What advice would you give yourself??

I have my surgery date set for Dec. 15. Since I've got 2 1/2 months to go, I was wondering what to do to best prep myself for this life change. So tell me....if you knew then what you know now, what advice would you give yourself to prepare yourself over the next 2 months? Thanks in advance!!

I actually did give myself advice pre-op!  It was pretty useful.  (I'll add the things that I didn't do/thoughts in bold.)  

1. I will not panic if I stop losing weight for a few weeks. Instead, I will re-evaluate that my eating is on plan and wait until the stall has lasted 4 weeks before I start to panic.

2. I will not ask OH what I need to take to the hospital, I know these things. Chapstick and a pillow. And the pillow really just needs to be in the car for the trip home.

3. I will not lie when people ask me how I’ve lost the weight. I will either be honest and tell them “surgery, diet and exercise” or I will tell them “I’m not comfortable talking about this with you.” These are the options, lying by omission is not one of them.

4. If I fail, and I will fail, I will forgive myself and return immediately to plan. It’s okay to screw up, it’s not okay to beat myself up for it or let it become the start of a downward spiral.

5. If I don’t start losing sizes right away, I won’t freak out. Chances are the clothes I wear now are too small and tight, and I just deal with it. It might take awhile for my current clothes to fit correctly and that will happen before I can get into smaller sizes.

6. I will own my mistakes. They’re mine and result of my own choices, no one is ever going to hold a gun to my head and make me eat crap, I control what goes into my own body.

7. I will not compare my weight loss to that of anyone else. I’m me.

8. I will do everything I can to find a therapist I can work with. This will help me out in the long run. I love my therapist.  

9. I will be hyper aware of potential addiction transfer issues and especially aware of getting too caught up in numbers as I already know I am want to do. Trendweight is awesome for this.  

10. Extra skin is a fact of life, get the **** over it. If I really hate the way my body looks, I can save my pennies and nickels for plastic surgery once I’ve maintained for a year or two. People will still have sex with me if I have weird skin, and Under Armour sells compression gear. I will, however, have every issue with my skin documented.

11. I will be kind to myself. I will keep getting to my monthly massages, I will keep engaged in my hobbies, and I will spend time with my friends. I've done this and more!  

12. I already know that being a “hero” about medication is stupid so I’ll work on remembering that when the time comes. Pain keeps us from healing, it’s not noble.

13. I will only weigh myself once a week. I will not let myself get obsessed with the scale. See #9. Lolz.  I weigh daily and LOVE IT.  Like I said above, Trendweight is a SUPER amazing thing.  

14. My stomach will probably gurgle after surgery, this is normal. Just don’t go to silent Meeting anytime soon.

15. I will not worry if people don’t comment on my weight loss. I will assume that they’re being polite and not commenting on another person’s body, which is what they should do. I really didn't start getting comments until I was 80+ pounds down.  

16. I will work to break the compulsions to “clean my plate” and to “not let food go to waste.” Sure, there are starving kids in Africa, but throwing away food will not change the situation.

17. There is nothing to be done for hair loss, assuming that I’m eating on plan. It will happen, or it won’t, but I will remember that it will grow back eventually. I will be a shavee with St. Baldricks six weeks post-op. I did shave my head, I haven't noticed hair loss.  

18. I understand that my hormones will be all messed up after surgery. I will do my best to remove myself from the company of others instead of taking my hormonal changes out on them. I haven't experienced this too much.  

19. I won’t weigh myself for the first two weeks post-op because I know that I’ll gain weight from all of the fluids and swelling that surgery entail. I’ll wait to weigh until I’m off liquids. I made it a week.  Heh.  

20. I will not panic if I don’t feel restriction immediately post-op. Chances are restriction won’t kick in fully until I’m eating dense proteins and that will take 4-6 weeks on my plan.

Gwenmo,

This inspires me!

I love this list. I will print it out and post it in a couple of places so I can look at it every day.

Thank you

Thanks!  It was useful for me for sure :D

GwenMo's list is pretty useful.  One thing to add:

#21 Ignore any comments from others that surgery is the easy way out.  Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but the bottom line is there's nothing particularly noble about loosing weight one way or another.  This choice is about fixing a major medical problem with life long complications if left unchecked.

Gwen, you really shaved your head?  That's fantastic.  So brave!  

Thanks.  I don't think it was very brave at all!  It's just hair, it's growing back :)  Brave was my dad battling cancer and going through chemo.  I was happy to be able to offer him some solidarity through baldness.  Brave are the kids fighting the cancer I raised research money for!  I just shaved off some hair.  

I mean there are degrees to everything, but there is a reason why it's such a big gesture.  Hard to give it up!

This is such a good post - great questions and great answers!

Eat lots of healthy foods and get some exercise. Just moderate efforts in both those areas can really help you be as healthy as possible for surgery. And if you don't have a therapist, find a good one. Surgery fixes your stomach, not your head. I've found it really useful.