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I am Catherine. I am new to this bored, and scared and nervous and happy, and pretty much any emotion you can have all at the same time I have recently started my journey of weight loss surgery. Right now, I am meeting with the dietitian and the mental health professionals and the like. Next month, I will be able to schedule my next appointment with the surgeon. I am currently 451 lbs, and down four pounds since my initial visit. Anyone else starting their journey? Anyone been there and have success. Anyone been there and failed?

Congratulations to you! I hope you continue to feel better physically and emotionally!

As a person with bad knees as well I understand where you are at. Treadmills can be your friend, as they tend to absorb more shock from walking making it easier on your knees. Also ice is your friend when it comes to knee pain after a visit to the gym. Take your time and work your way back into it, your knees will feel better as you take more weight off and use them more.

You're doing fantastic and from the sound of things, eating healthy. Keep up the fantastic work.

I had BCBS COVA (VA state employees ins) and the required a year of phone calls once a month with a "health coach". Once you completed that they gave you a certificate and you have a year to then get surgery (still no guarantee you're approved). The hospital I had surgery at was a Center of Excellence and they had their own requirements you had to meet as well. I had my surgery a month before my certificate expired. It was a long road for me.

There is no way to completely eliminate pain following a major surgery. It's a huge trauma to the body and the goal of post-surgery pain medication is to help bring pain down to tolerable levels. Additionally, with the current opioid/addiction issues so many areas in the country are grappling with, there has been a move across the board to decrease the amount of narcotics being prescribed for everyone. 21 years ago, prescribers used a very different set of standards to decide what pain meds to give and in what doses.

Do you have a high pain tolerance? If you do then you can probably solider on. If you don't, well it might be harder for you. Pain tolerance seems to be a major factor. I had enough energy at 4 weeks to be fairly normal. you just have to plan so you can relax or sit if you need to. Everyone is different though and this is major surgery. You have no idea what you post-op life is going to be like until it happens and other people can't really tell you.

TWO WEEK UPDATE! Had my two-week visit this week with my surgeon and everything looks great! My starting weight was 263 and I lost about 18 pounds by my surgery date which brought me to 245. I weighed yesterday and was 228 so that's another 17 pounds down which means I have lost about 35 pounds in one month's time! I had some pain and bruising from the surgery the first couple of days back at the house which was mostly gas. I was walking a mile a day on my treadmill....no not at one time...it was off and on all day long going about 1 mile per hour which is really slow. It really helped with my gas pains and now I am full work mode again! My feet no longer ache and my diabetes is starting to go into remission! My numbers are where it was WITH medication! My blood pressure now is in the low 100's/70's and so it's looking great as well! I am most excited about the way that I feel now! No longer sluggish but I have the energy to get things done! Looking forward to seeing my weight fall more and more and the sugar and blood pressure number stabilizing as well.

Yep. My weight has yo-yo'ed up and down since my mid-teens. At age 15 I lost 30+ pounds during a summer-long low-calorie diet, going from 155 to 125. I regained all the weight plus more in a couple of years. At age 20 I weighed 176 pounds and stood 5'1 short. I lost 60 pounds on a very low-calorie diet plus exercise and weighed in at 116 pounds. I regained it all plus more, and by age 24 weighed 205 pounds. At age 26 I weighed 216 pounds. I lost 55 pounds through diet and exercise, but regained most of it. At age 29 I weighed 203 pounds. I lost 25 pounds through diet and exercise, but regained most of it. On my 32nd birthday I weighed 180 pounds. I was asked to be a bridesmaid for an upcoming wedding, so I lost 52 pounds through diet and exercise, weighing in at 128 pounds on the wedding day. I regained it all (plus more) within a year. By my 34th birthday I weighed 225, my heaviest weight ever. I had weight loss surgery two months after my 34th birthday. Bariatric surgery is no guarantee of anything, but this is the first time in my life that I've been weight-stable and not so fixated on food. So when people say, "You can lose the weight without surgery," I agree. In fact, I've lost 200+ pounds over the past couple of decades. Losing weight was not my issue...keeping it off was problematic. Bariatric surgery has offered the last glimmer of hope for keeping the weight off. However, my struggle will be lifelong.

Dealing with what triggers emotional eating - a good therapist can help. So can books on mindful eating - I like eating the moment and what I have read by Geneen Roth. It can be a hard process. But seriously for me identifying what/why about my emotional state and then thinking about what I can do to address that, that isn't eating. Nature abhors a vacuum. Finding something to replace it is key. Meditation and exercise work well for me. I actually love to work out now. I find that it helps me cope with depression and anxiety. When I work out first thing in the morning, I generally make much better food choices throughout the day. I also keep things on hand that are portion controlled and better choices. Because I know I am not perfect and this is a process. Sugar free popsicles, individual servings of peanut butter, small packs of multigrain crackers, etc. I'm excited to hear about others strategies! All the best! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using BariatricPal mobile app