I'm the first one to be banded in my little town. A friend of mine was the second to be banded and we have a third lady now who's had the surgery. Since we had the three of us, we decided to start a support group. We're including bypass patients, of whom there are several around. Also some pre-op people as well.

Since we're the ones who started it, we need to run it. I just haven't been to any other support groups for bariatric surgery and I could use some ideas of what to do other than just chat.

What have you enjoyed about your support groups? What would you do if you were heading one up?

Having an agenda is a good start. Perhaps just making a list of topics you would like to cover and setting aside an amount of time to discuss. Topics could be eating habits, emotional eating, support systems, etc.

An idea for the way to start the meeting is to go in a circle and have everyone introduce themselves and just talk a little bit about how they are doing, what is going on in their lives, etc. This could be a standard part of the agenda as a springboard into other topics/discussions.

When there are only a few people to start, it can be really flexible and may not be much more than a structured chat. It is one of those things that grows and solidifies as it happens.

It is great that you are starting this support group. Having a general guidline of topics to cover, but flexability to help other whith what is on their mind also. Since you have been there before everyone else you could share some of the good and bad times that you experienced. you could also have a swap for recipes that have worked at different stages of recovery starting with the liquid, mushies, and even the 5 day fill test (found that on this website). Also having your members choose if they want everyone to have there contact informaition or just the coordinator is important for some people. A printed list of web site that you have found helpful and a list of books that you or others have read are great for newly or prebanded members. Having a book exchange or lending box is good if you have a few books to put in to get it started. Since this is a new way of life for most of us we all need to learn from others that have been there. Good luck with your new group, Sherry

It is also nice to have "experts" come in for a talk (i.e. dietician, hair/nail expert, cosmetic surgery options for excess skin, etc.)

Here are some of the things that I like about my support groups

• Clothing Exchange
  
• Vitamin/Protein Samples (everyone brings their favorite things, like maybe a protein bar, or a new vitamin and you break it in little pieces and everyone can try it.
  
  
• Experts - local LPC or Psychologist to discuss mental health for WLS patients, Someone who is at goal (you could get someone from your Dr.s office that is at goal and ask them to come)
  
• Books and recipe trading (borrowing)
  

What a great thing your doing!!

Years ago I can't recall the name of the group but it was a local support group for weight loss(by diet & excersise). In my hometown (like 5000pop)

It was usually held in one members home (changed each month) Which gave many the oportuntity to actually cook or have dishes to try that were weight loss friendly. (this was optional but done quite allot).

Everyone would also bring along outgrown clothes for a clothing swap, and the usual swap recipes, book ideas, shopping chats.

Occasionally roughly ever 4 months or so everyone would chip in and get a conference room at one of the local restraunts that had a good selection of healthy dishes.

Durring Fair month the group would make the meeting at the fairgrounds so they could check out the recipes and various other goodies you can find at your local county or state fairs. And of course get in some good excersing walking the barns lol.

They ocasionally had personal trainers who would come and talk, dieticians, even a doctor once while I was with the group.

Sometimes the meetings ended up being like housepartys for things like herbalife, tupperwear or anything that could be helpfull or related to weight loss. Once they had a houseparty for adult toys & lingere even. Mostly focusing on the lingere.

The cool thing about having small groups is its much easier to add more variety of things. Like meeting in the park and incorporating a cookout or hike the trails or whatever.

Those are some good ideas.

We have actually met already one time in a member's home. We had a nutritionist come and talk to us about Protein. We all decided that for people who don't know us well, that having it in a public place (the hospital board room) would be less intimidating for someone to come just from seeing a flier or something.

I'm going to bring clothes for a clothing exchange. I have a bunch of them and no good way to get rid of them. I don't want to throw them away, but our thrift store is pretty crappy. I hear they store clothes in the back room for years until they get around to putting them out.

We also talked about a recipe exchange. Maybe we should focus on one stage at a time, starting with liquids. Originally we were going to just bring one from the stage we're at, but it wouldn't help those on liquids for me to bring my favorite fish recipe right now.

We have two hours scheduled. I'm thinking we start with introductions, they can be lengthy, we can talk in depth about ourselves and how we ended up where we are.

It's just that middle portion that I'm not sure about. I'm sure towards the end we'll end up just chatting which is great, but I don't want it to seem just like a big chatting session.