One Year Out -- Observations

Yesterday I went to Scarborough Faire with family as an early Mother's Day. So much fun!

Here is what I learned.

Because they have so many different delicious things to eat, I decided early that I wanted to hit several different places and buy something and then share it, so I could have all the stuff that looked good instead of limiting myself. We grazed our way through the fair, and because there were five adults sharing each thing I only got a few bites of anything at any given time. Our assumption was that we were going to sit down and eat a meal later.

So even though what they had was for the most part not what I'd ordinarily eat, I ate a couple of bites of macaraoni and cheese on a stick (small nuggets of deep fried mac and cheese, aren't you sorry you asked?) and a couple slices of fried pickes, and a few bites of turkey leg, and a couple of bites of a cinnamon pastry. (Hmmm.) That may be it. I had two sips of beer.  Two sips of root beer.  I was mooching off everybody, ha!

The point is this. I was never actually hungry.  Grazing and walking (over five miles, total) I realized by late in the day when others were talking about finding a real meal that while I would be able to eat, I had no hunger pains, no "need" to eat more.

My sleeve is still working and ghrelin very much under control. Since I usually eat more than that during the day (although I also eat BETTER than that) it's good to realize that most of the time when I'm still not eating from true hunger, but from awareness of the clock or perhaps knowing something that tastes good is available once the clock hits a certain time.

This is excellent to know. It means if I decide to kick in and knock off the last few pounds, it's very doable.

And the other good thing from yesterday is I've seen a few pics of myself and I realize that while I would be content to stay at this weight for the rest of my life and not complain, I also can see that it would not hurt me at all to keep going to 135 (even though my PCP looked skeptical and thinks I'm at a perfect, normal, weight for my height and age).

It was a wonderful day and I like the lessons I learned.

I hope I can feel like this too when I'm a year out from VSG.  Life won't be worth living if I can't participate (albeit conservatively) in events like this, including the fair food.

What you can eat will mostly be determined by whether or not you have addictions and triggers. Can you stop? That's not about your stomach but about your head and emotions. So my suggestion is to figure out early and work on it, whatever that means--whether it's groups like OA or therapy or something else.

If eating a bit of something delicious and stopping makes you feel horrible and deprived and like you're unfairly being punished, you're going to have to really work on it, and I say that "with all the love," not knowing you or what your issues might be. I'm saying it general to anybody *****ads this.

I'm grateful to be able to do this, but I'm also aware that I have tripped up from time to time and figured out that something was triggering me and I wanted to keep eating way beyond what was sane, and I had to force myself to go throw that (oh so wonderful) food in the trash and not buy more.

But you know what? It's WORTH it. Life IS worth living! You're going to be so happy with your success!

I have been learning the same lessons for a couple of months now since my capacity has increased and I know I can eat anything and everything and every hour...well...maybe that is why I have been stalling baaaaadly!!!! Duh!!!! I have been very regular with the exercise so hopefully that will kick things into gear. If not I shall have to not only learn these lessons but apply that learning to what I want to achieve. I could soooo live on one bite of this or that alllllll day long!!!!! Thanks for sharing this. It nailed things down for me. And happy for your good day!!! Happy mother's day!

It was definitely good to have such a strong reminder that my tummy really isn't sending me hunger messages, even this far out. I feel very lucky. Now to learn to turn off the "but it sure would be tasty" messages!

If you figure that one out, pattent it! And let me know!