Had my psych consult yesterday. Passed! Whoo hoo! Not too crazy!

But, he asked me something interesting and I want to pose it to you. I told him I had been struggling with the decision to have WLS for years and he said that's not unusual. Most people he speaks with have the hardest time with thinking they should be able to do this themselves. Yup, that's me. I still wonder that.

So, I ask you, my sleeved family, what happened to make us gain weight back in the past? Boredom? Won't I get bored with a sleeve, too? Eathing unhealthy food? Won't that be possible, although in maybe smaller amounts? What is going to make me stick with this program when I never stuck with the others?

I'd love to hear from people who have been successful with their sleeve and know what keeps you on track?

I am 13 months post-op and what I am doing that's different this time has to do with both the surgery and my psyche. I lost my hunger with surgery so I am not fixated on food as I used to be. I used to think about food all day long, what I would eat, when I would eat it, what I would eat the following day. I don't do that anymore because food isn't that interesting anymore. The mental stuff is trickier. When I was fat, I avoided getting on the scale. After surgery, I weighed myself every day (I know myself and knew I would not freak out if the scale didn't move). I still weigh myself every day. I gained 2 lbs over the holidays and I took them off immediately by eating protein in larger quantites and cutting salty food and the 2 lbs were gone in 3 days. Also, I like wearing a size 6. I gave away all my fat clothes and I refuse to have a range of sizes in my closet any longer. I am sick and tired of yo-yo dieting and decided that I was in charge now and not food. However, I could not have done it without the surgery and I expect as I get further out it may become more difficult, but I intend to try extremely hard to maintain my weight where it is now.

I haven't gotten to my goal with the sleeve yet but, in the past all the times I lost weight (50-80 lbs) I always re-gained because 1) I quit weighing myself- out of sight out of mind. That made it easy to gain because I was ignoring the problem. 2) I also would quit exercising. I think reason is the diet mentally. I would think well I'm done dieting I can quit doing the things that got me to or close to my goal: consciously watching my weight, healthy eating, and exercising. I also think staying active with support (like this site) helps me to stay focused on my goals.

This time, I'm going to be extremely vigilent at least for the first year of maintenance.

Please help hold me to it.