BetsyH

I have struggled with "diets" and weight since I was about 4 years old - looking back at pictures, I was probably just "chubby", or even what I'd consider now to be healthy -  but my mother was absolutely phobic about my growing up to be fat and started me on diets way back then.  Long story short, I have had a couple of episodes in my adult life where I enjoyed a relatively "normal" weight, but realize that I have never learned to eat normally, to detect when I'm hungry, to know when to stop eating, to know when I need something else besides food.  It took me a long, long time to consider wt loss surgery - I've known for probably 25 years that there is something different about the mechanism of losing wt after wt loss surgery, or at least that's what the obesity literature has shown.  But I was always convinced that THIS TIME I would be able to do it...and of course, every time I didn't "do it" and ended up gaining back all I lost and more.   If you're reading this then nothing I've said is new to you...you have probably been there and done that.  I'm starting this on my third post-op day - I finally went through the process of the seminar, evaluation, medical appointments, nutrition consultation, pre-op appointments, pre-op diet...and here I am.  I feel pretty good.  I've lost twenty pounds since I started the pre-op diet (I tend to hold a LOT of water and have lost a lot of the swelling in my fingers, etc.).  Still a few pains here and there around the surgical site, but nothing major.  I'm looking for support and help to give as well as to get as I continue with this process of learning how to eat again.  I know that there will be a lot of changes but I'm certain, because I'm familiar with the science behind it, that this will work if I work it right.