byebyedarkpassenger

Ask whether you'll need to be on a liquid diet before surgery and if so, for how long. On this site, off the top of my head I believe I've seen requirements ranging from a day or so to three weeks with the most common being 2 weeks.

I'm regretting starting this thread because so many of my frustrations with clothing are coming to the surface! Now let's talk chub rub. How many pairs of pants have we thrown out because of irreparable chub rub holes? Hard to believe the clothing industry hasn't found a way to mitigate this. On second thought, chub rub holes guarantee the sale of new pants at regular intervals so it's good for business.

I turn into a one-woman locust swarm and decimate the pantry. Which is what brought me here!

I'm not sure I'm qualified to agree with all of you yet given I'm so early in this process... but I agree with you! I'm visualizing what I'm about to embark on as initially a sprint (the surgery and initial dramatic weight loss) that then turns into a long marathon (shedding the last pounds slowly til I hit goal), and then a nice run, keeping a steady pace of calories in/calories out to maintain the weight loss thereafter. From the comments I've seen here it sounds like I'm seriously oversimplifying what will happen at the running stage, but the point is, this is a long journey. The key is to keep your eye on the prize and keep on trucking.

I'm 50 and will attend my first seminar in a week. I'm hoping that all will go smoothly with the approval process and I can have my surgery in early 2016. I'll be 51 then.

Spaghetti straps on tank tops. Trust me, you don't want me to go braless.

We all probably have a very long list of the comments that people have made, in writing or to our faces, about our physique that has cut us to the core. I feel your pain.

I for one am so reassured when I see people of all shapes and sizes and of all ages at the health club. Makes me feel like I absolutely belong there. So if you're self conscious, know that someone at the gym is grateful you are there.

I'm planning on going horseback riding, which I haven't done since the 1990s.

On the TV show Dexter, the main character refers to the evil part of himself as his 'dark passenger'. I'm mentally separating the me who wants to be healthy from the dark passenger, that excessively large stomach of mine that has wrapped a fat suit around me. So bye bye, dark passenger.

Does baby corn grow on mini cornstalks?

Thanks for your post! I only hope I'll be like you at 9 months out. Your attitude is great, you're working very hard to figure out how to continue to lose weight, you're pragmatic about the realities of excess skin... and you're keeping your eye on the prize. You're my new role model and I'm rooting for you!

Congratulations! I'm rooting for you.