Creekimp13

1. Figuring out what to do with the pissed off/sad feelings when food wasn't an option to self soothe with.
2. Grieving no longer liking foods I've used as a comfort crutch for a lifetime.
3. Being suprised that this is a lifelong challenge, a lifelong calorie count, a lifelong need to be mindful, a lifelong fight.
You don't "overcome" this. You learn more strategies to deal with disordered eating....every day....for the rest of your life. You learn more about how you ended up fat. You learn more about yourself.
Most newbies think of weighloss surgery in terms of....
First hurdle....getting surgery
Second hurdle..surviving post surgical diet
Third hurdle..doing extreme things to get down to goal weight as soon as possible. (terrible idea)
and at Goal....the fantasy ends.
The typical Newbie thinks goal weight is the yellow brick road happy ending with a rainbow over it. Goal Weight is arriving at the destination you will never depart from. It is THE END, the reward, Bliss, Victory, blah blah blah...
The problem with arriving at goal....is that you wake up the next day....and you're still you. LOL.
Look past goal. Goal isn't the end. You don't get fixed just because you reach goal. Your brain and eating aren't less disordered. You have to work through all sorts of weird behavior and fix the parts of you that need attention...the parts that drove you to morbid obesity.
That's the real challenge....living permanently with new eating habits, new physicality, and finding new outlets for toxic feelings that don't end up being self sabotaging.
The work is never done. I won't say it doesn't eventually get easier. But it's never done.
I will be working on this big life change....for the rest of my life.

One of the bigger challenges many people face is thinking the surgery magically fixes you (it doesn't), thinking that the surgery does the work (it doesn't, but you do), and thinking that you're cured somehow at goal.
You are just getting started.

1. Figuring out what to do with the pissed off/sad feelings when food wasn't an option to self soothe with.
2. Grieving no longer liking foods I've used as a comfort crutch for a lifetime.
3. Being suprised that this is a lifelong challenge, a lifelong calorie count, a lifelong need to be mindful, a lifelong fight.
You don't "overcome" this. You learn more strategies to deal with disordered eating....every day....for the rest of your life. You learn more about how you ended up fat. You learn more about yourself.
Most newbies think of weighloss surgery in terms of....
First hurdle....getting surgery
Second hurdle..surviving post surgical diet
Third hurdle..doing extreme things to get down to goal weight as soon as possible. (terrible idea)
and at Goal....the fantasy ends.
The typical Newbie thinks goal weight is the yellow brick road happy ending with a rainbow over it. Goal Weight is arriving at the destination you will never depart from. It is THE END, the reward, Bliss, Victory, blah blah blah...
The problem with arriving at goal....is that you wake up the next day....and you're still you. LOL.
Look past goal. Goal isn't the end. You don't get fixed just because you reach goal. Your brain and eating aren't less disordered. You have to work through all sorts of weird behavior and fix the parts of you that need attention...the parts that drove you to morbid obesity.
That's the real challenge....living permanently with new eating habits, new physicality, and finding new outlets for toxic feelings that don't end up being self sabotaging.
The work is never done. I won't say it doesn't eventually get easier. But it's never done.
I will be working on this big life change....for the rest of my life.

One of the bigger challenges many people face is thinking the surgery magically fixes you (it doesn't), thinking that the surgery does the work (it doesn't, but you do), and thinking that you're cured somehow at goal.
You are just getting started.

Most of the veteran posts, lets face it.... are "Help, I've regained!"
And the response I see over and over and over and over is...
"Go back to basics...starve yourself at 1000 calories a day (or less)...start drinking protien shakes....do keto...blah blah blah"
I don't mean to criticize heartfelt advice...and I know some of ya'll are genuinely trying to help.
But why in the world would you tell someone to do the same thing over again....that didn't work the first time?
It seems nuts to me.
My two cents: see a bariatric therapist. Stop the self punishment. Stop the self sabotage. Stop the self harming extremes.
Get down to the real reasons you're addicted to food, what you're medicating with it...and work on fixing those issues.
If you do....making slow reasonable changes to your diet that have slow but steady results....will work.
You don't have to starve. You don't have to do very low calorie diets that hurt your metabolism, your bone density, and your muscle mass.
You don't have to be so freaking EXTREME.
Breathe. Make reasonable changes you can live with for a lifetime. No crash diets. They don't work. You know this. How many years experience do you have KNOWING that this approach doesn't work? Stop running from the real issues.

1. Figuring out what to do with the pissed off/sad feelings when food wasn't an option to self soothe with.
2. Grieving no longer liking foods I've used as a comfort crutch for a lifetime.
3. Being suprised that this is a lifelong challenge, a lifelong calorie count, a lifelong need to be mindful, a lifelong fight.
You don't "overcome" this. You learn more strategies to deal with disordered eating....every day....for the rest of your life. You learn more about how you ended up fat. You learn more about yourself.
Most newbies think of weighloss surgery in terms of....
First hurdle....getting surgery
Second hurdle..surviving post surgical diet
Third hurdle..doing extreme things to get down to goal weight as soon as possible. (terrible idea)
and at Goal....the fantasy ends.
The typical Newbie thinks goal weight is the yellow brick road happy ending with a rainbow over it. Goal Weight is arriving at the destination you will never depart from. It is THE END, the reward, Bliss, Victory, blah blah blah...
The problem with arriving at goal....is that you wake up the next day....and you're still you. LOL.
Look past goal. Goal isn't the end. You don't get fixed just because you reach goal. Your brain and eating aren't less disordered. You have to work through all sorts of weird behavior and fix the parts of you that need attention...the parts that drove you to morbid obesity.
That's the real challenge....living permanently with new eating habits, new physicality, and finding new outlets for toxic feelings that don't end up being self sabotaging.
The work is never done. I won't say it doesn't eventually get easier. But it's never done.
I will be working on this big life change....for the rest of my life.

One of the bigger challenges many people face is thinking the surgery magically fixes you (it doesn't), thinking that the surgery does the work (it doesn't, but you do), and thinking that you're cured somehow at goal.
You are just getting started.

1. Figuring out what to do with the pissed off/sad feelings when food wasn't an option to self soothe with.
2. Grieving no longer liking foods I've used as a comfort crutch for a lifetime.
3. Being suprised that this is a lifelong challenge, a lifelong calorie count, a lifelong need to be mindful, a lifelong fight.
You don't "overcome" this. You learn more strategies to deal with disordered eating....every day....for the rest of your life. You learn more about how you ended up fat. You learn more about yourself.
Most newbies think of weighloss surgery in terms of....
First hurdle....getting surgery
Second hurdle..surviving post surgical diet
Third hurdle..doing extreme things to get down to goal weight as soon as possible. (terrible idea)
and at Goal....the fantasy ends.
The typical Newbie thinks goal weight is the yellow brick road happy ending with a rainbow over it. Goal Weight is arriving at the destination you will never depart from. It is THE END, the reward, Bliss, Victory, blah blah blah...
The problem with arriving at goal....is that you wake up the next day....and you're still you. LOL.
Look past goal. Goal isn't the end. You don't get fixed just because you reach goal. Your brain and eating aren't less disordered. You have to work through all sorts of weird behavior and fix the parts of you that need attention...the parts that drove you to morbid obesity.
That's the real challenge....living permanently with new eating habits, new physicality, and finding new outlets for toxic feelings that don't end up being self sabotaging.
The work is never done. I won't say it doesn't eventually get easier. But it's never done.
I will be working on this big life change....for the rest of my life.

One of the bigger challenges many people face is thinking the surgery magically fixes you (it doesn't), thinking that the surgery does the work (it doesn't, but you do), and thinking that you're cured somehow at goal.
You are just getting started.

Bingo.

You're right, summerset....getting folks to think about weight loss and disordered eating in any other way than...extreme dieting...is like hitting your head against a wall until it's bloody.
I'm not sure I care to do it anymore. The windmill wins.
And Sillykitty made a great point...many people FEEL any suggestion of doing it any other way...is criticism of what they've been doing. It isn't, but I know it's experienced that way.
There is a defensiveness that rivals politics and religion...when we talk about diets and weight loss.
Everyone is very fixed on what they believe...including me, I suppose.
I think this might be a major reason why we don't see more activity on the veteran's forum...there's a volitility that gets so negative.
And ya know? I like ya'll. I don't want to feel negative about anyone or anything here.
At some point, it's unhelpful to share your two cents, even when you try to do it carefully.
And at some point, maybe it's best to realize that.
Peace and best wishes to all.

Most of the veteran posts, lets face it.... are "Help, I've regained!"
And the response I see over and over and over and over is...
"Go back to basics...starve yourself at 1000 calories a day (or less)...start drinking protien shakes....do keto...blah blah blah"
I don't mean to criticize heartfelt advice...and I know some of ya'll are genuinely trying to help.
But why in the world would you tell someone to do the same thing over again....that didn't work the first time?
It seems nuts to me.
My two cents: see a bariatric therapist. Stop the self punishment. Stop the self sabotage. Stop the self harming extremes.
Get down to the real reasons you're addicted to food, what you're medicating with it...and work on fixing those issues.
If you do....making slow reasonable changes to your diet that have slow but steady results....will work.
You don't have to starve. You don't have to do very low calorie diets that hurt your metabolism, your bone density, and your muscle mass.
You don't have to be so freaking EXTREME.
Breathe. Make reasonable changes you can live with for a lifetime. No crash diets. They don't work. You know this. How many years experience do you have KNOWING that this approach doesn't work? Stop running from the real issues.

Meh, to each their own. But I'm tired of lying. These surgeries fix our stomachs, not our heads. Our heads will never be well if we keep lying. And we are CHAMPION liars about food and hunger (and fitness and body image, etc.) We're also prone to extreme thinking. If it's not one extreme it's the other. I want something truthful that is moderate and sane and not so EXTREME all the time.
1000 calories a day indefinately...is eventually called an eating disorder. We can't avoid food. We need to make peace with it and be honest about it.
If we've been lying about food and hunger to ourselves, we are much more at risk of regaining or developing an eating disorder in the other direction or another addiction.....which does happen.
I'm personally not interested in an eating disorder. I'm not interested in being someone who stands in the sun and believes the energy is flowing into me. LOLOLOLOL.
I have no interest in the nonsense of "skinny, perfect, beautiful". I like how I look, and I always have. Even when I was 270 pounds.
I want to be someone who is an average weight for a woman my age...who feels strong and healthy and has excellent labs and no medications. I want a long healthy life. I want to stop the weight obsession/identity/cycle of madness.
I want to be someone who relates to food in a normal way. Someone who can enjoy everything in moderation who has the self control to stop and self regulate. Someone who doesn't think about food every minute of the day.
And I think my chances of getting there are a hell of a lot better if I'm honest. So does my bariatric therapist.
I am nearly 50, and I'm just getting this figured out after a lifetime of diets and extreme thinking. I love my moderate, normal weight.... and my moderate normal eating habits.... and my moderate normal fitness.
Here's a current pic of me. Not perfect. Moderate. Normal. But exactly who I want to be:) And yep...this chick gets HUNGRY when she's not eating 1400-1600 calories a day:)

Good carbs with lots of fiber keep my gut microbiota in balance, and are a hell of a lot healthier for my kidneys than ketosis.
I eat good fats, good carbs, high plant protien, moderate animal protien, high fiber.
Sustained goal weight for over 3 and a half years eating a metric feckton of a carbs:)
I'm extra careful with my refined carbs, though. Very little processed sugar or white flour in my diet now (huge change from before). Almost all my carbs are from whole grains, whole fruit, Beans, potatoes, other whole veggies now....but I do eat a lot of them.
The occasional treat of refined stuff, but not too often. Maybe 200 calories worth once or twice a week.
Carbs are not the enemy

I'm a huge fan of Chickpea Pasta. Eat it regularly. Plant protien, Fiber, and tastes great. I genuinely prefer it to wheat pasta now.

"I love your smile!" This dude says this to me on my way into the grocery store today. And I'm thinking to myself....ok, that was odd.
Then, I get a couple more big smiles and winks and weirdness.
I asked my 80 year old mom who was with me today...."What the hell is going on? Do I look odd? Am I missing something? I'm getting strange looks."
And without hesitation, she goes.... "It's your boobs."
"What?"
"You have a little waist and big boobs. You usually don't wear fitted shirts."
And she's right...I'm wearing a sort of snug fitted shirt. My bestie made me try it on and she said it looked awesome on me. It's not hoochie or overly tight or anything....just not something I'd usually wear.
Ok...this coming from my 80 year old mom was wild enough....but literally minutes later...some dude runs over to help me lift one of those 40 pound pails of cat litter into my cart.
"Wait, let me help you!" Mr. Helpful says, dashing over grinning like a madman.
And I thanked him. Twice.
But I'm thinking to myself.....where the hell were you when I weighed 270 pounds and my back was killing me?
Sometimes I kind of enjoy it....but most of the time it's incredibly uncomfortable to not be as invisable anymore.
I mean, the sweet compliments and help are incredibly nice and all....but sometimes I feel gross about it. I am still a fat girl on the inside. I'm still angry and hurt that people are shallow assholes.
Any of y'all know what I mean?

Matty, you had coffee out my nose with this. LOLOLOL. Thank you for the best laugh.😘

Ultimately, it's no one's job but yours to figure out the best stuff to put in your body.
People will always eat awful stuff because it's readily available and tastes good. People will equate offering food with offering affection, support, etc. (even though for someone trying to lose weight, this is backwards and crazy...it's just habit and they don't think about it) For some people it's a manners thing...I can't eat in front of someone else without offering to share, regardless of what I'm eating. Doen't matter if I'm eating a protien bar or a donut...if you're hanging out with me and I think you might be hungry...I'll offer you half. You can always say no.
Sometimes, I make a mindful decision to eat junk food. I budget for it in my daily calories and I like proving to myself that I control food and food doesn't control me anymore.
I like eating junk now, because I don't enjoy it as much as I used to and I don't feel out of control. I know that sounds crazy....but seriously...there is a satisfying victory in consuming 200 calories of something I used to be totally out of control with...and go...you know what? That's good, but I can take it or leave it now. I LOVE that I can take it or leave it now. And I really love that I'm being dead honest about that, because I have spent a lifetime lying to myself about food. I very honestly am not as reactive about food as I used to be...and that's a HUGE victory.
Yep, I still like fat, sugar and salt. Most people do. But I can take them or leave them, and I can budget a sensible serving and not have my nutrition day ruined. I credit part of that to revamping my eating habits and microbiota due to the surgery, and part to food addiction work with my bariatric therapist. Both have been incredibly important.

Ultimately, it's no one's job but yours to figure out the best stuff to put in your body.
People will always eat awful stuff because it's readily available and tastes good. People will equate offering food with offering affection, support, etc. (even though for someone trying to lose weight, this is backwards and crazy...it's just habit and they don't think about it) For some people it's a manners thing...I can't eat in front of someone else without offering to share, regardless of what I'm eating. Doen't matter if I'm eating a protien bar or a donut...if you're hanging out with me and I think you might be hungry...I'll offer you half. You can always say no.
Sometimes, I make a mindful decision to eat junk food. I budget for it in my daily calories and I like proving to myself that I control food and food doesn't control me anymore.
I like eating junk now, because I don't enjoy it as much as I used to and I don't feel out of control. I know that sounds crazy....but seriously...there is a satisfying victory in consuming 200 calories of something I used to be totally out of control with...and go...you know what? That's good, but I can take it or leave it now. I LOVE that I can take it or leave it now. And I really love that I'm being dead honest about that, because I have spent a lifetime lying to myself about food. I very honestly am not as reactive about food as I used to be...and that's a HUGE victory.
Yep, I still like fat, sugar and salt. Most people do. But I can take them or leave them, and I can budget a sensible serving and not have my nutrition day ruined. I credit part of that to revamping my eating habits and microbiota due to the surgery, and part to food addiction work with my bariatric therapist. Both have been incredibly important.

Exercise is one of the least prescibed and most effective treatments for depression and anxiety.

First off, let me say that you should always listen to your doctor and nutritionist...rather than crazy people on the internet, myself included.
But here's my rant today. And for what it's worth....this is just MY feelings on this nonsense. I'm no expert.

Ya'll need to eat. Not overeat. But also NOT UNDER-EAT. Eat healthy food you enjoy.
I know how it happens. Your weight loss gets sluggish and stuck and you think OMG, this isn't working, I'm Failing at this! You start to panic.
And what does a lifelong self-destructive dieter DO when they start to panic? They go exteme.
They go...ok, my doctor said it was ok to eat this much.....so I'm gonna try to eat HALF of that to speed up my weight loss!
I'm going to work harder than anyone! I'm going to eat less! I'm going to force this weight off of my body...because this is my last chance and I'm freaking out and I can't fail at this, so I NEED to do better and cut back!
Only, here's the thing. You don't need to cut back. You need to stay the course, nourish your healing body, have good energy to boost your metabolism and lose weight sensibly.
Why do people do VLCDs? (very low calorie diets....1000 or less calories a day)....they do them because they show results in a hurry.
And there is nothing people like better than a lower number on the scale...regardless of how they're achieving it. Or how harmfully they are achieving it.
When you eat less than 1000 calories a day, did you know you lose more muscle than fat...even if you are eating tons of protien grams?
When you lose muscle, you slow your metabolism, endanger your organs that have muscle (heart anyone?), and decrease your bone density. None of this is a good idea.
And when you're eating starvation level calories, your body tries like hell to keep you from dying....by, you guessed it, slowing your metabolism even further.
And the carb thing...can we talk about that a minute? You DO want to avoid carbs that are metabolized to sugar really fast, like sugary foods and refined white flour items because they can cause your pancrease to over-react and send too much insulin and you'll end up with rebound hunger....but other carbs, particularly ones that have good Fiber content to slow the sugar can also have good protien content...and they don't do the rebound hunger thing. They give you great available energy.
Why do we lose so much weight so rapidly when we do Keto? We don't really....but the first five pounds is so quick and shocking that it MUST work! (except you're not losing fat, you're losing the Water that your liver stores extra glucose in.....and you've stripped your liver of its emergency reserve of energy. And yeah...you can make the sugar you need from other things through gluconeogenesis....but it takes amino acids that your body is typically harvesting from your muscles.) Don't do that thing where you lose the five pounds eating keto....then eat a few carbs and go OMG, look at the weight I've gained!....and go keto again and lose the same five pounds of water. It's an illusion. (Not saying keto people can't lose weight...they do lose weight fast...but they also have about five pounds in lost water from glucose storage, no emergency stores, and their bodies may be consuming their muscles)
Food for thought (literally!) Guess what organ runs exclusively on sugar? Pure glucose. Your brain. Your brain burns over 300 calories of glucose every day. At just 2% of our body weight....our brains burn about 20% of the calories we use each day! The CPU needs fuel.

Lots of people lose weight rapidly with Very Low Calorie Diets after bariatric surgery. They have these amazing results that other people notice and are in awe of. They lose to goal eating very little and feel very accomplished about their self discipline and their amazing fast results.
And then guess what happens?
At goal...they are still people who have never learned how to eat sustainably for life. All they know is starvation and self deprivation. And starvation doesn't work long term.
Please learn to eat sustainable amounts of calories. Do it early so you don't fudge your metabolism into starvation level calorie requirements.
One of the best ways to have a robust metabolism...is to do exercise every day. It doesn't have to be the gym or something you find tedious. Do things you enjoy....but keep moving.
It's hard to build your robust metabolism.....when you're too tired to do anything but go to work and go to bed...because you're starving yourself.
Please eat. Don't overeat. But eat. Learn to eat right, not starve. Starving is not the cure and in many cases sets the stage for significant regain.
Do it right, even it it's slower than other people. Do it sustainably. Learn to coexist with food, not avoid it. (easier said than done)
Don't get discouraged by small losses. Just keep losing to goal with small sensible tweeks. You don't have to suffer extremes to have success.
Learning to control your diet moderately...is the best skill to have when facing a lifetime of sustaining a significant weight loss.

This end my rant.
Totally ok if you think I'm nuts/wrong/whatever. Take what you like and leave the rest.
Peace and best wishes to everyone on this crazy road.

I've maintained almost 4 years at goal by eating a TON of carbs. So...there are a lot of ways up this mountain dietarily. I eat high Fiber, keep my calories under 1600 a day, and eat very little refined sugar or white flour. (I keep my refined treats under 200 calories once or twice a week)
Stuff I eat a TON of: Oats, fruit, Veggies, Beans, Chickpeas, Lowfat/Nonfat Diary, Potatoes, VERY lean meats, whole grain breads. Lots and lots of fruit and veggies. (and it shows...my cholesterol and all labs are excellent...and this matters as we get older)
Stuff I don't eat: Anything with animal fat. Fried stuff. (I do stir fry with a little olive oil) I don't eat Refined sugar. I don't eat White flour.
Substitutions I make a lot: Plant Protein instead of animal. Olive Oil instead of butter. High fiber...I try to get 25g a day or more. oatmeal in food processor in place of white flour in recipes.
Best advice I can give.....three of them actually:
1. See a bariatric therapist. The causes behind disordered eating are not addressed by your surgery.
2. Get active! Increasing your activity, even if it's just adding a couple hundred more steps to your routine every day...it will keep your metabolism singing.
3. Count calories. It sucks, but it's necessary.
Wishing you the very best!

At 3 weeks post op, I was eating 1200 calories a day in 6 (or more) little meals.

Most of the veteran posts, lets face it.... are "Help, I've regained!"
And the response I see over and over and over and over is...
"Go back to basics...starve yourself at 1000 calories a day (or less)...start drinking protien shakes....do keto...blah blah blah"
I don't mean to criticize heartfelt advice...and I know some of ya'll are genuinely trying to help.
But why in the world would you tell someone to do the same thing over again....that didn't work the first time?
It seems nuts to me.
My two cents: see a bariatric therapist. Stop the self punishment. Stop the self sabotage. Stop the self harming extremes.
Get down to the real reasons you're addicted to food, what you're medicating with it...and work on fixing those issues.
If you do....making slow reasonable changes to your diet that have slow but steady results....will work.
You don't have to starve. You don't have to do very low calorie diets that hurt your metabolism, your bone density, and your muscle mass.
You don't have to be so freaking EXTREME.
Breathe. Make reasonable changes you can live with for a lifetime. No crash diets. They don't work. You know this. How many years experience do you have KNOWING that this approach doesn't work? Stop running from the real issues.

I drink diet soda. One can a day. No big issues. I admitted it at my last yearly visit and my doctor said...you're maintaining well and your labs are great...without actually saying it was ok. I kinda cornered my doc on the fallacy of carbonation "stretching your stomach" and he admitted it didn't, but said that they try to strongly discourage people from taking up carbonated beverages again because so many of the people who suffer a lot of regain go back to full calorie soda and beer with diet soda being a bit of a "gateway drug".
Also, diet soda isn't particularly healthy or helpful. It's a habit with little benefit that carries the potential for problems for those who will eventually return to full calorie beverages. So...I get it.
Still....damned if I don't enjoy that one can of diet soda a day. My current favorite. Diet Mango Pepsi. Yep, I'm guilty.

See if your bariatric group has a therapist they recommend who works on food addiction issues with folks who have had weight loss surgery. Get someone on the job who is better aligned and more knowledgable about your needs.

"I love your smile!" This dude says this to me on my way into the grocery store today. And I'm thinking to myself....ok, that was odd.
Then, I get a couple more big smiles and winks and weirdness.
I asked my 80 year old mom who was with me today...."What the hell is going on? Do I look odd? Am I missing something? I'm getting strange looks."
And without hesitation, she goes.... "It's your boobs."
"What?"
"You have a little waist and big boobs. You usually don't wear fitted shirts."
And she's right...I'm wearing a sort of snug fitted shirt. My bestie made me try it on and she said it looked awesome on me. It's not hoochie or overly tight or anything....just not something I'd usually wear.
Ok...this coming from my 80 year old mom was wild enough....but literally minutes later...some dude runs over to help me lift one of those 40 pound pails of cat litter into my cart.
"Wait, let me help you!" Mr. Helpful says, dashing over grinning like a madman.
And I thanked him. Twice.
But I'm thinking to myself.....where the hell were you when I weighed 270 pounds and my back was killing me?
Sometimes I kind of enjoy it....but most of the time it's incredibly uncomfortable to not be as invisable anymore.
I mean, the sweet compliments and help are incredibly nice and all....but sometimes I feel gross about it. I am still a fat girl on the inside. I'm still angry and hurt that people are shallow assholes.
Any of y'all know what I mean?

I've maintained almost 4 years at goal by eating a TON of carbs. So...there are a lot of ways up this mountain dietarily. I eat high Fiber, keep my calories under 1600 a day, and eat very little refined sugar or white flour. (I keep my refined treats under 200 calories once or twice a week)
Stuff I eat a TON of: Oats, fruit, Veggies, Beans, Chickpeas, Lowfat/Nonfat Diary, Potatoes, VERY lean meats, whole grain breads. Lots and lots of fruit and veggies. (and it shows...my cholesterol and all labs are excellent...and this matters as we get older)
Stuff I don't eat: Anything with animal fat. Fried stuff. (I do stir fry with a little olive oil) I don't eat Refined sugar. I don't eat White flour.
Substitutions I make a lot: Plant Protein instead of animal. Olive Oil instead of butter. High fiber...I try to get 25g a day or more. oatmeal in food processor in place of white flour in recipes.
Best advice I can give.....three of them actually:
1. See a bariatric therapist. The causes behind disordered eating are not addressed by your surgery.
2. Get active! Increasing your activity, even if it's just adding a couple hundred more steps to your routine every day...it will keep your metabolism singing.
3. Count calories. It sucks, but it's necessary.
Wishing you the very best!

Nice work!