I am days away from my surgery and can't wait to start my journey toward better health and a new life.

I have a question. I know the basics, VSG is just a tool and I have to change my habits for success long term. VSG removes a lot of the hunger producing hormones. The stomach that is left can stretch a little over time. It is possible to regain weight after the first year or so. Emotional and "head hunger" will still be a battle.

My question for those that are a year or so out is this... Do you feel hungry and the urge to over indulge similar to before surgery? Do the hunger hormones build back up? I am so scared about going through this monumental life change only to fail and regain weight a few years later. If obesity was something I could control by developing better habits and eating less I wouldn't have spent 25 years of my life battling my weight and need surgery. I'm just worried about results long term. I have gained and lost a large amount of weight several times in my life and if this comes down to willpower in a few years I am not sure I can keep it off. I've never succeeded keeping it off before.

Know what I mean?

My surgery is in today and I'm so ready for this.

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I so know what you mean & I'm terrified! I read somewhere that the Ghrelin does come back but, not too sure? I will be sleeved in June.

My hubby just asked if that was Sami & EJ......He's a closet fan!

YES! I am a Sami and EJ fan, hardcore! LOL Awesome your hubby knows who they are. PM me if you want info on a great fan site for them.

When is your surgery date? Mine is June 7th!

So, for some of us we never lost the hunger. That being said, the hunger isn't quite as bad as before surgery. Since I went through surgery it has been my focus to reach goal and during that process my habits have really changed. Now, I'm exercising daily and have a strong network of friends at the gym, I also stay within my eating plan and stay away from my trigger foods. In fact, if I'm going to indulge say in a bit of ice cream then first I have to exercise and burn at least the amount of calories I'm going to eat - usually when I do that I realize that I don't want to waste that exercise in something like empty calories and instead opt to have something healthier for me. Anyway, that's my experience and I'm almost 11 months out.

Thanks for the info and appreciate your candor. I know this road will not be easy. Hopefully along the way I can accomplish what I haven't been able to before.

A lot of the things that cause us to be obese aren't really about food. It's not about always sitting down and overindulging in a massive meal, though many of us do that prior to surgery. It's more about our emotions and our heads. The issues many experience post op with head hunger, cravings, binges, grazing, emotional eating, etc. are all head issues - not stomach ones.

The sleeve is a tool. It's a tool that will help you control your hunger (most likely - very few people still struggle with hunger post op but some do) while you fix your head. You'll lose weight in the process. If you do your job and shed the emotional triggers and baggage and build new habits, you'll find that maintenance isn't all that hard.

That said - we are who we are. We have, in most cases, spent most of our lives building bad habits, coping poorly and hiding our feelings in food. We have fallen back on eating poor choices in times of stress and eating far too much. We love food. It's our addiction. It's particularly difficult to control that addiction and "stay clean" so to speak, during hormonal times and stressful situations.

And while we can learn to control it and while it really does get easier, that part never goes away. I'm not saying you're going to crave pizza a year out. Goodness knows, I hardly crave anything any more and when I do it's something off the wall like chickpeas or lima beans!

I'll be three years out in July. My hunger hasn't come back. But while I've maintained very easily (I just had a baby five weeks ago and need to shed the final nine pounds but otherwise have stayed in my "maintenance window" without issue) I can say that it would be easy to slide off track. No, it's not the constant willpower struggle for me that dieting was, but for some people it is a constant struggle. It's all in your relationship to food and how you redefine it - because everyone's journey is different and we can't speak to how you'll experience yours.

I still have to make the right choices. I really do best on a Protein coffee every morning. I still need to eat protein first but I have to incorporate enough good carbs and grains or I feel the urge to graze. It's a balancing act. I'm pretty firmly centered and not likely to fall over, but I worked hard to get here.

We are not fat because of food. Accept that and make an agreement with yourself to work on it and you'll have a much better chance at long term success. Goal isn't a number on the scale. Goal is getting to a healthier size and weight and maintaining it happily for life.

And for goodness' sake - everyone comes out of surgery unable to eat and it's easy to treat the sleeve like part B of your Atkins diet for the first six months. But after that point I urge everyone to really explore their eating choices and learn how to eat more normally and in moderation. A huge issue you'll see in your time here has to do with people that fly to goal in half a year on a seriously low calorie, low carb diet...but then they disappear and flounder on their own, because all they learned to do was diet. They didn't learn how to live in maintenance, eating moderately and making healthy choices when happy with their body. It's far harder to maintain than it is to lose the weight, I promise you, and most people fail to see that. Getting to goal is the easy part. Staying there and being happy and doing it without a lifelong diet - that's the tricky part.

Good luck. Do your research. Accept that you will hit hurdles and stalls and maybe you won't lose as quickly as you like and you might even still want a dang Snickers bar when you're stressed. Don't let those things toss you off the wagon forever (stumbling and picking yourself up again a time or two is pretty normal) and you'll make it.

~Cheri

A lot of the things that cause us to be obese aren't really about food. It's not about always sitting down and overindulging in a massive meal' date=' though many of us do that prior to surgery. It's more about our emotions and our heads. The issues many experience post op with head hunger, cravings, binges, grazing, emotional eating, etc. are all head issues - not stomach ones.

The sleeve is a tool. It's a tool that will help you control your hunger (most likely - very few people still struggle with hunger post op but some do) while you fix your head. You'll lose weight in the process. If you do your job and shed the emotional triggers and baggage and build new habits, you'll find that maintenance isn't all that hard.

That said - we are who we are. We have, in most cases, spent most of our lives building bad habits, coping poorly and hiding our feelings in food. We have fallen back on eating poor choices in times of stress and eating far too much. We love food. It's our addiction. It's particularly difficult to control that addiction and "stay clean" so to speak, during hormonal times and stressful situations.

And while we can learn to control it and while it really does get easier, that part never goes away. I'm not saying you're going to crave pizza a year out. Goodness knows, I hardly crave anything any more and when I do it's something off the wall like chickpeas or lima beans!

I'll be three years out in July. My hunger hasn't come back. But while I've maintained very easily (I just had a baby five weeks ago and need to shed the final nine pounds but otherwise have stayed in my "maintenance window" without issue) I can say that it would be easy to slide off track. No, it's not the constant willpower struggle for me that dieting was, but for some people it is a constant struggle. It's all in your relationship to food and how you redefine it - because everyone's journey is different and we can't speak to how you'll experience yours.

I still have to make the right choices. I really do best on a Protein coffee every morning. I still need to eat protein first but I have to incorporate enough good carbs and grains or I feel the urge to graze. It's a balancing act. I'm pretty firmly centered and not likely to fall over, but I worked hard to get here.

We are not fat because of food. Accept that and make an agreement with yourself to work on it and you'll have a much better chance at long term success. Goal isn't a number on the scale. Goal is getting to a healthier size and weight and maintaining it happily for life.

And for goodness' sake - everyone comes out of surgery unable to eat and it's easy to treat the sleeve like part B of your Atkins diet for the first six months. But after that point I urge everyone to really explore their eating choices and learn how to eat more normally and in moderation. A huge issue you'll see in your time here has to do with people that fly to goal in half a year on a seriously low calorie, low carb diet...but then they disappear and flounder on their own, because all they learned to do was diet. They didn't learn how to live in maintenance, eating moderately and making healthy choices when happy with their body. It's far harder to maintain than it is to lose the weight, I promise you, and most people fail to see that. Getting to goal is the easy part. Staying there and being happy and doing it without a lifelong diet - that's the tricky part.

Good luck. Do your research. Accept that you will hit hurdles and stalls and maybe you won't lose as quickly as you like and you might even still want a dang Snickers bar when you're stressed. Don't let those things toss you off the wagon forever (stumbling and picking yourself up again a time or two is pretty normal) and you'll make it.

~Cheri[/quote']

What's protein coffee??

A protein shake made with coffee as the liquid.

Thank you Cheri for your response. I really do appreciate it.