Yay! Congratulations and welcome to the boards!

keep posting and reading. Being on OH is so helpful!

while losing weight pre-op is awesome, I suggest you put the bulk of your energy into working on the behaviours that will benefit you in the long term. And bonus, losing some weight is a welcome side effect of implementing those changes. Maybe you already are, but here are some suggestions of what I focused on, based on my clinics plan. Things like:

• de-prioritize simple carbs and junk food
• journaling what you eat in something like my fitness pal
• no drinking with meals
• cutting out alcohol
• increase water/liquid intake
• eliminating carbonated beverages
• switching to decaf

other things I believe that help, especially those of us at higher starting weights:

• make a list of the reasons you want to lose weight. Refer to it daily.
• make a list of small milestones and mini goals. For example, mine included things like: losing 10% of body weight, weight when I got married, weight when I met my husband, lowest adult weight, etc. the more mini goals you set the better. This is important for a few reasons.

1. It's awesome to reach a goal, it motivates you to keep going.
2. when, in my case, you're trying to lose over 200 pounds, eating off plan one day Might not seem to have much of an effect, since your final goal is so far off. But, if your next goal is only 5 pounds away, that off plan day can have a huge impact.

• working with a therapist/behaviourist etc, on the head stuff. I had access to a behaviourist at my clinic. If that's not an option, spend time reading up on behaviour change. You will see people constantly refer to their surgery as a tool. This is true. You need to work on the mental stuff too, why and how you reached your high weight.

the more work you do pre op, the smoother the transition to post op life will be. Going through surgery is overwhelming enough, I'm so glad I didn't also have to deal with caffeine withdrawal and decarbing and having an egg sized stomach all at the same time.

These boards are awesome. I can't emphasize enough the importance of the advice from the vets on here. You might not like what you hear sometimes, but know it comes from a genuine wish to see you succeed. Keep reading and posting!

I totally agree!!!

Thanks! I'm pretty surprised myself. Even more that I've only had it once. I was worried it would be a free for all.

Hi Erin! I also appreciate the weekly check-in. It is a long haul for those of us who start over 50 BMI, and, yes, I get envious of people who make goal in 6 months. But.. I'll get there eventually and it's not a race. Also, at this point, the only one who wants me to lose more weight is me. So that's cool. No more pressure from medical providers is amazing. (Well, except for the generic Urgent Care passive aggressive printouts.)

HW: 319
LW: 151.9
TW: 150.7

Next goal: 145 for a normal BMI! And, of course, hitting 149 again en route - since that was my lowest weight so far. Pretty close to that one :)

The fact that you went over a year before having a sweet is amazing. I'm in total awe.