Two Years Today!

I know that two years is not a real long time but for me it seems like an eternity.  No, two years since I was sliced and diced (for the second time for this purpose) is not a big deal, not to me anyway.  What is a big deal is that it has been two years since I have changed the way I eat.  It has been two years since I have eaten large quantities of food, since I have binged on junk food, since I went out and bought bags of food to comfort myself.  It's been two years since I have baked goodies to treat myself, since I have bought food that I wanted to treat myself, since I drove through a drive through and bought enough food to feed a family of four, all for one (me), since I got take out because I was embarrassed to be seen eating all that food by myself, since I filled up my 64 oz super big gulp with regular Dr. Pepper for the second time that day, since I bought a large bag of M & Ms to snack on.  I know a lot of people get angry when it is suggested that all morbidly obese people are food addicts or carb addicts.  For a long time I had a hard time accepting that a person could get to 300, 400 lbs or more and not be an addict but now I realize that not all morbidly obese people are addicts and not all food addicts are morbidly obese.  In fact, at 240 lbs I was barely morbidly obese yet I consider myself a very hardcore food addict.  I don't even think my metabolism was that messed up.  I could always lose weight when I cut back my eating.  I was addicted to sugar, anything with wheat in it, especially white flour so I just avoid all gluten now, and I am also addicted to large quantities.  My favorite words in the world were "All you can eat".  I have been seeing my boyfriend on and off for 17 years and in all those years he has always had one day off a week, usually Thursdays, and on that day off we have always gone out to eat.  I would look forward to that day and plan all week on where we would go and search for a new, exciting place to try.  I would try to find a place we hadn't been to yet, preferably a buffet.  It was the highpoint of my week.  If I was driving down the road and I saw the words "buffet" I would practically get in an accident to see what it was.
Anyway, my story is long and complex.  Most have read it.  The Readers Digest version is I had WLS in 2002 and failed it miserably.  It didn't fail, I did.  I thought WLS meant I could still eat whatever I wanted and I would lose weight and keep it off.  It never occurred to me that I would have to make changes.  That was all my fault.  I heard what I wanted to hear.  I had a DS.  In 2002 there wasn't as much known and I had no pre op education and no post op follow up.  That was just how it was where I had my surgery and I did the best I could with what I had at the time.  I stopped with any online or real life support right around, you guessed it, two years, and started regaining.  I stayed in denial thinking it was normal bounce back and it would stop any minute and did nothing to curb my over eating.  I was haphazard about supplementing and my health suffered.  My eating was terrible and my quality of life was horrible.  I had terrible gas, diarrhea, the odor was horrendous, I was sick and fatigued to the point of being non functional and regained almost all my weight.  I regretted having WLS and went back to my surgeon and begged for a reversal.  It turned out that a lot of people who had the DS with my surgeon and hospital had similar issues and were being revised to have less malabsorption so I agreed and because of the regain I agreed to get a RNY pouch.  I had been given a sleeve but it was way too large and I never had any restriction.
That is when I decided to get serious and use the surgery as a tool and stop eating sugar and gluten.
My stats are in my signature.
My pictures are above because for some reason I couldn't paste them below.

Congratulations! That is awesome

Awesome story! Congratulations!!

 
You are awesome!!!   Congrats on all of your accomplishments!!!!

What an inspiring story! Congratulations to you for all of your hard work.

 Congrats!!! Thanks for sharing and being real!!!

Congratulations on finally finding the winning combination that worked for you!  You never gave up, did you?  Fabulous!

 You are one inspirational woman!  You give so much and give to those of us who struggle with learning about WLS that no amount of research can prepare you for until you go through it.  Thank you.  Jane

You look great!!  No one can ever say you are a quitter, that's for sure.

Congrats, LT. I look forward to your posts because you are so honest about your struggles, what has worked for you, and what hasn't.  Here's to many more surgery anniversaries.