This July it will be 5 yrs out since my gastric bypass. Originally I wanted to put goal weight at 150 but even when I was 16 and on the swim team and burning calories like crazy, the lightest I ever was, was roughly 145.
As a teen I even did VERY UNHEALTHY things to try and get down to what at the time, according to the notorious insurance standards, was a medical goal weight of 114 -135 lbs for my height at the time. I never managed to get down to 114 despite going on under 600 calories a day (again, with no medical guidance..I was a teen and listened to peer pressure and society tell me what was 'ideal').
So to think that in my 50's that I need to even try for that kind of weight, I figured I'd just disappoint myself plus I'm older and my body has changed. I finally set my goal at 170.
Fast forward to THIS year (year 5) - I had consistently been tracking between 169-175 (and been THRILLED) and for some reason I hit a rough patch about 7 mos ago where I was hungry all the time, scary hungry considering I had been more at ease with my life and not feeling like I had to monitor anything. Things felt like there was a natural rhythm to hunger and how I addressed it. I didn't feel desire to overeat and my family said I still 'ate like a bird, but I realized I had let bad habits creep back in and it was more a boredom thing and honestly, extreme stress. What I was doing that let calories creep in was I was eating more frequently. You can overcome any 'restriction' at some point by eating frequently. I gave myself 'guard rail'/target weight zone instead at the end of my first year post surgery. If I'm in my 'zone', then I'm not actively trying to gain or lose, I'm content. If I get up towards the high end of my zone, I re-evaluate what I'm doing. I ended up in 1 month blowing past the high end of my zone to a weight spike that I had not had for 3 solid years. I had been consistent AND happy with where I was at.
Thankfully I've course corrected and with some help I'm at my lowest weight ever since I was...er...18? I'm 165 right now and as I am also considering plastics, I'm going to re-review the valuable info on the plastics forum/threads as I know I want weight 'stability' for sure. I knew when I did the surgery that I personally wanted to wait until a few years out because honestly, I was afraid I'd find some way to tank the surgery even though I waited 5 yrs before having the surgery to work on myself mentally/emotionally. I also knew I'd have to pay for it out of pocket so I would need YEARS to save so I figured I could lose the weight and tone what I could so the plastic surgeon, if I was fortunate enough to find one I could trust, would know what they had to work with.
I'll let them tell me if they also feel I'm ready. I have SO much loose skin that I honestly don't know with it removed if I'd weigh 5 lbs less than what the scale says. I also learned my watching my 1000 lb life that loose skin doesn't weigh as much as I THINK it should..LOL. That is why I'm only attributing 5 lbs to my loose skin
I think you are doing AWESOME! I'm glad you are keeping your goal where it is. Just settle into your 'new fantastic self' which is just another facet of the already awesome person you were! We can both spend time researching the plastics info while you are in this new chapter of your life and I'm hanging out at 5 years hoping I win the lottery or at least a big payoff scratch off so I can put some money 'down' with a plastic surgeon..LOL!