I've been seriously thinking about this journey and freaking myself out that I will fail again. I remember a few years ago I walked into a gym to get another high priced membership that I rarely used and nearly broke into tears telling the gym rep that I "didn't want to fail again"..... Nothing has really changed except for this surgery. I still have difficulty motivating myself to exercise which I know it's 50% of this whole thing. Those who have been doing well, how have you kept yourself motivated?

Success breeds success. I was in a terrible frame of mind when I was banded. Once I started losing weight, the motivation to lose more was suddenly there. I needed to lose 70 lbs. in order to get my hips replaced. I hit that goal seven months after being banded. My PCP wanted me to get to 150 lbs. and I've lost an additional 13 beyond that.

Oh...and I didn't really start exercising till months after my hip replacement so yes...exercise is something you should do but at least in my case, it didn't stop me from losing weight.

Here's my take on it. 50% of WLS is the operation on our stomach; the other 50% of it is our own personal accountability/responsibility and positive attitude in the willingness to change our eating habits and lifestyles for the rest of our lives. Yep, it's huge change, for sure. The difference between this and any other time you have tried to lose weight is that now you have this powerful TOOL that, although it does not just sit there and work on its own, you now have the POWER to make it do great things for you that you have NEVER had before.

Yes, of course exercise is important. But you do not have to be this crazy exercising fool. But you do have to have the healthy eating habits that those of us who got into this mess in the first place just did not have our whole lives. SO THAT (learning to eat healthfully and enjoy feeding your body nourishing food) is your FIRST and BIGGEST motivator.

And keep remembering that you CAN make this all FUN and not a chore. . .