May 25, 2010 is when I put my foot down and decided to get on the path to a healthier lifestyle! I had been kicking around the idea of getting started anyway, but I went to an annual gyn appointment and my very beloved and trusted doc looked at me and said, "Shannon, you've gotta do it". I left her office and went straight to the grocery store to get myself set up, and I haven't looked back.

I'm actually as excited as it's possible to be for a PAP smear -- I have one scheduled next week, and I'm looking forward to showing her my progress! During the appointment, she suggested that maybe I look into WLS. She said that she'll see a patient one year, they have surgery and come back 100 lbs lighter the next year. I can't wait to show her that a person doesn't necessarily need to have surgery to come back the next year 100 lbs lighter!!!

Best thing is, I have really embraced my new lifestyle -- love, love the foods I eat and being so much more active, that I am able to continue for the forseeable future and just keep moving closer to my ultimate goal. Wonder how much more I will have lost by my NEXT annual appointment!

Amen sister! Show her how it's done! Congrats on your weight loss and the strength you have gained in your life! You're an inspiration

Way to go Shannon. I'm thrilled for you. As your Doctor reminded you by suggesting WLS, you have done what MANY people just flat out refuse to do. You just did it, No excuses, no pity parties, (well maybe a few...I had a few in the beginning! ), just nose to the grind stone success. Yay for you!

Oh...and I thought I was the only one who enjoyed my annual exams!

Lori Bell--

Hilarious!

Wow, that's fabulous! Good for you!

Congratulations on your hard earned success!

I'm so glad to read posts where people are still working on their plans one year later. I'm sure your doctor will be amazed and so happy for you. I know mine is for me. It's actually fun to get on the scale at the annual exam these days.

Shannon ~ what an incredible journey you have had!! You should be so proud of yourself ~ congrats!!

Shannon, that is just so awesome!

Not to hijack your thread, but reading it reminded me of my own situation.
My doc not only recommended WLS, but I was actually doing the pre-hospital fast when my insurance decided to deny.

Looking back, it horrifies me to think about. I was going to a highly respected doctor at a major university hospital, and yet they were very willing to turn a blind eye to the fact that:

1. I had no genuine diet history. I reported having tried diet after diet, but it really wasn't true. I had made a bunch of half-hearted attempts-- never discussed weight loss with my doctor other than the one time we discussed WLS, hadn't joined weight watchers for at least twenty years. The WLS doctor mindset is very much ingrained: morbidly obese people are incapable of losing weight and so it's not their fault if they don't succeed. But how do you know if you are incapable if you never really set your mind to try.

2. I had actually GAINED about ten pounds from the time of my initial consultation to the time I was supposed to get the surgery. (I kept dragging my heels, and the time period was aboiut a year.)

3. I had a BINGE EATING DISORDER and somewhere way in the back of my mind I "knew" that even with WLS I might try to find a way to circumvent the surgery...

In short, I was a HORRIBLE candidate for WLS.

Turns out, like you, what I really needed to do was to DECIDE.

You should be extremely proud of yourself, and I think your doctor will be jumping backflips!!

NB: I still hate my annual exams.

Great job! You're an inspiration, and I hope to do as well have you have come one year for me.

Well done! You've achieved so much in just a year! Your doc is going to be over the moon.

Congratulations and Happy Anniversary!!

Not only is it one year, it is 100+ pounds. You are such a positive influence in my journey - thank you!

ROCK ON!!!!

Oh please please please come back & report exactly how your doctor reacted. I want details. I want a transcript. With the exact wording. Because I'm sure there may even be hugging. Maybe even a tear in the middle of the biggest grins imaginable.

Share the joy. You know there's never quite enough joy to go around.

And how I envy you, as I'm certain I would never hug my supercilious, didactic, condescending, vain, test-result-withholding male doctor. But he's such a smug creature, he gave me incredible motivation to lose the weight, just to show him that I could. (Of course, he's so vain, now he believes it's somehow due to him -- like I'm a prize rose bush that he grew in his backyard.) And the horrible thing is, he's a really good doctor. Just not a someone whom I'd want in my life if I were assessing him as I would a friend.

I have this image of my ideal doctor, whom I will never find. She's a wise motherly lesbian who wears a gray braid down her back & wears Birkenstocks & prescribes tai chi & acupuncture along with Western medicine & doesn't make me take preventive statin. And she runs marathons. And has a farm & keeps horses. And maybe wears Navajo jewelry a lot of the time. Also she has a wonderful voice, like the poet Adrienne Rich. (I think I'd have to move to Santa Fe to get this doctor, if she indeed exists, and then with my luck she wouldn't be a CIGNA in-network provider.)

Saef, one of my midwives was a lot like you're describing. She was very good at what she did


Shannon - let us know how it goes! You have done so amazingly well, I'm so happy for you!

Congrats Shannon!!!!!!!!!! This is really exciting and has inspired me! It's so great when you see REAL people who can drop the weight and get healthy! Keep it up!!!!!!