Winter is Coming - when did you realize the honeymoon phase was over?

After surgery, it really is all on us.

It's a Game of Thrones reference, I was trying to be tongue in cheek which clearly didn't come across in print. I am not trying to say all is dark, but I AM trying to get a better understanding of the challenges ahead. I do appreciate all the feedback as I already feel like I'm better understanding the nature of the drum beat of warnings...

I totally got this reference, and really enjoyed your creative post! I found it clever and funny, not melodramatic at all.

I often view my pre-op hunger as pacman, lol.

HonestOmnivore,

Lol...Great references, m'dear - seriously! :D

Do you know how you try and make a creative person appear foolish? Pretend you believe that the artist is being literal, pretend you don't recognize any creative methodology, you see no parody...and...you especially do not acknowledge any type of clever literary references, in other words, pretend you don't get it, whatsoever...Then stand back while the bruised artist tries (and then tries some more) to explain their intentions (and congratulate yourself as you pick-up on the artist secretly feeling hurt, or when they're positive that if their creative offering had been any good, then the audience would have gotten it immediately).

Be that as it may, HonestOmnivore, I got it...others got it...Lol...99.9% got it (trust me)! :D

I totally got it. Hodor, Hodor!!!

Audrey

hollykim,
Your last sentence made sense...but, I wish you'd deleted your first one, m'dear!
Sarcasm is passive-aggressive, hollykim, and it's so beneath a mature, intelligent person like yourself.
Perhaps going forward, consider sarcastic remarks as a type of double-edged sword - it enables us to say something harsh or even cruel to another person, but...if we're called-out for our behavior we get to throw our arms up and be the misunderstood victim, ie "What's the matter can't you even take a joke!?", or "Geez, you've got No sense of humor!!" Yes, a sarcastic 'jab' can be quite an effective weapon!

Having had the pleasure of reading your posts from time to time, I am certain you would never deliberately leave those kind of "invisible scars" on another woman.

I wrote because I feel that communication - especially how we speak to each other - is so important, and I felt compelled to finally share my thoughts on the matter. (Lol...I waited a couple of days to write because at the same time, I didn't want to make a huge fuss!)

I said what I meant. It was melodramatic , even coming from a series.

I will simply remind you, respectfully, that you don't get to tell others what to post.

As long as I am not in violation of TOS, and I was not, I am good.

I was eating protein forward. I had not touched flour, bread, sugar, sweets, rice, potatoes, chips, cookies, corn, or cereal.

I had reached 10 pounds under goal at eighteen months. I was loving my new way of eating and my new body. I quit getting on the scale.

At 30 months, I had a doctor appointment where they weighed me. I had gained up to 133 pounds from 128. I sort of laughed about it. The next month I was five pounds heavier. I still did not care, because I was so close to my 136 pound goal weight. A month later I was another five pounds heavier and I panicked.

I went back to my surgeon and nutritionist. They said that my honeymoon was over and that my body was absorbing calories again. Steak with lettuce has calories and I was eating too many calories.

Even when I started to cut back, the weight stayed. I went back to Weigh****chers, embarrassed to weigh 142 pounds. I tried their diet, even though it included the things that I had not eaten. I bought their snacks and treats. I attended meetings and the weight would not budge.

I finally lost that excess weight by counting calories. I set 900 calories as my daily limit and followed that. I weighed daily and the weight finally started to go down. It came off at one pound a week.

When you weigh less, you need less calories to maintain that low weight. The more you lose the less you get to eat.

The end of malabsorption is not something you can control. The number of calories that you eat is something that you can control.

THANKS! This give me hope.

One of the things that the surgeon and NUT both liked is my long history of logging everything I eat. They liked that it demonstrated that I'm honest and that I'm self aware. I could walk them through my food dairies and point out my mistakes, bad choices, coping mechanisms etc... I had lost a significant amount of weight but not been able to get all the way below the obesity BMI and stay there. The theory was that the RNY would provide a tool that would help me get across and then STAY across that line. My greatest fear going into this wasn't "just" regain, it was fear of it being even HARDER to lose weight after the first two years than it was pre-WLS. I know my age impacts this, I know nature impacts this, I know every year it gets harder... but I want it to me doable without it being a full time job. Make sense?

That's why I'm working very hard at changing all of my life. I'm working on my mind (the ultimate challenge) with bi-weekly therapy sessions, and my physical body by trying to create an active lifestyle rather than "exercise" looking for home that's within biking distance of work, and has a walking community etc., and I'm obviously working on my diet and food choices.

I am one of those people who you are probably talking about who are whining that maintenance is hard. But its the head games I play with myself that are the contributing factor, not the physiology.

If I eat carbs I gain weight. Period. Why do I keep eating carbs? God only knows... but it's as simple as that.

Your enemy is not your body and the changes that may or may not be happening with malabsorption--don't worry even a little about that. Worry about staying laser focused from Day 1 onward so that you build good habits early on. Worry about knowing how your body responds to food types so that you can self-correct when you need to. Worry about getting your head screwed on tight so that nothing stops you from getting to goal before your first surgiversary.

Tomorrow is my 2 year surgiversary and there has not been even one day of doom, gloom or "winter".