You can do it too

I have to vent. I am really tired of this conversation:

"Wow Kristen, you look great, how much weight have you lost?"
"Thanks, 40 pounds"
"OMG in just 2 months??"
"Yup"
"I am so jealous. I wish I could lose weight."

ARRGGHHHHHHHGHGHGHGH....

Why does this bother me? Because losing weight is nothing to be jealous of. It is hard. It sucks. I ate nothing for 6 weeks except protein shakes and soup in preparation for the surgery and during healing afterwards. I didn't lose this easily, it was hard. VERY hard. Even with weight loss surgery, it is denying yourself what you want, killing horrible habits EVERY DAY, and working out like a fiend. Yes, the surgery helps, I CAN'T eat a huge pile of anything. But I could eat chips and greasy crap and brownies every meal and between meals and not lose a pound. But I don't. I can't have coffee. COFFEE. For a YEAR. I can't have SODA EVER AGAIN. Seriously. Are you jealous of THAT???? I'm working my butt off physically and working really hard mentally to make good choices and do what I'm supposed to do to get the results I want. I get that some people don't know any of that. I get it. Most people think of weight loss surgery as a magic cure for fat and it melts off without any effort or thought. And it's not true. I could gain back every pound I've lost if I stopped the diet I am on and didn't work out anymore. I wish I could wear a sign. But I won't. End rant.

On a nicer note, I do wish that more people would consider weight loss surgery. It is SO hard to lose weight and this surgery is a really powerful tool to help. I wish I'd done it years ago. It has been really hard to mentally let go of food as my comfort, my friend, my pasttime, my boredom-buster and I'm going to struggle with that probably forever. And I miss coffee so so so much. And Diet Pepsi. But it's so worth it. Wow. So worth it. I carried a 35 pound bag of dog food to the car last night. It was heavy. I'm glad I don't carry that with me everywhere every day all the time any more.