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I'm 60, but I think you may be asking the wrong question? Although safety is a potential concern at any age, this is something only your surgeon can properly determine. I can say plenty of people in their 70's have had bariatric surgery. I think the real question should be: what are you expecting to be different this time if you have a revision? Would it still be worth it to you if you once again gained all the weight back? In my opinion, the fact that you've gone back up you your pre-surgery weight means that there are other things going on here that you need to address first. If I had to guess, I'd think there are 2 things you need to address before considering revision surgery, GLP-1 meds, or even fat loss diets: Your mental health. My personal opinion is that the virtually all obese or formerly obese people suffer from an eating disorder, or at least disordered eating of some sort. If you don't address this first, you're really likely to out eat any revision surgery you may have. Your activity level. The fact is that most people that are able to successfully lose weight and keep the weight off (surgical or not), are really active. In fact, some studies show that formerly obese people have to be even more active than someone that was never heavy to maintain the same bodyweight. The reasons for that are complex, but if you don't address this, the likelihood of at least regaining a significant amount of weight are pretty high. Best of luck whatever you decide.

Hi, @CherokeeGirl, I'm 59, so close... I definitely think it's worthwhile to ask a bariatric surgeon about it. Of course, everyone's risk is unique based on your personal health characteristics. But bariatric surgery clients tend to be higher-risk just based on our weight and look how many of us there are! It doesn't hurt to find out what your options are and then whatever decision you make will be informed. Good luck!!

Thank you,i hope your husband is well. I can only imagine that being the caregiver that this hasn’t been easy on your bariatric journey either. Just being post op is pretty time consuming in itself (or at least it has been for me) and any big life curveball you throw in I assume makes for a pretty crazy schedule which make healthy choices that much harder. I know for me that I don’t need much of an excuse to be tempted to eat off plan so having no time to plan ahead makes the little obese voice in my head say it’s not your fault your too busy right now it’s okay to stop and have fast food just this once. But then this once turns out to be more and more often. That’s how I got to be obese was listening to that little voice too often. Luckily I did have a solid three months to get into some pretty good habits and I have really been trying to stick to them the majority of the time. I have a whole bag of healthy protein snacks that I just keep with me all the time in the car (I rotate them out so don’t stay there too long) since you rarely know when you start out what your day will end up bringing with these doctors. Or at least that’s how it has been for me. You start thinking it’s just one appointment at 8:30 am and don’t get home until late at night because you don’t even get seen until 10:30 and then they want two other things which you have to wait around to be squeezed in for those as well. I hate paying For and stoping for water so I bring a cooler with bottled water and protein shakes everyday since my surgery in case I get stuck out and don’t have time to eat on plan but now I also have my big bag of non refrigerated protein snacks with me as well. I can’t say it’s made me be 100% perfect but I’ve done far better than if I had to keep stopping on the road for sure. My favorite on the go snack is chomps pepperoni flavored turkey jerky right now. I do half a stick of that with a mozzarella string cheese or a baby bell light. Just 85 calories for 11 grams of protein and they are actually tasty. Them and the quest protein chips are my favorite go to options. Sometimes that’s lunch and then I end up eating what would’ve been lunch as a snack a few hours after dinner to get all my protein for the day since I need 90g.

Wow, you are going through so much right now! I greatly admire your openess and your strength to be handling all of this with grace and good humour. My husband is also going through Chemo, Immunity shots, weekly blood tests, scans etc and it's been a very hard road since his diagnosis and surgery in March. I mention this just to let you know, that I know how hard it's been on him, but he didn't have the Bariatric surgery to deal with as well!! You're doing great, I wish you all the very best on this journey! 🤗

Ooh and just be sure not to do what I did after my sleeve. I got all the way down to 18 pounds from my goal and I felt like such a failure that I let it derail me. Hopefully you will keep losing and don’t stop trying BUT, also have in the back of your mind that you have already done incredible and are far more healthy than you were even if you don’t reach this arbitrary number. I have a girl in my in person bariatric support group who did the same thing over TWO POUNDS. Our brains are very powerful and it’s great to strive for a goal but also be flexible and not crazy like I was and think it was a total waste and throw it all away. After I gained it all back plus some I would have done anything to be 168 or 178 again. Granted the sleeve was not appropriate for me and I probably wouldn’t have maintained at the 178 I bounced back to for long anyways, but I’m just saying that I gave up far too easily. Just a word of caution from someone who made that mistake.

This is a new video Dr. Weiner (bariatric surgeon in Tucson) put out through his podcast this week. He is one of the best resources out there for reliable information on bariatric surgery and the science of weight loss. This 55-minute video is all the most up to date information to get you started with all the basic questions you might have (and if you want more in-depth information, he has hundreds of other videos that dive deeper). He talks about nutrition, exercise, surgery, and GLP-1 meds.

One thing I forgot to mention is that I also decided to just tell the women at my yoga class a vague version of what I am going through. Not because I am seeking attention or pity as some people may believe but because the doctors told me that with the first phase of chemo I need that I would no doubt be losing my hair and not to even torture myself trying cold caps because they wouldn’t work for me. I didn’t want to have to miss any days trying to hide that when it was inevitable that they would find out anyways. I can’t wear a wig to yoga without dying of heat stroke even if I can find one that doesn’t irritate my head and won’t fall off doing downward dog. Also, I have to wear a mask until class starts and I’m at my mat and far enough away from people. Also, with the chemo i do get a little dizzy at times and physically I have to take a tiny break once in a while which doesn’t go unnoticed I’m sure. I just decided that I have no clue what is going to happen with my body in days to come but I’m going when I can and doing as much as I can. I’m not missing something that is good for my health, weight loss journey and that I really enjoy just to try and keep something a secret. I have spent enough of my life hiding because of my weight and I have finally broken free of that. I’m not going back in that dark place ever again. I am usually a pretty private person so it was a big choice for me with sharing about the bariatric surgery and now with the cancer, but so far I am happy with my decisions for both. I just told them that I don’t want them to make a big deal about it that we are there to relax and do yoga, but I just didn’t want to feel awkward wondering what they must be thinking so I was just getting it out there. It was partly because I did the same with my revision surgery and it has worked out positively for me. With the sleeve I didn’t tell anyone outside of my best friends and that wasn’t successful so with the SADI i decided to try something different. I told the women in my crochet group and the one craft group because I have known them almost two years now (but not the one I joined more recently). They do ask how I’m doing or congratulate me on my weight-loss and ask what I’m eating and about my exercise, I briefly answer but then I will say enough about me we are here to craft and ask what they are working on today and that seems to work pretty well. So with yoga, now, I hope I can just walk in with my hat or wig and take it off before class begins and do my thing and when I take more an more breaks they will just ignore me. I’m sure it will feel really weird for me the first time when I’m bald because it was when i had to go really short and I was thinning with a head band covering most of the bald spots but everyone already knows about the elephant in the room now and hopefully we can just focus on YOGA. Food for thought for those with the decision about cancer and for those on the fence about whether to tell about their bariatric journey as well because people who see you once or twice a week notice things and they are probably wondering. It has worked for me to just rip off the bandaid and move on.

I wasn’t going to discuss this on these boards since I don’t want to turn the discussion away from weight loss. I figured I would talk cancer at the cancer support group and weight related stuff here, but I am quickly realizing that it’s very much intertwined. I had my revision surgery to SADI on 8/7/2024 and I felt something on my breast in the shower in September. I went to gyno, got sent to get a diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound and then biopsies and it came back as cancer 11/6/2024 (about 4 months post op). A few days later I was with the breast surgeon and was told it was triple negative and it’s very aggressive so the process is a little different for me in that it’s all very fast moving but it’s pretty much the same collection of treatments for most cancer I believe. I am currently two rounds into chemotherapy and just started immunotherapy and also doing appointments for all kinds of scans and imaging as well as meeting the rest of my doctors and setting up my future treatments which will be double mastectomy, then radiation and then maybe oral chemo. Basically I have not sat down since I learned the diagnosis and I have had to learn a tremendous amount very fast to make some pretty heavy decisions very quickly to keep the ball rolling. It’s been a whirlwind From a bariatric standpoint things have been incredibly challenging. For one my appointments are all over Florida. I have a medical oncologist, a breast surgeon, a cosmetic breast surgeon, a radiation oncologist, and a second opinion oncologist and now a gynocologist in the mix but that’s pretty specific to me. So far and I have had to have imaging done at 3 different places as well since it’s all been so rushed it’s just about who can get me in the soonest and then since these places aren’t connected I have to wait around for records and discs and carry them all to each of my appointment to make sure everyone has everything I have been traveling non stop with little time to prepare things so prioritizing my nutrition and exercise has been a huge challenge just in terms of time. There are just not enough hours in the day!! Then there is the chemo, the shot that builds up your white blood cells, and the immunotherapy infusion which also take time (2-3 different appointments depending on how it works out that week) but also all of this effects my cravings and energy. First there is the fact that I have to be on steroids which we all know are the enemy of weight loss but also the fact that eating is different. I consider myself very fortunate that food doesn’t taste bad to me and nausea is not an issue like it is for so many but it’s still not the same. I crave something very specific. I taste it and it’s good but I eat three bites and don’t want it anymore. My refrigerator is a leftover graveyard lol. In terms of energy I am on the strongest treatment regimen the oncologist says so fatigue sorta goes with the territory. I have been walking everyday still except for the biopsy day and my chemo port surgery day and I have done my yoga when my schedule permits but I have not done my cardio class because I think I sweat too much considering how dehydrating the chemo already is. Also I can’t touch community stuff for 24 hours after chemo without possibly exposing others to the chemo drug and we use balls, bars, discs, etc. Also more recently there is the fact that I have lost about 85% of my hair and I get too hot to wear a hat. I think once I’m bald it will actually look better and I am going to try really hard to just get over that but right now I don’t look like I have cancer. It just looks like a botched hair cut to me so I’m living in hats. The good news is it’s going very fast. It started falling out last week and it’s almost gone already so by next week I think I will just be bald. Well, yesterday I did totally forget to exercise with all that I had going on and I’m feeling guilty today now that I remembered but I know that’s silly. I am just hoping that as treatment goes on I am able to keep up my exercise. All the doctors say it’s good to keep pushing myself just not too hard. Exercise and good nutrition are going to make this alot easier on me. Back to food again. Not sure if it’s just the stress of the whole situation or the fact that chemo puts you into early menopause but Thursday was a particularly bad day. My moods were erratic to say the least and I had a bunch of blood drawn after having nothing but a protein shake all day so at 7pm I was pretty much famished by the time we stopped to eat. Olive Garden was the most convenient option and I planned soup and salad but when I got in there that went out the window. I went totally off plan. Again I feel guilty but these darn steroids and all the crazy emotions are making it so much harder to make the better choices when it’s staring at me tempting me I did still get my protein for the day though if there is any good in that What’s really hard about this is that even with the pasta and bread I am actually still losing weight so for my previously obese brain it’s tempting to not just enjoy that while it lasts. But I know that the processed crap is not good for my body, especially right now. I don’t feel as good since I have not been exercising as much and I’ve been eating off plan. I don’t sleep as well at night and I seem to crave more and more junk as well as have less energy throughout the day. thankfully my program has provided to me free of charge an oncology dietician, but I am her first patient who is actively still in weight loss phase undergoing chemo. She had agreed to check in with me once a week since this is new for both of us and she seems amazing so far. She suggested that I do not lose more than two to three pounds a week which was my average before the chemo. Because the chemo has apparently sped up my metabolism she says that I need to increase calories but to add healthy ones which is extremely difficult because adding calories goes against all we just learned and over 2000 calories of healthy food is a very large volume of food that my body is just not wanting right now (I was eating around 900-1000 before this and already felt like I was eating all day. And remember that most of these meals are on the road these days so I have to eat what I can fit in a cooler or stop somewhere on the side of the highway most times. Not easy to find clean healthy food on the road. Enough stating the obvious that it’s tough, here’s what I actually have to offer so far in terms of advice. First thing when I wake up in the morning I have a protein shake which is a really good head start to the day and if I am lucky enough to still be around a couple of hours later I have a second breakfast instead of waiting until there’s time to eat on whatever adventure the day brings. That helps with the protein if I don’t have time to stop at all. Although recently the shakes haven’t gone down so well so I just wake up and have scrambled eggs with 2% cheese and whatever leftover veggies are on hand.. If I know I won’t have time for that I also have some boiled eggs In the fridge that I can eat real fast or slice up with some cheese and take on the go. I carry in my cooler a high protein yogurt drink, chomps pepperoni flavored turkey jerky and baby bell light or mozzarella sticks. It helps to put the ice pack in a ziplock with these items if you live where it gets hot. I also carry a bag with high protein snacks quest protein chips, kind minis, cliff minis, pistachio nuts, nut butter packets, quest cheddar cheese crackers, granola to add to yogurt, etc Freezer meals!! Omg. I was doing these before my diagnosis and they were super convenient then and have been a lifesaver now. I have tex med chili, chicken chili, turkey meatballs, turkey taco meat, grilled chicken, meatloaf, etc in the freezer and it’s all measured and weighed out so that I can pop in the fridge the night before or even jet defrost in microwave if need be. When I have time to cook I do double batches so I can keep my freezer stock replenished. I have a note in my phone notes that it titled In freezer and I just keep adding to it what I freeze and how many portions are in there so if I’m not home I can check my freezer stock. I also do a version of meal prep with chick fila as well I like their market and southwest salads (I get the market one without the blue cheese) I buy one of each with two extra chicken fillets and take them home and I make four salads out of that. I take off all the toppings with a bit of lettuce and put into a smaller container to make a market salad and do the same with the southwest. Then I put the leftover lettuce with the chicken into another container and I have fresh shredded Parmesan in snack ziplocks and ceaser dressing also in ziplocks (sorta less pleasant looking but I figure less risk if bacteria than them tiny containers which are hard to get really clean since I am immunocompromised and infection is so dangerous right now) i cut off a corner and squeeze it out like an icing bag. I just use half of the packets of dressing with the market and southwest salads and then toss the rest. I have the ziplock containers that have the twist top lids and these are easy to toss into the cooler when they do not open at all I still log my macros in Baritastic this has really been helpful for me to be honest about what I’m eating with my oncology dietician so she can keep me on track . It also lets you log your activity, weight, inches lost and set notifications for vitamins and stuff. I added a reminder to put on my fitness watch and to take my regular meds too I also carry my water with me and I set alarms again to drink. You have to wear a mask and for me that seems to make me drink like a quarter as much as I do without one so I have to have reminders again. Vitamins need alarms too. Chemo brain is a real thing and when your days is never the same it’s hard to have a routine anyways so I actually have alarms for just about everything in life right now. I made different tones for water, vitamins and appointments and I have a checklist to go over before I leave the house to make sure I did and packed everything. My friend and family also have reminders for me in their phones for the real important stuff and they call or text to make sure I haven’t forgotten. I just found out that two of the programs I belong too offer virtual yoga sessions. I haven’t tried it yet because they are at set times as well but I added them to my calendar as recurring appts just like the live one so I can attend whichever one I have time for. Someone else suggested you tube for videos but I haven’t tried that either. Yoga by the way is my only sense of calm throughout all of this so I HIGHLY recommend it. That and meditation I know that both of these sound a little fruity before you give them a good fair try and meditation takes a lot of practice before it really Did anything for me but I swear my mind runs non stop with anxiety and worry and for that one hour I’m in yoga or the few minutes I’m meditating it is at peace. It’s amazing!! So I am a little over a month into this and I’ve got a good year and a half to go if all goes well so I’m sure I will have more to add to this but I just wanted to pop In and share what my experience has been juggling a new cancer diagnosis while pretty early out from bariatric surgery. I hope this helps someone. Even if it’s less advice and more to let you know that you are not alone in the struggle.

I was 330 lbs in 10/2019 had the sleevectomy. Since day one massive pain in my stomach. Never healed. Kaiser Dr. Edward Zane Southbay medical center. Was in hospital 2 days went home with a bottle of hydromorphone. I’m 56 years old, 6’1 and weigh 195. In 2021 I was as high as 220 but taking daily opioids and now I’m weaning myself off of them switching to cannabis gummies. Even on cannabis with the munchies I can’t eat anything. I never healed and I’ve struggled for 5 years. I was prescribed hydromorphone since 2019 and I need it at every meal or drink. If I drink water I cramp and bowl over in pain. I eat anything cold or hot I bend over in pain. I had ultrasounds endoscopies etc. I have serious GERD and been on proton pump inhibitors for 2 years. I can’t eat protein of any type without massive pain and opioids from a hamburger white fish pork steak chicken turkey it all hurts all of the time. Carbs and minor fat also hurt but not as much as protein. I switched to BCBS the new bariatric Dr says I either have a stricture or I need the bypass surgery now. current weight is 195and I’ve been losing weight this past year and really hate all food. It doesn’t matter if it’s carbs fat or protein it hurts my stomach. I also get nauseous and throw up if I eat too much regardless and have massive cramping 5years later. Also have burning sensation with bowel movements but was tested negative for crohns/ulcerative colitis. after 5 years addicted to opioids I went to BCBS and they said Cedars Sinai surgeons can look at stricture correction surgery or just go for the bypass. They want me to eat nuclear egg salad and barium drink during an mri to see what is wrong. Last endoscopy was 10/24 and my esophageal ulcer was 90% healed. I had an untreated ulcer since 2019 that also contributed. Current medication metoprolol 100 mg x a day lisinopril20 mg 2 x a day, Amlodipine 5mg 2 x a day, omeprazole 2x a day, gummies and Vicodin daily with every meal. I can stop opioids once the pain stops. after 5 years of losing weight and my quality of life has deteriorated I’m leaning towards bypass surgery. please help group. I also have massive starvation and nutrition issues and take vitamins but still can’t get even 2k of calories in my body and have low energy all of the time. sincerely, Mark

8 months post opp today ALL I can say is WOW. My win is staying consistent on this bariatric journey; obesity is a lifelong disease. Every day I have to be intentional. I can say I have fell in love with eating with intention. I have fell in love with the fact that the foods that I eat now nourish my body when I was larger I was eating all kinds of crap.

Hello my friends! (Admin please delete if not allowed) I am in a life coaching training program and am in need of practice clients for my certification. If you are interested in a free coaching session please comment or message me. I’d love to chat with you. 🩷 I am hoping to specialize in working with bariatric patients when I am certified. (I am 15 months PO from RNY) For those who aren’t familiar - coaching is not therapy and I do not diagnose or treat any mental illness. Coaching is future-focused strategic facilitation. Examples of things we can talk about: - goal setting - confidence building - mindfulness - accountability - decision making skills - anything else! 😊 Sessions are 30 minutes and done virtually. Let me know if you are interested or if you have questions!

So I am four months post op from my revision and I just had an MRI for something unrelated but my dr said I have fatty liver. This is very puzzling to me because I get my labs every 6 months and nothing has been off to indicated elevated enzymes and of course they were just in there and didn’t think it looked bad?? Google does say that “bypass” and rapid weight loss are risk factors on one site but I would like to think that would be a temporary issue that resolves itself? I am going to call my surgeon first thing tomorrow but I’m just curious to know if anyone else has had anything like this. I recall a few people saying their liver labs came back elevated and their bariatric teams were not concerned but what about imaging?

So, you don't feel "full", but do you feel "hungry"? Or do you just keep eating because you can? This early on, your body is still adjusting and relearning signals. Hopefully, you don't feel physical hunger pangs (most people don't but some do). Either way, you need to portion out your foods. A bariatric meal is generally 3-4oz of meat and around 1/2 cup vegetables. Even if you CAN eat more than that, you aren't supposed to and don't need to. It's pretty early to be adding in a grain, but that can also be part of your meal at some point. The feeling of restriction is different between the sleeve and the bypass, so I can't speak to it from experience, but I've seen so many people here say the sleeve restriction doesn't truly kick in for a few months. Until then, it's your job to only eat what you're supposed to eat. It helped me to get very small plates. I ate off a saucer for the first 6 months. Half of it would be my meat and half was a non-starchy veg. I would weigh the meat (after cooking) and just fill the empty space with the veg. If you are already truly feeling hunger, fill yourself with vegetables, fruit, and healthy whole grains as opposed to protein or simple carbs. After a certain point, let's say maybe 100g in a day, you really don't need the protein, so if you're truly hungry, a salad or steamed broccoli will do a lot more to fill you up with very few calories ounce per ounce. It can also really help to set specific meal times and not allow yourself to eat in between.

It is so interesting to see that in one way or another, this seems to happen to all of us! I would be so intrigued to get a male perspective of someone who has also had bariatric surgery, just to see if this resonates with them! Unfortunately, so many people think they have a right to comment on our bodies, even if they think they are doing so in a kind way. But I do think people are right when they say it is others perception of us that makes them say things such as "you're wasting away" - they aren't used to seeing us at a smaller weight!

I'm so excited when US bariatric hotties do something HOT for ourselves! I'm with ya consult Jan 2nd. I'm shooting for some big Full C's medium profile with silicone. I got tons of pics of boobs in my phone ha. What size are you going?

I found some good bariatric recipes on Pinterest. I love bread, but a recipe I discovered in my preop days is really good. It’s called cloud bread, no carb and high protein. I also found a great book online by Megan Moore called the Complete Bariatric Cookbook and Meal Plan. It’s broken down by recipe category and even lists the stages.

I wish it were that simple, but it's not. We have to keep in mind that our weight is made up of a lot more than just fat. There are multiple body composition models used, but the one I recommend most people use when trying to lose fat is a 3 compartment model that consists of the following: Fat Muscle Bone I recommend this one since it's easy for most people to visualise those 3 components. Keep in mind however that roughly 70-75% of muscle mass is water. Why is that important? Because sometimes we can be fooled by the scale into thinking we're not losing fat, or that we're gaining fat when we're not. Most likely, what you're seeing is simply changes in water weight. A really common scenario is for people on low calorie diets (like most people here), to see a plateau and think that means they need exercise more and/or eat less, but when they do that, they actually gain a bit according to the scale. The reality is they didn't gain fat, they retained more water. I think it's important to keep in mind that we all have something called a Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). This is the minimum number of calories your body needs simply to stay alive. It can be thought of as the number of calories you expend per day even if you were completely sedentary. BMR is a complicated subject, but on average, the bigger you are, the higher your BMR. Yes, it goes down as you lose fat, since fat is not completely metabolically inert, but fat loss does not have nearly the effect on BMR that losing muscle does. This is one of the main reasons bariatric patients are told to focus on protein intake because protein is needed to help prevent excessive muscle loss when dieting. More muscle = higher BMR = faster weight loss, or being able to eat more at goal weight The average BMR for women is ~1400 k/cal per day. Higher if you are taller or more muscular, lower if you are shorter and/or have lower muscle mass. Men, for obvious reasons tend to have a higher BMR that's more in the 1700 range. My point in telling you all of the above is that it's highly unlikely that someone eating 900 calories a day needs to eat even less if weight loss has stalled. Frankly, if that is the OP, then I'd actually recommend exactly the opposite: try upping your caloric intake a couple hundred k/cal per day and see what happens. I know it seems counter intuitive, but your body is not a simple machine where the calories in vs. calories out paradigm actually works. Happy to discuss more and provide additional info, but this post is already overly long. Best of luck.

I had the sleeve done in 2017. I suffered for years with GERD and pain. I had a hiatal hernia repair in April, 2024 and it returned in June 2024. This time my organs were in my chest near my heart. So on November 12th I had a hiatal hernia repair AND gastric bypass. I am sooo tired and run down. The smell of certain foods make me sick. I am so afraid to move to the soft food stage because I am afraid it will cause problems again. I’m taking the vitamins and drinking my fluids. Will all of this pass? I think I am nervous because I wasn’t prepared 100% for the bypass. I knew it was a possibility but had not prepped as a planned bariatric surgery would have been. does the smell of certain foods make sickness go away? I plan to begin the soft diet very slowly . Does anyone have any suggestions? how about the gruesome breath? Does that settle down? thank you for your assistance.

I've been wondering about something. When I look at my surgery progress under my picture, I have my starting weight (388) as what I weighed the day of my initial surgery. BUT, my highest weight was 421, which is what I weighed when I started the bariatric surgery process. I lost 33 pounds in order to be approved for the surgery, then qualified and had it right away. So should I put my starting weight as my highest weight, or keep it at the weight I was at on surgery day? How do you guys do it?

I know exactly how you feel. I had the sleeve and did great. Had to have a revision due to complications and had a bypass. In both surgeries, I never ever lost physical hunger, nevermind head hunger. I still have head hunger to this day. And yes, I have times (not a whole day, but just certain times during a day here and there) where I eat something I definitely shouldn't be eating. Have I over-eaten? Yep. Have I eaten things I shouldn't? Yep. Am I failing my surgery? NOPE. I still feel some guilt when I "cheat" but you know what? It happens. Life happens. The point is you have to recognize that you had a slip, it is what it is, tomorrow is another day to start over and get it right. There's all kinds of online support groups, online therapy, and bariatric forums (like this one) that can offer help, support, suggestions, and accountability. You can do this, just remember WHY you did the surgery. Remember why you wanted it and why you jumped through all the hoops to get it.

I had to add the laughing emoji on your last comment because that bullshit button is awesome. If only we all had one on our foreheads that other people could press as needed... (although we would probably not appreciate it so much in the moment, I'm thinking). Good luck on your trip and remember to give yourself grace as you navigate a totally new life experience of being a bariatric patient in a different environment, with family, during the holidays. It's not going to go perfectly, and that's fine.

I didn't know Dr. Weiner had a support group! I've seen his videos on YouTube and I think he is awesome. He seems to understand and genuinely care about bariatric patients. I can imagine that his support group would be excellent for someone who doesn't have access to a local support group or therapist. This is really good info for the people on this forum.

It sounds like your resources are limited for getting support in your local area, so I wanted to recommend looking into the Pound of Cure nutrition program, which is run by Dr. Weiner in Tucson, AZ (he also has a couple books and YouTube channel with bariatric educational information). It's $49 a month and allows you to attend unlimited online support groups with their dietician and peer leaders, as well as a few sessions per month that are run by Dr. Weiner. I've subscribed for a while and go to at least a few of the groups per month as my schedule permits. Many times there will just be a few people in the group and you can really get a chance to ask your questions and get some good advice. Just for example, there's a group for the first year post-op, for emotional eating and stress management, and even one for surviving the holidays and travel. They've been in this business for many years and I'm betting they could think of dozens of patients who felt exactly how you do right now but went on to be successful.

This may be a good advice for other people this has stuck with me for a long time. In another bariatric group this lady on zoom made a statement "Hunger is not an emergency" this resonated with me. Hunger really is not an emergency for the past 3 plus months I fast from 8pm to 12pm about 16 hours. Once you mentally prepare yourself it's a breeze. I tell myself hunger is not an emergency and there we go!

As we know MOVEMENT can be an important aspect of the bariatric journey! I credit a lot of my rapid weight loss to the fact that I love movement. Movement is freeing, it helps the mental as well as the physical. What movement do you do daily? What movement do you enjoy? How often? Post pics if you like!