If you could talk to your pre-op self...

For all of you that are post surgery - be that 1 week, 1 month, 1 year or 10 years - if you could go back and talk to your pre-op self, what would you say to prepare them for the journey ahead?

Be realistic. Don't expect it to be easy. Don't expect yourself to be perfect. Don't compare yourself to others 

edited to add because I am fighting right now:- remember you will still be fighting your food demons for life! For me it is harder now at 8 years post-op than it was at 8 months postop. 

^^^^  This ^^^^

It will never be as easy as it is for the first year after surgery - especially true if you don't work on your head as well as your body!   Use that time wisely ...

So true. And I truly believed my head was in the right place. For six years I hovered around the same weight. Gained a few pounds, lost them. And it really, genuinely was not all that hard. But this time I am really struggling. I'm not enormous! My US size 10 skirts fit as long as I wear a very loose top over them to hide the tightness! But I am heavier than I want to be or should be. And getting back is so very, very hard. 

I know lots of women who were thin all their lives who gain a few pounds round the middle as they get up to and past menopause.  

My mother-in-law has always been thin and eaten healthily (and like a bird) - she's gone from a UK size 8 to a 12 in the last 5 years, and yet she remains as committed to her eating and exercise as she always has been!

I have been in menopause for at least two years now and am probably coming out the other side, and boy, is it getting harder to maintain each day!   I feel your pain, believe me!   Getting older sucks!

I think understanding that this is not an exact science and that we have to be able to change things as our body changes is a key thing for we women (don't know about men!) to remember.   We are not the same at 30, 40, 50 or 60 and we have to be prepared to adapt as our bodies do.

9.5 years at 100% - - all I can say is I'm in awe.  Congrats!  I hope I can do as well :D 

Take measurements and start going to a gym earlier than 6 months out!

I took all my measurements last night thanks to this post :)  At least now I know I at least have a starting point!  

AND - I joined the local gym already - although I haven't got in the habit of going regularly yet, I am working on it.

Thank you!

You'll have to keep plugging at diet and exercise and vitamins one day at a time every blessed day for the rest of your life, no vacations, no divorce, no excuses.

You will be pretty much on your own once the honeymoon is over, and maintaining or losing regain will be as hard as it was pre-op.

You will be able to relapse in a nanosecond, and your mind will never shut up with "I don't need to bother today, I can get back at it tomorrow" or "I don't wanna" or "I don't have time" or "I'm too stressed" or "I'm too tired" or "The weather isn't right" or "I don't care that I don't care" or myriads and hundreds of other ways to seduce you off your path.

You will be scared senseless about regain or letting yourself go or complications.

You will find your surgery to be one of the very best things you have done for you in your life if you stay focused on your health rather than the scale, though the scale will be useful for holding you in check. You will be so very very grateful for getting the weight off with the help of surgery.

You will be so much healthier and way smaller and feel so much better about yourself if you keep doing your part.

One day, sometimes one minute, at a time.

"This is actually going to work, it's OK to be hopeful."

Pre-op, I was in this weird space where I felt like I was having this to try to get my blood pressure down, but I wasn't actually going to lose any weight and things weren't actually going to change at all. I wasn't in denial, per se, but I felt... numb, I guess? Strangely ambivalent, despite all the work to be approved and prepared? Didn't want to hope for anything that way I wouldn't be disappointed.

A bit over 2 months out, I've lost about 50lb, dropped 2 pants sizes, my blood pressure is 20 points lower, and I really do feel better. Can't argue with that, so I guess I didn't have anything to be numb for.