How surgery helped me

Yesterday, someone posted this question in a support group: "A question for postsurgery people: In retrospect, could you ever have gotten to your goal WITHOUT the sleeve? If not, how did the sleeve make success possible, at last?"

I'm posting my answer here because although I've said all of this in different places, I like having it in one place. 

The most important thing for me is this: the thought of surgery gave me hope. I'd given up on losing weight (tried everything except surgery, of course). I'd been morbidly obese for many years, and I'd reached a point, at 40, where it hurt to walk less than a mile. How could I walk if it hurt to do it? How could I lose weight without walking? I was trapped.

Starting the surgery process gave me hope. I'd thought about it for about three years. I started seeing a therapist to work on the mental and emotional pieces. I pushed through the physical pain of walking and started changing my eating habits, to prove to myself I could follow the program.

I'm 6 months post-op next week, down 70 pounds overall. After surgery, the restriction affects me and helps me the most. I want to be healthy, and since I can eat so little, I have to make my food decisions based on nutrition. If I slip (as I do), the sleeve means I can't eat much of an unhealthy choice.

Now, for the first time in many years, my body doesn't hold me back from doing what I want to do. I have my life back, and I absolutely don't believe that would have happened without my surgery.