First I want to say thank you to so many of the veteran posters on here. I hope you gals and guys know how much your experiences and feedback have helped me and I suspect many others. There's just such a fantastic mix of people and experiences - It's great knowing you aren't alone in this journey.

The first few months after surgery were easy. The weight was simply falling off, there wasn't anything I couldn't eat or drink - And better yet, I couldn't overeat because of the restriction. I felt fantastic most of the time, had all sorts of NSV's and loved my new life. From August until January I lost almost 50lbs - I was so close to Wonderland I could taste it. THEN reality struck - Suddenly I was one of those "slow losers" - It took almost 2 months to lose 13lbs. UGH, I WAS going to be one of those slow losers. OK, fine, I'm 52 and it is what it is, right? From January until May, I "only" lost 33lbs. Again, every week/month I told myself that I would lose the weight, I was just in some sort of a stall and things would magically pick up. Well, they didn't, I would lose 2-3 lbs and then I would gain 2-3 lbs. Again, "it's normal" I told myself.

Fast forward to a week ago - I jumped on here for some motivation (reading stories, etc.) and I took a hard look at what I was doing. Basically, I was being lazy - I was eating whatever I wanted and justifying it by saying "I only eat small portions" - Well, yeah, that was true...BUT I was grazing, I was drinking too much alcohol, and I wasn't tracking. I honetly have no idea how many calories I was consuming (especially on weekends with family and friends). I played mind games with myself and said "As long as I'm not gaining, I'm doing things right." - Well, that was a giant load of (@*$.

This past Tuesday (after a weekend of Mimosa's, Crown Royal, and some really great BBQ), I woke up to a 5lb gain (BTW, yes I realize some of that was water retention). WAKE UP CALL. 5lbs? Seriously - Time to go back to basics before that's a 10lb gain. For the first time in MONTHS, I tracked every thing I tracked everything that went into my mouth (water, food, etc) - I did 3 days of liquid - In two days, those 5lbs were off. Rather than what I've done in the past, I didn't stop there - I continued tracking, I continued being cognizant of what and when I was eating. I said "no" to many things that I thought I wanted. I lost 6.8lbs from Tuesday to Sunday. What? I'm NOT a slow loser - I'm a LAZY loser.

Folks, for many of us, it's EASY in the first few months, it's EASY to convince ourselves that we're doing OK, it's EASY to compare ourselves to others, it's EASY to ignore signs that you're falling into bad habits, and it's EASY to get lazy. In reality, it's HARD to stick to your plan when you're feeling fantastic and patting yourself on the back for losing so much weight. I'm choosing to be thankful that this happened now rather than 2-3 years into it. I'm glad that reality smacked me in the face and forced me to face the fact that i wasn't doing what I needed to do. Right now it was EASY to get back on track before I let it get out of control. For those of you experiencing the same - Buckle up buttercup, start tracking, weigh yourself often if you need to, and take a good look and when and why you're losing weight and when and why you aren't.

Again, a very special thank you to you old timers for always keeping things real and giving out such fantastic advice.

This is an outstanding post and will no doubt be helpful for many people (including myself). thank you for becoming one of the wise old timers by sticking around and sharing your experiences.

This is me. I just spent the last 3 weeks eating whatever because I had started a new job. I have had deviations from my diet before but 3 weeks was the longest. I weighed myself today and didnt gained thank God, but still I wasted those 3 weeks. I am a slow loser too, but there are many things I dont do. Like I calorie count but I eat anything, I dont bother with macros or look into how much water I drink. I dont exercise and I dont take my supplements (eek!)

Like , I keep thinking I wanna reach my goal sooner but I get lazy because of the effort involved.

I admit I am having similar issues. My goal was reached and surpassed so fast, so early and so easily I have this mentality that “I’m good for life.” I hope I am and I’ve been maintaining well for a few months now. But to be honest I could be thinner. My wife and mom (seriously I’m 47 and still her baby) got worried I was too thin…. Damned if I do damned if I don’t scenario… so they’ve been conspiring (out of love and concern) to feed me more, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a voluntary participant in this game of theirs. But I know I need to be very careful. The “bonus m&ms” to keep calorie count high but food volume low can very very easily become a significant problem. I’m ready to sit down and reevaluate my food choices and make sure maintenance doesn’t turn into regain, because I know once it starts it’s so much harder to reverse the trend.

Great post @MandoGetsSleeved. I’m sure many of us go through the same thing or similar. It’s the old habit thing. In the past, we ‘d lose weight, feel good about ourselves & then let it all sludge away & go back to what we used to eat. So we do it again this time.

It’s wonderful that you realised what you were doing & committed to going back to the new better habits you were learning. It is a constant battle though.

Congrats on your weight loss so far. You’ll at your goal in no time.

Thank you for your words. I’m tracking my intake again starting tomorrow.

Yeah, I'm admittedly a "lazy loser" myself. I've never been ANY good at counting/tracking calories, points, whatever. I eat things I enjoy because I know that one of my mental shortcomings is that if I try to force myself to eat things I don't enjoy just because they're healthy, I know I will cheat. I will *have* to eat something enjoyable, regardless of what other "healthy" things I've eaten... so rather than compound the calorie intake, I'll just cut to the chase and eat what I enjoy, healthy or not, but in moderation and smaller portions.

Not everyone's brain works the same way, and I know this perspective is likely anathema for others, but it's working thus far for me.

1 year out from surgery date my weight has plateaued as expected, but knowing my propensity to enjoy food, I'm deliberately keeping a closer eye on the scale. I have my fast food and my occasional sweets, but If I see any long-term trend upwards more than about 2-3 pounds, I immediately tighten things up.

So far, so good. Just this morning I hit a new low weight, so the the trend is still downward, and IMO that's what's important, no matter the methods employed.

Different strokes, yadda yadda yadda...

Thank you for this.

I had my surgery on a Monday. I went home on Wednesday. On Friday I had to go to the ER for throwing up blood. A LOT of blood. I had aspiration pneumonia and I had to have another surgery to repair a bleeding ulcer by my esophagus the next morning.

I'm 11 months out. I've lost 128 lbs total, but it should be more. I'm the one not to follow. I eat what I want because I don't crave foods any more. I, literally, have a tough time trying to find something to eat. If I get a chicken sandwich out, I eat it without the bun. I've wasted so much money on food, it isn't funny. I might eat 10 different kinds of food and nothing good. I've never eaten fruit and the few vegetables I do eat aren't great for you. But I do eat smaller portions. I'm still losing, so I can't complain. But I bet my dietician will at my next visit! He was so rude on my last visit! He was horrified that I had a piece of pizza. Umm, I didn't say I ate it all at once! I'm demanding to see the other one. My doctor/surgeon, personally, said I could eat what I want, just in small portions. There are times I do throw up a small bit and that's because I don't wait a half hour after eating to drink. I get so dehydrated and I've always drank a huge amount with my meals. Hardest part of this journey ever!

On 8/19/2021 at 1:46 PM, Laurie C. said:

I had my surgery on a Monday. I went home on Wednesday. On Friday I had to go to the ER for throwing up blood. A LOT of blood. I had aspiration pneumonia and I had to have another surgery to repair a bleeding ulcer by my esophagus the next morning.

I'm 11 months out. I've lost 128 lbs total, but it should be more. I'm the one not to follow. I eat what I want because I don't crave foods any more. I, literally, have a tough time trying to find something to eat. If I get a chicken sandwich out, I eat it without the bun. I've wasted so much money on food, it isn't funny. I might eat 10 different kinds of food and nothing good. I've never eaten fruit and the few vegetables I do eat aren't great for you. But I do eat smaller portions. I'm still losing, so I can't complain. But I bet my dietician will at my next visit! He was so rude on my last visit! He was horrified that I had a piece of pizza. Umm, I didn't say I ate it all at once! I'm demanding to see the other one. My doctor/surgeon, personally, said I could eat what I want, just in small portions. There are times I do throw up a small bit and that's because I don't wait a half hour after eating to drink. I get so dehydrated and I've always drank a huge amount with my meals. Hardest part of this journey ever!

Yes i find the separating of food and drink difficult to, i also miss carbonated drinks, even a soda water would be heaven at this point. I find breakfast incredibly difficult too

This ain't no picnic, that's for sure. But it does get easier. I promise.

Loved this post...I mean you sound like you was talking about me through every word because this butter cup got to do better. I'm not a slow loser, but a lazy loser. From this day forward I will be writing everything down that goes in my mouth and get back to my tools. Thank you great post [emoji1474][emoji1474][emoji1474]

Thanks for the honesty ! Theresa lot to be said for tracking then food, the calories and the type of food you eat!

I can stay below 1000 calories a day, but if those calories have any sugar or bread in them, I stall out for a week or two. I'm about 2 months out of the surgery. Sometimes I think, maybe it isn't working on me like everyone else. I'm certainly not in the "I can eat whatever I want and still lose weight." I know I do best on keto diets, but that's so hard to stick to! If I think I will still lose by eating only 1/2 of a sandwich and still sticking to under1000 calories a day, it doesn't work that way for me. The bread stops the weight lost. Not being able to eat salads right now (my surgeon says no raw vegs for 6 months) its really challenging eating out and staying away from any carbs. I admire people who can do it.

I've noticed, the further away from the surgery, the more my hunger comes back. I'm only 2months out! Is anyone else dealing with this? At the same time, if I'm not hungry, at least a little bit, I'm not losing weight!

Thanks to whomever recommended The Bariatric Mindset book by Kristin Lloyd, it is a great book and just what I needed! I'm journaling again, back into daily meditation (this works best for myself to help with emotional eating.)

It has some great tools that I've heard of before or read about or have even done before but have forgotten to include them in my toolbox. There's knowing and there's doing.