Six years ago today I had bariatric surgery...

My pleasure and wishing you all the best.

Thank you so much for this post!

That is my biggest concern - weight regain, and I haven't even gone for surgery yet!
I am glad to see a long term success story.  Keep up the good work.

Katie,

I think that regain is the most common concern for most of the people that I know, regardless of the type of weight loss surgery a patient undergoes. It's a reasonable concern, for many reasons. That said, if you leverage the tool you choose and also work to make behavioral and life style changes, you are likely to be successful in the long term. I have to tell you that I was really worried about my ability to make these changes so that I could successfully maintain the loss of my excess weight. I thought if I couldn't make the behavioral changes without the surgery, what makes me think that I can make these changes after the surgery? Well, I've found that first of all, the surgery helped me to actually lose the weight, but more than that, I'm able to leverage the power of my tool to help me keep it off and even lose weight after the honeymoon period by following the rules. I hope that helps you as you look forward.

All the best,

Hi Barbara!

How are things down in NC?  Hard to believe it's been a year since I moved to VA.  Time sure flies.  I really like it up here in Culpeper.  It's a sweet little town.  You all should come up for a visit sometime.  Amtrak comes right into town if you don't want to drive.

Had my labs done recently and found out I have hypothyroidism.  No wonder I wasn't losing any weight.  Hopefully the meds will take care of that and I will start dropping again.

Anyway, tell everyone I said hi and hope all is well.

Hi Paula,

I'm delighted to hear that you are doing so well and will certainly pass your regards on to the group. I hope that your diagnosis will help you get to where you want to be.

Wishing you all the best,

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! You are indeed an inspiration.  I love this statement  "I also learned how to leverage the power of my tool, learning to maintain a healthy, stable weight."   

Thank you!

Thanks so much for sharing your story.  I fear I won't be successful or keep the weight off like so many times before.  Stories like yours keep my eye on the prize and remind me that this is a journey! 

Nicole,

I think that your fear is a common and reasonable concern. That said, remember that you have never had the resources at your disposal before that you will have after you have your bariatric surgery. No matter which surgery you choose, you will have a much better likelyhood of achieving your weight loss goals and more importantly maintain the losses than you would if you didn't have surgery. Your past performance really isn't a strong indicator of your future success. Also, know that we need more than the surgery to maximize our weight loss opportunity as well as our long term maintenance. We need to make lifestyle changes to both maximize the weight loss opportunity and maintain the lost weight in the long term. There are a lot of ways to do that; becoming involved in support groups and getting counseling are a couple of the ways we can learn to make the changes necessary to support long term success.

Wishing you all the best in your journey,