Day 1 - Calling all Vets - Questions for you all

Thank you Sparklekitty for taking the time to reply.

I do love that you keep some of your pre op pics around when you feel like giving up, that is a great idea and I think I will do this as well.

Thanks for the reminder of the "danger zones." Its so true!

I'm 10 years post RNY in March.

Question 1 - I had digestive issues and nausea before RNY and have same issues post RNY. There are many foods I avoid. I'm good with eating limited menu and eating pretty much the same foods every day. I eat for strength, nutrition, health, etc. It doesn't bother me.

Question 2 - Regain is real. I'm not afraid of it. I weigh myself every morning and look for trending up. I , unfortunately, let myself get 15 pounds above goal (last year) and it took me 6 months to get it off and back to goal. It was hard work. I'm even more vigilant about not getting more than 5 pounds above goal. I'm not afraid, but regain is real and I need to make choices every meal/day that are best for my body.

Penny

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

I really like your response to Q1 - "I eat for strength, nutrition, health etc." That is a fantastic reminder! I am a food addict and I need to remind myself that food is what will keep me strong & healthy. If I feed my body crap i will feel like crap.

Thank you for sharing that you did have regain, you worked hard and got it back off. I love hearing these stories because for me its very motivating to know a Vet like yourself can put in the hard work, be vigilant and enjoy maintenance.

Congrats on your 10 successful years!!

Ooh thanks for doing this, Daisy! I sneak in as a vet by just a few months. And I struggle much more with maintenance - I thought losing the weight was the easy part! Year 4 in particular was when **** got hard for me! So here are my personal experiences with these two questions:

Question 1 (diet fatigue): you know, just the other day I was commenting to my BF that it's a good thing I like to plan and organize and prep meals. I think at the time I was chopping onion, portioning salmon, and hacking up chicken wings. I literally said, out loud, "you know, it's a good thing I like to cook". That being said, I do have some favorites in rotation. Breakfast is easy, I eat the same exact thing about 350 days per year. Right now it's 4 oz of Boars Head Ever Roast chicken deli meat (sliced thin) with 1 oz of some cheese. It's filling, it's high protein, and it's the one meal per day that I am sure of. Also, if I start my day with carbs, I continue my day with carbs. And going out for dinner (for example) can be higher calorie or higher carb so why not make sure that breakfast is healthy and filling. I tend to cook something new for dinner every night, with enough for leftovers for lunch the next day. My BF always gets a side (like fries or baked potato) and since I am not a potato person, it doesn't tempt me. Things that tempt me, I try not to even keep in the house or prepare (like pasta). If I make Kris a side of pasta, I know I am eating some, so I just stay away. This weeks meals for example are: turkey burgers (homemade, mix up 93% ground turkey with some olive oil, spices, 3 tbsp bread crumbs, mustard, Worcestire sauce, finely diced onions), salmon on the grill, chicken wings in the air fryer, chicken tenders on the grill, crab broiled in the oven with mayo and Old Bay. If we don't have enough leftovers for lunch, I have Costco rotisserie chicken on hand to make chicken salad, or I hard boil some eggs for egg salad (that I mash with cottage cheese, not mayo) and I eat a can of tuna at least once a week (that I doctor up with feta cheese and a jar of artichoke salad from Aldi). I don't often get diet fatigue, because if I am in the mood for something different, I prepare it. But we eat a lot of chicken and turkey in our house.

Question 2 (regain): I'm living it! I was always fine within a certain 10 lbs range and then I was out of that range but still felt fine and then I just buried my head in the sand and got wayyy out of that range. So here I am, like a broken record, that I have to lose 25 lbs. It's really freaking hard. How I can be down more than 150+ lbs and find 25 lbs so freaking unsurmountable is a mystery, but seriously, I feel like I have to calorie restrict every single day of the week to lose a pound. I used to lose that in a day! Ugh, it's hard. My advice is do as I say, not as I did. Do NOT get out of the habit of weighing and tracking food. I realized that little things like using my BFs hazelnut creamer...was adding like 100+ calories a day to my day. Those little things add up!

Thank you Em for taking the time to respond. I have to tell you that I admire your openness to share your struggles, I think many of us here on OH can relate to what you have written, so thank you

I wish I was half the cook you are! My issues is I am not that creative. I have never made a hamburger patty in my life because I just can't come up with what to put in it, sad right! And for me its a time issue. I work all day, have a very long commute and the last thing I want to do when I get home is cook for a hour. I do end up doing a lot of menu prep on Sunday so that I have cooked chicken for example already in the fridge and I just have to add a side to it. We eat a lot of chicken in our house too

I have a character flaw where I bury my head in the sand with a lot of things in my life. So although I have not had regain I know if I did I too would just ignore it, make excuses and hope that I would wake up one day and it was gone without putting in the effort. Seeing you write that you feel you would have to seriously calorie restrict to lose a pound puts fear in my heart. I already eat a lot less calories than a lot of the OHers because I have a crap metabolism so that is "fear" enough for me to keep up with all the mundane "rules" of weighing, tracking, don't drink with my meals, wait 30 mins after eating to drink, and for me I don't drink alcohol because I am greedy with my calories and I want to eat food that is 200 or 300 calories and not drink it in one glass of wine for example (but that's just me!).

Keep up the fight Em, you got this, its not that you were only successful once losing 150lbs + you ARE successful and will get the regain off.

Will be 17 years post RNY on 4/22

Q1: I have always been a "in a rut" type eater, and I'm not much of a cook, so diet fatigue is not really a problem, for me. I still have a shake, or at least protein powder, in coffee pretty much every morning, and have the same meals over and over. Luckily, I LIKE chicken and spinach! I have to be VERY careful not to GRAZE, which is why I tend to stay on m same meals - especially lunches. I am home during the day - I babysit 5 Short Peeps - and it would be SO easy to graze. If I KNOW when I am going to eat, and WHAT I am going to eat, life is SO much more in control. I have enough CHAOS, in my day, without mindless eating adding to it

Q2: It took me 9 YEARS to get to goal. That is NOT A TYPO. I jacked around, and gained in excess of 70 pounds, having never reached goal...then I got ANGRY, AT MYSELF...The only revision I needed was a BRAIN revision...I stay at goal now, or pretty close...I weigh daily...If get 5 lbs over, that's my RED ZONE--I go "5day Meat Test" :)

Gina, so good to see you!! Your post made my heart smile! I love and applaud your openness and "tell it like it is" attitude. Thank you for your post and this awesome dose of reality.

You said one of my nemesis words = "Graze." Its my nemesis because I LOVE to graze. Pre surgery I was not a volume eater, I was a grazer. And I fight this urge daily not to graze. But what I take away from your post is that having a routine (you know what you are eating because you have to be organized with all your short peeps at your house) it what keeps the grazing/mindless eating at bay. Routines are key.

Thank you for sharing in Q2. You have an incredible amount of dedication, perseverance and ass kicking going on! BRAVO! I am pretty sure I would have given up and ate myself back to MO if I had not reached by goal by year 2, let alone year 9. I guess its true when they say "don't mess with Texas!"

What a good reminder that regain can happen, does not mean you need a revision, it means you need a "brain revision." So true and you are living proof of that!

5 Day meat test aka AMAW is legit amazing.

Congrats on our 17 years, you are amazing Gina

Great idea to do this Daisy - Thank you!

You are welcome Mike!

14 days to go. Not that I'm counting or anything. ;)