Things I have learned after one year...

Today is my one year anniversary of my surgery. I have lost 120 lbs total. I have lost and regained the same five pounds for 3 months now. Totally my fault. My head is trying to catch up with the weight loss, I have been making excuses for not eating right, money, time, stress. Whatever! They are horrible reasons to not use this gift I have been given. I have learned a few things along the way... I can eat way more now than I could in the beginning. Granted it is no where near pre op but more than a few months out of surgery. Before surgery I would go to McDonald's and order a filet of fish, a Big Mac meal w/ Large sweet tea and a double cheeseburger. Today when I go to McDonald's, I order the chicken nuggets happy meal, eat about 1/2 the fries and about 3 nuggets. Big difference. I have learned that I can eat a lot if I let myself graze. This is not a smart thing to do. I can get in just as many calories when I graze as I did pre op. Scary huh? Like yesterday...I am ashamed to post this but I just want you to know it is possible to consume as much food post op as pre op if you spread it out versus 3 meals and 2 snacks VSG portions... I had one egg and 4 pieces of bacon for breakfast. Ate about half the egg and 2 pieces of bacon...about 30 minutes later I was able to finish it. I started on a ziploc bag of cashews about 10;30am, munched on them off and on all day. Had a hershey bar in my desk, broke off a piece here and there, finished it off my end of day also. Lunch I had a chicken pot pie, could only eat about a third of it and about 30 minutes later, I took those last few bites and finished it off. While cooking dinner I had a bite of carrot cake. For dinner I had 1 hamburger patty, spoonful of mac and cheese and 8 french fries. I ate off that plate for an hour and got it all down! Later that night while watching tv, I had another bite of cake, 30 min later I had a 2 oz bowl of cereal, 30 min later I had a half a cookie. That is a LOT of food. Lesson from all this, once you are full, throw away the rest of the dang food or put it up for the next meal. In order to stay on track and keep on losing:
DO NOT NIBBLE ON THE SAME PLATE FOR MORE THAN 15 MINUTES.
DO NOT EAT BETWEEN DESIGNATED MEAL AND SNACK TIME
PROTEIN FIRST, VEGETABLE SECOND, CARBS LAST
DO NOT DRINK FOR AT LEAST 30 MINUTES AFTER YOU EAT
DRINK AT LEAST 64 OZ OF WATER EVERYDAY
DO SOME FORM OF EXCERCISE FOR AT LEAST 15 MINUTES A DAY

Those are pretty basic and simple. Staying on track and breaking old habits is hard as hell!
I am not where I am supposed to be but THANK GOD I am not where I used to be which is 381 lbs, size 30/32, unable to walk from my car to my office without being out of breath, unable to shop in Walmart unless I used a scooter. Today I can do all those things and more, I have not used a scooter since surgery, I weigh 255 lbs and in a size 22/24. I have a ways to go but I will get there.