Dealing With People Who Think You're Weak

Set boundaries. Everyone in my life knows not to give me advice unless I ask for it. I'm an intelligent woman who makes informed decisions. No way would I seek advice or approval from people who know nothing about WLS.

Don't invite people into your personal/medical business. What they don't know, they won't judge.

I just tell people I took the easy way out because the hard way was not working for me.

I have seen a few them try to take my easy way out and they found out for themselves it was not so easy.

Strangely, I find that frequently the people who are the most critical have the hardest time themselves dealing with weight and resulting health problems. Their comments often come out of their own justification as to why they don't explore WLS. A close friend has been told by his physician that he must lose weight or is going to shorten his life. He is having a harder and harder time functioning and has been gaining weight rather than losing with each diet attempt. He said the same thing to me, as well as that he thinks WLS is too drastic and I am too thin.

We each have to find our own path and by choosing WLS you are choosing a healthy one.

I always wondered why people think having your stomach surgically shut and your intestines re-wired is the "easy way out"

A real head scratcher.

Thank you, everyone, for your thoughtful responses. Some great ideas and suggestions.

I actually did not face this much before surgery, but I had some complications and found that (certain) people would imply or outright say I seemed to deserve it for taking the "easy" (ha) way out. If I was close to the person and felt that he or she just did not understand the struggle I might briefly explain that I wasn't able to lose and sustain weight loss before surgery. If I was less close I just said, "Well, I made the reasonable decision at the time" and changed the subject.