IcanMakeit

I'm with everyone else on this. You have been through more than enough and it's time you had a break! I'm sending you my most emphatic healing thoughts.

Today I reached my ultimate fantasy weight -- 122 pounds. (Well the scale actually said 121 lbs. but I know that when I weigh again tomorrow it will be up to 122 as that has been my pattern for the last few months.) My BMI is now in the mid-range of healthy for my height. I now have to buckle down and apply all of the lessons I have learned over the past year to maintain this weight. I know that if I lose focus, I will gain. That has been my experience in the past. I would tell myself that no one can be on a diet forever. But in the past year, I have been rethinking this. I have observed my thin friends. They aren’t on a diet forever, but they don’t eat whatever they want either. If they have a high calorie lunch, they’ll have a conservative dinner. If they are full, they don’t eat more just because it tastes good or they’re at a party or it’s their birthday. When they are full, they stop eating. My thin friends don’t even know that they have been mentoring me, but I need to emulate them. I need to remind myself every day that if I return to my previous eating pattern, I will return to my previous weight. These things may seem obvious to most people, but it is hard-won wisdom for me. In the past, due to my diabetes, I usually avoided junk food and almost never ate sweets but I often ate until I was over-stuffed. (My stomach didn’t seem to feel full until it was overfull.) I ate just because it was pleasurable, not because I was hungry. I am so grateful for this website and tools like MyFitnessPal which have helped me to learn better habits and stay on track for the past year. If I get the idea in my head that I don’t need this help anymore so I don’t need to check in, I hope I’ll remember how I feel today and compare it to how I felt in January 2014. Do I really want to risk returning to that?

Looks good. I'll try them in place of my Activia Light yogurt. Too bad they come in 5 oz. portions, though. The 4 oz. Activia's are a better size for me.

I recently passed my final goal weight (122 lbs) and want to hear how my fellow May 2014 sleevers are doing. I hope everyone of us has had a positive 9 months post surgery. I am also interested in maintenance stories.

For me, the key was accurate measuring and tracking of my food intake. When I know I'm going to have to record it, I'm less tempted to allow myself extra treats. Also, I experimented with the number of meals and Snacks each day and decided that 3 meals and 2 snacks works for me. It might be different for you. Try different patterns for a week each and see which feels most comfortable without slowing your weight loss rate.

121!!! I surpassed my goal and am officially in maintenance. I'm happy and worried at the same time. I don't want to slip back to my old habits.

Step one: Call your surgeon's office and tell them what you ate and how you're feeling. Step two: Promise yourself that you will do nothing further that endangers your recovery.

When my babies were being breastfed, I did notice that my appetite remained at pregnancy levels. (This was many years ago and long before my VSG. ) I think you do need a few extra calories while lactating. Do you have a lactation consultant or nurse at your ob/gyn's office? If so, ask her/him. They may not be familiar with our post op diets, but they can tell how many extra calories lactation takes.

For me, the disinterest in food was temporary. At about six months out, eating was comfortable. My nausea was far behind me and forgotten. Luckily, the temptation to overeat is still much diminished. I have a good appetite, but I am satisfied pretty quickly.

No, I can't think of anything I will miss. I didn't hate myself when I was fat, but I don't think I lost anything by losing weight.

Funny, I just had this question from a friend yesterday and an acquaintance this morning. It's not really bothering me too much because I know that they only think I'm too thin because they are so used to my former, morbidly obese size. Once I maintain this weight for a while, I expect people will treat me like they treat everyone else, and the weight comments will stop.

Unfortunately good jobs with reasonable benefits are scarce in many parts of the USA. What @@JennG25 is dealing with is not that uncommon. I agree that she should work on her exit strategy, but I think she should avoid burning any bridges. If the employee manual says she needs a doctor's note, one should be provided. However, it is unreasonable for an employer to require more than three weeks notice for a medical leave. I doubt the employee manual will support the supervisor's complaint that they weren't given enough notice. And I don't think an employer has the right to dictate your healthcare choices. This is definitely a "read the manual" situation.

@@Justoperated, I have to respectfully disagree about the effects of low carb dieting. While it is oh so true that weight regain is the common long term outcome, it is not true that low carb dieters lose mostly Water weight. I lost more than 110 lbs on the Atkins diet. No way was that water weight. Also, when I said that bread and biscuits are basically empty calories, I meant that compared to Protein foods and non-starchy vegetables, bread doesn't provide a lot of nutrition. I love bread (and almost all starches) but during weight loss I just don't see the value.

@AngryViking: Buy the Mini-moos (the little individual containers that they use in restaurants). Each one is only 10 calories. I'm with you, coffee without cream is a non-starter for me. But using the individual servings keeps me from going overboard. I allow myself two mini-moos per day, most days. (Sometimes I have a third. Sssh!)

I'm not sure that all VSG patients get a leak test. If I had one, it would have to have been while I was still unconscious. Are you saying that your surgeon has never seen you for a follow-up since your surgery? I think most of them schedule several during the first year. If you did see the surgeon during your first year, did you discuss your rate of weight loss? It seems like you lost an acceptable amount during the first year, 83 pounds, so your sleeve was probably working during that time. But you should definitely go back to your surgeon and talk about where you are today and what you need to do for the future.

It's amazing how different we all can be when we have had the same surgery. I, too have not found anything that disagrees with me. Of course, I haven't tried a bunch of things that might bother me -- like bread and rice -- but I suspect that if I tried them, they'd go down fine. On my birthday, which was 5 months out from surgery, I ate chocolate cake. It was a very small amount, but it caused no gastric problem at all. My nutritionist warned me that I might not tolerate fibrous vegetables like celery. Wrong. So far, nothing that is within my plan has bothered me and the few things that are outside of my plan that I have tried have gone down fine as well. Am I lucky or unlucky?

You look so great! You must be walking on air.

@AvaFern: Perhaps you are already at your healthy weight? If your stats are current, it seems to me that you have arrived. We shouldn't be too hung up on the number on the scale. With a BMI of 23, you should be proud of yourself.

I was served some Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice tea and was surprised to find that it is sweet before you add any type of sweetener. I read the label and found the ingredients include cinnamon, roasted chicory, roasted carob, natural spice and vanilla flavors with other natural flavors, ginger, cardamom, black pepper, cloves and nutmeg. Now I know that many of those things have a little bit of sweetness to them, but not enough to make the tea as sweet as it tastes. But the label also lists the carb/calorie count as zero. What gives? Is this tea weight loss friendly or do the "other natural flavors" include something I should beware of?

Too much cinnamon? There's such a thing?

Thanks for the link. I used to wonder if I should have chosen the DS instead of the VSG. The weight loss results for the DS seemed to be better. But I'm glad I went with the VSG. I have lost all my excess weight and I think maintenance is a big job no matter which surgery you had.

i get that we don't all have to be on low carb diets forever. Some people can eat carbs without ill effects. (I'm not one of them.) But when your ability to eat is so restricted, it's important to maximize the nutritional value of what you can eat. Bread and biscuits are pretty much empty calories. I'd set them aside for now and concentrate on protein and non-starchy vegetables.