I do think weight loss therapy is key. I lost a bunch with my RNY but then my ahead got in the way. I spent a good deal of time working thru those issues before scheduling my conversion to DS. I have already given my counselor some talk tracks for post surgery to make sure I don't fall down the same rabbit holes.

I say it like that because I've been here before. Roughly 10 years ago, I opened a profile on this forum, and immediately forgot about it, hadn't posted since, and here we are. I'm actually surprised my profile is still active. Pleasantly, mind you. Anyway, here's my story. I'd be willing to bet that most of us are more or less in the same boat. Unhealthy relationship with food, we eat our emotions, hate our physical selves, eat, and the cycle continues until we see 300 on the scale. Same here. Well, 270 to be precise. I started down the RNY path almost 20 years ago. I lived in Virginia, and had a cushy county government job, and good insurance that paid for bariatric stuff. A requirement of my procedure was completing some counseling, some personal and some group. I had finished the personal and was in session 3 out of 5 in the group. I didn't have a surgery date yet, but I was close enough to taste it. The counseling was the last hurdle, if I recall. Even in my late 20s I was not scared of the surgery. I didn't want to be fat anymore, that's all I knew. As it turns out, my family talked me out if it, so I bailed on the whole thing. Within a year or so, I got divorced, moved across the country, I had a new job, new insurance (that didn't pay for this), so I just kind of put it out of my mind. My family was only thinking of my health, and wanted me to be safe. Note that they were all thin - I was the only fat kid in my family. They didn't talk me out of the procedure out of anything but love for me. So, I went with it. For 20 years. Now, I find myself scaring 50, but starting 1/1/22, I will have insurance that says they pay. Blue Cross Gold Options PPO something or other. I don't know all the details, but I made an initial appointment at The Bariatric and Metabolic Center of Colorado on 1/20/22. Dr Long is the guy. He has good reviews, here and other places. Not one bad review that I could find.

So, here we go again. Has the "onboarding" process changed? Is the counseling still a requirement? I'm all for it, just a little eager to get past it, since I've done it before. Most of it. If anyone has any input about that insurance, the location, the doc, any of it, I would certainly listen.

For what it's worth, I remarried 12 years ago to a wonderful beautiful awesome woman, I have a joyous, bright, shiney 10 year old daughter, who is my sunrise and sunset, and not to sound cliche, but I do have a wonderful life, and I am so grateful for it. My wife and I actually haven't discussed this, yet. My previous exposure to this was before we met. I had done all my homework, and all that long ago. She is new to this idea, so it's going to take a little time to let her absorb all that this is, and all it means. If anyone has any pointers on bringing the spouses around to our way of thinking on this, I'd be all ears for that too.

My first appointment is almost a month away, so I don't think I'll be updating with much until then. I'll just have to wait. Hopefully I'll have good news.

Cheers!

Counseling was so very key for me. I was on the fence about whether to have the surgery and had all kinds of questions in my mind. Was I really ready for such a big step? What if this? What if that? I didn't know if I was mentally ready to take the steps to change my life and learned things about myself in counseling. Things that helped me address even more than my food issues. My counselor was really good so I was very lucky!

I think pre op counseling is essential. So often you hear "I don't understand why I'm fat, i don't eat like a fat person"....that's not generally the case. Knowing why you overeat/self sabotage is pivotal to success. Even now, fighting regain i can 100% see what emotional responses are in play From before surgery and have the tools to address it.

I absolutely think therapy and counseling are key to our success. Prior to surgery, I didn't think I needed counseling, but after it was a whole new ball game. I found that emotional eating was a source of my weight issues and didn't realize it. After counseling and some redirecting of my stress/emotions I handle things much better, at least I think so. I would say that recognizing what your root cause is can be very important to your long term success. I didn't do counseling early enough so I did experience regain more quickly than I would have liked.