The Free Ride Does Come to an END!

[JackieOnLine]

Munchkin, that sounds awesome.

the fruit trees, especially.

 

[bearmom]

So true. When I had my DS, it was back in the "we have cookies" days. Ugh. I was a slow loser and barely got to goal, and left myself no leeway for regain, and still fight to maintain. This is a lifetime commitment in multiple ways.

 

[bugirll]

So much has been a mind game for me. I'm less than two years out, so I consider myself just a baby. Learning. Learning about what really makes me feel good. There was a point along the way where my body just started screaming NO NO NO to the wrong foods. I would eat this or that and feel craptastic literally for days. Eating the wrong stuff is such an aversion now. My mind set(most of the time) is so much "will what I'm putting in my body help me or make me feel bad?" Omg, yes I really want to eat the shit out of breads (my nemesis, think two days of hell per slice) and sometimes I do. But most of the time now I'm able talk myself through it, make good choices.

 

[newanatomy]

Are you in Salt Lake? I lived in Midvale and thought the area was probably one of the prettiest places I have ever lived. I had an older home on the East side and in my normal sized back yard I had grapes, currants, 2 kinds of cherries, apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, and probably some other edible stuff I didn't even know was there! I canned everything! We used to have salsa canning parties where we did the salsa by the garbage can full(new cans of course). They were the only containers we could find that were big enough!

I am traveling a bit for surgery. I live in Idaho. I can relate to the fruit trees. Here I have 2 pear trees and 5 apple trees. Can it all too. Actually the weather and a black mold has been hard on my trees. I think I am going to lose one of my pear trees and I have already lost one apple tree to the wind. Mother nature will take back

 

[Munchkin]

I am traveling a bit for surgery. I live in Idaho. I can relate to the fruit trees. Here I have 2 pear trees and 5 apple trees. Can it all too. Actually the weather and a black mold has been hard on my trees. I think I am going to lose one of my pear trees and I have already lost one apple tree to the wind. Mother nature will take back

Spent a lot of time in Idaho! Have you ever been to the Eastern Idaho State Fair in Blackfoot? Best fair ever!

 

[Hala]

Completely Agree. Now, over 5 years post op - I can gain 10-15 lbs in one month or less ... Some of that is probably water from too many carbs.. but at least 1/2 of that is just pure fat... My body is very efficient to store any carbs calories..
Now I know that it will take me more than a month to lose 1/2 of that regain, and probably 3--6 months to lose the rest. (less if I could spend lots of time on exercise - but that is a very small chance for that., and with my RH and exercise induced Hypoglycemia - exercising too much may make my BS to drop really low and (30's) and I would need serious dose of carbs to bring it up and keep it up..

 

[JackieOnLine]

dang, Hala, I knew you had trouble with your blood sugar but didn't know exercise was a problem. that really sucks!!

 

[Hala]

dang, Hala, I knew you had trouble with your blood sugar but didn't know exercise was a problem. that really sucks!!

Jacki, I have to be careful. I have Secondary Adrenal insufficiency and I am on cortisol replacement dosasge. I have to be careful and when I exercise I had to take more... But it is very hard to judge how much is enough but not too much. I can do some yoga and some moderate exercise.... But anything high intensity may put me in low BS stage and after that happens it may take me hours or even a day to stabilize that again (down and up and down ..... ) and during that time I have no choice but to eat carbs to bring my BS up...

 

[JackieOnLine]

oh, that's what SAI means.

does this all go back to your surgery or not necessarily?

 

[Hala]

oh, that's what SAI means.

does this all go back to your surgery or not necessarily?

I will never know. They don't know why and what caused that. Sometimes virus, or long term steroid use, or high dose of steroids may make the pituatary (pit) stop working. Somertimes medications, or chemicals may affect that. Tumor or cance in that area may also press on pit.... (I Had MRI of the area and no tumor)

Secondary AI. - means that my pituatary gland (in my head) does not works properly. At this point it affects only my adrenals, but a complete pit failure or removal can cause issue with thyroid, other hormones like growth hormone and many others.

 

[Ladytaz]

Boy can I agree 100%! I thought I was out of the danger zone, 3 years out and 2 years stable but almost immediately after my 3rd surgiversy I started regaining, without any change in my eating, at least not consciously. Now, I was one that lost too much, right to the edge of underweight. I had strangers commenting and friends alarmed at my appearance. But because of my failed first WLS I refused to use that as an excuse to eat crap again. I avoided refined carbs, sugar and gluten but didn't really watch fats and complex carbs. I am now about 10 lbs above my lowest weight and 5 lbs over my 2 year maintenance weight. The clothes still fit the same and I know I look better but it is still hard to see the numbers go up. Talk about mixed feelings. There is no way I want to lose weight again but I don't want to be obese again, either. Right now I have my goal range that I am still about 15 lbs under so I am just keeping an eye on things.
One of the biggest things I don't understand is why on earth I didn't nip my regain in the bud the first time I had surgery. I kept telling myself it was normal regain and it will stop on it's own. Of course it didn't and by then I was so addicted to the junk I was eating I don't think I could have stopped if I wanted to.
So now I am just keeping an eye on things. Another thing I am doing differently is I am weighing myself regularly and not letting myself go into denial like I did before. I have top range that I hope not to let myself go over by too much. I am planning on when or if I see that number I will make the changes necessary to stay under it. It is weird because for the last few years I haven't had to diet or really watch what I eat because I do make good choices and I did get satisfied after a small amount but now I am looking at potentially needing to make changes. In the end we all have the same choices, well most of us anyway. We can eat more or we can weigh less. I will just have to decide what is more important to me, being able to eat in a certain way certain foods or not eating some things so I can weigh less.

 

[JackieOnLine]

Hi Ladytaz ! (didn't you have two Zs before?) - glad you found us.

 

[Ladytaz]

My first screen name was Ladytaz so I use it when I can. For some reason it seems to be a fairly popular name so if Ladytaz is taken I start adding zz's One of my screen names has 6 zz's
Thanks for the welcome. I really like this site.

 

[JackieOnLine]

I had a very long honeymoon period - seriously, like over 3 years. but when it's over, you are back to being a person who needs to pay attention to what and how and when and how much you eat. just like a non-op....but with a secret weapon.

I was still in denial about the 15 pounds (might have been 12) when I wrote this in January. not any more!

 

[Kerry Johnson]

Doesn't matter what surgery you have, the day will come when you realize the easy weightloss is over. And once again you are faced with the reality of diets, increased exercise, and less food. During the honeymoon, it's easy to fall into that false hope that you will just effortlessly maintain for the rest of your life. I guess it happens for a few but most of us end up back in diet mode sooner or later.

This is why I'm always telling people not to waste those precious days of easy weightloss. And if you are lucky enough to reach goal, try for 10% below goal so you have some room for that seemingly inevitable gain. Yes, you may be less than a year post and the weight is still falling off. You are lucky today but your luck will run out! Lose as much as you can while you can. It will be much harder to lose down the road.

Why does this happen? If you had a malabsorbtive procedure, your body will do it's best to adapt and return to normal. And normal means fat for us. The small bowel that's not bypassed may lengthen and sprout some new villi to absorb as much as possible. That teeny tiny stomach you used to have gets bigger too. You can eat more. This is why we stop losing and many eventually gain.

If you had a procedure that is restrictive only like the band or the sleeve, you may learn how to eat around the band. And once that stomach gets bigger, the sleeve doesn't help you nearly as much as it used to. You can easily find yourself back in that eat less and less mode while still gaining weight.

Of course, it's not fair and it's not right. But it's real life. Even though you took extreme measures to lose weight, you are still going to have to fight to maintain that loss. Darn it! Resolve not to sabotage yourself in the beginning by believing you have beaten your weight problem into submission forever. But it's not the hopeless problem it was before surgery, we can manage it but it's work. Hard work.

I've been on one forum or another for more than a decade. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people worried about losing too much and how to stop the loss. Some even go to their surgeons and ask about revision or pharmacological intervention to stop losing. Some intentionally eat all the wrong things because they have lost too much too fast. There's about a 97% chance these same people will be back on the board in a year or so struggling to reach goal and lose more weight. It happens over and over.

Lose as much as you can while you can! Don't even think about about losing too much unless your BMI gets too low. Like under 20. That rarely happens. I can only remember 2 people out of all the thousands I've followed who actually needed help to stop losing!

I guess I don't know what you mean about the honeymoon ending. I have the same malabsorption issues now as I had 9 years ago, right after surgery; I don't absorb fat, I do absorb sugars and simple carbs; and about 40-50% of proteins. Same same since the DS revision. There is one major difference and that is that the sleeve is now more like a normal stomach and I can eat a lot more. In that sense, it takes some will power and effort to keep from gaining, but in comparison to before DS; it is really easy now.

I suppose everyone is different and we all have to discover what works for us, but that has also been true since surgery, there is no difference. Don't depend on anyone to tell you what will work for you; it's a discovery you must make.

I can tell you what works for me, but it may not work for you. When I gain some, it is always because I eat too many carbs; I could pretend it's lack of exercise, but I would be lying to myself; its always the damn carbs! Sure lifting weights and cardio helps, but for me it helps more in curbing my carb crave than does in burning up the excess carbs I ate. It's really just a matter of what I want most; do I want the delicious carbs or do I want to feel great in my clothes? It's a decision you make with every bite.

That's my take but hell I've only been in this ride for a bit over 9 years, Im sure I have much to learn.