I am heading into my 13th year after VSG. I come back here from time to time, when I need to touch base with folks who "get" it. I only shared my WLS with a very very few people; and people who have met me in the last several years of course do not know.... and I do not talk diet with anyone really. I talk about being healthy, eating intuitively and things like that. I being my lunch to work and if my staff want to order in lunch - I let them pick and then I find something that I am okay with. burgers ? Fine. I don't get fries. I cut the burger in half, eat a few bites of the burger and then take it a part with a fork and leave the rest of the bread. And I have half a burger for dinner.
Coming back here from time to time allows me to re-center myself. And when it is time to lose a couple pounds or if I have lost some more, I come here and update my ticker, and this is a safe place to come back to. I too let about 40 pounds creep back on and a few years ago came back and documented my slow but sure weight loss of... now 50 plus pounds. I started 14 years ago at 320, got down to 175. went back up to 220. Now at 165. I purposely took my time to lose the weight. My goal was to lose 10 pounds a year. I lost 45 in two years, and then took another break for a couple years... have lost 10 pounds in the last 6 or 7 months. I am beyond pleased. I will be 67 in a couple months.
You can do this ! And don't beat yourself up over it. Be gentle with yourself.