Hi. My name is Ashley and I am in the midst of all the pre work for getting the sleeve. I am super nervous for the diet after surgery, but also excited to have a fresh start with food (kinda). I'm with Kaiser and will be doing my surgery at their Fremont center. I just met my weight goal for surgery and had my dietitian appointment. Next up is a Psych apopintment. Any tips/tricks or helpful insight is always appreciated.

Welcome Ashley! WLS can seem a very long process but hang in there and keep working hard. It’s not the easy way out non-surgery folks think. I found it helpful to read the threads on here, and I found good questions to ask my doctor on here too. Congratulations on starting your new life of self care!

Hi Ashley and welcome! ? congrats on meeting your surgery goal weight! The psych eval was very straightforward for me. I was open and honest about why I wanted the surgery, my history of weight gain, loss and regain. Yo-yo dieting and all the self esteem issues that go along with a weight-focused society. You’ll have a pre-op diet before surgery, so it’s easiest to start making small changes now. I started swapping a protein shake for a meal once per day about a month before my pre-op diet started. I also weaned myself off of caffeine. It really helped!

I also have a therapist, which I highly recommend if you can. She has helped me realize so many pitfalls of my unhealthy relationship with food. If I didn’t have her to lean on, I’m not sure I would be as successful as I am today. These are my best pieces of advice. Good luck!! Let us know when you get a surgery date set! ?

Welcome- best of luck to you as you start this journey.

Welcome!

I am working towards my surgery. I have to admit that I have kind of gone off the deep end eating everything that I feel I won't be able to eat after the surgery. It has only been in the past few weeks that I decided to actually take this seriously. A few years ago, I tried HCG shots. Lost over 50lbs. Put the weight back on in about six months. Did it again. Same results. I just couldn't maintain. That is what worries me the most. I can do this for awhile, but long-term? I have a really thin daughter who eats everything and an overweight husband who couldn't care less about eating healthy and hates most of the "healthy" foods I eat. That is a serious challenge. I have over 200lbs. to lose to meet my goal weight. That is really depressing. My doctor refuses to consider doing a gastric bypass and will only do the sleeve because I am not diabetic. I do have terrible acid reflux at times, but she wouldn't even talk to me about this. My husband totally wants me to get the surgery, but I think his reasons are selfish. Not sure if he is doing this as a way for me to prove that even if I lose the weight, I won't leave him... as a kind of power trip thing. My biggest fear is that he will try to constantly sabotage me, or use my not being able to enjoy food out with him to try to make me feel like I owe him whatever he wants from me as recompense for altering our lifestyle now. I am only 3 years from retirement (need 30 years) and finishing a degree so that I can change my job to something more challenging. Once I get my retirement and finish my degree, I want to feel confident to go seek a position and being obese does not give me the confidence. (I get judged way too much as being dumb for letting myself become overweight.) Anyhow, I am super super nervous about this surgery and all that will change in my life because of this.