Let me say first off - I am happy with my decision to have surgery, I am happy with my progress to date, and I believe I have realistic expectations of the rest of my journey.

But man, am I struggling today.

I was sleeved 5/16/13. I weighed 239 the week before surgery, 230 the day of, and as of this morning I am 200 with 2 days to go before my 11th week. That's an average loss of 2.7 lbs a week if you only count my post-op weight loss. That is more than I've EVER lost on ANY diet. I feel pretty good about this. Even if I averaged less than that, I would still be happy with my results because I am making steady progress, I'm becoming healthier every day, and I can do things I haven't done in years.

Here's why I'm struggling - my 3 month follow up is next week. My surgeon expects me to be at 178lbs at 3 months out. He does not count pre-op weight loss, and expects me to lose about 4 lbs per week - almost double what I actually lose.

Could I lose faster? Maybe. I do struggle to get in all my Water and Protein - I'm only 11 weeks out, I'm still learning how to do this! But every day is a new day, and I TRY every day. Some days I even get it right. I exercise every day, ranging from workouts with my trainer, to walking/jogging on the treadmill, to just squeezing in a walk around the block on busy days. But I MOVE every day. This is my new life goal. I'm serious about meeting it.

But it's hard not to feel discouraged when I know I'm going to go to that appointment next week and he's going to tell me I'm failing. I'm not eating right, or exercising enough, or trying hard enough. I should have lost more by now, 90% of his patients lose 80% of their weight in the first year, after that the success rates decline dramatically, and on and on and on. I'm going to feel like sh*t when I leave his office. I'm going to feel like I did after every WW meeting, or Jenny Craig appointment, or medically supervised diet Dr visit I've had in the past. Like a failure. Like this is one more thing I f*cked up.

And now I'm stuck. Do I completely stop seeing my surgeon? My PCP would be happy to see me on a regular basis, and she would most likely be happy with my progress - but she's not a WLS specialist. Maybe he's right - maybe I AM failing at this. Maybe feeling ok with my slow progress based on the experiences of people on the Internet whom I've never met is poor judgment. Or maybe relying solely on the guidance of a doctor who has a vested interest in me losing a LOT of weight REALLY fast so I bolster his statistics is naive.

I'm torn; I can't decide what to do. I would appreciate some alternate points of view. I've got a week to mull this over and hearing points I haven't thought of or from people on both sides of the fence would be helpful.

**UPDATE**

Yeah, so my appointment got rescheduled. Still planning to go, but had to 'decompress' when I found out they were rescheduling. Ah well, gives me more time to practice my comebacks!