Why oh why are they making me do this stuff??

It took me a long time to decide to actually have the surgery done.  I went to several bariatric surgery overview sessions.  The first time I went thinking I wanted to do the lap band, but after hearing the doctor talk, I didn't think it was for me.  Since I was going to have actual surgery, I put the whole thing on the back burner again for almost a year.

Then the 'pants too small' incident happened, (see previous blog entry for this incident) and I made up my mind to go ahead with it.

I called my insurance company to see if I even qualified.  They told me about a ton of 'hoops' I had to jump thru before I was eligible for surgery.  I was not happy, but I started jumping.

One thing they wanted was 6 months of doctor supervised weight loss visits.  They didn't cover an actual medical diet plan, which I thought was really silly.  I had just changed doctors and my  new doctor was about 12 years old (or so it seemed to me).  I wondered what she could bring to the table since this wasn't her specialty.

I got the paperwork that my insurance required and gave it to my doctor.  She willingly helped me along this journey and even though it was not her specialty, I have to say, she helped a lot.  She suggested things to me that I never even considered.  When I was done with the 6 months, I was so pleased I wrote her a thank you note for her guidance and support.

I also met with a nutritionist and exercise physiologist to get started on new good habits.  The nutritionist told me to clean up my diet.  I never met a slice of bread or a potato I didn't like and white stuff such as these were not allowed.  I swallowed hard, cried just a bit, and got them out of my diet.  Surprisingly, I didn't miss either of them very much. 

Along this six month effort, I learned quite a few things.  By cutting out bad carbs and junk, I could lose some weight and it was not really difficult.  Most of the time, when I get on a diet, I can't stay on it for any length of time.  But this time, it was not a diet, it was a lifestyle change.  This change is one I am able to keep up so that was definitely worth the effort.

I'll write more on this as I get a chance.  Right now, I have quite a few appointments that I need to keep so I stay on track with this journey.