Surviving a Stall

Since my WLS I have spent a great deal of time researching, reading and learning.  EVERY person that loses weight goes through the dreaded stall.  I had my first post surgical stall at three weeks and it lasted for three weeks.  I have found that this time frame seems to be a commonly heard complaint by many in the surgical weight loss community.  Because of this knowledge the fear commonly associated seemed to be tolerable.  Fast forward three months...the pasts three weeks have been quite trying because in addition to not losing I have also not seen any non-scale victories either.  This has been a challenging few weeks.

I have convinced myself over and over these past three weeks that indeed this isn't going to work for me.  Going so far as to make peace with my still overweight but greatly more comfortable girth.  I had settled in on the mind set that I can walk more comfortably, wear more clothes, bend over without pain, do household chores with greater ease, basically the brainwashing from within was in full overdrive.  BUT yesterday I dropped a pound...no excitement was to be as flukes happen all the time.  THEN this morning I dropped yet another pound, the party was early (I was running an early morning errand for my sister) but the dancing in my bathroom was sudden and unexpected.  Since I worked so hard to convince myself to be pleased where I was, the gratification I felt at those two consecutive pounds was more than expected.

So for those of you that are attempting to lose, surgically or otherwise, please believe us when we say that stalls are normal, they are part of the journey, we ALL experience them and you will overcome.  You will forget this advice, you will believe it doesn't apply for you and you will want to throw in the towel.  The good part of a surgical intervention...they attach the towel to you, no longer can you "choose" to throw it in.  With surgery we are all in, everyday, in every situation.  Overeating is no longer an option. Just be sure to take a minute to HALT what you are doing and ask yourself what emotion is causing you to want to overeat... are you Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired?  Just take an extra minute to identify your feelings and stop eating through them.