6 years out, birthday, and more letters behind my name!

Yesterday was my 6 year surgery anniversary, today is my birthday, and on Saturday I can officially add three letters to the end of my professional credentials and/or refer to myself as "Dr."! I am proud to say that I am maintaining all of my loss (190 pounds) within a 5 pound range on either side of my goal weight. I am far more proud of maintaining my loss than of having achieved it in the first place. The losing is easy; maintaining is hard. At least for me. Even after 6 years, I still sometimes struggle with the emotional eating behaviors that got me up to over 330 pounds. It's harder for me because my knees limit the amount of exercise I can do (it remains to be seen how much exercise I will be willing to do after I heal up from the second knee replacement in November!), but I am PROOF that it is possible to maintain your weight loss with nothing more than casual physical activity (walking the dog. Taking the stairs instead of the elevator on "good" knee days, etc.). You don't get the physical benefits of the exercise, of course, and it means you have to be more diligent in making food choices, but it is entirely possible. If I stop being mindful of what I am eating (I only track protein), my weight does begin to creep up. If I can do it, though, so can YOU!

Today is my birthday and last night I went out to dinner with a friend. I had some extremely tender filet mignon covered with crab and some delicious, fattening sauce, some broccoli au gratin, a couple of bites of garlic mashed potatoes, and three bites of a wonderful creme brûlée with fresh berries. I had originally hoped that I would be one of the people who dumped from too much sugar, but I have to admit that I do like being able to enjoy such a splurge on occasion. On Friday night I will be going out with my family, and will have leftovers from that as well, so I will be enjoying both meals the rest of the week.

Finally, on Saturday I can officially add the PhD to my professional credentials and national certifications: MSEd, LPC, NCC, NCMHC, EMDR II, PhD. Yes, I definitely like the way that looks!!

All in all, a pretty good week here. (With the notable exception of Gus's diarrhea the past two days from transitioning him over to a new (higher quality, ironically) food!)

Lora

Happy Birthday and congrats on you many achievements this week! :)

Happy Birthday!!!!

 

Congratulations on all of this hard work! It's so worth it in the end!!!!!

Happy Birthday! 

Sounds like a lot of successes for you over the past 6 years!!! Congratulations! 

Your birthday dinner sounds delicious. 

Can I ask what a day might look like for you in meals in the maintenance phase? I'm just curious!

You are an inspiration to me. I'm only 10 days out but am already doubting myself and how I will maintain in the long term. Sometimes, when failure is all you know in terms of weight maintenance, its what you expect :( I need to do better this time. I need to BE better this time. And hopefully by the time I get to my goal I'll know what maintenance looks like with an RNY and be successful!

I think we ALL worry about whether we will be able to lose the weight and KEEP it off.  We all have such a long history of diet failure.  I think the key to this is really embracing it as a lifestyle change rather than a surgery with a required post-op diet... And committing yourself to doing whatever it takes to BE successful (which means making a course correction as soon as you see yourself going off track).  I have a 5-pound gain threshold.  If my weight creeps up 5 pounds, I eliminate my daily snack and all non-dairy, non-veggie carbs until I get the 5 pounds back off.

A typical day for me (I eat every 2-3 hours because of hypoglycemia)  would be:

B - SF hot chocolate with protein powder and Upcal D calcium powder

AM snack - Greek yogurt, sometimes some fruit

L - tuna with whole grain crackers OR deli meat and cheese roll-up OR a Healthy Choice frozen meal (I don't eat the rice or pasta) OR dinner leftovers (protein and veggie)

PM snack - cashews/almonds & some cheese, plus some fresh fruit (half a banana or apple, or some berries)

D - varies a LOT (since the rest of my day is pretty much the same most days); some kind of protein (grilled chicken or beef, baked fish, chili, ham, beans) and some veggies

Evening snack - cheese, nuts, or yogurt followed by my daily treat (under 100 calories, but usually some kind of small chocolate treat, 1/4 C of full-fat, full-sugar ice cream, a few RF Nilla Wafers, or half a lunch-sized bag of pretzels/chips/CheezIts)

Before bed - half a glass of milk (to keep me from waking up feeling shaky)

 

Lora

Congrats on everything!!!! You have worked very hard for everything

Happy Birthday, Doc!

Congratulations!!! Enjoy yourself, you have earned it!!

 

Many happy returns of the day, birthday sister!   You are an inspiration to many of us, in your weight loss journey, your continuing education and your all round awesomeness!!!!!!

Happy birthday and double congrats!!  All three are great accomplishments ...yup, even the surviving another year of life!!  Hope this coming year is filled with the relaxing times you couldn't have while you were busy being ABD.