Today is my one-year anniversary of being at my goal weight. To be fair, this morning I was three pounds over goal because I was kind of a pig yesterday, but most days I fluctuate anywhere from 1-4 pounds on either side of my goal weight. I am happy with this range. I weigh myself every morning and on days when I wake up near the heavier end, I pay extra attention to how I eat and usually the next day I am right back within the 1-2 pound range. Sometimes I drop a little lower, but for the most part I’m right around goal. The most I fluctuated upward was to 137 for one day back in October, and I was back to 131 by December.

While I have lost weight before, the lowest I had ever been was 137, where I stayed for about a week. I have never maintained around the 129 range as an adult, let alone for an entire year. I had surgery in September 2013, I had plastics in August & November of 2014 and March of 2015, hit goal on April 1 (the last 4 pounds took almost 4 months to lose), and have since lived a fairly normal life. All of my fat clothes are either gone or in storage, my closet is filled with clothes in sizes 0-6, and xs and small, and while I am cognizant of my food choices and the scale everyday, I am normal and I am happy. My hair that fell out substantially during the first year after surgery and again about six months ago has grown back to the point I am almost at the level of thickness I was before surgery. All of my blood values are within the normal ranges, my blood pressure is fine (although I still take a small dose of a hypertension drug), and outside of a sleeve that doesn't tolerate certain kinds of food, I am fully recovered from that surgery and all of my plastics procedures. There is a daily fear that I will gain weight, but it's something I deal with everyday. I think this fear is what keeps me in maintenance because every morning I wake up and I owe that scale my weight. As long as I hold myself accountable everyday, it is not difficult to stay the weight I am. Most days I eat between 1200-1800 calories, although some days I will snack more and hit 2200, or just not feel like eating and be around 800. I don't pay attention to Protein, but according to MyFitnessPal, I get about 45-50g a day. I record my food fairly regularly most days, although sometimes I forget to add things. Overall, the last year has been a good one, and unlike prior to the sleeve when I felt like I was starving half the time, I'm rarely hungry now and when I eat too much it's usually because I'm bored and grazing.

I used to say that I just wanted to be normal...a normal sized girl. Now I am, and it was worth every second of the road that got me here. I wish I could go back and tell the version of me that rolled into surgery 2.5 years ago that it would all work out in the end…I certainly could have saved myself a lot of stress if I could have seen today, in September 2013.

Congratulations and Happy Anniversary @@AvaFern

I can only read with some envy all those who have achieved goal and are maintaining...

I'm 13 months in and an hoping to hit 'goal' by year's end...

It's still about 90 pounds away but with some work, I know it's achievable...

And it's posts like this which will provide the kick in the arse that I need along the way..

So thank you...

Congratulations AvaFern!!!! That's awesome. [emoji3]

Congrats to you, @@AvaFern . I know how happy you are and enjoy your company here.

I'm coming up on my annual maintenance-versary in mid-April. My feelings of normalcy are similar to yours. I never thought I would be here -- normal-sized and not sweating it ... well, not very much.

Congratulations. I appreciate a post like this from a veteran such as yourself. It really inspires me and I'm sure it inspires all of us. Thank you for sharing.

I'm just going into maintenance mode and I'm starting to weigh myself more often, it is helpful when you get to this point in the program.

Congrats and thanks for posting! my starting weight at surgery was 238 and I can't even imagine being that low. I have set my goal at 160 because I can't even wrap my mind about getting to 130........... so we'll start with 160 and see where I can go from there.

Your post is very helpful to me to see that it took a while to get to goal, and I need to just keep doing what I am supposed to do and it will come.

I was happy to read this as my surgery is Monday and I'm nervous!

Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

@@KindaFamiliar

I read all of these posts with envy too when I was still losing- the trick is to just keep on keepin' on. Time passes no matter what you do and one day you'll wake up and step on the scale and you'll have hit goal. It just takes consistency and time!

@@VSGAnn2014

Isn't it weird to have maintained for a year? I have never maintained for a full year, let alone at this weight. Most days I don't think about it much, but other times I think, holy cow, I've been normal, without having to kill myself starving and exercising, for a year!

Happy early-maintenance anniversary!

@@BestDayEver

Congrats on hitting maintenance!

I completely agree about weighing frequently. I have weighed myself, written down the weight and taken a picture of the scale every single morning since surgery. This helps because it keeps me accountable, but I can also go back through my phone when I'm feeling fat and see pictures of myself looking great and that morning I weighed exactly what I weigh now. My little bit of crazy about recording my weight helps keep me saner in the long run.

@@Christinamo7

I can appreciate not expecting to end up very low. My original goal was 119 when I was like 20, but at 29 when I had the sleeve I picked 129 because it seemed about as ridiculous as 119. Actually hitting that number was crazy and then staying there for a year is even crazier. When you hit 160, you might be very content there, because that's certainly a healthy weight, however you might lose a bit more and be happy with that too. It's all up to how you feel.

Good job Ava! You have always been one of the veterans I looked up to for their great success in losing their weight and then maintaining. You also were one of the first people who helped me understand that it's a daily struggle and we have to be forever vigilant in the fight to maintain. Congrats on your continued success!

@@breezy25

I was nervous before surgery too. I was also a hot mess after surgery for about 2 weeks because I was convinced I had ruined my life. Holy crap I had someone cut out my stomach, what in the world was I thinking?! Lol, obviously it all worked out ok in the end. Being nervous is normal, being freaked out afterwards is normal too, and eventually you forget all about the bad part and realize how great of a decision you made.

@@Babbs

Thank-you! I always enjoy reading your posts. You also do a good job of reminding me that there are more important things in life than the scale and our value is in who we are, not what we weigh. I appreciate that.

From a pre opper ....THANKS for posting this and congrats on this achievement!

Sent from my SM-G900V using the BariatricPal App