Maintenance Honesty

Thanks, Roz.  I know it's not going to be easy, but reading about how you catch what you're doing and the actions you take to change the behavior really helps.  You are a ROCK STAR!

Hugs,
Teri

Wonderful post Roz!!  Thanks so much for sharing.  There is a large group of us that are now in maintenance and probably past the malabsorption of food period so now it is entirely up to us and our choices.

I had a friend that walks miles everyday tell me that she doesn't really love walking, but she does love eating so that is why she walks everyday.  I decided I liked to eat somethings so that is when I decided to increase my exercise.  But I noticed some of the things that I added were having bad effects on me so I have had to cut them out and make some other adjustments.

The night time snacking is a major problem that I have.  I can do so good all day long and blow it in 1 hour at night!!  Last night after I had my protein drink I went ahead and brushed my teeth because I knew I would not eat after that.

We can all do this together.  Thank goodness we have each other for support. 

Linda

Thank you Roz - and everyone else here!

WLS seems like it was relatively easy for most of us... it's the maintenance that's a *****! Ohhhh, those heads we have - if only they HAD operated on them as well as our guts! LOL!

Got my new heart rate monitor this afternoon, tried it out this evening. Need to learn all the ways to use it, but am seriously hoping this gives me better data than the generic "well, you're a female, age X, weight Y, so you burn Z calories per minute" stuff I get from all the websites. If so, it should make figuring out what I burn (and therefore what I need to maintain!) a bit easier!

Of course, I look like a total dork out walking: lime green iPod clipped to the back of my left hip, blackberry clipped to the front of my left hip so I can use endomondo for gps tracking of actual speed and mileage, fitbit clipped to the front of my right hip for step counting and intensity (METS score), regular Timex on my left wrist, and purple/fuschia heart rate monitor computer on my right wrist! But hey - if it works, I can be a dork! Lord knows, I've been a dork for worse causes!

 OMG Rebecca, you gave me a great laugh visualizing you with all your "gear".    :)

LOL!  Yeah, DH asks if I want a satellite dish to I can talk to aliens.

I tell him no, I'm content listening to rock oldies.

Mostly I go out when he's not around to tell me 1) you're overdoing it, take a few days off, or 2) you're going out looking like THAT???, or 3) NO MORE THAN 30 MINUTES!  I don't care how good it feels, get back here!

(not like I actually take direction well...)

Rebecca you are cracking my up!  Come on give us some pics of you in your dork gear!  The satellite dish commet had me laughing out loud!  You are a riot girl!  I admire your willingness to be a dork for a great cause and refuse to take directions!

No no no - no cameras! LOL!  A dork I will be, but not a photographed dork!

Roz, you don't know how much your warning at the top of the Miles and Menus threads has helped me.  I feel like I am a hard core carb addict.  My carb addiction caused me to fail my first WLS miserably and it was a very malabsorptive procedure.  I felt like the biggest loser in the world, and not in a good way.  It was a hard lesson for me to learn.  Honestly, I felt like such a lost cause that I never would have considered a revision because I felt that I was doomed to fail no matter what surgery I had because I couldn't control my eating.
I got a second chance when I did have a revision, not because of weight loss but because of other issues.  I know without a doubt that I will fail again if I start thinking I can handle refined carbs again. Years and years of experience has shown me I can't handle them in moderation and even though sometimes I find myself trying to convince myself that now I can do it, I don't want to take the chance.  I have a healthy fear of losing control again if I started eating things like sugar and bread, my weaknesses.  I am an addict through and through and as they say, one is too many and a thousand isn't enough.  It is much easier for me to stay away from them then it ever was to quit them.
Everyone has to find their own path in this WLS journey.  I know there are some who can eat them in moderation.  I just have to be honest with myself and know that I can't.  I do have to say that without exception, whenever someone talks about regain when they are honest about it they always admit to eating too many carbs.  I never hear anyone say that eating too much fruit was the reason they regained weight although I guess it's possible.  But for me it is the carbs, pure and simple.  Life is much easier when I keep away from them.

Tazz, just so you know, Vitalady said she had a regain that she had to work hard to get off that was caused by eating too much fruit. Sugar is sugar and I guess she found out the hard way.

--gina

Carbs - and sugar are a serious problem for me!  I wish I had dumping syndrome and would get really sick if I ate them!  You eat some carbs, just not refined like bread, pasta, rice potato?