Its been a while since i have been here. 5 years actually. Back in 2010 I began the process of preparing to do the Gastric Sleeve. I went through all my pre-op testing. My weight was 313 and my doc wanted me to loose some weight.

Well, I did. I lost enough do drop my BMI down to below 40 and thought that I could do it on my own, so i cancelled the plan. Turns out that was a bit of a mistake. Since 2010 I have put on another 40 lbs and have gotten up to as high as 356 lbs. So I began the process again. I dragged my feet a little after the first visit, but have since locked down a surgery date....May 18, 2016.

Now my only concerns are post-op. I want to be sure I use this tool as its intended and drop and maintain a health, sensible weight. I used to be an athlete...I played rugby, volleyball, basketball....whatever was around really. Now I cant walk a flight of steps without getting winded. Standing in one spot too long causes pain. I am a volunteer firefighter and the last parade i marched in I almost passed out from exhaustion.

I dont want to become another statistic. Its time to make a change and i believe this will assist me to do that.

I am open to any and all suggestions, criticism, questions.....bring it on.

First of all, I want to say you shouldn't get down on yourself for deciding not to have the surgery and thinking you could do it on your own. You DID do it on your own. Unfortunately, losing weight, both pre and post-op is the easy part! As you have found, it's maintaining the weight loss that's the real challenge. I like to think of my sleeve as "Weight Maintenance Surgery" instead of "Weight Loss Surgery". I was a pro at losing weight. I did it MANY times over the years. Keeping it off was always where I failed.

The good news is, maintaining my weight post-sleeve has been a whole different experience. I reached my goal weight right around the one year post-op mark and have been maintaining below for almost 7 months now. That is much longer than I've ever maintained any weight loss in the past.

There are a few things that make maintaining post-WLS different than maintaining after a "diet". First of all, you are never "done" with your sleeve. When losing weight through a "diet" you always have this goal weight in mind and can't wait to reach that goal and be "done". The problem is, as soon as you are "done" you start slacking on the exercise and go back to eating crap and the weight starts to pile back on. But with the sleeve, it's always there, restricting your intake. You are never "done" with it. The rules about putting Protein first, taking your Vitamins, drinking your Water, not eating and drinking at the same time, not grazing.... all of those things are truly lifetime commitments that you can't just revert away from once you reach your goal weight.

In the vein of your sleeve always being there, another thing that would always happen in the past was something would happen in my life to derail my weight loss or maintenance. An injury, an illness, moving, starting a new job, etc. Anything that threw me out of my routine would send me into a spiral where I would regain weight. Now, my sleeve is there through all of that stuff. I can't just stop using my sleeve or ignore my sleeve when life happens.

For example, I had a CRAZY summer/early fall. My sister and her 4 kids moved in with us when she split up with her husband. Meanwhile we decided to sell our house when we looked at a new one and decided we wanted to buy it. Well, we hadn't been planning to sell our house for a few more years, so it was a mad scramble to do a ton of home improvement projects we'd put off, get the house ready to show, show the house, and sell the house. Then we had all the stress of buying the new house and moving as well. It was complete madness.

I went almost a full 5 months without a regular exercise routine and I had insane amounts of stress to deal with on almost a daily basis. I managed to maintain my weight loss for that full 5 months! Yes I was stressed. Yes I was out of my routine. But my sleeve was still there for me every single day, every single meal, and every single snack.

Do I still have to WORK to maintain my weight? Of course! I'm training for a half marathon, so I am exercising every single day now. I still consciously think about everything I eat and make sure I reach my protein goal of 100 grams every day. I still make sure I have water with me at all times. I still eat on a schedule to avoid grazing. I still make an effort to avoid slider foods. I still take all my vitamins every day. I still don't eat and drink at the same time. I still plan ahead to make sure I have access to appropriate foods if I'm going to be traveling or doing things outside my daily routine. So there is a lot of effort to be made and work to be done, but it comes as second nature after 19 months.

My story is similar... I once brought myself to lose 80 lbs on my own and as soon as I hit the 80lb mark later that evening I found out I was pregnant. I was happy and sad all in once. I did okay with my weight but maternity leave killed me. I ended up Gaining over 80lbs after pregnancy and maternity leave...then last yr around this time I was considering gastric and going to the seminars and brought itself to lose 30 lbs and have now gained it plus some !! I want to have gastric as a tool to keep my weight down for good!

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