QTR-nevermore

I spent a whole lot of time on discussion boards back in 2008 when I got my sleeve. I was surrounded by lap banders and bypassers. There weren't many VSG folks - but generally everyody had the same journey to discuss and many of us were in the thick of it. I have ot credit those folks for their help. They were critical in my initial success.
I often wondered why I didn't see more people who were 3 - 5 and more years out from their surgeries on thos boards. Now I know why. I too left the boards when they were no longer relevant. I didn't want to read the posts that sounded exactly like my initial ones - I am scared, what do I eat? will my boobs droop? How come I can't poo? - and more of the same. I had lost my weight, retrained myself to eat with a sleeve, and was on an excellent regimen.
By the 18 month mark I was working through the incredible emotional impact my weight loss had. Who knew that such a happy thing might cause a tsunami of hormones and depression. Over it now... moving on. Then in 2011 my life became VERY stressful on all fronts. Where do I go? Comfort food. Granted I can't do quite as much damage in one sitting as I used to, but there is no limit to how much chocolate I can take in during a day. There is apparently also no limit to the amount of shame I can carry.
I still cope with food. I am now struggling big time with that feeling of a loss of control and my weight is creeping up. I didn't do this whole surgery thing just to be fat again. But what the surgery didn't do for me is change three fundamental things:
I still turn to food for comfort when I am hurting
I have not learned to enjoy any form of excercise - I have such a crazy career/commute/learning disabled child that I would have to make a huge set of changes to make time for something I hate. Doesn't bode well does it?
Self loathing and body image is not fixed with weight loss - I just found new things to hate

I am hoping that there are a few later stage sleevers on this page who may be facing this and who have something helpful to suggest. Anybody out there experienced the panic and shame of weight regain?
Thanks - I hope I have picked the right on line community.

There is nothing wrong with eating animal meat if you choose to... we were advised to eat Protein... protein does not only come from meat, you can get it from many sources....
I think the focus on animal meat products is that it is the easiest and most well known type of protein... any layman when asked what protein is.. will answer meat, poultry, fish.
I personally get sick of eating the same type of food... i need variety... so i switch between animal and non animal sources depending on what i feel like.
Also, i think the original info which was published in 1995 has some info that would be considered redundant now as new research emerges... it would be good if there was an updated version

Well, the prescribed 2-4 oz of meat is hardly an obsession when the average American is probably eating 8 oz of animal Protein at a meal.
I am 13-years out from gastric bypass and have not eaten red meat for so many years that I have lost count at this point. But the validity of bariatric surgeons telling us to eat animal protein is apparent to me, based on my personal experience. And my experience has been that, I eat wild caught fish and organic raised on pasture eggs and supplement with vegan Protein powder (of which most brands are crap) and collagen. Sometimes I will eat organic free range poultry. I also take lots of supplements including a heavy dose of Iron. All this personal history is given just so that I can tell you that given these high dietary standards, I still struggle with iron deficiency and anemia from time to time. So, I will say that there is legitimacy to the prescribed "up your animal (red meat) protein intake."
Dr. E. E. Mason wrote these gold standards several decades ago and there is a lot of value in them. They are not nutritional guidelines per se and so they don't include things like phytonutrients -- that's my take on it anyway. That said, given what we are now seeing as far as nutritional deficiencies and digestive disorders in long-term bariatric patients, perhaps the ASMBS will publish more comprehensive nutritional guidelines for micronutrients and (one could only hope) phytonutrients. There is some detailed information on the ASMBS website regarding micronutrients, and a European bariatric surgeon that I spoke with recently said this was a big area of discussion at their annual meeting.
When I had my gastric bypass surgery in 2003, I was told that I needed to take one Multivitamin, one Calcium, and one iron tablet a day. That turned out to be a complete fallacy. The quantity of supplements that I take is extreme.
GSleeve822, rather than try to degrade ops with name calling -- ops, who I might add, take precious time out of their busy lives to write articles such as this purely to help bariatric patients -- why not add to the conversation with information from authoritative sources that support your point of view rather than issue complaints that show your lack of gratitude and decorum in a public forum?
As always, my information is cited from the authoritative sources from which they are taken, and shared here for informational purposes. You should always check with your healthcare provider, as well as trust your gut instinct... if something doesn't feel right to you then by all means exercise your right to not believe it.