Struggling to stay on track!

Yay, it makes me so happy that you are taking her advice to heart!

I must agree with Kat - make some simple dishes! What meats/dense protein do you like? For me, I love ground turkey, I love shrimp, and I love chicken breast. But if I am eating 3-4 ounces per meal, a package lasts me like 6 meals which tires me out. So I used to do this:

Buy 1 lb of ground turkey. Saute it in a pan. Separate it into 5 tupperware containers. Season two with taco seasoning, and smother with mexican cheese. Season two with italian seasoning and garlic and tomato sauce and ricotta cheese. Season one with some mystery blend of spices and see how it tastes!

Buy a 1 lb package of chicken breast. Chop into small pieces. Saute in a pan (or grill, I do prefer the grill). Then eat them with whatever flavor you want at that moment (maybe dipped in ranch, maybe mixed with a can of green chilies, maybe on half of a Flat Out light

Go to Costco and get an Aidell's variety pack of chicken sausages. 5 sausages of 3 flavors. Put one of each into ziplock baggies. Throw 4 in the freezer and have 3 chicken sausages to bake in the toaster oven that week.

Put shrimp on a sheet pan. Roast it in the oven. Then eat 3-4 ounces one night with a tablespoon of pesto sauce, one night with some butter and garlic.

Also, don't be afraid to have dinner for breakfast! If you're not an egg person, have some ground turkey for breakfast. If you are an egg person, have scrambled eggs for dinner. Seriously, don't conform to norms...just get back to the basics and do this! You can lose that last 50 lbs. It's gonna take work, but seriously, even more than 3.5 years out, when I eat dense protein, I have restriction! (it's when I eat crackers or popcorn or crap like that that it seems like my stomach is that of a normal person!).

Great ideas!!! I will for sure try that. They all sound really delicious too :)

Thank you all so much for being real with me. It means a lot!

I have been in maintenance mode for well over 12 years. I wi**** gets easier but you made a lifetime decision. There is seriously never a meal I don't think of my RNY. Best wishes

Hi Mandi,

Let me know if you need help to add your surgery date as it does help us to know how to answer. Get back to the basics and ditto to what everyone said. DUMP THE CARBS!!!!! Here is a list of some of the basics that gets us to goal and keeps us there for years to come We are here for you

Planning/Preparing

Remember when we were preparing for surgery? How many meetings, classes and such did we attend? We were told the more prepared we were the better our chances were for success. And they were right. Go through the house, car and work place and get rid of trigger foods. Stock up on foods that will keep you on track. I removed every bad carb/sugar temptation and replaced it with lots of protein, veggies, grains and fruits.

Journaling

Get back to journaling. This will help you identify when you feel like eating, stress factors and any triggers in your life. Once you identify these factors, this will help you put tools in place to keep you from eating. It became clear I was not taking time for me anymore. I worked my day job and then spent the rest of my time caring for my husband. It was easy to reach for fast, prepackaged food. Since I purged my home I have to eat clean as there are no other options LOL

Use a tool to track you're eating and exercise like Getting Started with Health Tracker. Once I started to track ever bite and drink it became clear why I had gained.

Goals/Rewards

Make a list of goals for yourself. Make them realistic and small. Some of mine were move more, purge all junk from my home, eat more protein.

Food

In general, a long term post-weight loss surgery eating plan includes foods that are high in protein, and low in fat?, calories, and sugar. Important, vitamins and minerals are provided as supplements. (if you had a different surgery adjust this to your food plan).

Water

Water is our Best Friend. I have to say I never went back to pop or any bad drinks, however I was drinking tea like crazy. What is wrong with drinking tea? I was either using sugar or 3 equals and 3 sweet n lows per 32 ounce glass. So I was either pushing to be diabetic or get cancer. I found once I started carrying a bottle of water around 24/7 (yes had one at my bedside) I lost the cravings for the sugar and I KNOW those artificial sweeteners are not good for me. Look I am old and if you add up all the artificial sweeteners I have consumed I am sure I am at the rat in the lab getting cancer threshold.

MOVE!

I can't say enough about how key this was for me. The reason I kept my weight off for almost 10 years was no matter what, I kept moving. If I could not go to the gym I would walk. I loved Zumba, bootcamp workouts, lifting weights. When I stopped, the weight started coming back. So for me I am starting slow to avoid injury by walking and using some of the workouts on my Demand TV. Find something you love to do and it won't feel like a pain in the *** to do daily.

Support

If it's an option "run" don't walk to a support group.

Keep me posted on how you are doing.

Thank you, Kathy. Your help with that would be very appreciated, I just can't figure out how to do it for some reason. These are all good key points that I am trying to get back to. It's been tough because there was not a lot of support for me from my provider to begin with as far as pre op and post op (not a lot of local groups that I know of either) but I am making an appointment with a new nutritionist who works with a bariatric surgeon in town so hopefully she can help whip me back into shape mentally haha. I really think the journaling idea will help me to. I started a couple months ago but strayed from it. It's just time to quit messing around and get back to what I was doing right. Thanks for the support!

This is a great video about motivation and why "waiting to find" the elusive motivation will only slow you down.

Why Motivation is Garbage

Check it out. I thought is was really helpful. I found the link through a FB group Bariatric Mindset Mavens run by Kristin, a therapist who has written several articles here for OH like this one.

~E

I am definitely going to check this out. Thank you!

OHHHH MYYYY GODDDD! Finally got around to watching this video and it is EXACTLY what I needed today. Thank you so much for sharing this :)

To the OP --

I hope that you can see the love and care that went into the responses you got from Daisy and Pammieanne. You will never read better advice that what you've gotten there, so I won't even try to add to it.

I will tell you this -- you can pull this out and you can reach your goals. You have an amazing tool -- truly a once in a lifetime opportunity.

I know it's hard -- I was 347 pounds and suffer Binge Eating Disorder/Food addiction. There's not a carb that I don't love and adore -- but like a heroin addict, I was killing myself to get my fix. The saddest part about addictions is that we aren't the only ones suffering their effects ... my family, friends, ... really my whole life and those around me did/do, too.

At three and half years out, I can promise you, it never gets easier. It's a lifelong battle.

Come here, get your butt kicked, log your food, cut the carbs, drink your water, get counseling -- BUT DO IT. I promise, it and YOU are worth it.

Unfortunately, no one can do this for you. It's got to come from you.

I definitely feel the love and support. It's hard to be real with myself because I spend most of my time making sure everyone else is taken care of that I don't think about myself or make a point of truly holding myself accountable for my actions until after the fact when it's too late to get in my time machine and go back. Food is and always has been a drug for me and the struggle to "self medicate" is so real in my life. You guys are my support group and I am SO GRATEFUL for you all no matter what your response is or how tough the love needs to be. Thank you for taking the time to be real with me about all of this :)