I haven’t seen a report card for 35 years, but I clearly remember the looming importance of each semester’s report card. In elementary school, we were graded on effort as well as achievement. Tell us honestly: what’s your bariatric effort grade today?

When thinking about your report card, please grade yourself for both achievement and effort. Anybody who thinks having weight loss surgery is "taking the easy way out" is sadly mistake. Of course it's easier than weight loss without surgery - that's the whole idea! But easier doesn't mean automatic, either.

I’ve seen 2 different effort and achievement trends in fellow post-ops’ WLS journeys:

1. Weight loss is relatively easy in the beginning, when you’re at your heaviest and also most gung-ho, but eventually it gets harder as you get smaller (and burn fewer calories), the novelty of your surgery wears off, and your underlying eating issues (like stress eating, emotional eating, etc.) aren’t addressed.
   
2. For band patients, weight loss can be hard in the beginning, when you don’t yet have enough fill in your band, but eventually you and your band click and the weight loss gets easier.
   

Both situations #1 & 2 require extra effort on your part sooner or later. Neither situation is better or worse, but your awareness and understanding of your situation can help you deal with it with less “poor me” and more “go me!”

I’ll illustrate this with an example from the frivolous but always fascinating aspect of life: hair. I have straight, thin hair, and not a lot of it. I wish it were thicker, curlier, shinier, but it’s not. With the help of my hairdresser, I can make my hair look better, but agonizing about it does not do a single thing to make my hair curl.

Similarly, I have an inborn intolerance for idleness and am easily bored, especially when it comes to food and exercise. I wish that weren’t so, but it is. With the help of my nutritionist, food magazines, and cookbooks, I manage to plan and prepare healthy, delicious, interesting meals. With the help of my fitness instructor, I manage to participate in a wide variety of fitness classes that are never boring.

In the “go me!” department, I’m pleased to report that I’m so accustomed now to eating small meals off small plates, I don’t even think about it anymore, except when I’m dining out and my meal arrives on a dinner plate. That is quite an accomplishment for a girl who once ate a 5-pound lobster all by herself, and followed up with half a gallon of ice cream, spooned directly from the container into my mouth!

I want to give myself a B+ but I know I don't deserve it. Too many tastes and nibbles here and there are impeding my weight loss. So, I give myself a B today.

Well, you do get extra points for being honest about it!

I want to give myself a B+ but I know I don't deserve it. Too many tastes and nibbles here and there are impeding my weight loss. So, I give myself a B today.