i spoke with Dr. Ortiz' office, and they told me that i will need to lose 5% of my body weight before the surgery. My question is, how on earth am i supposed to lose 15+ pounds when I've had such a hard time in the past? I'll follow the eating guidelines they give me, and I do exercise already, but it's very hard for me to lose weight - heck, that's why i want the surgery to begin with!

Two things helped me:

1) I didn't think of it as being on a diet, but as preparing for surgery. I.E., I had medical necessary dietary restrictions.

2) I pretended I'd already had surgery and tried to eat like I had restriction.