I considered WLS before I did a ton of reading and realized it's just a tool to force me to do something for life that I was perfectly capable of doing on my own: CICO. That's it.

WLS is just a tool to force you to stick to CICO or else you'll get sick. I admire people who get WLS and are successful because they had to learn a hard lesson of minding what they eat on top of suddenly not being able to effectively absorb as many nutrients or handle drinking as much water in a sitting, etc. The people who looked at it as a "magic bullet" vs. a built in CICO tool are the people who failed and stretched their stomachs back out.

Every day on this journey I'm grateful that I found the willpower to do it on my own. I may have gotten to my goal weight much faster with WLS but I'm happy to take the extra time without the side effects.

Funny story: Wanna know what the final "oh fuck that" moment was when I was considering WLS? I love energy drinks and read that I couldn't drink them anymore if I got WLS because you can't have carbonation. It's so funny that this was the nail in the coffin for me but I am what I am