfully, PF Chang's seems to be the exception to the rule. Thank God for that!

I you for your honesty! There are things that I'm craving again and some things I'm just not or I think I am than try them and realize they aren't as good as I remember them being. I really try to be real with myself. There will be days when I'll eat a piece or two of chocolate or give into a craving and there will be days when I don't. It's going to happen and I'm learning that it doesn't make me a failure! 

Well, I must admit that I'm not exactlly good at the "moderation" thing.

And there are some foods that are defiinite triggers for me, so I do keep firm limits on my intake of refined carbs and sugar. But that's me, and I'm comfortable with it.

I know that if I am in a jam and eat a few pretzels, it's not the end of the world. If a restaurant has fantastic bread (as defined by my husband who is a 3rd generation baker) I can have a bite or two.

But I also see those a year or so ahead of me battling regain at about the 3 year point, and I know that for me, playing with certain foods is like playing with fire. You can't walk on hot coals and not have your feet get burned. That's in Proverbs I think, and it applies to me!

So it's an individual thing, and does indeed require a lot of mental/emotional/spiritual searching and discovery.

Oh most definitely. And there are still some foods I steer clear of!

My main point is that for some, feeling cravings is a sign, to them, of failure. We've been told that old story too long - "if you could just control yourself..." and then we have surgery and it seems we have it all together - only to feel devastated when cravings come back.

It isn't a character defect. We're not bad people. Our bodies healed and some of those cravings will come back. How you deal with cravings is a whole other post. But to have them does NOT make you a failure!

I like this post. I am only four months out but I have no intentions of giving up anything forever. One drink didn't make me 255 lbs, nor did a few nachos or two scoops of ice cream. 15 years of being a couch potato and telling myself I 'deserved' to eat because I worked so hard, coupled with serious portion control problems is what got me there.

Once I reach goal I intend to have a drink with friends occasionally, have what I want to eat in small portions occasionally. I can't speak for sweets because I don't want them or crave them now, but I know that day will come.