What has experiencing morbid obesity in life taught you?

Is there anything you don't want to forget about your former life as you drop weight and hit goal?

What changes do you envision in your life just because of weight loss?

It has made me who I am today.

I hope it has made me caring, compassionate, kind, slow to judgement, forgiving, and much more.

It also has given me a highly developed BS meter!

I'm still so new that I am happy to be losing and can't wait until I lose more. I feel like a new man that's for sure

It taught me some very good social skills. I think (?) I'm more aware of the nonverbal stuff people put out. In other words, I think my social antennae are longer and fuzzier as a result.

It has made me who I am today.

I hope it has made me caring, compassionate, kind, slow to judgement, forgiving, and much more.

It also has given me a highly developed BS meter!

This is me to a T.

It taught me many lessons that I hope to never forget.

My joints and back will be reminders of the heavy times, but I am recovering a lot of mobility already. My stride is lengthening and pace is quickening. Still taking it carefully.....but certainly feeling much better this quickly.

I'll always remember how critical good health is and how much we control this ourselves. Overeating and underworking is the pathway to an early grave. This makes it easy to eliminate certain foods from my life and easy to adopt a whole new way of eating.

I'll remember how hard it was to recover from various surgeries and illness like the the simple flu bug or sinus infection. Being heavy compounds the impact of these. Being lighter and more agile will certainly make future recoveries much easier.

Understanding that I can slide right back into old habits and poor overall health is clear in my mind.

I'm so very grateful to not be as heavy as I was......and hoping and working to be lighter next week, next month, next year and maintain forever. Living with a new way of eating is not a short term diet, but something I'll be doing for life.

I don't ever want to forget the humiliation of having to ask for a seat belt extender and how the armrests dug into my hips on my last overseas flight. I envision doing more while traveling. I was afraid to do the zip line in Costa Rica with the kids because of my weight. I can't wait to return to try it out. Rather than living dangerously with my health and food, I hope to add adventure through my travels.

I learned that I needed to be more outgoing. Its crazy how much 90+ lbs on you can really have the affect that it did. I am more outgoing now, added years to my life and health, and am figuring out the person I was supposed to be. I cant wait for more of this journey

It's taught me to not judge people by their size, or shame anyone for any reason.

I am finding that since I have lost weight I think fat people are abhorrent. I certainly hope I "grow out of it". I used to be more compassionate regarding obesity and am trying very hard to change my attitude.

I'm still pre-op but I'm learning through this process that I love healthy food much more than processed crap

I don't think there is any grand lesson to be learned from obesity, but I found out that if you can appear confident at 300#, OMG, that big personality might need to be reined in a little. It is fascinating to me how I could be smiling smart ass when obese, make friends with men (never threatening) but act the same way when you look HAWT (ha) and it is interpreted differently.

I never want to forget how I felt...laying in bed, like a barrel. My stomach was huge and I could barely move. I don't want to forget because that is motivation to not go back...

I am 4 years post op, been at goal for awhile so Q3 is not an anticipation but a reality. My life, looks, social world changed WAY more than I ever imagined. The list is too long, but I went from morbidly obese to being fitter than most women my age. It was disorienting at times, but also exciting and simply amazing.

What has experiencing morbid obesity in life taught you?

Is there anything you don't want to forget about your former life as you drop weight and hit goal?

What changes do you envision in your life just because of weight loss?

What has experiencing morbid obesity in life taught you?

Is there anything you don't want to forget about your former life as you drop weight and hit goal?

What changes do you envision in your life just because of weight loss?

It's helped me believe in myself. Especially in a day and age where fat shaming and bullying is so rampant. I have always loved me and been proud of my accomplishments. I was never a shrinking violet who was a afraid to live life.

I never want to forget how easy it is to eat mindlessly.

I love fashion and I love shopping. I look forward to being able to shop more in brick & mortar stores instead of online.

Morbid obesity taught me that there's no free lunch. Some of the damage it did to my life/body is permanent. Examples are knee joint damage, a metabolism that now requires an insanely low caloric intake in order to lose weight, high blood pressure (still not back to normal even after dropping 100 pounds), losing out on career opportunities while I was young, losing decades of my life with the wrong partner because I had no confidence to make a change.

What I don't want to forget: how it felt to not fit in a rollercoaster test seat. How it felt to sit in a movie theater with my husband and an empty seat between us for breathing room. How it felt to squeeze into an airplane seat with a seatbelt extender and feel the looks of the passengers assigned to sit next to me. How it felt to binge eat until I got sleepy each night. Not having clothes that fit one season to the next. Avoiding social engagements. Hiding from cameras. Praying nobody would tag me in Facebook pictures. Not being able to ride a bike for even half a block. Not being able to walk the two blocks to church without feeling like I was having a heart attack. Being the mom on the college walking tour whose makeup was dripping down her face while struggling to keep pace with the group, yet being a block behind.

Changes just because of weight loss: I can breathe when I walk. I've dropped several daily medications. I can walk a 5k easily. I only get cortisone shots in one knee now, not two. I enjoy trying on clothes. Instead of my makeup sliding off my face from exertion, I'm often cold, and frequently put a sweater on, even in summer. I welcome random people sitting next to me in movie theaters now. My clothes still fit from LAST YEAR. My dog gets walks. I left the jerk.

@@jenn1 thank you for this question and chance to reflect. Taking the lessons I need from my sleeve and leaving the rest is the quintessential task for me with weight loss.

I learned that everyone has a story...and sometimes you can see some of that story, sometimes you cannot. I learned to look beneath the surface and that there are many complex reasons why people do what they do and who am I to judge?

I learned to love myself regardless of size as my value is not in my weight. I learned to build strong, intimate relationships with people who also value me (being so big was a good fiter for judgmental and/or superficial tendencies in others).

For me, letting go is not just about letting go of extra weight, but letting go of everything that does not serve me as I adopt my new skills and behaviors to take care of myself and maximize this amazing blessing (my sleeve) that I have been given.

Going from a failed lapband to a bypass....hoping the second time will be better...looking forward to not being invisible.....