Rosemar

@@Rosemar First of all congratulations on having maintained the majority of your weight loss for 10 years. That is an amazing accomplishment. I know it must be frustrating to have gained some of your weight back and trying so hard to lose it.
I am only one year post op so I probably don't have a lot of wisdom to share. I just wanted to say you have done a great job and I know if you have kept your weight off that long you will be successful in losing the amount you have gained.
You got this. Good luck!!

Warning: long post ahead!
Well, if you haven't already, focus on eating lean Protein, green veggies, and healthy fats. These foods will help keep you satisfied longer and avoiding high-carb foods will help curb your hunger.
And the other thing to do is to learn to be okay with being hungry. Hunger is not an emergency. Starvation is an emergency, but you are not in danger of starvation. Hunger is just unpleasant. There are good CBT techniques to learn that can help you deal with hunger in ways other than eating. Here are a couple that I have found helpful:
--plan everything you are going to eat each day, either at the beginning of the day, or the evening of the night before. When you get hungry, say to yourself, "it's not fun being hungry, but I can wait to have my beef Jerky snack at 2:30" (or whatever your next planned snack/meal is).
--log everything you eat -- calories, carbs, Protein. When you see those amounts going into your log, you'll find yourself less hungry.
--plan three healthy meals and allow yourself unlimited Snacks in between -- but only if your Snacks consist of nothing but one specified type of lean protein and one green veggie. You can use whatever spices you want, but no oils, no cheese, no sauce, etc. So your "unlimited snack" foods for the day might be chicken breast and asparagus. You get to eat as much as you want as long as it is chicken breast and asparagus. Again, you may find yourself not as "hungry" as you thought you were -- you may be experiencing head hunger or carb cravings, not true hunger. And if you are really hungry, well, you can't do much damage with chicken breast and asparagus.
--practice fasting a couple of days a week. Have a small Breakfast, then no eating (or drinking anything with calories) until dinner. Before you start fasting, write a list of the most physically and emotionally painful experiences you have ever been through ("my mother died" "I gave birth" "I had a root canal" "I lost my job" etc.). Then, every two hours on your fast days, write a brief journal entry. Describe your levels of hunger. Rate your discomfort associated with hunger on a scale of 1-10 and compare that with the worst physical and emotional experiences in your life. Write down a coping strategy ("I will go for a walk" "I will remind myself that I can eat a nice dinner at 5 PM and I'm not in danger of starving" etc.)
Make sure that you only eat sitting down at a table. No, you can't even taste or sample anything standing up. And being in your car does not count as sitting down at a table! Keep your phone turned off and do not look at any lighted screens (tv, computer, tablet, handheld gaming device) while you are eating.
I am aware that this all sounds like a lot of effort and not much fun. Both of those things are absolutely true. I don't have a magic wand solution for you. But these things really have worked for me when I put the work in. Good luck to you!

Getting your life back is worth any short term inconvenience or "yucky" feeling. Believe me, YOU are worth it.

I bought a different car and have to get a new bike rack for it. The rack i want to get is out of stock. It won't be available until the end of March. That's okay. I will have to ride locally until I get it. Loving the change to daylight savings time. We have also had some decent weather this week. Come on Spring.

Had a great day of hiking in Sedona. Such a beautiful and spiritual place. I stood on top of one of the rock formations in awe, not only of the beauty of Sedona but of myself and being able to do something that four months ago would not have been impossible. The possibilities ahead are limitless and I look forward to each milestone.

I'm eleven years out and ready to start an exercise program to take off the 30 lbs that I've gained over the past years.
I'm committed to taking a cardio swim class twice a week. I do better in classes because of the social aspect. And I have hired a personal trainer to work on specifics like strength and toning. I hate to exercise, so we'll see how this goes. I'd like to get those thirty pounds off. I was at my best health wise when I was at goal weight.

Ditto on Trevor's comment. I grab something to drink. The first 5 years or so Water bothered me (go figure) so I went to Vitamin Water Zero. It's still my drink of choice. I have a tendency to dehydrate easily so drinking all day have a double benefit ~ it relieves head hunger and it keeps me hydrated. It took me a long time to realize that my weak, dizzy, spinning spells were actually dehydration. Problem solved for me! Good Luck. Stay strong.

Swimming, yay! So happy to see a post from a long-term bander -- you are doing beautifully. Personal trainer a great idea. I know you can get those thirty off and feel really good again. I used to hate to exercise but then I saw a Ted Talk about pretending to like it and then having that become the new reality. I do like it afterwards, always, but it's the dread of doing it that gets me caught up in a web of procrastination.

Bandista, do you remember the name of the Ted Talk? I would love to check it out. First day with the personal trainer tomorrow. Wish me luck! Better yet, wish me the will to get this done!

I'm eleven years out and ready to start an exercise program to take off the 30 lbs that I've gained over the past years.
I'm committed to taking a cardio swim class twice a week. I do better in classes because of the social aspect. And I have hired a personal trainer to work on specifics like strength and toning. I hate to exercise, so we'll see how this goes. I'd like to get those thirty pounds off. I was at my best health wise when I was at goal weight.

Bandista, do you remember the name of the Ted Talk? I would love to check it out. First day with the personal trainer tomorrow. Wish me luck! Better yet, wish me the will to get this done!

My goal this month is to work with a personal trainer to increase my strength training in addition to my cardio 4-5 x per week.

So this thread inspired me and I went to sign up for a gym membership today. I called my pre op coordinator at my surgeons office and told her about it as well (we have gotten pretty close so I go to her about a lot of things). She had me give her a schedule of the days I will be going and she is going to check on me. So far I said I will go Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. I also walked about 40 minutes this evening while my daughter was at softball practice. It felt amazing!!

Thanks for posting this thread as we all need the motivation. I have a theme this month: March is a Verb. In otherwise, time to get marching! I am working out 80 minutes 4-5 times a week and really need to make sure I am doing something every single day, or even doubling up some on the days when I have a workout. So, my goals:
1) Get back down to the basement for sporadic 10-20 minutes on the treadmill even on days when I've already worked out
2) Any day that is not too cold call a friend to walk at the lake.
3) Check out the pool at parents' retirement facility. No one uses it and getting a little swimming in would be a great thing. Can start slowly.
4) Do PT exercises with my husband -- they are great for me, too (working with weights).
5) Keeping drinking lots of my drink (32 ounce glass bottle filled 3/4 way with Water, then cranberry juice unsweetened, aloe vera and magnesium). Get in 2-3 of these a day.

I'm eleven years out and ready to start an exercise program to take off the 30 lbs that I've gained over the past years.
I'm committed to taking a cardio swim class twice a week. I do better in classes because of the social aspect. And I have hired a personal trainer to work on specifics like strength and toning. I hate to exercise, so we'll see how this goes. I'd like to get those thirty pounds off. I was at my best health wise when I was at goal weight.

Hello Cupcake,
I noticed that we started out about the same weight. When I started the journey I was 316 lbs. I dropped down to 306 before my surgery. I then went on to a 134 lb weight loss. I also lost my knee pain, back pain and asthma. My goal weight was 172. After all this time I've adjusted it to 180. I gained some weight back due to inactivity and some unrelated health issues. I have recently rededicated my self to getting back to 180. I started exercising again more seriously and started taking a look at my food intake again - not how much I eat, but rather what I eat. I realized that I was eating unnecessary fat in some of my Protein. In less than a week I've lost two pounds just from lowering fat intake. I promised myself that I would never "diet" again after my surgery. I haven't. I've just made adjustments to what I eat, and it's worked. Being a part of these forums has been helping too. By talking to newbies, I am reminding myself of what I need to tweak. Being here is a win win for me. I wish you well. Take care of yourself ~ physically, mentally, socially and spiritually. You're the only one who really knows what you need, so be your own best friend.

Thank you for sharing I cant wait to join this journey thank you for the comments and congrats on maintaining your weight lost.

I would order the tilapia with steamed vegetables. Have them keep the shrimp (unless you want to take it home for your husband to have later). In a large group people seldom notice what are or aren't eating. Eat your Protein first, small bites and eat slowly. Engage in conversations so no one will pay much attention to your plate. You can pull this off. Try not to say that you're not feeling well. It's not a good place to go, on the contrary, you're doing quite well but you're just not hungry for some reason - go figure! Good luck. I've was in this situation many times in the beginning. I became a professional food on the plate arranger. If you don't want them to know... that's the plan. Don't stress. You've made a healthy decision - be happy and enjoy the company.

I would order the tilapia with steamed vegetables. Have them keep the shrimp (unless you want to take it home for your husband to have later). In a large group people seldom notice what are or aren't eating. Eat your Protein first, small bites and eat slowly. Engage in conversations so no one will pay much attention to your plate. You can pull this off. Try not to say that you're not feeling well. It's not a good place to go, on the contrary, you're doing quite well but you're just not hungry for some reason - go figure! Good luck. I've was in this situation many times in the beginning. I became a professional food on the plate arranger. If you don't want them to know... that's the plan. Don't stress. You've made a healthy decision - be happy and enjoy the company.