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I've waited years to type that sentence: My surgery date is 12/17/15. I've worked especially hard over the last six months to make it a reality. My insurance company requires a physician-supervised diet, psychological evaluation, and other health workups before approving surgery. At the last minute, they threw me a curveball by asking for more weight history. I scrambled to produce the requested records, but at the same time, they realized I had started my process before that information was a requirement. They approved me the same day.

I started my preop diet on 11/25/15. Yes, the day before the U.S. Thanksgiving Day. :-) My surgeon uses Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet as the preop diet. For the first three days, I thought I was going to starve to death. The carb withdrawal was fierce. Fierce, I tell you. Day 4 was better. Today is day 5. It's still early, but I feel good so far. I lost a pound since yesterday.

I'm trying not to focus too much on my weight for now, though. I've been obsessed with my weight for as long as I can remember, from the time I was 11 years old, 5'6", and weighed 106 pounds. Today, I am 43 years old, 5'9", and weigh 278.8 pounds. I've been overweight since my first pregnancy at 24. I'm now morbidly obese with a BMI of more than 41. I know the facts, of course, but I'm doing my best to focus on what I want to gain rather than what I need to lose. I want to wake up without shooting pain throughout my body. I want to make it through a day at work without swollen ankles. I want to walk up two flights of stairs without losing my breath. I want to look forward to exercise every day. I want my energy back.

I will continue to update this thread with my progress. It's great to meet you. :-) I wish you wild success as we take this journey together!

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Oops, I just realized I posted this under the wrong topic! I guess I'm required to be a success now!

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You are going to be a success!!! Congrats on your approval and getting a date set. My starting weight was very close to yours at 278.4. I too have always been so obsessed with weight going from restricting to binging and back again. It sounds like you are definitely off to a good start. If I might make a recommendation, I would definitely suggested reading "When food is Love" by Geneen Roth. My therapist recommended this to me when I was 10 months post-op and I SO wish I would have read it before surgery so that I could have started working on the underlying stuff ahead of time. I try to pass it on as much as I can now because it has been such a life-changer for me. :-) Good luck to you on this journey!

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Yup, and I'm going to hold you to that success requirement. ????

It sounds like you've already got things well in hand. A good attitude will serve you well on that road to success, and you've already got that in spades!

Congrats!

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I want to wish you much success on your journey. My SW was 234. SD was 9/14. CW is 198 as of this morning. It sounds like you have a great attitude. My suggestion to you would be don't be afraid to move after the surgery. Get up as soon as you can. After about 3 days the heartburn will go away. Promise. Just move! You got this. Be kind to yourself. Keep us updated on your progress. Livvsmum thanks for book recommendation to. I'm going to get that and read it for sure. ????

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      Oh yeah, something I wanted to rant about, a billing dispute that cropped up 3 months ago.
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