What is (are) some significant life lessons you have learned before, during, or after your WLS

Scott summed it up pretty well, but all add my two cents. I have a new physical me but I still have the same issues and problems with work, family, and life as before. A lot has changed in my life since WLS mostly for the better but some things have gotten worse. The lost weight makes me much more physically capable of dealing with my life and I have a lot more options open to me now that I don’t weigh 460lbs. I have also learned that it’s also very important to change your old habits after WLS so you do not fall back into the same traps that helped make you MO to begin with. I have learned that regular exercise is something I must do for physical and mental health now and I accept “no excuses” from myself for missing a day. After a stress filled day at work, climbing mountains and power hiking really lets me clear my head and sort out my problems. I have also learned that WLS is just a tool and the really hard work starts after the surgery is done. My relationship with food has changed, as Joe said, food is fuel for you body now, it's no longer the great comfort that it once was. I use to eat when I was bored so I make sure that I am busy now days’, sitting on my ass in front of the TV stuffing my face is how I got to 460lbs.  I deal with a lot of family stress from my 18 and 23 year old kids, my wife of 27 years, my 85 year old mother, and a my sister who suffers with long term depression issues. Combined all that with being a telecommunication test manager of 50+ people in the US/India and my life is really insane some days. Before WLS I would have been a real wreck but now my life is much more centered and focused. The WLS program at Duke University has really helped renew my sense of direction and discipline in my life. They combined great surgeons with their own nutritionist and physiologists into a 12 month program which helped me get my head and body right before and after WLS. I finally feeling like I have control of my future and I’m no longer heading down a slippery slope to an early date with the grim reaper. I knew that I was not on the right path for my health before I have WLS I really felt powerless to stop my downward spiral. It does not happen all at once, it’s a slow multiple year slide where you just get to the point where you won’t do something you use to do. That what happens with obesity, we lose one little thing at a time and being the creative creatures that we are we adapt, avoid, or learn to live without it. My limits started with not wanting to walk up stairs all the time so I would ask my kids to fetch and carry for me when I need something like food, tools, walking the dog, etc… My son finally refused to do it because he said that he was not going to contribute anymore to my early death. At the time he did that I yelled at him but now I realize how much he loved me to take a stand. The final straw for me was when I could barely walk to my truck at the end of the day to drive home. I remember silently cursing people for not leaving any parking spaces close to the building in the mornings, now I park my shiny red Mustang as far away as possible and I always take the stairs even when I am right next to the elevator. I also try and go for a walk at lunchtime everyday when my schedule permits. I could have done all of this before I had WLS and I can’t say why I didn’t, but now I am in control so I do.  

My WLS success has translated into a lot of positive things for me at work and my interpersonal relationships with others. I have had leadership roles since my days in the Navy at the age of 25 so I am not unaccustomed to being the lead guy. I can’t say it was all WLS, but I’m sure it is part of the overall look, confidence, and ability equation that people now see me as the natural leader in most things I participate in. That was not the case pre-WLS, a lot of folks treated my like I had the plague. I sure what folks see is the confidence I now feel in myself and I have not had that for a longtime since I became MO.