Originally Posted by Trazey34:
My favourite reply to that question is always "I decided to start with the FORK instead of the KNIFE"

Bwah ha ha! :rofl: I love that response! It's the best one I've ever heard and I hope you don't mind if I steal it.

Trazey, that IS a good one. I'm going to borrow (steal) it too.

I am going to have to remember that for next time!! :)

Originally Posted by mandalinn82:

They always look so disappointed when you say you're just watching what you eat and exercising - like you've let them down!

LOL! So true!!!

My mother's the only person who has directly asked me, and only because she was worried about it. My weight has been a real issue between us, until a few years ago, when I told her, explicitly, to shut up about it or face my wrath. We see each other in person very rarely, as we live in different countries, and after our big blow-out had settled down, and I started shifting the lard off my bum, I've been keeping her up-to-date on my progress. There's a family friend who had gastric bypass surgery a few years ago, and has since gained back all the weight she lost, and acquired some pretty unpleasant health issues related to the surgery, and this has given my mum a negative view of WLS. She was immensely relieved to hear I've been doing it the old fashioned way.

Other than that, some folks have asked leading questions of the sort where you can just TELL that they expect you've had surgery. I find it annoying, because I just don't think it's any of their business. And, oh yes, people do seem so disappointed when you hit them with the "calorie counting/exercise" explanation. I think some of them are hoping for a specific diet with a brand name attached, and some of them just do not believe you can lose massive quantities of weight without surgical intervention.

Originally Posted by catherinef:
some of them just do not believe you can lose massive quantities of weight without surgical intervention.

But for a very long time I was one of those people as well. But even as I sit here and write that out, I am wondering did I really, really believe that I couldn't get the weight off on my own? Or did I really know deep, deep, DEEP down inside that I had the ability to do it. I'm not sure of the answer to that.

Luckily, I don't give it thought that often. It could drive you bonkers.

Originally Posted by rockinrobin:
But for a very long time I was one of those people as well. But even as I sit here and write that out, I am wondering did I really, really believe that I couldn't get the weight off on my own? Or did I really know deep, deep, DEEP down inside that I had the ability to do it. I'm not sure of the answer to that.

Luckily, I don't give it thought that often. It could drive you bonkers.

Interesting.

I STILL can't believe that I was ONE DAY AWAY from doing WLS. If it hadn't been for an insurance glitch then I would have done it. I was already on the pre-op fast.

The thing that freaks me out about it is that the whole time I was getting ready, there was this little voice inside me screaming MISTAKE MISTAKE MISTAKE that I was trying very hard to ignore.

And now, when I am slowly coming to the painful realization that it was a choice all along to overeat and stay fat. I told myself one million stories about how I had an uncontrollable problem, but really it was controllable, I just chose not to control it.

I love the things that I am told by people who have had surgery too. Some of them are fine and they know that even if that was their path, it isn't for everyone. I think some of them somewhat regret it though and so they don't exactly like seeing others have success without it. I have had people who have had surgery (one in particular) harp and harp and harp about how I should go have it. I'm doing it without the surgery and am doing just fine, but they just go on about how much more success I would have if I did have it. I did consider it, but I gave myself a few months to see what I could do. I set goals for myself and if I had not been able to meet the goals I was going to ask the doc about lap band, but I did meet the goals and so I just kept going. At this point my insurance would not even consider me a candidate for surgery. I tell them all of this, but they don't listen. They want their way to be the only way because they don't want to admit that maybe they could have done it without the surgery too. It is annoying. I am especially annoyed with the one in particular who eats like crap and even though she says she has lost over 100 in less than a year, I figure with the way she eats she will be one of those who puts it all back on, yet she has her fiance (one of my best friends) talked into have surgery too. If he had decided to do so on his own I would have no issue with it, but her talking him into it to help her not feel bad ticks me off.

I would like to make it clear that I have no problem with people having WLS when they do it right and with the right attitude. I have no problem with the people who have the surgery and follow doc's orders and use it as a tool to get healthier but are still supportive of people in their lives who lose weight without surgery and do not think it is something every overweight person should do just because they chose it. I have the same issues with people who think that their religion is the only right way to go, men who played football and think that boys who don't are wusses or something, homeschooling parents who think it is wrong to put kids in public school, parents with kids in public school who think it is wrong to homeschool, vegans who attempt to convert me, meat eaters who attempt to convert the vegans, and so on. It's a personality type, and not a pretty one.