Non Scale Victories

Question for those further along...what have been some of your "non scale" victories or changes?

Things I'm hoping improve with surgery include things like mobility. At 31, I'm having to rely on a walker to get around. I can't climb stairs or walk more than 5 minutes without being winded. I can't bend over to tie my shoes or put on socks. My back and joints hurt all the time. I'm on an extensive medication regime and see many specialists just to stay alive.

And of course there's the more concrete medical things, like having sugars that never drop below the 150s, body being more acidotic, rapidly climbing lipid levels, angina and chest pain, and my extremely high BP that seems to be resistant to meds, climbing risk of cardiac events...plus things like not being able to fit in public places that normal size people don't struggle with...

I'm just so hopeless and sick of this life and am ready to commit to life style changes before during and after the surgery process to start living a new whole life with a much healthier self.

I've been overweight my whole life. I tipped past 150 before I turned 18 and I remember the pediatrician raising major concerns to my mom about my weight, but because she too was immensely obese and didn't do anything about it, my weight continued to climb even as a kid. I think the last time i was in a normal weight range was when I was a very young kid...

Getting off all medications and only having to take the required supplements was a huge NSV. The level of activity I'm able to do now includes things I wouldn't have done (or would have done with great difficulty) pre-WLS -- I climbed to the crow's next on a tall ship; I have zip lined several times, I don't have to worry about researching ahead before I do anything because I'm worried about any weight limits; I was able to ditch the seatbelt extender for flights; I never have anxiety about whether I'm taking up more than my share of space. I"ve gone from high blood pressure to low blood pressure (which has it's issues); I do eat high protein low carb for the most part which isn't the most cholesterol friendly but within parameters not requiring meds so it's not that things are perfect.

I find that maintaining a healthy weight is hard, WLS or not, and WLS only works on the body, not the mind -- but being obese is hard too - choose which hard you want.

I know you said your appt is next week, do you have any idea yet if they have a full program (with registered dietician, behavior modification, etc ) support? My program required that we read and do the cd for Mindful Eating by Jan Chozen Bays (I know someone else recommended WLS for Dummies, which we had to read as well). ME had some really good things on the different types of hunger that I still use today (little over 4 years after surgery).

Good luck!