Saturday September 2

Weight 115.5, calories 1394.

We went out to dinner with SIL and BIL last night (DH's sister and brother). BIL is visiting SIL on the weekend apparently to get away from his wife because he is drinking AGAIN. About a year ago, BIL was addicted to alcohol and anxiety drugs to the point where he could barely walk. Whe he tried to detox on his own, he had seizures and had to be rushed to the hospital where they put him into an induced coma for several days while he finished detoxing. Ultimately he spent 3 weeks in rehab (not alcohol/drug rehab, just physical rehab) gaining enough strength to walk on his own. During that time his wife told him that this was the last straw and if he drank again she would leave. He spent a lot of the time in rehab crying and saying that he couldn't live without her. We thought he had "hit bottom", but apparently not. For the last year he has refused to go to a substance rehab, to see a therapist, or to go to AA. Three weeks ago he came to visit SIL (without his wife) and had wine and one hard drink at dinner. We were all concerned and I worried about the old slippery slope (my mother was an alcoholic for 30 years and only dry for the last 15). Yesterday afternoon we stopped by and he was drinking wine. I went into the bathroom and when I came out he was pouring a glass of vodka (to which he added a splash of lemonade). He drank that with a straw as if it was lemonade and had a second one which I assume was made like the first. At dinner he had two drinks and a glass of wine, so he is sliding down that slope with great speed. SIL who hates confrontation says she has to say something to him. We are positive that his wife is trying to decide what to do and WILL leave him if he doesn't stop (we won't blame her). So scary and difficult. One other family member is a recovered alcoholic, but does not get along with this brother and is the least diplomatic person in the family (gets everyone's backs up frequently) so he can't help. DH is concerned but can't converse especially when upset so he can't talk to him. Which leaves it to SIL right now. I'm afraid that the wife will kick him out of their house and he will expect that SIL will let him live there. The best thing he could do right now is sign himself voluntarily into rehab so his wife knows he is serious. If he doesn't, this slope is not going to a good place.

So that is my tale of woe this weekend. Sorry to burden you.

i hope you all have a satisfactory Saturday!

Oh, gee, Liz! This is not going to end well. I'm so sorry. I truly hope your SIL doesn't allow herself to become her brother's enabler. Addiction can only be "fixed" by the addict when and if they're motivated to fix themselves. I wi**** worked differently. :(

Exactly! I lived it for 30 years with my mother. She stopped at about 20 years when she fell, broke her hip and lay on the floor for 2 days before someone found her. They told her that is she didn't stop drinking she would fall again and end up dependent the rest of her life. A year or so later she started "sipping" wine and ultimately slid back down. At 30 years she was diagnosed with a serious heart condition and had to stop drinking and smoking (and she stayed off for the last 15 years of her life). At the end of the day, she had to make the decision and stick to it. I was lucky I finally got to know and enjoy my mother (she had a great dry humor).

BIL is an extremely bright and interesting person, but apparently suffers from anxiety. So he self-medicates. Obviously he needs to get help (and needs to come to that conclusion on his own). Last night he kept talking about his wife retiring and them moving near us and renting in Florida. Somehow he doesn't get that drinking and wife don't go together!

Weight: 131.4
Macros: Cals - 1,410, Carbs - 144, Fat - 36, Protein - 112, Fiber - 29
Veggies/Fruits (goal 8): 8
Sleep (goal 8 hrs.): 9
Exercise: Aquarobics class

OK, I'm just going to see where this new weight loss goes. This morning, my weight is down again, and I again weighed my lowest since WLS. Yesterday, I also met my new daily target of 8 veggies and fruits and hydrated well with 9 glasses of liquids, 4 of which were plain water. My protein intake is still high.

Gee, d'ya think this is the real WLS Weight Loss Eating Regimen -- lots of V/Fs and lots of water? LOL!

I will say that eating this many V/Fs really fills me up and keeps me full. I haven't had to fight off any night-time cravings either. I don't believe I'm flirting with anorexia, just eating differently. But admittedly, I'm in awe that this far post-op I can still lose weight like this!

I hope it is due to your changed eating and not something else. Are you still eating as many calories as usual?

I feel great, Liz. Can't imagine there's anything systemically wrong with me.

Admittedly, I'm still eating 200-300 calories fewer than my historic 1,725 cals/day maintenance calorie budget. Per usual, I made that temporary caloric reduction after returning home from our Vancouver vacation 3 pounds up. That kind of change after a vacation always eliminates any vacation weight gain within 1-2 weeks. And this time I lost the vacay weight within a week.

But then I made the new changes of: **** days of iron supplementation (have stopped that for now), (2) eating 8 V/Fs each day, and (3) hydrating better. Sleep is generally good, exercise is the same, alcohol is the same (5 ounces of wine/day). EDIT: And I'm still having my daily afternoon biscotti with fika and crosswords.

Re future eating ... hubby and I are already thinking about barbequed ribs tonight for dinner. We have company coming for a couple of days early next week, so I'll be eating more then as I cook well for them. And next weekend I have an out-of-town wedding trip (4 days) that will definitely offer more calories.

But this losing weight anew is certainly an interesting development. :) More than anything, it's good to see that changing things up can produce weight loss this far post-op. It makes me feel more confident about handling any future regain.

BTW, what I REALLY don't want to do is lose weight to a point where my maintenance calories have to be significantly lower than 1,725/day!

I'd love to be able to eat that much (though I'm pretty used to my calorie level)! It will be interesting to see what your weight does. Maybe if I make some similar changes I can eat more calories (don't want to lose more weight).

I was thinking the same thing Liz and hoping it was just due to more fruits and veggies!

I've worried about that "flirting with anorexia". I mean, I don't know that I could ever be the technical definition, but losing weight again the past few months was, practically intoxicating! It was so so fun! Now, it was very necessary for me at the time, and will be again in a few months. Maybe we've just become addicted to health and seeing what our bodies can do? I just LOVE that now I can try something and it works. Idk why it never did before (probably because at 277...you can't even see landfall). Anyway, congrats on your diet!

Thank you, BB! And yes, there is a definite "intoxication" from seeing the scale continue to drop in ways that surprise me. So happy you were so successful with your gym / eating regimen, too. Also love that phrase "... at 277 you can't even see landfall."