I opted for OA, Overeaters Anonymous instead of RNY!

I wanted to get RNY at this time last year. The place asked questions and I answered honestly. I told them that I had a history of bulimia, but was bulimia=free for 6.5 years. They did not like that answer. I had to go for psychiatric consults 3 times and then they still made me go to the diet doctor for 3 months in a row and THEN when I was done, they would make a determination. In the mean time I tried Overeaters Anonymous again. (I had tried it once before and did not like it.) This time, I stayed. On July 19, 2016 I decided that if I could lose the weight without surgery and that surgery would NOT help me keep the weight off, then I didn't need surgery, rather a program that could help me work toward a healthy body weight and stay there permanently.

Now, 9 months later I am 18 pounds lighter than the weight I told the weight loss surgeons I would be happy at. I am no longer obese, but still have 22 pounds to lose to be "normal". I have gone from a size 26W to a missy size 16 or XL. I have lost 91 pounds. I am helping lots of people too! My life has changed dramatically for the better.

OA has no dues or fees. They help people with all kinds of eating issues whether it be bulimia, anorexia, binge eating, chewing & spitting, or even "needs to lose 10 pounds". Try it out. What do you have to lose, except for the obvious- weight! You can find a meeting at www.oa.org.

Congrats on your success! I tried out OA last year and it definitely wasn't for me. No matter what they say about accepting atheists, my local meeting definitely was not atheist-friendly.

Gwen,

I'm sorry to hear of your experience. You do need to have a higher power even if that means that the room full of people is it. That being said, an option for you would be to start your own meeting. I actually did that too because there were no other meetings close by. The meeting has been open since October and we have 6-16 people there every week.

Cathy

Right - I have no "higher power." So OA was ineffective for me. Thankfully other things were :)

Glad you posted this here. I tried OA twice and just couldn't do it... I'm more of a spiritual person but not religious at all. As far as a "higher power" goes, meh not really my thing.

Yeah. I just couldn't wrap my head around "giving it to your higher power" since that felt too much like an abdication of personal responsibility to me.

I get that it works well for people, I am just not one of those people.

OMD!! (Oh My Doggness! I'm a dog trainer...) I'm not the only one. It just feels wrong, I get leaning on someone, like my husband but to abdicate my responsibility to someone else? Not going to happen!

Congratulations! You look great! What an accomplishment! About 7 years ago I was 600lbs and lost 347lbs naturally with diet and exercise then developed heart issues. Once that happened I was unable to workout as hard and began to gain back. I went back up to 490lbs and was suffering severely and decided to go with the sleeve.

Edited to fix a typo.

I just canceled my appointment for the Dr. to start the proceedings for the bypass surgery. My son was very heavy, drank a lot and did a complete transformation...now a body builder....stopped drinking....and he begged me not to do the surgery that I could do it just like he did as he knew exactly how I feel. And I am trusting I have the good sense now to do what I know I need to do...put my money in my pocket and carry on as I have for the past month and losing a little slower but a better way. Your post is inspirational to me....if you've already had the surgery what else are you going to say but you wouldn't go back???? Thanks for your post.

I decided that if I could lose the weight without surgery and that surgery would NOT help me keep the weight off, then I didn't need surgery, rather a program that could help me work toward a healthy body weight and stay there permanently.

You nailed it... and I think of you often when I think I want to eat (and don't need to), and you are my new role model!

_______

I see such craziness in thinking in all the FB and bariatric discussions. It may be so many younger, uninformed people see surgery, balloon, etc as the best answer, but none of these address the MENTAL..even with some guidance beforehand. Even mature posters bemoan the prep diets for 6 weeks and I wonder how prepared they are for a lifetime of 'denial' they face.

I know two women locally, both given RNY- for free- and both ended up with drug and alcohol abuse after because their mental state was so stressed over never being able to eat a bowl of popcorn, have a soda, etc. again. I saw what I consider neurotic behavior, in general, as they didn't address their food demons beforehand... and now have no option.

I am thinking there should be months more counseling needed, maybe meeting people with issues who share post-op problems, lesson learned, before they can have the surgery.

Maybe what I read on FB is not indicative of the general for post op experience, maybe only the ones with serious issues come online to post.

What convinced me surgery may not be the solution was all the surgeon's videos discussing the massive increase in need for added surgeries, fixes, weight regain, surgical problems, etc..So their workload is increasing as these patients come back and need much more years down the road.