supbanana

I feel the same way. My surgery is scheduled for August 9th and I'm just a bundle of anxiety and nervous energy. Normally I would diffuse my feelings by talking to other people, but I'm afraid to tell anyone because of the usual, "what if I fail", etc. Glad I have this site.

You are so inspiring! Thank you for sharing.

I know it's not everybody's cup of tea, but I found a great therapist to help me. I used to be a compulsive binge eater - food was how I coped with my feelings and emotions, and I had eaten myself up to 370 pounds by the time I was 21. It took a while to find a good therapist, but she completely changed my life. She used a workbook called "Don't Diet, Live It" (it's on Amazon). I would fill out the workbook chapters and then we would use that as a starting point for our sessions. When I started seeing her, I was suicidal, had social anxiety so bad that I was afraid to leave my house alone, and I was terrified of other people (especially men). Afterwards, zero anxiety, virtually no more fear, reduced depression and I've barely felt suicidal since (as opposed to every single day prior to getting help). It completely changed my life and my outlook. If anyone has any questions about it, they can message me. OP, I wish you the best, I know how frustrating it is. Good luck!

Thank you so much! This is what I needed to hear. I feel a lot better now.

Thank you for your answer! Unfortunately, what I'm doing isn't working for me anymore. Some more history: I was looking into WLS in 2009, but it scared me (and apparently still does, lol, though today I've decided the pros outweigh the cons), so I decided to try to seriously diet first. I started the low-fat diet in January 2010 and lost 30lbs in 3 months, and then completely stalled for the next two years. I looked into weight loss surgery then, discovering the VSG that I had never heard of before, but then found the ketogenic diet and decided to try that as my last attempt at doing this without surgery. I lost 50 pounds in five months and my health has been incredible since I started it, but have been stalled for the last year no matter what I do. I don't want to be struggling like this, trying so hard and seeing no results, for the rest of my life. I can't afford to stay fat due to the depression it's caused me. I'm pretty good about maintaining weight loss, it's just my body hits these walls and seemingly can't go any further and I'm sick of it. I just want to be an average person that blends into the crowd and doesn't get singled out based on my weight. I do have a lot of doubts that I expressed here, but mostly it's just that I don't want to get my hopes up. I'm very excited about this surgery and have been reading as much info as I can take in, and the success I see here is just breathtaking. I'm going to throw everything I have into this and I'm very serious about it, but I don't want to get too excited because if this fails like everything else I've done eventually has, I'll be devastated. I'm glad I've lost as much weight as I have because every pound helps... I just want to be under 200lbs at some point in my adult life. I think the surgery is my best bet, truly.

This is so sad and terrifying, especially given that she told the ride operator that her belt didn't fit. I had a similar experience on a rollercoaster when I was 15, the belt wouldn't fit over my stomach and the ride operators just tried to shove the bar tighter while I literally begged them to let me off. Thankfully they finally did but they weren't happy about it. I can't even imagine what her family must be going through right now and am disgusted, but not surprised, that most people commenting on this are making fun of the woman's size. Screw that, if this article is correct, she told them the belt didn't fit and they wouldn't let her off. Her death was entirely preventable.

Hi all, my VSG surgery is scheduled for August 9th and I'm really worried that it just won't work. I'm mostly basing this off of the fact that I've been dieting at a calorie deficit for the last three and a half years (low-fat diet for two years, then ketogenic diet for the last year and a half) and I've only lost 80 pounds 'on my own' (from 370lbs to 290lbs). I'm sorry if something like this has been posted before (I'm sure it's a very common concern), there's just so much info here to sort through and I'm a little overwhelmed. Can anyone that was on a strict, long term diet with limited success prior to the VSG tell me about their experience with it?? If the VSG is restriction only, what is the difference between the sleeve restricting food intake and all of us restricting food without it? A friend just asked me this ("why don't you just starve yourself and get the same results?") and I had to admit that I wasn't sure, and that's probably a good thing to know prior to going through with this. I'm just scared because diets didn't work for me, Phentermine didn't work for me, exercise didn't do the trick either... I'm pouring literally all of my money and hope into this surgery and I'm scared, albeit very committed and determined to doing this right. Thank you for your time!

Looks like I'm an August sleever as well, I was approved for surgery with Dr. Illan today. I think I'll be booked for August 9th, so I'll be nice and sleeved up in time for my birthday on the 19th! I hope you all have great experiences.

Congratulations! How are you feeling now?