Ok, So I am still a bit freaked out to do this. I love to guzzle down drinks...I keep wondering what I will do on hot days, or at dinner parties, LOL.

So I thought I would post some general habit info and let you all experts be the judge.

Pros:

I love to exercise, and have actually gone to a personal trainer in the past. It'll be more of a challenge with the new baby but I do have a gym membership and a WII fit.

I usually have no trouble maintaining my weight, just extreme trouble *losing* weight.

I don't like salty stuff at all - I have a bag of chips on my fridge that has been there for months.

I AM a sweet lover but have tried to counteract the cravings by eating dark chocolate only now. It wipes away my cravings BIG TIME.

I gained a lot of weight from eating at restaurants...but with the little one, we hardly do that anymore at all.

Cons:

I have never really been on a "diet" at all. I am just not a dieter. I was a skinny teen and once the weight piled on I was at a loss over how to fix it. I am worried that I don't know "how" to do this.

I have gained weight only during times of duress and stress. :crying: This is a worry for me, although I know it is a good thing not to lean on food.

I am petrified of being on a liquid diet, even for a short time period.

I am scared I will miss the pleasure of food. :biggrin0:

Any thoughts or encouragement you can give me would be great. I'm still too scared to make the appt.

If you have never been on a diet, you may want to join a diet program first. Something like Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig. They will teach you about nutrition and tracking your food and hold your hand.

While diets don't have a good track record, they do work for some people, so they are worth trying at least once. After all, if you can avoid surgery, why not? They aren't worth trying over and over, though. If you lose and can't maintain the loss, then it's time to try something else.

Also, no diet or surgery is going to work if you are an emotional eater. (And that's what stress eating is.) So you need to work on that, no matter what you do.

The rest of the stuff is mostly irrelevant. Both sweets and salty food have their "slider food" variations so preferring one or the other isn't going to matter. You can eat a ton of Cookies or a ton of chips and either way, they *will* go down and you will be able to eat around the surgery.

Eating out can be bad but I eat out all the time and I do fine. You just have to have the right attitude about it (it's not an excuse to eat anything you want) and make intelligent, educated choices.

Liking to exercise is good, whether or not you have surgery. :lol0:

The liquid diet lasts weeks, not years or even months. Trust me, you can do it whether terrified or not. Plus, if you don't stay on it post-op, you could die which is definitely more terrifying than liquids. Just think of it as a medical requirement and not a "diet." Because that's what it is.

Food can still be pleasurable when you are eating small quantities. In fact, if you now eat fast and don't chew well, eating after the surgery will often times be *more* pleasurable because you actually taste your food.