IcanMakeit

Make it myself? That's crazy talk!
Actually that is what my husband and I concluded during the meal. We have a really good wok. What's stopping us from using it, other than inertia?

I think the best advice is to stay on plan as close to 100% as you can during the weight loss phase. However, I did eat a couple of off plan things during celebrations after I passed the 5 month post-op mark, and I was able to get right back on track the next day. For some people, one indulgence turns into a diet disaster that can last for days or weeks. You have to know yourself and your history to decide what the likely outcome of eating off plan will be.

I think the best advice is to stay on plan as close to 100% as you can during the weight loss phase. However, I did eat a couple of off plan things during celebrations after I passed the 5 month post-op mark, and I was able to get right back on track the next day. For some people, one indulgence turns into a diet disaster that can last for days or weeks. You have to know yourself and your history to decide what the likely outcome of eating off plan will be.

Only 1 fried egg? Ridiculous!

Yeah, I regretted the surgery for about a month after I admitted to myself that WLS was not magic that would cause me to lose weight without effort. When I truly accepted that I would have to make real changes in my lifestyle in order to be successful, I was as petulant as a thwarted 2 year old. But now I actually like my new way of eating. I now tend to make healthy food choices as a matter of habit, with no thought or effort required. I am so glad I decided to have the VSG. It has given me back my health.

I am 13 months out from my vertical sleeve surgery and my surgeon recently commented that I have lost over 120% of my excess weight (from 244 down to 110). I think the statistics that lead surgeons to believe that the gastric bypass was more efficacious than the sleeve were from studies that looked at one year to 18 months results. At two years, the stats for both surgeries are about the same. Don't make your decision based on estimates of possible weight loss. Either WLS can be successful if you follow your surgeon's instructions and either can fail due to noncompliance with the bariatric program. If you decide that you are willing to make the lifelong changes that WLS requires, choose the type of surgery based on the one you believe will do the most to improve your long term health and the least to harm it. For me, that was VSG. For someone else, it might be GB.

@@lclemur Do your son's future wife a favor and explain to him that there are a few things that it's never ok to say.

I just went to brunch at a Black Bear Diner. (Black Bear Diner's are known for their large portions.) For Father's Day they now have a special they call their "Big Daddy" burger. It's 1-1/3 pounds of beef, bacon, cheese, a fried egg, and fried onion rings, served with a side of French fries. My guess is the meal tops 3,000 calories. What a way to show your appreciation for your dad! By buying him a heart attack special.
I don't like to think that they sell any, but I'll bet they do.

Make it myself? That's crazy talk!
Actually that is what my husband and I concluded during the meal. We have a really good wok. What's stopping us from using it, other than inertia?

I am 13 months out from my vertical sleeve surgery and my surgeon recently commented that I have lost over 120% of my excess weight (from 244 down to 110). I think the statistics that lead surgeons to believe that the gastric bypass was more efficacious than the sleeve were from studies that looked at one year to 18 months results. At two years, the stats for both surgeries are about the same. Don't make your decision based on estimates of possible weight loss. Either WLS can be successful if you follow your surgeon's instructions and either can fail due to noncompliance with the bariatric program. If you decide that you are willing to make the lifelong changes that WLS requires, choose the type of surgery based on the one you believe will do the most to improve your long term health and the least to harm it. For me, that was VSG. For someone else, it might be GB.

Thank you all for your responses.
I feel like the climax of a 33 year war is coming to a head and sometimes it feels hard to not doubt the outcome.
Your encouragement, support and tips will be the armor i will wear into this battle!!
I am ready to kick butt!

Yeah, I regretted the surgery for about a month after I admitted to myself that WLS was not magic that would cause me to lose weight without effort. When I truly accepted that I would have to make real changes in my lifestyle in order to be successful, I was as petulant as a thwarted 2 year old. But now I actually like my new way of eating. I now tend to make healthy food choices as a matter of habit, with no thought or effort required. I am so glad I decided to have the VSG. It has given me back my health.

This is my first post in the Veterans' Forum. My surgiversary isn't until next week, but I have something on my mind and would like feedback.
I have been below goal since December. It's time to learn how to do maintenance and "moderation." I have to admit that I am afraid that if I change my habits even a little, that I will spiral out of control and end up morbidly obese again a year from now.
I know that this "all or nothing" mentality is part of the reason my weight got so out of control. I would use my failure to resist treats as an excuse to forget about my diet, and just keep on eating whatever I wanted.
Now that I am thin enough to be healthy, I don't want to live like a monk. I want to enjoy occasional pleasures, including party food and wine. Tonight I found myself feeling deprived because other people were enjoying wine with their dinner.
So far, I have been too conservative to enjoy both wine and fattening foods on the same occasion. Since surgery, I have indulged in only one small glass of champagne on New Year's Day. I have so far opted for birthday cake (or whatever the normally forbidden dessert is) rather than wine on special occasions, since I shouldn't have both.
But does it need to be like this forever? We're celebrating my husband's 65th birthday as well as Mother's Day tomorrow. I think my plan to forego the champagne so that I can have a small piece of birthday cake might be more of my all or nothing attitude. Before I lost weight, I had planned to allow myself to Celebrate special occasions with my family with good food and wine in small amounts. That still seems like a good goal. But my abstemious practices during weight loss served me so well that I'm afraid to let myself have a glass of wine and treat food on the same day,.
How do others navigate celebrations in maintenance?

What is there to regret......there was nothing I liked about being fat. Obesity was a disease that was going to kill me and I simply had treatment to help rid myself of that disease. Now I live a lifestyle to help prevent it's return.

I'm sorry you had to deal with a clueless jerk. While it is not ok to return rudeness with rudeness, you are not obligated to continue an uncomfortable conversation. Next time this happens, change the subject -- Clueless Jerk: "Wow, I'll bet you lost more than 100 lbs, right?" You: "How are things with you?" Clueless Jerk: "No really, how much weight have you lost?" You: "My family is doing well. Oh, there's Mary. I'd better go say hello."

I'm sorry you had to deal with a clueless jerk. While it is not ok to return rudeness with rudeness, you are not obligated to continue an uncomfortable conversation. Next time this happens, change the subject -- Clueless Jerk: "Wow, I'll bet you lost more than 100 lbs, right?" You: "How are things with you?" Clueless Jerk: "No really, how much weight have you lost?" You: "My family is doing well. Oh, there's Mary. I'd better go say hello."

I'm sorry you had to deal with a clueless jerk. While it is not ok to return rudeness with rudeness, you are not obligated to continue an uncomfortable conversation. Next time this happens, change the subject -- Clueless Jerk: "Wow, I'll bet you lost more than 100 lbs, right?" You: "How are things with you?" Clueless Jerk: "No really, how much weight have you lost?" You: "My family is doing well. Oh, there's Mary. I'd better go say hello."

I'm sorry you had to deal with a clueless jerk. While it is not ok to return rudeness with rudeness, you are not obligated to continue an uncomfortable conversation. Next time this happens, change the subject -- Clueless Jerk: "Wow, I'll bet you lost more than 100 lbs, right?" You: "How are things with you?" Clueless Jerk: "No really, how much weight have you lost?" You: "My family is doing well. Oh, there's Mary. I'd better go say hello."

I'm so envious. You look great. You are very fortunate to have great insurance. My loose skin is much worse than yours was, but my insurance turned me down for just the panni. It's crazy how our health decisions are so controlled by insurance company caprice.

If you want to be thin, you eat less. If you want to be healthy, you exercise. If you want to be thin and healthy, you eat less and exercise.

You are a very lucky woman @CanyonBaby. I too had a love like that. I lost him more than 20 years ago and enough time has passed for the grief to have softened to the point where I am able to know I was truly blessed to have had him for 17 years. Our sons are grown men now and wonderful husbands and fathers. That's some legacy he left. Every time I see them interacting with their families, I know my husband has left a mark that goes on long after he passed from this world.
Just know that I have great hope and faith that your husband will survive this battle and you will be able to look back on this as one more challenge you both were able to overcome. Blessings to you both.
Gowalking

Oh, I get so tired of hearing this kind of thing. Not you personally, don't get me wrong. But I have to say IF you are madly in love, what is the big deal? Let me tell you MY version of MADLY in LOVE:
I am married to a man, have been for almost 20 years. MADLY in LOVE to me means I am willing to clean up after the terrible bouts resulting from colon cancer. Sitting for hours on end watching chemo treatments drip into my husband while he fades away. Watching my life fade away with his. For he has been my life for a very long time. I gave up my career so he could follow his. I have moved across this country over ten times for this. I have waited for eons to see if he was going to come home alive from his job (he's a police officer).
He is madly in love with me, too. He has wiped my bottom more times than I care to think about after several of MY surgeries. He has waited in agony in the ever-sterile waiting rooms of hospitals for word on my condition. He has tolerated my rage, fear, self-centered behavior far longer than any man with half a brain would EVER tolerate.
THIS, my dear, is MAD LOVE. If you don't have it, I'm sorry. I can tell my husband ANYTHING, with NO fear of him losing respect for me, lessening of his love for me, disgusting him with my myriad of scars.
I may not have him for much longer, but I have him FOREVER. I have his HEART, and he has mine.
These are the things with which a true, everlasting relationship is built on. I am truly sorry for the history you have. He cannot change it, but if you give him a chance, he CAN change your future. If you go through life not being able to tell him everything, why are you with him? What will happen when the bad times come? You won't have a base from which to draw strength. He's not perfect, neither are you. We not only live with these "failings", but we learn to embrace them, for they make us stronger, as a couple. There are not very many strong marriages out there anymore. One reason is trust. Or the lack of. Trust is a leap of faith, and if you don't take it, you will never know the true depths your relationship could take.
So ask yourself: are you ready for all the bad that can come with the good? Is he? Ask.

I had my one year post-surgical follow up appointment today. My surgeon was very pleased with my lab results and confirmed that I am now healthy. His only caution was that he wants my weight to stabilize, since I lost a few more pounds since my 9-month checkup. It would not be healthy to lose anymore. This is not news to me. I don't want to fade away -- I want to stay healthy and vital. But I am worried about adding calories to stop the weight loss. In the past, when I loosened the reins on my self control, I lost it and slipped back into my old eating patterns. Have I really learned anything this past year or am I still the same person? I will keep checking in here and updating my food/exercise log on MFP. These are new behaviors that I hope will reinforce my determination not to backslide.

I have a different take on it, in that if you have this opportunity to get healthy while still young and not experience your 20s etc as an obese person I think you should grab it with both hands.
Think about the reasons that you made your decision in the first place and YOU decide what is best for you.