I did a bad bad thing

[Phynale 9]

You had a day of crazy. Don't freak out too much about this - just realize that you have difficulties controlling yourself around sweets and guard against exposure to this stuff until you are much better about restraining yourself.

But a big thing to remember - at this point, you could eat absolute crap and still lose weight. There are plenty of people out there that eat fast food and Cookies and because of the restriction in the early months, they continue to see weight loss. My doctor was just talking about this at my last appointment, not that I was eating poorly, we were discussing a friend of mine that is doing this and justifying it by saying she's still losing weight and me trying to get ideas of what to say to counter that mentality.

What the doc said was this: the sleeve will cause anyone to lose weight eating exactly the same foods they ate pre-sleeve in the first year. They can't eat anything in large quantities, so the weight drops away. It works that way until they hit about a year or so out, and then the weight loss slows/stops. At this point, their stomach has relaxed and they are able to eat a bit more food than at the beginning. And all of this time, they haven't adjusted any of their eating habits or tried to move towards healthy foods, because they thought they didn't have to.

So they keep eat stuff that has no real nutritional value, is high in fat, calories, salt and low in Vitamins, Protein and Fiber. They no longer have the sleeve's super reduced size to make up for the poor eating habits. And they gain back all of the weight, say that the surgery failed, when in reality they failed themselves.

You should be using this time over the next year to completely change how you eat, what you eat and how often/how much. The sleeve takes care of Portion Control and in most cases the feelings of hunger. The biggest thing that many seem to miss about the surgery - the biggest advantage is really that it allows you to relearn healthy eating habits - good foods full of nutrients and putting Protein, veggies first and foremost in your daily diet - because you're no longer a slave to ravenous appetite or able to stuff in tons of food. Sweets or junk are still possible, but they should be very occasional treats, not stuff you eat daily.

It's a huge mind shift, but those that are able to make that shift do the best after having this surgery. I hope you're going to be one of them!

Thank you so much for this post. I plan on going back and re-reading this after my surgery to remind me of my part of this whole deal.

I hope you have a wonderful New Year!