Support Group Review

Ali and I attended the support group at our hospital tonight. They have decided to separate the pre-op folks from the post-op group, which I was optimistic about. So many of the last meetings I went to covered the same pre-op questions, over and over, I just wasn't getting much from the meetings.

It was definitely interesting being with a strictly post op group (for the first part of the meeting), but I was surprised by some of the advice my MD gave. I'm a member of a few online groups, as I've mentioned before, and the members of those groups advocate such strict band-rule following. I have come to expect that from all bandsters, and that did not seem the case with my group.

I want to go on record saying that I love my MD, and I think he's the best WLS surgeon in the area. I would go to him 1000 times over, and recommend him completely. I think that he's too easy on us, though. I think his expectations of what overweight people are capable of are too low. Some of the post op bandsters need a good dose of tough love, and it seemed to me like they were a bit coddled.

Maybe I'm being too harsh. I'm not even at my six month point yet, so let's see how I am once I've lived with the band for two years. People in glass houses... but you know what I mean. He said that if you park in a far away parking space when you're going somewhere, that is exercise. I realize if he were speaking to a group of people who hadn't had surgery yet, or who had just had surgery, that may be all the exercise they can do, and it's better than nothing. Walking a few extra yards, however, is not going to suddenly make the number on the scale smaller.

The exercise we need to do is hard work! We need to sweat. We need to build our muscles, we need to stretch and play, and get our heart pumping. He mentioned a new study that showed exercise makes a tremendous difference in the success of the post op bandster. I'm not sure how this is news! To me, incorporating exercise is a must-have. It's not a nice extra. It's just as important as choosing healthy meals every day.

I've said from the beginning that in addition to meeting with the surgeon, the nutritionist and the psychologist for pre-op training and evaluation, each WLS candidate should meet with a personal trainer too. It is SO important, and vital to our success.

It was nice to see people I hadn't seen in a few months, and to see that many of them are shrinking. It's encouraging and motivating. I just hope moving forward, we can strive for excellence in our weight loss journeys. It will benefit us all.