Would you read my new blog post?

I'd love to have your feedback on my blog post regarding struggling with weight gain after we're several years out. If you have a minute, it would be great to have you read it and comment. Thanks, friends!  http://www.obesityhelp.com/member/204874/blog/2009/09/23/pou nds-are-leaving-me---/

Awesome. It's good encouragement for those of us who have fallen off the wagon and a good warning for those who aren't there yet. The best defense is a good offense...Fore warned is fore armed..

Thanks, Dawn! Definitely agree that forewarned is forearmed.  I think that's part of the reason I haven't freaked out and gotten depressed; I've been on this website reading for so many years that I knew what was happening and that it could be overcome with a bit of effort on my part. Sitting around wailing and lamenting that I'm depressed and feel like I did about food before surgery is not accomplishing anything, but I see so many people get to that point. Usually after they make a sad post like that, they don't come back to OH.com.  It's sad, too, because this could be the place that helps them overcome instead of regress into unhealthy lifestyle and weight gain and more depression. I hope they'll come back. 

Have a good day! Thanks for reading my post! 

I guess I was special. I saw people two years out before I had my surgery and saw them struggling and still see them struggling to keep their weight down...It's not an instant fix. I worry when I see people post "100 pounds gone forever." because it's not...It's just NOT, unless we're right on top of it. I am scared each and every day of gaining any weight at all..but I think that's a good healthy fear and if I have to live in fear for the rest of my life, that's okay with me...

the other day someone said "I'm SO glad you've put on a couple of pounds. You look SO much better now." but in my mind I centered in on "put on a couple of pounds." like it was a beacon...I stressed over that statement...even though I have not put on a couple of pounds! I weigh 128 and my goal was 125...should I worry? No, but I lost that two pounds, even still. I'm weighing 126 again, all because I got skeerd.

I guess that's not healthy either.

You're right, it's not automatically gone forever! I remember right after surgery, how it felt so good to have very, very little appetite and to feel like I'd been freed from prison. No more feelings of food addiction.  I enjoyed every second of it! However, I was warned by those who were several years ahead of me that I should make the best use of it that I could, as it will never be that perfect again. I thought that surely wouldn't happen to me! LOL

Now that I'm over three years out, I know that the addiction feelings do slip back in gradually. It is now up to me to work the tool I have been given. I have to fight the battle. Granted, it is NOT as hard as it was pre-surgery, by any means, but it is still there for me to deal with. I have to take responsibility for my eating and my exercise, etc. It is helpful to me to think of it as being similar to alcoholism. I will never be completely free from it, I just have to control it daily.

It's maybe good that you're worried about those two pounds.  I wish I had worried at 160 instead of waiting to worry at 178! LOL  However, it is coming off, and I am learning so much from the experience.