I have a question for those of you who have had to deal with friends reacting negatively about the band. How do you deal with it? I have a VERY close friend, and although she says she supports my decision, she hasn't been exactly supportive. She is concerned that I am giving up on diet and exercise on my own, and that I am making a quick decision. The thing is, and I have told her this, I have been contemplating this decision for a very long time. Now whenever we speak, she is telling me what I could do instead of surgery, and trying to basically scare me out of my decision. I don't want to lose a friendship over this, but she is stressing me out!!

But that said, I went to my best friend before surgery and told her how important she was to me and that I was afraid she'd be unhappy or pull away after I had it... Ended up convincing her to do it too and now she's at goal and I'm on my way!!

I've found that people will fall into one of two groups: Those that get it and are supportive, and those that will never get it and are unsupportive. I was shocked at who of my friends ended up in which group. I mostly guessed wrong! And I consider unsupportive to include those that say ugly things without thinking. This is a hard enough process on its own, let alone adding ANY negativity onto it from others. I haven't had anyone so unsupportive that I've had to cut them out of my life, but there are those that say stupid unthinking things where I don't share my life with them very much. My favorite is those who tell me to not lose any more weight because my face is starting to look bad. Hellooo! I'm turning 50 this year. My face would look bad anyway! LOL (Yes, I can laugh about it.)

Haha DetChatt that's funny!! I am anxious to see after the surgery who gives me a hard time and who supports me. I have a lot of aquaintances who see me very irregularly, some of who are opinionated. It will be interesting!