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Don't go there. Just don't. Here's why. At first, it'll be carrot sticks. Then it'll be some crunchy crackers. Then a few months later it will be popcorn. And then some soda to wash that popcorn down. Or you'll be up at night sneaking Cookies, or digging spoonfuls of Peanut Butter out of the jar at 2 am in the kitchen. Big issue I see on the vet boards with regain? Late night snacking, and snacking in general. When I want something late at night I have Water. If the feeling persists for a long time, I'll have a Protein shake. If that won't cut it, I check my MFP for the day. If I'm genuinely low on calories, I'll eat a cheese stick or a very small bowl (1/4 cup) of super crunchy Cereal with some soy milk. Any of these options are logged into my calorie counts for the day, of course. If I still feel hungry at that point? It's off to bed with a glass of water or it's time to do some jumping jacks and crunches to distract myself. I strongly urge you NOT to build the habit of late night snacking. It makes maintenance much, much more challenging. ~Cheri

The most important time for people to be active in their support groups is when they're struggling. Why people slink off when they genuinely need the help, support and motivation of others to help them stay on track is beyond me, but we do it all the time! This is exactly the right time for you to put out a call here, on these forums, for people that regained and would like to lose again. There is nothing stopping you but you, and you know that. Your sleeve? It's the same size it was a year out and it's going to work for you if you work it properly. I just posted on someone else's regain thread. You need to find support and motivation from people that are going through the same struggle - and I promise you, there are people out there that understand exactly what you're going through. Good luck. ~Cheri

The issue isn't the sleeve - it's everything else. That's not a judgement. If anything, it should be reassuring. Your sleeve is the same size, roughly, that it was around a year out. So work it. Make that choice to do this. Get those trigger foods out of your life and do the hard work of detoxing so you can get back to basics. You have a choice here. You can make it count, or not. I do not mean to be hard on you. I want to see you here in six months, having shed a great deal of your regain, reassuring newbies that it can be done. Losing weight is hard. Eating a strict diet is hard. Forcing ourselves to give up comforting habits is hard. Learning to cope without using food as a crutch is hard. And yes, having emotional and hormonal changes that affect not only the way our bodies hang on to fat but also our desire to eat those foods is also challenging. You did not slice out 85% of your stomach to be where you were a few years ago and I know that. So pick it up. shake this off and pretend tomorrow is your first day post sleeve on solids and eat accordingly. Track. Measure. Weigh your food. Get starting weight and measurements for yourself. And GET ON TRACK. You can do this. You aren't the only regain post. Do not slink off into the shadows to hide your shame. Get your butt out here, be real, and be a success. Be active here. Get support. Get motivation. And don't beat yourself up unnecessarily. What's done is done. Tomorrow is a fresh opportunity to change the way this story ends. Good luck, ~Cheri

I'm pretty sure Georgia is losing my share of weight, too. Congrats to all of you with the great numbers this past week! ~Cheri

How is the balance of your diet? Are you still low carbing like we tend to do in the beginning? I see zero issues with Greek yogurt - in fact, it's one of the better foods you can eat and is better than regular yogurt because all of the major brands are made with real food and no substitutes. So many yogurts are made with corn syrup and artificial sweeteners and even have added Gelatin to thicken them back up. Yuck to that! If you're willing to experiment I'd give it a solid three days of eating whatever you want, within reason. Don't worry so much about calories but do focus on quality foods. See where you're at calorie, protein, carb and fat-wise. So I'd track, but not beat myself up about my choices. From there, adjust. No need to eat protein, protein, protein all day long if you're getting sufficient numbers. I know many will disagree because their surgeons taught them to give up shakes as soon as possible, but around 6-9 months I added a shake back in because it freed up my meals for a bigger variety of foods. I got a big protein boost from the shake and was not only better satisfied from my food selection, but also able to introduce new foods again. I felt less restricted and was eventually able to break past my stall. Do what works for you. Don't get as hung up on the numbers. Follow your body and what works for you. Shake it up the "fun" way, in my opinion. Eat more for a while and see what happens. Don't go crazy, but don't be super restrictive, either. If nothing happens on the scale after a few days of that, you can either continue on, knowing your body will allow you more and see if that eventually breaks you through, or take that as the time to dial it back again and see if restricting back down does the trick. Unfortunately, sometimes it's just time...our bodies just slowly, slowly shed weight and take a long time to adjust and nothing we do to trick it will work. But it can't hurt to try! ~Cheri

Excellent share - it's always nice to see the studies! ~Cheri

Do a search for GERD here. We have plenty of folks that have been sleeved with it, too. Acid is an issue for many post op, but for the vast majority it fades before the first year post op. In my case, 4-6 months and I was off my PPI. I've been on it since for my pregnancy and two other short periods when I was under an incredible amount of stress. Other than that, the issue resolved and it's this way for many. Losing too much weight and being malnourished is hardly a concern here. You'll see the occasional voice chime in that they got smaller than they wanted, but it's rare. And you're only malnourished if you choose not to eat adequate nutrition and take your B12, multi and Iron, if needed. I did have an issue with B12 and iron, but I've always had iron/anemia deficiencies. Now I'm on supplements that help me feel better than ever before. Additionally, you'll see many people get revised to sleeve from the band - and many of those people do it in part due to stomach damage and acid problems! My opinion is that your doctor is just more comfortable with the band procedure. This happens and it's true that the sleeve still isn't done at the rate of the older band and bypass. Only you can make this decision, but I can tell you that I was dead set on a band and thought a sleeve was too drastic...until I did six months of research and lurked on the band talk site and saw how miserable people were with the band surgery. Best of luck and I hope that you find a solution that makes you comfortable. I chose to self pay because my insurance covers only band and bypass. ~Cheri

It might be time to change it up. If you haven't experienced any regain, why not pad those numbers and see what you get? In a long stall situation you have three choices. Continue onward, changing nothing. Coops did this and many moons later finally broke through. Or you can add in 20% more calories, making sure that you're getting a really good mix of Protein, good quality grains and veggies and less poor quality choices. And you can always subtract 20% of your calories and move onward, seeing if that does the trick. In truth, exercise will only get you so far. It's diet that does 90% of the work for you. So figure out why the diet isn't working. In some cases, our bodies just adapt quickly and we need to shake them up. And in some cases we slip into denial about our habits, too. I do it. Be sure you're not just estimating low. I was appalled to discover a few months ago that I was eating upwards of 1,800 calories in a day, without even realizing it and while telling myself I was never going over 1,300-1,500 - I even had days well over 2,000 calories. Was I gaining? No. But I was certainly making a gain a possibility, and I most definitely wasn't losing. Good luck! ~Cheri

Great post, Globe. For me, putting myself first in anything has been a big hurdle, and it's incredibly satisfying to me to be able to stand up and declare that I matter, my feelings matter, I can do what I want, etc. I no longer feel bogged down by years of insecurities or this insane desire to please everyone around me, as if that will somehow convince them that I am important and that it's okay to love me even if I'm fat and I can't love myself. I do what I want for me now. I buy the damn shoes, I buy the lip gloss, I toss away half a plate of food that I only ordered because the combination of main and side dish sounded enjoyable - I get it because I WANT IT. I do not have to prove myself to anyone but myself. I do not have to hate myself or believe anything that was ever said to me as a child or young woman. It's incredibly liberating. Shut that inner Globe up. Tell her to go to hell, and then buy the damned nail polish. She's been enforcing the bad habits/ideas/notions/toxicity of your upbringing and you don't need her inner voice to make you feel bad about your choices. This is about you. You did not come this far to hold yourself down or to berate yourself for every choice you make. ~Cheri

Be thankful! It took me forever to be able to do anything but sip. Pain indicates something is wrong but if there's no pain, there's nothing to worry about. You'll be one of those lucky folks that actually reaches their Protein and Water goals early on. ~Cheri

Just research. Read as many positives and negatives as possible before your surgery. You have plenty of time to educate yourself on every tiny little possibility of life post sleeve. I spent a year researching and the only surprises I had? Lactose intolerance (I was sure it wouldn't happen to me) and the challenges of life in maintenance. Otherwise? I felt well prepared and while I did find parts of the early months frustrating, I had no real challenges. I would cut out soda if it's a change you plan to make post op. It's a trigger for me now and I seldom drink it, because it's hard to stop at one. I want one every day and that leads to endless empty calories. Not to mention that we all know how terrible soda really is for us, and that it's toxic! But many choose to drink it post op, with no real difficulties. I think that I'd use a no pressure approach. It worked well for me. I made tiny changes in the months leading up to my surgery but I didn't force myself to act is if I were already sleeved. I started to cut out some bad habits (late night snacking!) and some trigger foods (popcorn and cherry coke!) but other than that I proceeded as normal. I do think I became more active in preparation, but I despise any and all structured exercise, so I simply spent more hours on my feet or moved a bit more when taking the twins to the playground. This is a great opportunity to explore the why of your eating, though. When you see yourself eating, always ask yourself if you're hungry. Try to discover what makes you eat and why it happens, because this is something you'll be forced to do for long term success, anyway. Best of luck, and I applaud your desire to gather information now. We see far too many people that have this major, life altering surgery without seeking out any knowledge or doing any preparation beforehand. ~Cheri

JoiaRox - you're the first real response I've gotten, outside of one offline that might pan out once she's back from summer vacation. I'm happy to start small, though! Do you know anyone else in this area that would be interested? I can host something late August - I just need time for my current house guests to clear out before I tackle anything else! ~Cheri

I went through this right around one year post op. I was down 92 pounds, wearing some size 8s and feeling pretty good about myself. Sure, I was still well overweight but I was so close to my goal (which was padded, anyway, to be easier to obtain) but I looked really good and all of my hard work was apparent to other people, too. Gotta love that validation. But some of the good things I was hearing were helping me to feel so complacent, too. People telling me I looked great as I was and to stop losing, etc. I had a nine week stall ending somewhere around one year post op, too, and that was part of my feelings. I mean, my body was clearly at a happy weight and I wasn't losing anymore. Eventually, I broke through that stall and slowly (oh so slowly) crawled to goal. I wound up losing another 15 pounds from 12-17 months post op. While that doesn't sound like much it was a pant and shirt size, a bra size and even a shoe size. In other words, a whole new wardrobe. It's important to recognize that being content and happy with your achievements is a good thing. But complacency that makes you unaware of potential problems would be a bad thing. So it's critical that you walk that line and find the place where you are truly happy, not struggling to shed pounds and making yourself unhappy but also aren't engaging in behavior that will sabotage your success. I can only speak for myself, but when I don't have a goal in sight and I'm happy, it's actually easier for me to backslide in my eating. Have I experienced a regain? No - not outside of pregnancy. But I can see just how easily it could happen if I allowed myself to be so complacent that I forget I spent most of my life as an obese person with an obese person's habits and relationship with food. Only you can decide if you want to push onward or stay where you are - I only urge you to be certain you don't get lazy. ~Cheri

When I use the word "diet" I'm using it the way I did prior to surgery. I mean excessive restriction, not sensible limitations we should all follow. Diet can be your usual source of food, or it can be an eating plan based upon restriction to achieve a goal. The mental shift from loss to maintenance and back again (darn baby weight) was probably one of the most challenging things I've dealt with post op. It is not easy to walk that line of doing what you like, being normal but also avoiding the dangerous slide into bad habits. It's important to have a social outlet in maintenance. I come here and it sort of keeps me on task. I can't stand hypocritical behavior, so coming here and giving advice about how to do this successfully keeps me on track. I can say that at some point in maintenance I just accepted that I was at goal and gave myself that bounce window. I never got stressed about my food intake or my weight unless I hit the top end of that window - something that only happened to me during my cycle until I got pregnant. Would giving yourself that leeway help relieve some of the stress you feel? It's not easy - we don't get to just hit goal and walk off into the sunset living our perfect, skinny lives. I know I didn't understand this prior to surgery and I'm pretty sure most people getting sleeved don't realize it. Oh, they parrot that "lifelong changes" and "always diligent" vocabulary but I don't think anyone really "gets it" until they're staring in the mirror at goal and realizing that it didn't solve all their problems, that they still have to be mindful of their eating and that they have to stay on top of this FOREVER if they want to stay at goal. In some ways, it is like a lifelong diet, even if nothing I do is remotely similar to the hellish diets I did before surgery. Great topic. Maintenance really gets ugly and challenging when there's a regain, no matter how slight. Shedding those pounds and realizing how quickly you can pack them on is a tremendous wake up call and it's a scary experience. I gained for a baby and I'm still a bit panicked that I'm not back at goal (I'm one pound from the top end of my window and can't seem to shake the final four pounds) and I completely understand the stress to stay on top of things...and from there back into maintenance again! ~Cheri

I could never, ever live in that part of the country. I am seriously affected by the weather. I get moody and depressed and of course that leads to mindless or emotional eating. I love to snuggle up and read but even that isn't as enjoyable if the weather isn't cooperating. The worst year of my life was spent in Mannheim, Germany. I swear the sun came out a dozen times in that year. It was overcast and terribly gloomy. I put on fifty pounds before finally deciding to have surgery that summer. As soon as I stepped out of the airport into that San Diego sunshine I felt a million times better and every little niggling doubt about surgery left me. The weather definitely affects me. On sunny, bright days I'm happy, I dance around and get out and do things. On gloomy days I mope around and if they drag on for several days in a row I get into a real funk. ~Cheri

Laura, you rock, by the way. And thanks for sharing your truly awesome NSV. My husband was never the limiting factor in my social life and my willingness to venture out. It was all me. I'm thankful now that I'm confident enough to leave the house and be social and be seen. Four years ago I was a hermit. ~Cheri

I know! My husband does this to me - he even posts old fat pics of me on Facebook as he stumbles upon them. Then when people meet me for the first time they're completely bug eyed thinking, "WTH?!" I mean, look, I love all ten years we've spent together, but can't you concentrate more of the photographic evidence of that love on the pictures where I look this good? ~Cheri

Oh, indeed the bypass patients get the worst of it, mostly due to malabsorption and very rapid loss, I'd wager. I know someone in person that dropped a HUGE amount of weight in one year and while I'm glad she's lost weight in truth she looks a bit like she's suffering from a terminal illness. The bypass will make you lose faster but it comes at a price. Laura, I intentionally use the word "journey" just to make you cringe. Nah, I actually use it LESS now because you've made it friend criteria and I want to stay on your good side. And I'm sorry to say that while I do believe I meet most of Madam R.'s requirements, I am, sad to say, possessed of an inflated sense of superiority and that might be a deal breaker. However, she did say "disillusioned" sense of superiority. Mine is slightly inflated as I have a high opinion of myself (and naturally, a low opinion of many others) but I'm not disillusioned. I'm merely self-aware. Missed you, gal, so glad to be back on the boards, and Madam R. is going to fit right in with the cool kids. ~Cheri

Seriously, your surgeon should absolutely piss off. Sorry, that's my first and most honest take on this. Nothing I have ever read, anywhere, specifies a "proper" or "correct" pace for weight loss. Is your surgeon in a hurry for some great before/after pictures to post on his website? Really? Because that's absolutely some of the most ridiculous support I've seen so far - to state a numerical goal along with a specific date as the best measure of your progress. I have only seen very large men maintain a loss rate like that, by the way. Support is important. Staying active in some group, especially an in-person one, will help you in maintenance. But if your surgeon makes you feel defeated, he's the opposite of support, isn't he? Perhaps he's simply used to bypass patients and measures all of his patients by those numbers. If that's the case, he's less of a jerk, how's that? My advice is to go the appointment and listen to what he has to say. And if he ventures into overly critical territory based upon your loss rate, without weighing in the rest of your changes and success, I'd very bluntly tell him how that makes you feel and how defeating it is to have him treat you that way. You can only control how you choose to feel and how you handle things. You cannot control other people. If once he's aware that his attitude is defeatist he maintains his stance or insists you lose at a faster rate, at that point I'd consider whether or not you want to shift your care to your PCP. Best of luck. BtB is right - at this point, you're working yourself up over speculation. I certainly didn't lose at a rate of four pounds a week and I know the vast majority of folks here didn't maintain a rate like that beyond the second month. ~Cheri

I'll chime in and add (after laughing at the spelling, pretty princess upgrade and ugly troll posts) that the issues you're bringing up all fade in the second year post op. hair grows back. Skin rebounds and isn't as saggy. Sunken faces fill out. Fat redistributes and flat butts and chests fill in a bit more. Jacked up teeth are jacked up teeth and nothing but the dentist is going to help that out. In fairness, I see FAR less of this in sleeve patients than bypass ones. If you eat a healthy and balanced diet and don't suck on lemons, you're probably going to be okay here. And it's true, surgeons don't give an upgrade on your appearance post op. The people that look worn out? They're not eating properly in most cases and are unwilling to supplement with shakes and get their Vitamins in. They don't drink Water and moisturize and their skin starts to show their age. Fat people don't age as quickly, I swear. Round, shiny faces just look young longer. In any case, when people are so focused on eating exactly 22 carbs a day while consuming zero fat, don't drink their Protein or water, don't exercise and don't take vitamins, their looks suffer as a result. The change in my appearance and energy levels 18+ months post op, and once I had adequate nutritional supplements (B12 and Iron, in particular) was, well...immense. I went from looking and feeling tired and worn out to having people tell me "I don't look like I was ever obese." Whatever that means... ~Cheri

So, my update: No 5:2 for the entire past week. Shame on me. No real MFP tracking, either. That said, I estimate I've been anywhere from 800-1,500 calories each day - not one real overindulging day in there. No fasts, either. I'll be back on track Monday with a fast. My stepkids leave next week and our final house guest leaves the week after that. I am SO ready for life to be back to normal. So in the past week I've shed four tenths of a pound. Sad but true, I think I'll stick with 5:2 for the good habits, but I'm pretty sure it's not affecting my loss at all. I think I'll just pokily shed these last few pounds to goal over the next several months no matter what I do. Unless, of course, I head totally off track and have an ice cream orgy. Which ain't gonna happen, so I'm pretty sure I'm good. So, fast on Monday, normal day today and tomorrow. I'll get back to MFP but I think I've had far more days below 1,200 calories than above. I'm just doing too much to really eat regular meals. And I've been drinking coffee around the clock, which does nothing good for me (other than preserve my sanity) and definitely reduces my appetite. Hope all you ladies are doing well. I'm so glad to see some new faces here and welcome back Globe! I hope that wrist heals quickly, Daisy, and I'm sorry you got hurt. I had a simple fall eight years ago that resulted in permanent screws in my leg/ankle. I'm just clumsy like that. ~Cheri

So, I have talked about this on other threads. Full time I only have my three (5 year old twins and 4 month old) at home but I have four stepdaughters (and one stepson) that have lived with us off an on over the years and visit for ten weeks a year. My stepdaughters are all VERY petite - I mean, they range in age from 13 to 23 and none of them weighs more than 115 pounds. One of them, 19 years old, is anorexic (5'5" and barely holding 99-102) - she has a number of very serious issues and all the girls grew up in a house where their mom was either in full out binge or deprivation diet mode. There has never been a happy medium or healthy standard set for them. Complicating matters is that she's one of those "I'm fat, I'm ugly, I need to diet" people and is constantly vocalizing her insecurities and issues to the girls. So, the first time I heard my youngest stepdaughters say they were fat, they were five and six, respectively. When I got sleeved, nobody knew but my husband and my mom. I told two friends that happened to call me while I was in Mexico. I was very private about it - more because of my husband than my own feelings about the matter. I didn't see the kids until I was about four months post op and by then I was down fifty pounds or so. But I think that because it was the holidays and I was cooking for fifteen (again, endless stream of guests) nobody really paid any attention to my food intake. I noticed the first summer visit after surgery that the girls were emulating my eating habits. At that point, I was roughly a year out and could hardly eat more than a scrambled egg in a sitting. So I had to sit down and talk food with the girls - to explain my surgery and to explain my eating habits. I showed them MFP and how much I eat in the course of a day. It did not help that their mom was feeling very competitive with me and because she didn't know about my surgery, was attempting to live on five protein shakes and hours of exercise each day to shed weight at the same time I was going over this with the girls. I noticed that from that point, while all the girls are still not fully healthy about their habits or the way they talk about their bodies, they do seem to eat a more balanced way. Excepting my anorexic stepdaughter, of course. When I fast, they don't even notice. They simply assume that I'm drinking protein coffee and getting in my calories. They no longer try to skip meals to be thinner after a night of overindulging. I'm sorry to be so long winded about this (as if you'd expect anything else from me?!) but it's really important to me. Watching their mom totally screw with their heads because she's so preoccupied with herself has been a serious wake up call. My kids - all of them - never hear me talk badly about my body or my weight. I do talk about calories sometimes but for the most part, they see me eat whatever I want, in moderation, without crazy diets or self hatred. No matter how angry I get at the scale, my kids don't know it and I never talk about it. It's really changed how I treat myself, by extension, because I don't want them growing up with the idea that being thin and pretty is the most important and valuable thing a woman can be. They will hear me say, "let's make a healthier choice" rather than "don't eat that food" when it comes to picking something to eat. And because I bake so much, they're actually unimpressed by cakes, cookies, candies and freshly baked breads. It's nothing special to them, and thankfully, they'd rather have homemade than anything you can buy in the store, so I don't have kids clamoring for Twinkies or Oreos because they'll just ask me to make what they like best, anyway. Then they'll eat one or two of whatever it is and be on their way and done with it, while I give the rest away to other folks. However, it only takes ONE comment to damage them! My youngest stepdaughter (all of 110 pounds) pinched her stomach in front of my then four year old last summer and called her tiny fold of skin "ugly and gross" in her hearing. My little girl is obese. Not due to poor eating habits - I've watched the whole "nature vs. nurture" thing on her weight from birth - she's just bigger than other kids and not for lack of exercise or because she chugs soda and eats candy all day. In any case, I now have a five year old that "hates" her number on the scale - something I've NEVER attached any significance to - because she's old enough and smart enough to do the math to realize she outweighs her twin brother by 17 pounds. Well, she's grown each year and he's only gained six pounds since he turned two. I can't help that! Now I have this kid that without really understanding what it means is unhappy about her weight and who pinches her stomach and says it's ugly. It's absolutely heartbreaking. So all of this to sum up and say BE MINDFUL. Explain your surgery and eating methods when they're old enough, encourage them to love themselves, shower them with real compliments that have value (not just, "You're so pretty" but also "I love how much you practice your spelling" and "I love that you didn't say mean things when you got frustrated with your twin.") because everyone around your kids is going to expose them to their own personal issues. My little ones start kindergarten in a month and I know my kids are already going to be bigger than the other kids because they have a late birthday (November babies) and my daughter is just plain solid and will likely be the biggest girl in the room. While I do worry, I also want to be 100% sure to make her know that there is so much more to being a good and happy person than our appearance. But other kids? They're mean as hell and I'm definitely worried that she's going to have problems. But I do everything I can to be sure that I fend off as much of that at home as possible. Once they're older, they notice for sure. I didn't say a word and my stepdaughters immediately tried eating like me. It's taken two years of tackling the issue head on to get them to realize that starvation or fad diets are bad for the body and impossible to maintain long term. I'm sorry you're having a rough time. I have lost weight - not nearly as much as I'd like but I've lost a few pounds. I'm at a loss about advice, other than the idea that your normal maintenance calories are low enough that you can maintain but still too high for loss. I hope you figure it out! Like, every day? I seriously am so sick of guzzling water that I have entire days where I just don't drink any. Not good, I know. I'm just sick of it. I try to get a minimum of 32 ounces in and I aim for 64 still but it's a challenge at this point. And good point on the "license to over eat" because I have had days (like, every day this past week) where I'm just not in the mood to fast. Now, I'm not eating brownies and pie instead but I just haven't wanted that limitation and I realized with your words that it's just me copping out. Fasting isn't as easy for me right now - it's hard to do when I have a never ending stream of house guests and drama. ~Cheri

Good perspective, it'll help you in the long run! Lots of us vets sharing our stories, too! ~Cheri http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/65484-share-your-slow-loss-success/ http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/65715-slow-losers-that-are-maintaining-or-close-to-goal/

Yes, I do not want to berate you or make you feel bad, but the worry about stretching is secondary. This is a good wake up to anyone considering the sleeve, too. You can eat around your sleeve if you choose to do it. You'll be uncomfortable for your efforts, but it's not that hard to do. And there are even easier foods to do it on than rice, that's for sure! Now is the time to step back and acknowledge this is a problem and work on it. You definitely do not want to have undergone such a major and drastic surgery only to find yourself two years out and frustrated that you've lost very little. This needs your attention or it's a problem that will only get worse. Best, ~Cheri

I agree with the clarification HatheryOHW posted above. It's not a struggle, in that it's a constant up and down battle. But it is most assuredly something you will not get to forget and just pretend never happened. We will always be people that gain weight more easily. We will always have to remain vigilant because the disordered eating and poor habits can easily sneak back up on us if we get complacent in maintenance. Just because you KNOW the right way to eat doesn't mean you'll always do it. Our relationships with food, for the most part, are different than the ones that people who have never been obese have. There are emotional ties and triggers that don't simply vanish due to surgery. I can say that despite what I thought going in to surgery, I now realize that nobody has a perfectly easy time in maintenance without any effort. You still have to keep yourself accountable somehow. You don't just take a year of eating properly and turn that into the ability to forget about food and just live life - it doesn't work. And you'll see that the farther out you get the easier it gets to slip and worse, the harder it gets to lose once you do slip. The longer I do this, the more I realize I had no idea what I was really going to face. So in the end, the sleeve is this first big step and it's a tremendous help. I couldn't have done this without it. But I stress again (for the bazillionth time) that the real challenge isn't getting to goal - it's staying there. ~Cheri