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[quote=Anonymous]I have "issues" with food. Food has been my refuge and companion and a bright light during dark days. I realized that even though I wasn't super morbidly obese (female, 210 pounds at 5'3") I was 45 and exhausted and giving up hope that I could ever lose significant weight and keep it off.

I had the gastric sleeve about 3 years ago. No complications, I was very compliant with the stupid liquid-only diet. While it doesn't address the mental game, it certainly provided a huge physical restriction to eating. I dropped to 145 within a year. One thing I didn't expect: I almost never feel hungry anymore so it's a lot easier to keep from *starting* eating (once I start it gets very hard to stop).

Three years later, I think I'm handling the mental game pretty well. I'm mostly plant-based, focusing on nutrition, walking 2-3 miles a day, mostly maintaining the weight (up and down 10 pounds at a time, but that's a far cry from where I used to be). I still aim to be around 130 but I feel, and look, drastically different than I used to.

One thing that helped was seeing my health start to tank. I'm an EMT and acutely aware of the effects of weight on health, but once it started happening to *me* it was like my whole brain changed. I was pre-diabetic, my cholesterol was high, my knees hurt, I was exhausted, and couldn't bear the thought of another year living in my body.

For anyone that has issues like mine, I just don't think diet and exercise is ever going to be enough. It was my drug of choice, and a drug I could never completely quit (unlike alcohol or cigarettes, not that quitting those is easy but it's possible). If your insurance covers it, I say start the process and see how you feel as you go along - it takes 6 months to a year to be approved usually. For my insurance, I had to start with an appointment with my GP just to discuss my weight, that had to be the focal point of the meeting.

I'll try to check back and answer questions I guess, but the internet is full of answers and I doubt I have anything brilliant to say on the topic. I just wanted to encourage people to consider WLS. I don't care if it was an easy way out, it saved me. And that's what matters.

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