Im seriously getting tired of people askin me y I am doing this and trying to convince me im doin a mistake! I am a few days away from doing the surgery, and the more they ask the more upsetting it is! "Youre not even big! Youre controlling what you eat now, why cant you just continue doing it? You dont need that, just exercise and eat less!" Seriously....jus stf up already, its not like they r the ones getting the blade and staples! Urgggg....im so done! The only mistake I did was tell them I was doing it! So word of advice....tell the least people possible! People r so quick to judge n comment....its ridiculous!

In another note....I am at Chuck E cheese wit my kids, (wanted to do something fun wit them before I have surgery) n I have to say, as I sit here wit a large chicken and brocolli pizza and buffalo chicken wings and cheesy breadsticks; that is smellin soooooo friggin good and looks soooooo delish.....I am chewin away at my banana and sipping away at my oh so good ice water....go me! I am so proud of myself....even my tummy is cheerin away and makin noise for my accomplishment!!!

I also have people in my life who aren't being supportive. The funny thing is, I didn't ask them for their opinions, I simply told them I was having surgery. I made the decision to tell a few close friends, my family, and co-workers. I have a lot of people I don't want to know, but the ones I did tell, I told for the simple reason I need support. One of my friends also thinks I took "the easy way out". She has no idea, nothing about this is easy!! Ironically, she is jumping head first into every fad diet in hopes of finding an easy and fast weight loss. I'm not interested in an easy way, a fast way, a small change, etc. I am looking to be healthy and this is the route that I am taking in order to do that. Losing weight, and in a fashion that is faster than other ways is simply a bonus. I hope your friends start leaving you alone, its scary enough in our brains before surgery, we don't need it from others!!

I know in the end, I will end up telling a ton of people. I teach in a high school. I have told some people in my department that I am close with, but what about my students? I don't want them to worry about me while I'm gone. I'm really close with my students.

I'm hoping for a spring break surgery. I may just tell them the day before vacation starts.

Psh forget them. That's what ppl were telling me too. They shut up now that I lost all that weight lol. No one really even brings it up anymore.

My doctor gave me a fabulous statistic, that for me, really puts things in perspective, and helps calm the nay-sayers:

"Stunkard and McLaren-Hume's 1959 study of 100 obese individuals, which indicated that, 2 y after treatment, only 2% maintained a weight loss of 9.1 kg (20 lb) or more (1). More recently, a New England Journal of Medicine editorial titled Losing Weight: An Ill-Fated New Year's Resolution (2) echoed the same pessimistic message." Source: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/82/1/222S.full

I have one hundred pounds to lose. If only 2% of dieting folks are successful with 20lbs, how successful do you think I would be at losing 100lbs??? Do those people think I am magically in the top 2% percentile of weight loss capability? Um yeah, probably not.

One more statistic, from Wikipedia:

"In general, the malabsorptive procedures lead to more weight loss than the restrictive procedures; however, they have a higher risk profile. A meta-analysis from University of California, Los Angeles, reports the following weight loss at 36 months:[5]

Biliopancreatic diversion — 117 Lbs / 53 kg

Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) — 90 Lbs / 41 kg

Open — 95 Lbs/ 43 kg

Laparoscopic — 84 Lbs / 38 kg

Vertical banded gastroplasty — 71 Lbs / 32 kg

The maximum weight loss occurs in the first 10 months after surgery. More recent studies have demonstrated that the medium (3–8 years) and long term (> 10 years) weight loss results for RYGB and LAGB become very similar.[23] However, the range of excess weight loss for LAGB patients (25% to 80%) is much broader than that of RYGB patients (50% to 70%). Data (beyond 5 years) for sleeve gastrectomy indicates weight loss statistics similar to RYGB."

.. So there you have it. I'm not doing this because its easy. I am doing this because it will work. I am doing this because I don't want to putz around for the next decade trying to diet and winding up as a failure. I want my life back and this is statistically the best option I have available to me.

-Beth