YOU MUST BE MILITANT to be above average

nuff said!

Excellent post as always! Man I love reading your posts! Merry Christmas.. or Happy Holidays!

Thank you Ruggie and Frisco for giving us all those words of wisdom!  My VSG is in 2 weeks and I know I have a long row to hoe even though I feel I got all the "right" information from my Surgeon and his coordinator, it's still good to hear it again.  This is my first bookmark and I'm sure won't be my last!  Merry Christmas

My 1st bookmark too.. thank you. Merry Christmas.

Ruggie....you da man.  Thank you for this post.....it is almost like a Christmas gift to this forum. 

Excellent Post!!  Thanks so much for taking the time! 

Great insight!

Losing the weight is just the beginning -- keeping it off is the real battle. That is when you really see how dedicated and focused people are. If you're going to keep the weight off there are some things that you will have to give up-forever!

If there's one thing that all our failed diets teach us is - keeping the weight off is harder; you're absolutely right.  And the surgical stats 3-8 years out prove that, or people wouldn't regain on average. 

Sacrifice.  Sometimes we aren't ready for it.

 Great post.... Nice job!

You mentioned that Frisco should write a cookbook, but I think you should both get together and write some sort of motivational (get off your butt, telling it straight) book for a successful journey after the Sleeve. This post, like your other, is incredibly helpful to me. I noticed and I will say, not very proudly, that many of the things you have written here have hit me very close to home. "If you use your sleeve as the main tool, expecting it, and not you, to do most of the work then I sincerely predict that you will be hitting average or less-than-average EWL" I have not been sleeved yet, but upon learning that my Doctor was referring bariatric surgery and wasn't taking no for an answer, any portion control or healthy food swaps were banished from my life. I gained  20 more pounds after that. My mother and husband were very aggravated with me saying I was using the surgery as a crutch and expecting it to solve my weight problems. Reading your post and now really listening to what they had to say; I can see you are all right. What kind of success will I have if I don't take this seriously? My surgery isn't until the 17th but, I start a high protein mostly liquid diet tomorrow, and then starting on the 1st a complete liquid pre-op diet. Once again I am going to copy and paste your advice to a word document so that I can read it. I think this post will really motivate me to make it through the next 22 days. I may even have to re-read several times whenever the love of food or its addiction tries to sway me towards failure. Thank you! I never get mad at anything Frisco says because I respond well when someone gives me a harsh dose of reality. The truth of the matter is, you guys are trying to ensure we all use this tool successfully and I really appreciate that. It is not like you are on some pedestal looking down on us. You really want us to work our sleeves and not try to let the sleeve work us. This advice is what will make me achieve 100% EWL and keep me from the dreaded regain.