My surgery date is December 28, 2015. I'm having RNY gastric bypass.

The nearest WLS center is 2 hrs away but my GP is very supportive and has other WLS patients, so I am not worried about the distance. The WLS is a "Center of excellence" which made researching the doctors easy.

I've toyed with the idea of WLS for more than 10 years. Each time I started thinking seriously about it, I'd give healthy eating one more try-- usually with minimal results. About 6 years ago, though, I adopted a low-fat, plant-based diet and lost almost 50 lbs -- way more than I'd ever lost on Weight Watchers (9 times), Jenny Craig, OptifSt, Atkins, the Zone,...you know the story! And even though I felt fantastic, somehow the crap started sneaking back in and I regained all the weight (plus some extra, of course).

A couple of months ago the idea of WLS popped into my head out of the blue, and it just felt right. Since then I've gone full bore on meeting the requirements. Once I go through the mandatory 4-hr class, I'll have met all the program's requirements and they will submit my paperwork for insurance approval. If I understand the process correctly, I can get a surgery date once insurance approves me. Since I've met all the insurance requirements, it is not supposed to take them long.

I am 5'6" and last weighed in at my pre-op on Dec. 17 at 263 lbs, which is a BMI of 41.8. I think I've weighed a bit more in my life, but I've never been this big in size. Right now I'm a 26-28, or 4X... sizes that didn't exist 30 years ago!

My weight goal is to stabilize at no more than 150 lbs. So I probably need to get to the 120s-130s at the "peak" of my weight loss. That would be fun; I'd love to see what 135 lbs feels like! I'd actually be satisfied at 170 lbs, but I'd really like to lose and keep off at least 113 lbs.

I like data so here's a summary. Mostly for my own reference later:

• "Healthy weight" based on the standard BMI chart is 120-150 lbs.
  
• "Ideal weight" based on two height/weight standards is 132-136 lbs.
  
• "Normal weight" based on CDC's BMI calculator is 116 - 167 lbs.
  

So, if I assume an ideal weight on the lower end, that would be about 125 lbs, with 138 lbs "excess weight." Research shows that most WLS patients stabilize at 50-70% of excess weight lost, so for me that would be 166 to 194 lbs. 166-170 would be the MAX I would be satisfied with, and would not be happy AT ALL to go through all of this to lose only 69 lbs and live at 194 lbs, so I really have to USE THIS TOOL WELL!

It's hard to imagine what my body will feel like with 100+ lbs less on it!I