Join The Twin Cities Weight Loss Surgery Accountability Team

Hi everyone.  As you know, weight loss surgery is a big step and a lifelong commitment to a healthier lifestyle.

In my experience, weekly accountability is missing from support groups provided by clinics and hospitals. Therefore, I am inviting you to join a weekly Twin Cities Weight Loss Surgery Accountability team.  The team's goal is to fill that gap and provide weekly support and accountability to each of the members. This accountability can take many forms such as weekly weigh ins, sharing of food journals, and sharing ideas.

Anyone who has had weight loss surgery or is contemplating weight loss surgery is encouraged to join.

The first meeting is this Saturday, October 10 at 8:00 a.m.  We will meet in the Byerly's Meeting Room at 12880 Elm Creek Blvd N in Maple Grove (their phone # is 763-416-1611). 

Because this group is new, the format will morph and change over time based on input from members. To start us out, the meetings will include the following activities:

 

• weigh in
   
• sharing of your food journal for accountability
   
• group discussion - sharing struggles, tips, support and ideas
   

At this first meeting, let's also talk about how we structure these weekly meetings going forward including location, day of week and time.

Please RSVP by responding to this post or, even better, officially joining the team at http://www.meetup.com/lapband/. 

Note:  even though the URL says LapBand, the group is open to ALL people regardless of weight loss surgery path chosen.  Also, if you'd like a beverage or snack during the meeting, Byerly's requests that we purchase those items in the store and not bring in our own. Thank you for respecting their request.

I am curious of a few things and I wonder how other board members feel about this, but I would have my reservations based on the following: your lack of posting history here on the MN board, and your profile is empty.

What has been your experience(s) to make you decide to start this group, when essentially there are already groups out there doing the same thing?

I hope you'll share more...I'm not trying to play devil's advocate, but you are posting about starting a new group and I'm wondering what your history has been, your experiences, what type of surgery you had, how long ago, who your bariatric surgeon was, etc.

Accountability is a great tool! But, I've worked hard for my progress and I ain't just trusting anyone with my stats. So, I hope you'll share more.

Good luck with your new group.

Hello.  I'm happy to answer your questions.  I had lapband surgery on May 15 of this year and my surgeon was Dr. Thomas Jones of Park Nicollet.  My surgery went well and I've lost 59 pounds so far.  I know it could be a lot better though if I were more focused and faced the scale every week with someone who was holding me accountable for forward progress.

In the past when I've been most successful at taking weight off, I've been in programs where there's a weekly weigh in (Nutri System) and a three times a week weigh in (Healthy Measures) and I really miss that.  My falling down point in the past is lack of support in maintenance to keep the weight off.

So, I thought I'd reach out and see if others feel the same way and would want to meet weekly to hold each other accountable -  both during their weight loss journey and through maintaining a healthy lifestyle for the rest of our life.

I've never posted before because I forgot about this forum.  When I got my idea for creating an accountability team I looked through meetup.com first to see if any groups existed out there.  I didn't see any such group so I started a group there.  Last night I remembered this site and decided to see if anyone hanging out on obesityhelp.com would be interested in joining as well.

So far there are nine members in the group and we'd love to have you join us on Saturday if you feel comfortable. 

All the best,
Shari