40 by 40 - Short Term Goals

I'm nearly two years post-op and I'm maintaining. Not gaining, but not losing either. It's been a really long time since I've seen a loss on the scale. I'd like to say I'm satisfied where I'm at, but I'd still like to lose another 40 pounds, which would put me at the top of the healthy weight category for my height (5' 3"). Currently I'm still considered "obese" on the BMI chart, but I personally think how I feel is much more important than that chart.

My 40th birthday is coming up in December (yikes!) and I've decided to set a goal for myself to lose these 40 pounds by the time I turn 40 years old. I'm determined to get back on my eating plan, make an effort to get my 64 ounces of water in every day, and exercise so that I can make this goal a reality!

Something I want to point out is that this is proof that surgery is not the easy way out. I have a group of local friends, all who went to the same weight loss center as I did. Everyone is on their own journey but many of the struggles are the same - food addiction, emotional eating, stress eating, cravings, motivation. The smaller stomach makes it easy to control intake at first but as the swelling goes down and the scars heal, the ability to eat more comes back. The ability to do what I refer to as "eating around the surgery" becomes a thing. Slider foods like crackers, cookies, and other carb-y snacks go down easy and don't take up the room in your stomach like solid protein does, so you can get a lot more of those types of foods into your sleeve or pouch and in turn you end up taking in a ton of extra calories. The feeling of restriction is still there but it is so easy to overdo it and find yourself struggling to stay on track.

So much of the process is mental. You need to have that motivation to change. I see many bariatric patients in Facebook groups or on other social media platforms who are dealing with regain. Some have regained all of their lost weight and they are right back where they started. Thankfully I haven't had that happen to me, but I can see HOW it can happen. It takes a real commitment to yourself to make the right choices all day, every day.

I look forward to sharing my progress over the next six months where I hopefully reach my goal weight and lose 40 by 40!