My Biggest Fear is ..... FAILURE

Here is another thought I have on "obsessed" Summer.

If you were a brittle diabetic and your sugars fluctuated wildly and were horrible to the point that you were doing damage to yourself when you let them get out of control - would being ever watchful of your sugars, what you consumed, how you exercised be obsessed?  No - it would be REASONABLE for you to watch all of those things.

If you had a chemical imbalance and did not take your meds on time and needed to make sure that for your mental hygeine, you did not eat foods/take drugs that counteracted your psych medications, that you identified triggers and practiced coping skills to utilize when you were cycling out of control that you would/could end up hospitalized because you were a danger to yourself and/or others?  No. It would be REASONABLE for you to do those things.

You are being reasonable and doing your due dilligence for something that is very concerning for you, that affects your health and whether they realize it or not, affects your relationship with you family members. This is REASONABLE.

Reasonable rocks!

Wow! It's great to feel like I belong! It also helps to reduce my anxiety seeing how similar we all are.
And I LOVE the analogy with diabetes. 

I do believe that we are not normal eaters.  Just because we look like everyone else doesn't mean that we have the same relationship with food.  I also think that somewhere along the road, for one reason or another, we lost our grasp on what we should or shouldn't eat.  I watch my "naturally thin" friends, and they have no problem saying no to foods when they know they have reached their limit for the day.  I wish that one day I can make that decision as effortlessly.  Thanks to VSG, it is now more doable.  I just worry that since I can eat more, graze more, eat more variety of foods, I will continue to stay vigilant! 

I remember someone saying that, at first, our weight loss would rely 80/20% -surgery's effect vs our own effort.  As time progresses, there would be a shift where our effort would have to increase as our reliance on our surgery would decrease.  I guess this is our new journey!

I guess in some ways i hope the fear of regaining is always part of my life, i have to agree with the others im not normal and ill never be able to eat like a normal thin person. they can eat and drink together with meals, they do push food around on their plates, but i still tend to eat the little portions i serve.

 they do not have our issues, they do not have a body full of fat cells (well as many as us) just sitting waiting to be refilled. they dont have the fear of regaining because they have never been obese or morbidly obese.

They are easily able to say no, because they have the right amount of hormones within their body so their shut off works lol.

when i see people say they had this surgery to eat normal, i often think, that will never ever be me, i still eat mostly protein i dont have room for much else. and if i eat other stuff it becomes slider food.

I am greatful that i have my sleeve as back up, like last night after being hungry for two days i gave in and had some sweets, so maybe it was head hunger...
but today no cravings and back on plan this is what i love about my sleeve.

This is my biggest fear as well. I've lost weight several times, 60, 80 even 100 pounds always to see it come back.

Maintenance has always been the toughest part after dieting.

I do feel that the sleeve is going to help me maintain especially since I feel that I'm in a different mindset than before. But I guess time will tell.

I'm meeting with my Medical team (Primary Doctor, Bariatric Surgeon and Nut) next week. I'm hopping to develop a solid plan to deal with my next stage of life. I'm an IT guy so gotta have a plan.

It's funny you should mention diabetes because this is something I just don't get. My friend who I was talking about in my post above, is a nurse, has diabetes, and lives on oreos, candy, brownies, Cheetos and total junk food. She claimed she got sleeved because it's supposed to cure diabetes, but she has no intention of changing her eating habits. It just drives me nuts because she is a size 4,
weighs 120 lbs, and eats total **** 24/7. She eats a bag of Oreos every single day. "it goes down so easily and meat doesn't " she says.

I gain 3-5 lbs in a weekend if I go off my program that i know I need to stay on, if I want to maintain
my weight loss.

I am going to order some of those books mentioned  . I do have The Beck Diet solution, but I need a few more to keep myself on track.

there does seem to be the odd few that can eat what they want when they want it, but it does not seem to be the norm for most of us.

im like you if i go out eating ill gain.. last night i ate desert and had a gain of .7 of a lb but im not sure if it was the desert or the turkey i ate because it was pre cooked turkey and that does seem to have more sodium in it.

one thing i did notice is that the desert i ate was not one of my all old time "fav" deserts infact id never eaten them before and it did not leave me craving more even tho they were carbs, so i think there definatly is something to watching our " trigger" foods.

Yike - that's scary and sad.  Is she on insulin? 

Maybe see if your library has the 10 Thin Commandments! I really like that book and ESPECIALLY with the holidays around the corner, it might be a good time to see what foods you can "box in" on the holiday and have some or as much as you want, and its just off the menu for the rest of the year? 

For me? Chicken fried steak is boxed in only for when I go to my mama's to visit, because aint nobody makes Chicken Fried Steak like someplace in Texas!  :} 

Like for me - I only have pizza on my birthday - BUT - I have Mellow Mushroom pizza, which is some of the BEST around here.  I have my slice and eat it and love it, and the rest of the year, I do not think about it, because its just not on the menu, especially not crappyassed frozen pizza that I could/would eat and eat.

Like the fella who wrote the book - he loves italian cream cake - he ONLY has it on Christmas day.  He has as much as he likes, because the only day its on his menu is Christmas day, so its not going to become a bad habit again. 

It has been really helpful to me, because I know when I say "No - not today" I really do mean not TODAY, but I dont have to make a deal with me about WHEN, because I have boxed that in for X time.

The End of Overeating really is eye opening about the food scientists making food directed right at our junkie gene!  It really helped me to see way processed trigger foods in such a different light and that it really was not about my willpower, I am just their demographic. 

Like my uncle says about drinking - one is too many and all the booze in the world is not enough.  Its the junkie gene.  It helps to know about what you have it, and to be compassionate towards yourself about it.  Much better than guilt/shame/the flogging!

hey mikey, tell us about your plan when you get it. we all want to know. having a plan seems like a good thing. and my husband is an IT guy too. d