[*Butterfly*Girl*]

I posted this to Lisa primarily b/c lately she's been talking about how things are different for her almost two years out - but any of you that are a long time out are more than welcome to answer my Questions. TIA!

Lisa - you have been mentioning lately that now that your honeymoon period is over you're having to really dig in and use your tools, use what you know about nutrition and stay committed to keeping the weight off. My question is this even though you're feeling hunger again and struggling is the hunger the SAME kind of hunger you felt pre-op? Is it still more of a mind game b/c your pouch won't let you overeat like you did preop?

For Doc Sanae-

Is it ever possible to become morbidly obese AGAIN after having RNY surgery? I've seen here that everyone really says that it's the snacking and grazing that will put the weight back on (and of course high caloric fat laden items; my Mom once had a friend that had milkshakes after GBS and gained weight back). I've seen you mention before too that as with any weight loss it's the keeping it off that's the trick.

I realize that GBS is not the easy way out as so many think it is; it's just an avenue to take the weight off a little bit faster and provide some long term pouch rules that will hopefully enable the person to keep the weight off permanently.

My surgeon is all about the EXERCISE EXERCISE EXERCISE. He wants me back at the gym the week following my surgery (but I can't drive? WTH? ). I know that exercise is the key to keep the weight off regardless of how you take it off.

Anyway - Lisa what are some of your tricks that you use now and is it like it was preop? Do you feel like you're on a diet all the time?? And Doc Sanae is it possible to regain ALL of the weight back?

TIA!

[fr1endly2]

HI TIA!
love your questions....and all that your learning about the surgery.

Well for me i will be 2 years out june 1, 2007. FOR me i find im at a scary place now. I find myself eating the wrong foods a little bit.....and fear im gonna gain back my weight. I still by no means eat what i used to but im eating poorly. I wish i dumped but i only dump if I eat way to much of a sweet. IN moderation i am okay so i guess its allowing me to maintain
my weight loss.

I get very mad at myself at times cause i know the way I should eat
and dont now. I was very strict my entire first year and never broke the rules. I ate my protein and kept my carbs lo. I do know however, once you let those carbs back into your life, cravings and that ravenous appetite kicks in. FOR me they are personally very evil.

I cant say its always hunger but i do at times eat for the wrong reasons.
ITS very hard with my work. I run a family daycare business in my home and im feeding kids all day snacks and meals. SO its always there tempting me to have that cookie with the kids....and eat what i know
i shouldnt. SORT of like haveing an alcholic work in a bar......i have food issues that are stil lther now, surgery didnt help that. I did take some weight managment councling to help but i dont make right choices. FOR now im not gaining. I fit all my jeans......so im happy. BUT i fear im gonna get to 300 lbs. WITH wrong choices i do believe it could happen.

SOMETIMES i also fault my troubles right now on the bleeding ulcer i had been diagnosed with in JULY . i did get a point in my journey that i wasnt able to leave my pouch empty without feeling totally icky. I didnt know that wasnt normal till later down the journey when i ended up with a small bleeding ucler. That probably paved the way for some trouble in my eating post op. and feeling icky on an empty pouch wasnt normal. go figure

I miss the days were i was fulll on a few mouthfuls of food, but in reality i know i couldnt eat that way for ever as i did the first months post op. JUST cant remain healthy that way. MY love for food was gone for 12 months but over time it has come back and i have to be displined, make right choices and be careful now.

THATS were i tell myself again and again NOTHIN TASTES as GOOD AS THIN FEELS. and hope to never go back were i am.
HOPE it helps. I think the only thing thats gonna help me right now is time and seeing that i wont gain alot back maybe just the normal percent thats expected.

I mean now if i eat pizza i eat one slice, pre op i proly ate 3 and picked my kids crust. SO i know im eating less but yet more then the first 12 months post op.

I try not to think of my way of eating as a diet. BUT instead a healthier way of life eating. BUT im human and i dont do as good as i wish i did these days.

KEEP asking away tia love your q's

[xsmith95]

Tia, I have to put my 2 cents in on this too being I am right behind Lisa in the time line.

I do feel real hunger. Just as I did before surgery. I now know I have to make the right choices to keep from putting the weight back on. I do eat sweets but didn't until I was over a year out. That brownie was the worst thing for me! I found just as Lisa did, I do not dump. Oh how I wish I dumped. I have head hunger as well but I also know when I have had enough. I still want to eat but my pouch will not let me. I knew going into this surgery, life with food would not be easy. I have to make the right choices and not look at this as another diet. It is a way of life, a life changing experience. To this day, I can say I still do not drink any soda. I am a Pepsi-holic. I lived, breathed, ate and slept with my Pepsi. I still have not tried one and I will be 2 years out June 17, 2007. I believe that would be my biggest mistake is to drink soda again.

As far as your question for doc.... I have been told and from visiting many forums, I do know you can gain all your weight back if you do not maintain the new life style. You can stretch out your pouch by eating too much. You can gain back the weight by eating the wrong things all over again.

Just try to remember this is a new way of life. This surgery is a "TOOL" not a miracle. The only way to keep the weight off after loosing it is to exercise and make the right food choices for life. That doesn't mean you can't have the occasional cookie or piece of cake. That means you have to eat them in moderation and make sure you eat plenty of protein and good carbs.

[*Butterfly*Girl*]

Thanks girls! You've both said what I've read and what I understand to this point about the surgery. It is a tool to be used as such and that truly there is no magic pill. AKA you still have to work your butt off to maintain your weightloss and healthy lifestyle. There are no free rides.

I am so proud of you on your soda!!! I've read that soda can irritate the staple line anyway. ?? Soda is a biggie for me, too, but I'm still preop.

FYI - my name is Tina, or, "T." TIA means Thanks in Advance. It's advanced board speak, I guess, .

Thanks again,

[DocSanae]

Tina, just one more thing.
With a natural--normal--stomach, the pylorus, the portion that connects to the intestines can close off completely and stop and keep the food in the stomach for a while. This helps give one the full feeling when you keep stuffing, and also allows "normies" to consume liquid with the solid food.
With a pouch, what you have is the stoma, an opening that is always open--24/7/365. This opening is small enough that the food will not pass through all at once, but you also have to "learn the full feeling". Train yourself to perceive when your pouch is full. That is done by measuring the amount you can eat at one time, and learning the sensation your stomach will give you when you have had that amount. It also is the reason that taking liquids with solid food, save for just that little bit to give food some moisture so that it will move smoothly, is a no-no for gbs patients. The liquid will empty the pouch quicker than it should.

Yes, there are gbs patients who gain all their lost weight back, or even become heavier than they were before. Grazing, eating high calorie foods, going back to their old eating patterns can all undo the effect of the surgery. Just as strictures happen so can the stoma be stretched, as well as the pouch.

The surgery buys you time. It gives you a certain time frame where you can have results that you can see, while you are re-learning what is good for your health and your body, setting up habits that will help you keep there for the rest of your life. When you can see how you can be with all the excess weight gone, hopefully, you will have more incentive to stay there, than, say, having lost half the amount you needed to on a diet, and get discouraged at the time and effort it took for you to get there, and the thought that you have to keep it up for many years to come before you reach goal. Once the weightloss that is the direct result of the surgery is in place, you have to rely on yourself, on your brains and your will power, to keep what you have been given. This part--relying on your brains and will power-- is the same for anyone, whether one has weight issues or not. That is the most important part of the surgery, learning that control. Learning what and what nots about food while you are losing willy nilly. Learning, often, why you eat at times when you know you don't need to. Learning, sometimes, to divert your interests to areas which will give healthier attitude towards food.

After all the years of the happy--or unhappy-- love affair that many of you had with food, this break is probably going to be the most difficult of all, but it is a break that you need to make.
Food to live, not live for food.

((((((HUGS))))))