Regina
06-09-2008, 12:19 PM
Hi, everyone I just wanted to take a moment with you all and share in a part of my journey.
Most of you know from reading here at this site and coming to the support meetings that I am close to being 5 years since my Gastric Bypass surgery on Sept 4, 2003 by Dr. Allam. I also had a Tummy Tuck in April of 2006 also preformed by Dr. Allam. I did great with both procedures. I lost a total of 140 LBS in one year after my gastric bypass surgery.
So many of you talk about being the perfect gastric bypass patient well I to considered myself one as well at one time. I followed the plan to the letter. I did that for two years straight. Never having anything, I should not have had. I even exercised five days a week faithfully. I felt so good about myself that I started to slack off here and there. Two years later, I starting trying a few different things that I knew I should not have but I did. Since the beginning, I always looked and longed for something that I could crunch. I started trying honey wheat pretzels. I started with a few and then before I knew it I was grazing through out the day until the bag was half finished or finished. That was not the only thing I started to do. I tried sweets again. Some things went down okay but other things got me sick. Ice cream is one of the things I now know I can’t have along with a few other things. I always thought that I could never gain weight from eating certain things again. I was always under the impression that we just bypassed all that fat and calories. Well was I wrong. I gained a few pounds not many but enough to wake me up so I thought. :(
Then I started to think about having a Tummy Tuck. I researched that as I did with the gastric bypass. I talked to people that had it done. I knew a few people from our group that also had the surgery. I saw first hand on what it would be like after the tummy tuck. I spoke to Dr Allam about having it and decided to go ahead with it and my date was set for April 2006. After the surgery, I didn’t have an appetite again so I started to eat as I did after the gastric bypass surgery. That lasted for a little while but then I started to graze again on foods that I shouldn’t have. I tried cakes and cookies and found that small amounts would not make me sick. I also started eating red twizzlers. I would eat a few at a time closed it up and go back to it a few hours later. This is not easy to admit to any of you that I did these things but I think since a few of us here have been talking about the weight gain it is a part of me that I wanted to share with you.
The pounds started creeping back. Ten pounds then twenty. At this time, I kept saying STOP! STOP! You are going to gain your weight back. I tried many times to stop eating those things but I was addicted to those damn twizzlers. I finally gave them up. After eating to many of them, the sugar was finally getting to me. I stopped buying them and haven’t had them in months. I found something else then to have frozen devil dogs. I would eat one every night. I started to gain more weight. My clothes were starting to get tight and I had to go back to clothes that I bought when I started losing the weight. I was getting aggravated with myslef for doing this again. I had started to weigh myself again and saw now that I had gained 30lbs.:eek: I was shocked when I saw that on the scale. So, I decided to try to lose the weight. I gave myself a time line, which I can tell you didn’t work. Everyday I would start doing well but then I would fail later in the day. I was skipping meals and grazing in between again. Skipping meals is not a smart thing to do. I knew that then and I know it now again.
Our support meeting in April hit home with me. A member came back after not being there for a while and that is when I really realized that I was not alone in yet another battle on this journey. I sat there and listened to many of you say I won’t do that. Well guess what everyone I was you back in 2003, 2004, 2005, and even part of 2006. I was the same person saying I would never do that or why would you want to. So it is very true when they say never say never cause it can happen.
That night at our meeting, I asked Pat how many calories I should be having a day. She told me the amount and I was going to go home and start fresh the next day. I fell off the road a few more times after trying. It is not easy getting back on track again after years of not following the plan but I knew I had to do something not to gain any more weight.
Another member posted that link for sparkpeople and I went to the site and started to write down the food that I was eating. Writing down everyday what I ate helped me get back into it. I also believe that if I didn’t come here to the website and to our support meetings that I would be in more trouble then I was. Support is a very big part of this procedure. In my opinioun, I believe that if you do not use the support system that we have along with the tool that was given to us we are setting ourselves up for failure. This is my opinioun even though it has been proven that people who have had this surgery and attend regular support group meetings have a better success rate. So I guess my opinioun is not to far off the mark.
My progress since I really put my mind to it has been good. It is coming off slowly and that is ok with me as long as it comes off. I took the calorie amount that Pat told me and started to keep track of what I ate all day. Doing this has helped me because I am seeing exactly what I am eating. I’m staying away from all breads, cakes, and candy and a few other things. I am now eating my protein along with sugar free fudge pops; sugar free jell-o and fruits again for a snack. I am making sure I eat my three meals a day where as before I was skipping lunch. I am getting my water in by drinking crystal light. I still crave that crunch that I did in the beginning but instead of eating junk, I am eating celery with peanut butter on it or I have a bag of the 100-calorie snacks. My next thing to start to do again is to exercise.
I am proud to announce that since I started in the beginning of May I have lost a total of 9 LBS as of today. :)
The reason I decided to share this with you is for the reason I stated in the beginning of this. That I have been reading a lot of what some of you have been saying about The Perfect Gastric Bypass Patient. We should all stop trying to be perfect no one is. We are all human and we all make mistakes but as long as we face them, we can over come anything once we set our minds to it. So good luck to everyone and don’t be hard on yourself if you have a few slip ups on your journey. Just continue to come to the support meetings and here and together, we will fight this journey. Even if you haven’t been to a meeting or here in a while just, come back. We are all there and here for the same reasons as when we first started this journey.
Thanks everyone for listening to my story.
Most of you know from reading here at this site and coming to the support meetings that I am close to being 5 years since my Gastric Bypass surgery on Sept 4, 2003 by Dr. Allam. I also had a Tummy Tuck in April of 2006 also preformed by Dr. Allam. I did great with both procedures. I lost a total of 140 LBS in one year after my gastric bypass surgery.
So many of you talk about being the perfect gastric bypass patient well I to considered myself one as well at one time. I followed the plan to the letter. I did that for two years straight. Never having anything, I should not have had. I even exercised five days a week faithfully. I felt so good about myself that I started to slack off here and there. Two years later, I starting trying a few different things that I knew I should not have but I did. Since the beginning, I always looked and longed for something that I could crunch. I started trying honey wheat pretzels. I started with a few and then before I knew it I was grazing through out the day until the bag was half finished or finished. That was not the only thing I started to do. I tried sweets again. Some things went down okay but other things got me sick. Ice cream is one of the things I now know I can’t have along with a few other things. I always thought that I could never gain weight from eating certain things again. I was always under the impression that we just bypassed all that fat and calories. Well was I wrong. I gained a few pounds not many but enough to wake me up so I thought. :(
Then I started to think about having a Tummy Tuck. I researched that as I did with the gastric bypass. I talked to people that had it done. I knew a few people from our group that also had the surgery. I saw first hand on what it would be like after the tummy tuck. I spoke to Dr Allam about having it and decided to go ahead with it and my date was set for April 2006. After the surgery, I didn’t have an appetite again so I started to eat as I did after the gastric bypass surgery. That lasted for a little while but then I started to graze again on foods that I shouldn’t have. I tried cakes and cookies and found that small amounts would not make me sick. I also started eating red twizzlers. I would eat a few at a time closed it up and go back to it a few hours later. This is not easy to admit to any of you that I did these things but I think since a few of us here have been talking about the weight gain it is a part of me that I wanted to share with you.
The pounds started creeping back. Ten pounds then twenty. At this time, I kept saying STOP! STOP! You are going to gain your weight back. I tried many times to stop eating those things but I was addicted to those damn twizzlers. I finally gave them up. After eating to many of them, the sugar was finally getting to me. I stopped buying them and haven’t had them in months. I found something else then to have frozen devil dogs. I would eat one every night. I started to gain more weight. My clothes were starting to get tight and I had to go back to clothes that I bought when I started losing the weight. I was getting aggravated with myslef for doing this again. I had started to weigh myself again and saw now that I had gained 30lbs.:eek: I was shocked when I saw that on the scale. So, I decided to try to lose the weight. I gave myself a time line, which I can tell you didn’t work. Everyday I would start doing well but then I would fail later in the day. I was skipping meals and grazing in between again. Skipping meals is not a smart thing to do. I knew that then and I know it now again.
Our support meeting in April hit home with me. A member came back after not being there for a while and that is when I really realized that I was not alone in yet another battle on this journey. I sat there and listened to many of you say I won’t do that. Well guess what everyone I was you back in 2003, 2004, 2005, and even part of 2006. I was the same person saying I would never do that or why would you want to. So it is very true when they say never say never cause it can happen.
That night at our meeting, I asked Pat how many calories I should be having a day. She told me the amount and I was going to go home and start fresh the next day. I fell off the road a few more times after trying. It is not easy getting back on track again after years of not following the plan but I knew I had to do something not to gain any more weight.
Another member posted that link for sparkpeople and I went to the site and started to write down the food that I was eating. Writing down everyday what I ate helped me get back into it. I also believe that if I didn’t come here to the website and to our support meetings that I would be in more trouble then I was. Support is a very big part of this procedure. In my opinioun, I believe that if you do not use the support system that we have along with the tool that was given to us we are setting ourselves up for failure. This is my opinioun even though it has been proven that people who have had this surgery and attend regular support group meetings have a better success rate. So I guess my opinioun is not to far off the mark.
My progress since I really put my mind to it has been good. It is coming off slowly and that is ok with me as long as it comes off. I took the calorie amount that Pat told me and started to keep track of what I ate all day. Doing this has helped me because I am seeing exactly what I am eating. I’m staying away from all breads, cakes, and candy and a few other things. I am now eating my protein along with sugar free fudge pops; sugar free jell-o and fruits again for a snack. I am making sure I eat my three meals a day where as before I was skipping lunch. I am getting my water in by drinking crystal light. I still crave that crunch that I did in the beginning but instead of eating junk, I am eating celery with peanut butter on it or I have a bag of the 100-calorie snacks. My next thing to start to do again is to exercise.
I am proud to announce that since I started in the beginning of May I have lost a total of 9 LBS as of today. :)
The reason I decided to share this with you is for the reason I stated in the beginning of this. That I have been reading a lot of what some of you have been saying about The Perfect Gastric Bypass Patient. We should all stop trying to be perfect no one is. We are all human and we all make mistakes but as long as we face them, we can over come anything once we set our minds to it. So good luck to everyone and don’t be hard on yourself if you have a few slip ups on your journey. Just continue to come to the support meetings and here and together, we will fight this journey. Even if you haven’t been to a meeting or here in a while just, come back. We are all there and here for the same reasons as when we first started this journey.
Thanks everyone for listening to my story.