My excellent and very caring young surgeon, Dr, Patikh advised

1) Stay connected with your bariatric surgeons team over the years and always get your labs done and thoroughly analyzed every six months to catch and remedy any deficiencies as early as possible.

2) Develop and regularly attend a post- op support group with fellow bariatric patients to see what works well and to receive emotional support for what may be huge life changes.

3) Commit to daily gentle exercise and the menu and portion size changes suggested by your nutritionist.

4) Get therapy for the underlying causes for your overeating... and come back for recommendations for body contouring surgery after you've successfully maintained goal weight for a year or more .

Decide to do this for yourself. Until then, you're likely not ready to change.

It's a tool, not a quick fix. Learn to eat to properly and start working on physical activity.

I think sometimes some of us were brought up to be conservative when getting rid of things like old clothes and not be wasteful, but if someone else can benefit from it, I'm all for getting rid of what is out of my size range. I had to change my mindset some on that though. I also had to change my mindset on eating everything on my plate, as I was taught many years ago! I've found change is good, especially in the positive direction of a healthier me!

Best advice I have been given is to be fully prepared, do all my research and to lean on people such as those on this website for support.

Hi again everyone, this past year got me down a bit, but I'm back and ready to rock it!