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

THANKS!

Amen.

Wow some good advice being given for sure. One additional word of warning or a lesson a friend of mine can provide to you (I him once mentioned in a post a month or two ago). He had a very similar view of weight loss - that it was magic or god's will or other outside doing (like honeymoon period is the only way to lose weight). He never saw that the needed FOCUS was up to him and that SUCCESS was up to him. He started WLS at 385 about 7 or 8 years ago and I saw him last week and he's well over 400 now. His comment to me is that the supposed cure didn't work. Don't fall into his trap. I don't think you will or you wouldn't be on this site. Good luck!

Thanks!

Yes, I don't expect the small pouch to prevent weight gain. I don't expect the RNY malabsorption to prevent weight gain, I do very much hope that they will both continue to help me when combined with a careful, intentional lifestyle that monitors food intake and exercise both.

I personally know a few people like that. Very sad.

Ok, so I'm only a few few months further out than you, but here's my experience for whatever it's worth.

Around the six month mark things changed. Before that I was dropping weight at a rate weight, 100 pounds in 6 months with no effort at all on my part. Around 6 months, maybe slightly before that, I could suddenly eat more, and more often. I wasn't hungry exactly. I just could eat more. I had a long stall at that point that wasn't really a stall IMO, more like trying to figure myself out. I have never had much in the way of food intolerances after surgery, and at that point if I ate what I wanted when I wanted it I very neatly slid into maintenance. I didn't regain. I just quit losing. And I didn't want to do that as I was only halfway to my goal. So I had to get serious, figure out what needed to happen, make some rules for myself, etc. As long as I follow my rules, the weight keeps moving. I'm still losing, pretty much every week, as long as I follow my rules. If I don't follow them, I stall again. Those rules are nothing new, just what the vets preach on here, restrict carbs, eat protein forward, don't graze. The grazing thing has been the hardest for me. I still can't eat very much at once, but I can sure graze plenty of calories if I'm no****ching it! But if I do those things, the scale, so far, keeps moving. Not as fast as in the first six months for sure! I am hoping to be down another 40 or 50 pounds by my one year check up, versus losing 100 in the first 6 months. But it's moving. I don't count calories at this point. I know I probably should. I find it so time consuming. I cook many different recipes every week (emeals) and don't eat the same thing all the time, so to count calories I would have to sit down each weekend and plug all those recipes in. I have done it, but it is a pain in the can. Since the scale is moving, I jus****ch my portions and carbs and know in my head the time will come when I will have to start counting calories. Maybe by then emeals will listen to my pleas and start including a calorie count for the meals? For the other things, yes, I feel hunger again, but it is not often still that I feel real hunger. My energy is fabulous. Much better than it was the first six months. I still feel very full when I eat dense protein and veg. So, anyway. That's what I'm experiencing, almost 11 months out. I know I am still considered in that honeymoon period too.

Thanks!

Yeah, I have had no food issues either. I mean if I eat too fast or too much of a simple carb I will start sweating and feel like crap but that's self inflicted. I could eat meats just fine a few weeks out, and I haven't found a food I don't tolerate in the appropriate portion size eaten at the appropriate speed.

Maintenance is hard. Not as hard as riding a unicycle while juggling chainsaws, but it's not easy.

I see maintenance as hard mentally, not physically. It's easy for diet fatigue to set in. When we are maintaining, we aren't getting the constant thrill of losing. Maintenance is much less exciting.

I see maintenance as being similar to managing any other chronic health condition. I know what I have to do, and I know the consequences of deviating from plan.

It's not glum to me.

I can so relate to this. Maintenance being hard & easy at the same time. For me the honeymoon period would end whenever I started to listen to what my head said rather than what my body said.

I was relaying your post to my family this weekend. They were laughing about how uncoordinated I always have been, and how my older sister mastered the unicycle in a few weeks but I never figured it out. I am so happy to hear that maintenance won't be that hard... (I can juggle but I've yet to try chainsaws!)