5 year surgiversary - life is better, but food is still a struggle...

You're just a few months behind me, Cynthia! We will be celebrating you next summer! I know you get it - this maintenance thing is the pits. I seriously feel like the year of weight loss was SO easy in comparison. I guess if I were to sum up my journey it would be "**** gets real after year 3" lol.

I'm so glad we have become friends in person and virtually and thanks for being my sounding board and my fellow Dr Michaels fan club member!

I started gaining some weight due to several cir****tances -surgery-thyroid but also my nephew moving in. I had to come to the same realization that I could just not eat the same thing as him all the time. Sometimes it would work, and sometimes no.

Em, you are beautiful through and through. Thank you for your post, and for the posts you linked. I have learned so much from you, and I so appreciate your candor and kindness! Sending you a big thank you, and lots of love.

Thank you, Cara! You have blown by me with your massively impressive weight loss and I look forward to celebrating your 5 year surgiversary in less than 4 years from now! I have seen how you have really embraced the concept of eating high protein, weighing portions, and tracking...and I think this will help you to remain successful in the long term! Sometimes I just get a hunch if someone is going to be successful and I feel that you most definitely are!

Thank you so, so much, Em. I feel touched and honored by your words!

I am definitely not ****y about what it will take to stay lean over the long term. I lost and regained 100+ pounds so many times I actually don't remember - at least 6 times, if not more, and not counting a variety of 60-ish pound losses. I'm a good loser, but keeping it off has been the big challenge! That in a nutshell is why I had WLS. But I understand that as long as I keep on doing the behaviors you mentioned - eating high protein, and protein first; weighing my food and soberly, accurately recording every bite of my intake; weighing myself every single morning no matter what and recording that number; avoiding starchy and simple carbs, and keeping my fluid intake high and separate from my meals. Not snacking between meals, though 4 small meals suit me. Not eating for several hours before bed. Exercising!

And not eating sugar. I love sugar and had a huge sweet tooth! And I do mean huge: I'm convinced that 75-100 pounds of my obesity was attributable to ice cream alone! I just loved the stuff. I haven't had any sugar since I started my pre-op diet. I'm afraid I'll dump - and even more afraid that I won't dump! Between the two I would prefer dumping, as hideous as it sounds, because sugar is such a slippery slope for me. And I'm a creature of habit - once I allow myself something, it's so much easier to have it again. The door, once opened, is hard to completely close again. I'd much rather never start!

That all being said, I am just so very happy to be in the weight range I am in, with all of the fantastic energy and The absolute mobility I now enjoy, and with the astonishing sizes I can now wear. Not to mention my renewed love affair with high high heels! It's awesome! I am nervous about regain, but I know that our road is well mapped, and as long as we follow it we actually can remain lean and healthy! And if we slack off for a bit - there is a way back, we just have to refocus on the rules.

Anyway, thank you, Em. You are gorgeous, and I am so glad that you're here!

Even with my regain, my level of energy and ability to do ANYTHING is still something I marvel at. Take the train to NY and walk 6 blocks to the office - not even a second thought. Back when I was 300+ lbs, I would have been figuring out what exit to take from Penn Station to be by the cab stand. I literally can't even imagine being back in a body that wasn't capable of walking 10 miles in a day, because now that I can, I never want to NOT.

Keep coming here and don't fall into my trap where I stopped weighing and tracking, and I think you CAN keep the weight off! You may find that your set point isn't 130 lbs but rather 140 or even 150, which would still be a healthy weight for you, but you will settle in!

I don't dump sadly, never have. I wish I did too - it would be a great deterrent! But I am not a sweet tooth person anyway. I am a savory fiend. Which works out decently well, like right now, as I eat my deli chicken and goat cheese for breakfast :)

Hello Emily:

Although I'm only 4 months post-op, I have been following your posts on OH for almost 1 1/2 years. You are an amazing person!

Congratulations on your 5-year anniversary and new role as an "official" OH Veteran!

I appreciate your candor and openness in sharing both the things that you succeeded at as well as the difficulties you have had over your 5-year WLS journey. It's reassuring to a newbie, like me, to hear that someone else has struggled during their WLS journey and turned things around. I'm already struggling very much with accountability early in my post-RNY career.

Your post clearly resonated with me. Unlike you, I am certainly not the model WLS patient! Some of this is because of ongoing medical complications that I have had since day one post-op. But, I believe that the majority of my problem is that I am complacent.

Here, I have been given the opportunity of a lifetime . . . a doable and proven method to lose over 100 lbs that have plagued my life and health for over 25 years and I am not holding up my end of the bargain.

When I read posts on OH, I am reminded over and over again about what a gift WLS is! Yet, at 4-months post-op, I'm already complacent! This does not bode well for either my initial weight loss and especially for my maintenance phase.

Your post is serving as a much needed swift kick in my butt and I thank you for it! Yes, I am having some ongoing difficult post-op medical problems, but I need to stop using this as an excuse to prevent me from building and strengthening the habits that will help me succeed at reaching my goal weight and maintaining it.

You expressed these habits quite succinctly:

• Eat protein, low carb
• Weigh and track everything I eat
• Weigh myself daily

I wrote these down as a reminder to myself. It's time for me to break out of my complacent mode!

Emily, you are an inspiration to me! Many thanks to you and all the other Veterans on OH who continue to post in this Forum. Your wisdom and experience are invaluable.

---Joyce

Hi Joyce - thanks for calling me an inspiration, that definitely feels good, especially while struggling in my mind whether or not I am "successful". I do hope you take my cautionary tale as a reminder to be complacent - I promise that it does seem to get harder after a few years, so now is the time for you to create good habits and reach your goal weight.

This is a great place for support and advice and ideas, so keep participating in the forums and break out of complacent mode. Don't let the weight that has plagued you for 25 lbs keep you down any longer!

HI DC, I can see why you are so popular. No matter what WL site I read the people most interesting to others are those who "did it", everyone wants to know their story, details, details.

I'm research oriented (from my career) and when i see stories like yours it helps me understand or look for bits of info from what I read, which confirms or illuminates more what the 'textbook' or study results show.

This part I am hesitant to ask, but you wrote "...but all I can see are those 25 extra pounds", if you were 160 at your 'goal' weight, and are- 199.8 today, isn't that 39.8 lbs difference? Did I misread a sentence, or miss something?

It doesn't matter the number today, your attitude and drive is one of a winner. You reminded me of a trainer/athlete guy that men really LOVE, and I do to. i started listening to this short video each day for the last 2 weeks, and I swear it makes such a difference.

I've never been an athlete by any stretch,, 'bookworm' suits me better, but boy did I charged up hearing him. he has a ton of clips on youtube, long and short. Best of CONTINUED success to you in 2019

Be a BEAST.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViKt9rGITW0

Thanks, Private citizen! Yep, you make a great point, I am up 40 lbs! But I was happy and felt good maintaining at 175. So I would be thrilled to be there again. I don't know if I will ever see 160 again but 175 would be glorious!

Thanks again for your kind words - if I can make even one person continue to weigh and track food rather than "wing it" and regain, then I will be thrilled!