Just wanted to introduce myself

Welcome aboard! Nice to meet you Shar

Welcome to your "A-Team". We have a lot of nice people that are always willing to support no matter what you are going through. Don't ever be afraid to ask anything. We have some pretty odd topics that we talk about, but everyone is open minded and going through the same thing. You can just talk about it here that you can't in most other places. WELCOME!!!!

Thanks very much for the warm welcome everyone! I'm going to like it here! How do Europeans battle obesity, eh? Well first is portion control. You just don't serve the huge quantities that you find in America, not in restaurants or in people's homes. Food isn't near as cheap here. People also have a lot more free time and use it for recreational fitness, riding bicycles, hiking, pools, etc. On a Sat and Sun morning you see whole families out with their bicycles going somewhere fun. There are a lot of free outdoors fitness areas too, places that cities maintain where people can bicycle or roller blade or jog, it's free, safe and pleasant. And culturally, that's what you do. You get to work on Monday and they ask you where you rode your bike!!! Schools emphasize nutrition, it's part of the curriculum and my kid comes home often telling me what she's doing wrong! She's above the curve for both height and weight, so the doctor is sending both of us to a day-long nutritional event put on by the local children's hospital. We're going in a couple of weeks. When they see me (I'm still larger than most anybody here), they fear for her. So they are proactive and I appreciate that. She wouldn't even qualify for "chubby" in America, she doesn't look fat, but she is above the European curve and her mother is morbidly obese, so they want to work with her. She's 9 and so far she is going along with the program. Medical care for all. If you ask for help, your family doctor is going to be very quick to send you to an endocrinologist + nutritionist to check out what might be causing your weight gain. They do more tests than I knew were possible, and in the end, if they determine that you've tried "on your own" enough, they offer WLS. My bypass is going to cost me 300? total. I had a private room (they kept me for one week), I chose my surgeon, and I only waited 8 months to get it done. Standard of care was comparable to what I'm used to in the US. I have no idea how they pull that off honestly, but I'm going to miss it when we move back next year. I could go on forever but I've got to get ready for our Girl Scout campout. Have a nice week-end everyone!

Hi Annie, I'm so glad you joined our board! I've seen your posts on the RNY forum and have enjoyed your point of view. Does your surgeon want you to eat a certain amount of protein, or do they just have you eat a little of everything in smaller portions? I'm very interested in the differences between American and French health care. Welcome to the board! Lisa

Thanks Lisa, I posted a response to your question on my blog.