After six years of living with gastric bypass Ive finally come into a regular eating routine where I no longer fight against the gastric bypass nor do I battle the head games associated with eating restriction. I dont believe what I do day-to-day is perfect but I know it works for me giving me optimum energy and good health.

Over time Ive found if I strictly control my food choices for breakfast and lunch I can allow a bit more freedom and adventure in my evening meal. In fact, I enjoy wonderful variety and flavor in my evening meals. I seldom snack which I believe is the key to having maintained my weight loss.

Kayes Regular Eating Plan After WLS

For breakfast and lunch I eat the same things almost every day. Breakfast is most often 1/2 cup cottage cheese with 1/2 cup of Kashi Go-Lean High Protein cereal or cottage cheese with 1/2 cup sugar free jell-o or cottage cheese with 1 hard-cooked egg. I also have a cup of coffee about an hour after breakfast. (Coffee is not recommended during the phase of weight loss.)

For lunch I enjoy tuna mixed with a little miracle whip, or canned chicken fixed the same. Sometimes I'll have shrimp (6-8 peeled) or those imitation seafood flakes. Usually I add a piece of low-fat mozzarella cheese and then some fruit, whatever is in season. If have lunch out I'll order a salad with the chicken and eat the chicken and taste the salad. I may order a sandwich and eat the insides, not the bread. I may taste the bread, but not eat much of it.

Now for dinner: that is when I get my variety. I cook at home almost every night of the week. I enjoy learning new recipes and often experiment with finding "safe" foods that both my husband, a normal eater, and I will enjoy. We eat fish twice a week, chicken and pork frequently and red meat once a week. We have essentially eliminated starch such as potatoes, pasta and rice from our regular diet. Remarkably, neither of us miss it or the heavy feeling it brings. Side dishes are generally steamed in-season vegetables or baked vegetables such as winter squash.

I imagine this all sounds very blah and basic. It took a long time to accept that if I eat my safe foods for breakfast and lunch I will feel good and chemically balanced all day. Dinners seem like such a treat because of the variety, so it is working for me (finally!). It takes a long time to resolve and accept a regular eating plan, but once established it feels like a comfortable place to be.

Kaye Bailey

An award winning journalist and former newspaper editor Kaye Bailey brings expertise in writing and personal experience with gastric bypass surgery to EzineArticles.com. Ms. Bailey developed a passion for writing at an early age. As a teenager she found writing her feelings about obesity helped her cope in a world that is often cruel to overweight children and adults alike.

Ms. Bailey says she found out she was fat in kindergarten when another child told her she was fat. ?I didn?t even know what fat was but I could tell it was bad and I didn?t want to be fat. Until that day I had been unaware I was different. But there I was, a five-year-old girl sitting cross-legged on the floor learning a new word that would define me.?

At age 33 she underwent laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery. For the first time in her life after multiple failed diet attempts she lost weight. She said the decision to have surgery took courage, nerve, and a little bit of plain old faith. But she learned surgery was the easy part. Dealing with newfound emotions, struggling with food choices and fighting to keep from regaining weight were unexpected bumps in the road following massive weight loss with surgery.

Having spent most of her life overweight Ms. Bailey is strongly empathetic toward the obese, particularly overweight children. This compassion compelled her to found the website LivingAfterWLS.com, a fast-growing resource of information, understanding and support for the weight loss surgery community. While weight loss surgery is publicly perceived as an easy fix to obesity Ms. Bailey maintains the struggles after surgery challenge the vigor of even the most dedicated individual. As WLS becomes more readily available patients are finding there is a lack of long-term aftercare and support from bariatric centers.

The LivingAfterWLS.com site is complimented with daily blog. The blog, livingafterwls.blogspot.com offers readers the chance to comment or leave feedback about fresh content added daily. This site contains success stories and recipes as well as general information and WLS inspired topics. Complementing the site is a monthly newsletter titled ?You Have Arrived? available exclusively to people who subscribe through the website or the blog. The path forward includes community forums, nutrition and fitness tracking tools.

Ms. Bailey makes her home on a ranch in the Rocky Mountains with her husband of eight years who has been her consort in life after WLS.