kick my butt!

So here's my situation: I'm about 18 months out, and the first couple months went smashingly, and then the last year or so I've only lost 1/2 lb per week. This is for a very simple reason: I eat too much. Perhaps my pouch is too stretchy, or empties too fast, but I still can pack it in pretty well. But I don't blame the pouch -- I blame me ordering takeout lasagne at work even when I have a lean cuisine in the icebox. I blame me going home and taking a nap when I'm exhausted and should really be going to the gym. I blame cheddar cheese and crackers, and my unholy love of them. I've lost 100 lbs, but I still have 150 to go -- I'm not even half way done, and I'm worried that my 'window of opportunity' is all but closed. Not to mention, I'm so ready to stop having to shop at Lane Bryant and stop feeling out of place with my friends and etc... Is anyone else in this situation? I need some motivation to haul my fat butt back onto the wagon. I really want to be healthy, I just keep making the decision at any given moment to eat a toaster waffle instead. Someone please kick my butt! :-p thanks for any and all advice, kate 405/293/155

Its easy to fall back into old habits - I give you kudos for realizing that is what is happening. Maybe call and make an appt with a NUT so they can give you some guideance on getting back on track. Start keeping a food journal (or something like fitday.com), get "back to basics"... act like you are a few months out - keep track of your protein, calories, carbs, fat etc. I find planning my meals for the week helps keep me on track. I HATE throwing food away... if I bring lunch to work its only good that day or the next so I better eat it. I go to the store sunday and buy everything I need for the week. I know what meals I have I just pick them out the night before. I make sure to bring a variety to work so if I dont want something, I have a backup. Your window of opportunity is not gone! My friend is 5 years out from surgery... she started at 380lbs and over the span of the 5 years has continued to lose weight and is now around 160lbs. As time went on the weightloss was slower and slower but it was still there. A healthy weightloss is around 1-2lbs a week so a 1/2lb a week is great! Do you go to support groups?? If not I would see if there was one in your area. I find going extremely helpful. Not only do you get that confidence boost from all the "oooo's and ahhhhh's" from pre-ops and post-ops alike but you can relate to the struggles others have and learn from them! Good luck!

Thanks for the encouragement Jennifer! It's great to hear about your 5 years friend... I'm hoping to be 160 some day myself! I hear all about this 'window of opportunity' that closes after 18 to 24 months, and it's depressing... but it doesn't really make sense to me. If you eat right and exercise, you'll lose weight, right? It seems like after 18 months it should be no harder than it would be BEFORE wls... though of course, that was pretty hard, or I wouldn't have had the surgery... if I were not so heavy, I probably would not even be losing that 1/2 lb a week. I'm using FitDay and found, of course, that I was eating a lot more than I thought I was... am trying to do 1200-1800 cals depending on cir****tances and activity level. I am definitely not organized enough to plan all my meals in advance... lots of spur-of-the-moment plans with friends, etc. But I'm trying to keep tempting grazing foods out of my cupboards, and have mostly kicked my nasty candy habit!

Damn - I thought I was the only one!!! I am about 18mo post op as well and havent lost anything in about 6 months. I am stitting around 192 +/- 3lbs on any given day. I have lost about 120lbs and still have at LEAST 30 to go if not more... This week I am actually taking charge. I REALLY need to lose weight by March 1 - that is my deadline for Plastics. Check out my new blog. I was gonna do a complete liquid diet for 2 days to jump start things but decided to go with a low-cal, super high protein diet instead. I will do this for a few days to see what happens. I need a kick in the BUTT TOO!

Hehe you're definitely not the only one... but you are so close to your goal! I think that is part of my problem... it seems like I've come so far, but I still have such a long way to go. The hardest part is really over, though, because at 405.5 lbs I was really quite disabled, much as I would never admit it. I would fake an excuse instead of walking anywhere with friends, because I knew I'd end up in pain and sweaty... argh. So now I'm normal enough not to need a special seatbelt on a plane, or a special office chair, but not quite normal enough to date. (I'm not one of those anna nicole people who gains in their boobs and butt -- my extra 150 is all backfat and belly roll... not exactly fighting off the guys.) So what do I do with my frustration? I channel it into cheddar cheese. It's just so hard to think at any given moment, that this 300 calorie piece of pizza really matters that much. At any given moment, I've been making the choice for food instead of lifestyle. Or if I'm hungry and eat a banana here and a protein bar there, even though it's healthy food it adds up. Which is why I need a kick in the butt! What are you doing for your diet, like calorie/carb/protein goals?

I just posted it above your post. Dont give up - and DONT do this for boys! Most of them arent worth it. And if you are bitter like me, once they start paying attention to you now that you arent the Fat girl, you are so digusted that they finally NOW want you, that you wont be interested in them anyway! UGH - sorry - vernting frustration. So yea... check out my post... maybe you can try a full liquid diet just to get your mind back in perspective of quantities of food, what type of food you are putting in your body, and if you are REALLY hungry or if it is all in the head. One thing that I noticed this weekend is that I still dont think I have stomach hunger. I always said that I did but I dont think I dont now. This Saturday I was so busy running errands in the morning that I didnt get much to eat - just one of those 90cal chewy bars. I didnt get a chance to eat again til 7pm at a company xmas party... was I really hungry through out the day??? NO... I realized it was probably all in the head. I guess I have to start listening to my body again - which is why I am jump starting my weight loss with this diet... going back to portioning out my food, going back to using fitday to track calories and protein, and having reasonable snacks.

Hehe I'm not doing it for the boys... BUT... I'm looking forward to some boys. :-D I know what you mean about stomach hunger -- I realized that I often eat without feeling it. But I still have the thing where if I haven't eaten for too long, or if I've only eaten carbs, I get that shaky-headachey-tearful thing going on, so maybe part of my munching is self-defense against that. It's so easy NOT to eat at work, because there's stuff going on, but at home it's harder not to munch... Also, I suspect that all things considered it's better to space out your calories instead of getting like 500 from 9-5 and then another 1000 from 5-10 pm, even though the total of 1500 is good. At my weight, I can still get away with eating quite a few calories... that will be tough if (when!) I weigh 150 and have to be on what I consider a DIET now in order to maintain... I wonder if your appetite gets less when you're thinner... but then again, I just confessed that it's more in my head than in my stomach... interesting to ponder. What are you doing for exercise and meals? I'm trying to get a healthy thing started, but I'm very busy and I'm very lazy with food -- cooking means that I'm likely to eat more while I'm in the kitchen, anyway. ;-) Thanks and best of luck with your jump start! I'm right there with you!

Sorry Kate, I saw this post after I posted on your thirsty post. You still may want to have dr check in to that... type 2 will make it harder for you to loose weight... so very well could be an issue. Another thing I wanted to bring up was, has your Dr. ever talked abou****er loading? That really does help with hunger and will help you eat a lot less. hugs, Chrissy

No, I haven't heard abou****er loading... if I drink a lot of water with a meal, I feel really icky. I prefer to sip all day. I've got my (first) 1.5 liter about halfway done at the moment (those big tall poland spring ones) How do you do the water loading?

That is pretty much the point with water loading. There is a post about pouch rules floating around that talks abou****er loading. I know i saved it and if I can find it... I will post... What you should do is 15 min before a meal or before you try to have a snack... drink water as much and as fast as you can.... it may take away the hunger all together but will for sure make you eat less. worth looking into if you are trying to loose more. hugs, Chrissy