I'm 18 months post-surgery, at my goal weight, working out regularly, generally feeling good. But I realized during this holiday season that I'm leaving the honeymoon phase of post-surgery eating. I can eat more variety, and a little more at a time so I have to be more mindful. The hardest part is that I see some of my old, bad eating habits creeping back in: snacking at night, thinking about what I'll eat next even as I'm still eating something, justifying eating a little too much (or a lot). Even though I still can't really seriously overeat, I'm starting to worry about this slippery slope. I just keep waiting for the weight to come flooding back on as I lose more and more control over my food intake.

I'd love to hear any words of support, encouragement, or wisdom from people who've been through this, or are going through it now!

Thank you, and happy New Year.

Hi,

I am 22 months out and my cravings and bad habits came back at around 15 months out. I slowly started trying different foods and adding in bad food. I stopped logging my food, drinking my water, got lazy taking my vitamins and medication. By November first I realized how far off track I had gotten and I stepped on the scale for the first time in months. I had a 30lb regain, which crushed me. I changed some things and got rid of the bad food in the house and went back to basics. I struggle a bit through Thanksgiving and vacation after that but I managed to drop 14lbs. While I was happy about this, I knew I needed to really deal with my emotional eating habits. The first year was easy because I had no cravings. I really believed that I had it under control but I did not. I now realized that this is where the hard work starts. I started reading a book called Never Binge again which has helped me immensely...enough that I now know that I can hit my goal weight this year and that I have a plan and processes in place to help me when I am tempted. I purchased an inspirational food journal that helps me in the sense that it not just focused on food intake and macros. It's more about having a healthy outlook, mind and body. I had joined several bariatric groups on FB but I did not participate much. Now I spend a part of my morning in those groups communicating with various people. I also started a blog, which is terrifying, to be as transparent to myself as possible and also hold myself accountable for my food decisions, good or bad. We can do this...we just never give up and keep going when we have a set back. You can never fail unless you quit.

On 1/2/2019 at 9:39 AM, Phoenix40 said:

I also started a blog, which is terrifying, to be as transparent to myself as possible and also hold myself accountable for my food decisions, good or bad. We can do this...we just never give up and keep going when we have a set back. You can never fail unless you quit.

Thank you so much for your support and sharing. I've been away so couldn't respond, but I've read it several times over to give ma a much needed boost. I'd love to follow your blog!! It's always good to know we're not alone.