Interesting (at least I thought so)

Read this in an article and it resonated for me. I should approach it this way more often. I think I just forgot.

It is my experience that 100% of patients who take to the operating table for the treatment of their disease say, "I'm not going to be one of those people who gain weight after surgery." You can bet the farm I said that - and imagine my embarrassment and shame when I did in fact become one of those people. At the time I didn't understand my disease had relapsed, in part because I had relaxed my newly evolved eating and exercise habits, but also because my body has a disease that wants to store excess fat. I thought I gained weight because I was a failure at surgery.

I actually get REALLY angry when I hear, "the weight is gone forever!".....in the losing phase.  And, I felt this way pre-surgery too.   It is VERY likely that regain can occur and as someone *****ally struggled to get every pound off with this surgery (and I have been WAY more compliant than I ever thought I would be).....it is even more of a struggle to maintain.  Also, for many of us, obesity is a complicated, multi factored disease....and for some of us this includes an addictive component.  The brain chemistry and how we respond to food is also an area that researchers are really just learning about.  I may be one of the rare ones but I have worried about maintaining my weight loss since pre-surgery and struggle with some rumination in this area daily (i.e. feel guilty no matter what I eat).

One thing I do know...isolation does not help and this is way more than just about food.

Blessings,

Jennifer

Thank you for your honesty Jennifer.

I agree. Eating/not eating is a very emotional experience for me. As an example, I feel guilty when I sit down to eat and during. But then to justify eating in my own way, I become angry and spiteful. I never thought that the emotional stuff would go away because it is so core to who I am. I guess I just thought that losing all those pounds would be enough to overcome the emotional...that it would win out in some way.

The way I look at it, is that I am bipolar, have thyroid disease, and will need to be a person who thinks about every morsel of food that goes in my mouth if I have any hope of a healthy body. Those are my diseases. I hate them. But even my darkest hour I wouldn't want what someone else has.

I had a major loss once before WLS and regained and then some so I knew how easy it was that time to gain it all back.  I attributed it to a joint issue that made me stop running, not overeating but I know it was a combination of both.

The weight did come off easy after surgery and I didn't really struggle with stalls and all that, HOWEVER, maintainance is a bear and I could regain so easily if I wasn'****ching everything that went in my mouth and exercising my butt off.  As I keep telling newbees who wonder where "goal" is, it doesn't matter, this is for the rest of your life.  It's not like you reach goal and the game is over.  This is the life if we want to stay small.

I agree Price. What I regret though, is letting the weight loss come to a halt. Even though there were medical reasons, I should have worked harder. It just came so easy at first. BUT, no time for regrets, too busy shrinking my butt.

Oh yea - I said that too.  Then "I won't ever get above XXX weight".  Then when I hit that I'm, well, ok... I won't get over this XXX weight, and when I hit it and said OMG... I still gained a few more lbs.  It happens.  I know there are some it doesn't happen to, but it such an effort to maintain and get it back off....