if we fail to plan, do we plan to fail?

I think it is just impractical to believe that anyone no matter how dedicated or restrictive in their diet would be able to live 100% by the plan for the rest of their lives. Besides what kind of existence would that be anyway?
We don't live in a WLS friendly world. There are always going to be situations where there is very little if anything on the menu that is totally 100% wls friendly. That is life. We have to adapt and make decisions when situations like that arise. I often bring wls friendly dishes when I know that I am going to be in situations like that but you can't always know ahead of time and there you are. It is times like that when you are stuck making difficult choices, do you choose to eat off plan (hopefully by picking the dish that is closest to wls friendly as possible) or do you choose to sit odd person out and not eat at all.
I see far to many people posting on message boards and writing about eating off plan and being criticized for it instead of getting the support and encouragement that they are seeking. I think that is very sad.
That is why I try to be honest about my experiences so they know they are not alone and despite what many people want to believe...you will eat off plan eventually. It's up to you if you continue to do so and slide right back into old eating habits or if you only do it rarely or in situations like I mentioned above.
My grandmother had a saying, "What you eat in private, shows in public". I wish that were true on some blogs and many times on the message boards. I wonder how many people get negative feedback and just stop posting or when they do eat off the plan, say nothing because they don't see others posting or writing about it.
The world isn't a perfect place and we will mess up. Lets be honest about it when we do and support those that are brave enough to open themselves up to ridicule by admitting it.
No where did I read about possible seizure disorders post wls (I still wouldn't know about them if I hadn't read about them on melting mamas blog) and I never read or heard of a possible hyperglycemic crash like I had when I ate the torte. That is why I posted it, because people need to know that it can happen. Melting mama seems to post about a new post wls patient that is having seizures every few weeks now. Why aren't we being informed by our health care professionals about these kinds of possible side effects of wls?
No, not everyone is going to have a reaction like that, but it is nice to know that it is possible don't you agree?
I also had several, and I do mean several people e-mail me and comment on this blog that they had had a similar coma like crash post wls! But no one had talked about it before, perhaps because they had eaten something that they knew they shouldn't have and were afraid of the ridicule they would receive if they posted or wrote about it.
Let's try to remember that we are all here to learn and support one another.
Unfortunately no one can be 100% prepared 100% of the time. Life isn't that scheduled and regulated. Thank goodness too because otherwise it would be pretty boring. WE have to realize that there are going to be times when we are going to have to eat off the plan, when we fail to plan, when we lapse, when we are put in a situation that we couldn't for see, when we are tempted, when we are stuck without wls provisions, when we aren't sure of the foods contents, the possibilities are endless. It is bound to happen.
The average persons lifespan is 83 years, say you are 30 when you have wls. You cannot tell me that you will never have to go off plan in 53 years? How unrealistic is that? I know you may not want to believe me, and that is okay.
No one wants to hear that they will have to deviate (whether purposely, willingly, knowingly, or worse unknowingly) from the plan that utilizes their new tool that they may have gone into debt, missed work, endured pain, maybe even endured criticism, trying to get.
But I must repeat....statistically all of us will at some point eat off the plan whether due to poor planning, a lapse, or even accidentally (I once ate a protein shake at a gym that made me dump horribly). We can't always be 100% sure of the ingredients in our food. Sometimes even food that is marketed as healthy, low fat, low sugar will not be what it claims to be (or even if it is, might still make some of us very ill).
Do you travel? Can you tell me that you will be able to find or bring wls food with you where ever you will go for the rest of your life? I am saying that we need to be realistic and to realize what can happen when we do eat off the plan for what ever reason. We need to know what can happen when you do eat off the plan besides weight gain. We need to know that some people can have very serious effects including coma and seizures.
This is a very serious surgery and not a "diet" that you can just quit or stop. Just like you will need to supplement for the rest of your post op life, your reaction to foods will always be different.
I had a patient that had RNY surgery in the 80's. Initially she dumped on sugar and fat but it went away after a year and a half. She had some regain after that (not to what she was preop but certainly 60-80 pounds away from her original goal). By the time she was my patient (last year), she was rail thin, not only had her body gone back to dumping, it dumped worse than it did as a fresh post op. We really don't know the long term effects this surgery will have on us.
Some post ops will dump forever, some not at all, and some only for a while. But you never know what you will get and how you will react post op. Some post ops can get away with eating fat, sugar, etc. Some can't eat any of that without getting very ill (even in supposedly acceptable ranges and amounts as recommend by their physicians programs). We are all different, true.. but we will all have to go off the plan at times in our life and we need to realize that and be informed about the possible consequences. If nothing else but for safety's sake and so when those times come, we can try to choose to eat something that is likely to agree with our surgery even if it isn't 100% on the plan.
But most importantly, we have to realize that just because we eat off the plan once in a great while or even infrequently, that doesn't doom us to failure. That just means we are human. We need to be kinder to those out there that do take the occasional misstep and encourage and support them in their getting back on track.