I'm new to this forum

Hello everyone.  I just read about this forum on the VSG one ... and I'm really struggling right now. 

I did great until January of this year.  Had lost from 265 down to 150, which for a short gal like me sounds like a lot, but it was a good healthy weight, and I was maintaining easily without feeling deprived.  In January, I had to have an unexpected spinal surgery and was in the hospital and a nursing home for six weeks.  Well, let me tell you, they had NO concept of how to feed someone who had had a partial gastrectomy, and in two weeks I had lost another 25 pounds.  I was skin and bones and very unhealthy.  I had to eat bits and bites of anything they brought me, including all kinds of simple carbs that I had stayed away from since my weight loss surgery. 

When I got home, the doctor told me that I HAD to gain weight and to eat lots of ice cream and anything else that would go down and stay down.  Well, that is the wrong thing to tell someone with an eating disorder!  I started on the junk food, which I found goes down VERY easily, and now I am so hooked on sugar and simple carbs that I can't get back on track.  I have gained back up to 140, which would be a good weight ... except it is all junk food pounds, and most of it has landed on my middle, a place I have never had problems with before!

So I would appreciate your support and guidance as I try my darnedest to get back on track.  I see an eating disorder counselor, and that helps greatly, but now I'm back to the old guilt and out-of-control feelings that I had before WLS.  

Many thanks, y'all, and I look forward to getting to know you.           --Dorothy 

Bless your heart. I`m new on here also, just a couple of days. I`m so sorry to hear about your problems. Have you talked to your dr that did your surgery yet? He might have some ideas. I would say eat all the protein you can and just do your best to stay away from the carbs. I`m having a time with them as well. I`m 3 1/2 yrs. out and have gained back about 12lbs from my goal weight of 140. I`m at 150 to 152 now. Hang in there, I believe you can do it. But please be careful.

Man, I HATE IT when doctors tell patients to "go eat ice cream" when they get too low in their weight. It's so unhealthy, for starters, even if people don't fall into the black hole of simple carbs as a result. Why don't they say "go eat peanut butter!" instead?

I would go back to how you ate in the beginning... not necessarily liquids but maybe how you were eating at 3 months out -- hard protein first and only other things once you got enough of that in and there was still room. When I find myself eating more than I should, I make myself eat chicken and pork and steak instead of chili and soup and yogurt. It helps.

I know that after a 100+ pound weight loss you know what you need to do to get back on track. The trouble you seem to be having is how do you find the willingness to put down the junk now that you've had a taste of it again. You're struggling with how to get control over your eating disorcer which feels to you like it's got control over you. Am I right?

I've been in the same place emotionally and psychologically for the past few months. Getting "back on track" is hard once your addiction get a taste of it's drug. I felt so much shame because I knew what I was "supposed" to do but couldn't find it within myself to do it.

I'm back on track now thanks to going back to my Overeaters Anonymous meetings. I try really hard not to talk about it too much on the boards, because I know it's not for everyone, but I know for me, that I have an eating disorder and it's the only thing that really helps me with that.

It sounds like you are taking good care of yourself given a lot of tough cir****tances. Keep talking to your doctor (and I'd say tell him about the difficulty this has triggered for you, bariatric surgeons need to know about this stuff), keep talking to your counselor, and try out an OA meeting somewhere. You can find that info at www.oa.org

Hope this helps,
Elizabeth