I'd be very interested in your results. My Botox lady does it, but it's very spendy, so I was a bit reluctant.

Maybe you could post before and Afters?

Thanks !

It depends on your group's choice of restaurant, where you are in your weight loss journey and also how you eat at home ( or most of the time ) .

I would always avoid fried and fatty foods like ribs and sliders and desserts but a few bites occasional indulgence especially if you eat lite normally are fine ... provided you're not actively trying to lose weight ( obviously then it's self sabotage)

I often bring a fat free salad dressing with me in my purse - and natural freeze dried butter seasoning to make fish and other dishes tastier without adding fat or calories.

I also really like buffets - everyone can taste a bunch of things and I can choose less fatty ( and fattening) items .

I am already thinking about how I will handle eating out after my surgery. I know the temptations will be there especially when I am socializing with my friends. Its been our tradition to order several appetizers and then maybe a dish or two and share them all and most often the appetizers and dishes are not the healthiest of choices. I have only told my best friend about the surgery so no one else in the group knows so that will be an issue. Learning to make healthier choices and sticking to them will be hard at a restaurant I fear. Overeating and not knowing the calories in the foods worries me. How have you all handled eating out after your surgery? Any tips?

Consider this analogy: Men and women are hesitant or scared to death before having any form of heart surgery (either before or after having a heart attack or something close to it). Once they know they have a heart problem they are haunted and scared to death by the possibility or likelihood that a serious medical incident will force them into the hospital with a serious more complicated surgery and recovery experience.

Consider this by comparison: You're probably morbidly obese or worse. You can't fit into your desired or previous clothing. You have trouble getting in and out of an average sized car and if you can you're not very comfortable once you're in and getting out is not so easy either. You can't comfortably fit into a chair with arms and at a restaurant you have to ask for a chair without them (if you're lucky that they have one) or hope they have a booth if you don't know beforehand. You call ahead to see if they have either to avoid the embarrassment of asking. You avoid going to the beach or a swimming pool because you can't fit into a bathing suit or are embarrassed if you can. If you walk too far or walk at all you get out of breath and risk passing out due to not getting enough oxygen to your brain. This is the short list of all the combined reasons that bariatric patients have to undergo the surgery. That will include all of the health reasons for doing so that you may not have experienced YET.

Instead of asking bariatric patients what their surgery experience was ask them for all the reasons they considered surgery in the first place (fears, anxiety, embarrassment, and the physical pain, mental suffering and health risks from being morbidly obese). Compare your reasons to theirs and see which ones you share and which ones only apply to you. If you don't have enough to reinforce your reasons for surgery then you may not need surgery at all and you can wait until there are enough reasons to get you back on the schedule.

If your doctor thinks you're healthy enough to have the surgery and you managed to qualify for it I'm glad to bet that the surgery itself is one of the safest surgeries you could ever expect to undergo and that the recovery is the least difficult or problematic. Your greatest hesitation may be the thought of no longer being able to eat the unhealthy things or the amount of them that you do or the challenge of incorporating exercises and activities that you're not accustomed to. Have an honest conversation with yourself (not others) to see what you want more; the lifestyle you currently have that caused the obesity. Or the freedom to be physically fit, as healthy as you should be, and the benefit of being free of all the negative aspects that this reply started with. You have to choose for yourself and not let others choose for you. Failure won't be an option and you will succeed and be grateful for it. Regardless of your choice, best wishes for your future.