I just finished watching an episode of extreme weight loss. One thing I saw that is very familiar to me is self sabotage. I am scheduled for my surgery on 9/16 and one of my biggest fears is myself. How do I not sabotage my own success. Any advice, wisdom, or insight in this area is very much appreciated.

How badly do you want it? That is what I ask myself. There are literally 2 choices at that minute. I can have the____ or I can have my goal. For me it is a lot of self talk, simple choices (it has gotta stay simple for me) because I can be an idiot sometimes and I can rationalize just about anything. When I am focused on my goal and keep the choices simple I get what I want.

Now that I have a the gastric sleeve my new excuse is that I have worked HARD to get to the point of having the procedure done. I can not sabotage all my hard work. I ask myself while looking at each hand, (my 2 choices) what do I want and how badly do I want it.

I can't say how well you will do post-op. No way to tell that at all.

However, I will say this: Post-op you CANNOT go back to the same lifestyle you had pre-op and expect that you will remain slim and healthy. Yes, you may lose a lot of weight post-op. But your long-term success in maintaining your weight loss will depend on your ability to eat differently and healthier and exercise more and consistently for the rest of your life.

Whatever it takes for you to change your life and your lifestyle -- therapy, changing your relationships with family and others, a spiritual awakening, career and work changes, etc. -- you have to find a way to change. I'll also warn you that educating yourself about nutrition and exercise and committing to caring for yourself first (before others) are critical to those changes.

These changes are harder for some than others. Identifying the current barriers to your long-term success are where I'd suggest you start. We did not get to this point because we were managing our lives and our health well.

I just finished watching an episode of extreme weight loss. One thing I saw that is very familiar to me is self sabotage. I am scheduled for my surgery on 9/16 and one of my biggest fears is myself. How do I not sabotage my own success. Any advice, wisdom, or insight in this area is very much appreciated.

Oh man, you read my mind! For me, I'm not afraid of the surgery, the pain, etc. I'm actually afraid that the surgery will go perfectly and I'll have a perfect sleeve, and STILL manage to screw it up! Self sabotage creeps into a lot of areas in my life (hmmm...wonder why I'm single). I think part of it is just denying yourself something that you would normally give in to. Head hunger is a vicious beast. So why do you think you self sabotage?

I'm impulsive; I act not think later. I also love food... ????

One thing that helps me is to NEVER bring foods I could sabotage myself with in my house. There is never cake, Cookies, ice cream, chips, crackers, etc. in my home. My home is my "safe zone". That means I only need to deal with temptations when I'm out of my house.

I also will plan special occasions when I will allow myself to eat things so I don't feel deprived. Today my husband and I went out of town for a date and had some cheesecake for dessert.

One thing that helps me is to NEVER bring foods I could sabotage myself with in my house. There is never cake, Cookies, ice cream, chips, crackers, etc. in my home. My home is my "safe zone". That means I only need to deal with temptations when I'm out of my house.

I also will plan special occasions when I will allow myself to eat things so I don't feel deprived. Today my husband and I went out of town for a date and had some cheesecake for dessert.

That's a good idea. I definitely need to go through my cupboards and clear everything bad out. And the 7-11 across the street from my house needs to not let me in any time after 7 PM, lol!

One thing I've noticed in life after VSG is that the choices are a lot easier to make. Whatever it is you crave, you can't have much of it anyways so it's really not the death struggle with temptation so it's easier to make smart choices and if you do stray a bite to two it's not the end of the world.