What I Wish I Had Known 

• I wish I had realized that my life would still revolve around food – or at least, what I ingest. Instead of being able to forget all about eating, my day consists of counting fluid ounces, protein grams and supplements.
• I wish I had known how difficult it would be to get all of the required fluids, proteins, and supplements in every day.
• I wish I had realized that gastric bypass surgery – and the ensuing weight loss – will not make all my problems go away. That I would still face issues even though I weighed less.
• I wish I had realized how this weight loss would change the relationships in my life – for better and for worse.
• I wish I had understood how incredibly traumatic it is to follow the liquid diet immediately after surgery, to see others eat and how I would feel excluded from things like family dinners.
• I wish I could have understood how it’s both liberating and frightening to be smaller.
• I really wish I could have seen how the sagging skin and remaining fat would look, and how self-conscious it would make me continue to feel.
• I wish someone could have gotten it through my head that I would still have to work at weight loss.
• I wish I would have known that my weight loss would make others feel uncomfortable and self conscious about their own weight and therefore they’d want to lash out at me.
• I wish I had realized that complications can happen to me and that those complications can be very unpleasant.
• I wish I had known how my attitudes toward food would change, and how unpleasant it would become to watch others shovel too much food in.
• I wish I had known hwo my attitudes toward overweight people would change, and how strange it would feel to not be “part of the club” around them.
• I wish I had known how easy it is to become obsessed with how I look, and how I would have to watch myself to make sure all my conversations didn’t revovle around me, my weight loss or my wrinkled skin.
• I wish I had known how invasive well-meaning people can be with their questions and how uncomfortable it would make me.
• I wish I had known that after 6-9 months the old demons of cravings and head hunger would rear their ugly heads and that eating right would not be easy or automatic.
• I wish I had known how horrible dumping really is, and how often it would happen to me after also having my gall bladder out.
• I wish I had known how frustrating it would be when I suddenly had loads of energy but my family didn’t, and how depressing it would be that all they wanted to do was watch tv.
• I wish I had known how sweet and understanding my husband would be and how difficult watching me lose weight while he didn’t would be for him. And I wish I had paid more attention to that during the first year, and thanked him more.
• I wish I had known what a relief it would be to interact with strangers and not feel they were judging me for being fat.
• Most of all, I wish I had realized that I’d still be “me” 100 pounds lighter.