What makes you think you won't regain the weight!

...Im gonna go work out after reading this

Me too and that's REAL talk!!  Enjoy your workout!

Ms Shell you are an inspration that keeps me thinking! 

What a great post, Shell.

Well, this is something I worry  about a lot because I've ALWAYS gained the weight back. I've been maintaining for about a year and it's the longest I've EVER maintained a weight loss, but I surely do not take it for granted. I know in the past, I've regained because I lost the focus and just started eating whatever. I stopped weighing myself daily and the pounds crept on. Weighing myself daily is really, really important for me to keep myself accountable.

Like you, I can eat more now and it's easy to let the carbs slide down...and I did a fair amount of that over the holidays and gained a couple of pounds. In the past, I would have been thrilled to only gain 2-3 lbs. over the holidays and would have celebrated by eating even more. This year, I have gotten rid of the junk and candy and am back concentrating on Protein First, my golden rule. I still let myself eat some treats, but if I focus on protein first, it really keeps my hungers, both physical and head, in check.

So, I HOPE I won't gain it back, but I am certainly not complacent about it--down that path lies a slippery slope and I won't go there. What I try, no, make that WILL do:
1) Weigh every day
2) Eat Protein First
3) Come here daily for support

So glad you posted this...

Lizanne

This made me cry...can you post it on your profile so I can find it again when I need it?  Thank you.

Very thought provoking, Ms. Shell!  Please stick around on OH to kick my rear if you see I'm slipping back into old habits.  Of course I haven't had surgery yet, but my greatest fear is having this surgery then failing myself afterwards.  I THINK that  having the majority of my stomach cut away will be incentive enough, but I KNOW that is not being realistic.  We need to help one another, because no one knows what it is like unless they've walked in our shoes.    The naysayers who say just eat less and exercise.  Well, yes in theory that works.  But not for those of us who have a food addiction.  It's impossible to explain what a powerful pull food has on us to someone who has never had any kind of addiction. 

I do not think I will gain the weight back, because I have so many people "watching" me.  The fear of failure in the eyes of others is also very strong.  I want to prove to myself that food isn't the most important aspect of my life.    I want to live the rest of my life (and hopefully a longer one) with focus on life and not my next meal.  I want to prove to myself that food isn't important, other than to sustain life.   I want to think like, act like and be a person of average size.  I don't want to be fat in body or spirit.    That's what I want.  Can I make it work?  Yes I can, but will I?  I sit here and say yes, of course.  But I'm not there yet..to the point of wanting to stuff myself to feed my emotions.  I'm not there yet.  I don't know.  I want it to be, but I just don't know.  I'm determined to make it so, but I just don't know.  As I type this, I'm getting tears in my eyes.  I don't want to fail.  I'm so afraid I will, as many others before me have. 

That's why I need my OH friends and family.  I just HAVE to make this work.  I know success is completely up to me.  My sleeve won't do it for me, but it will be there helping me along the way. 

Thanks for "listening".

Wanda

Awww Wanda I doubt if I go anywhere it'll be far, lol!  Cause I NEED yall too!!  You CAN do this.  You WILL do this.  The VSG does HELP but like I told my dear friend the FURTHER you get out the HARDER it can be...

Thank you for posting this.  I also have found that it's too easy to eat all the wrong things.  I purged my house last night of all the junk and my garbage disposal ate and ate and ate.  The trash was heavy too. 

You are QUITE welcome!!  Oh how the crap goes down, lol!!  And it's so EASY to buy it and start stocking again...shesh!!  Continued success =)

Thanks, I really needed to read that. I lost 10lbs last month due to depression and just...not eating, which isn't healthy. Then I forced myself to eat and it was unhealthy crap (blizzard, so we were stuck in the house with what my mother had picked up for christmas--carby junk food). So I've gained back 6-7lbs and am working on going back down from HEALTHY foods.

I have to remember that I'll *never* be normal and will always struggle with my weight. Doesn't matter that it isn't fair. It's just how it is.