I have a couple of friends (and my mom) who've had the bariatric surgery, and they make you lose some weight before you have it, I think to make it safer to do surgery. Unfortunately you can un-do even the weight loss via surgery, which is sad.

I also have several friends who've gone the vegan route, and they are a bit annoying with their vegan evangelism! But I know what I'm like during Lent, which is basically a vegan diet with a bit of fish- and I do not like that person! I like me a lot better with a moderate amount of animal products!

So I'm following Michael Pollan's Seven Word Diet: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants. ('Food', according to Pollan, is real food, not processed stuff- if your great-grandmother would not recognize it as food, it shouldn't go in your mouth.) Down 43 pounds, and since I'm not spending money on cr@p in boxes and cans, my grocery bill has gone down. Most of my food is in my produce drawer.

I still go for the occasional meal out, and the milkshakes at Burgerville... *sigh* I do have a treat now and then. But heavens, nothing like our last pente pastor's wife, who had several 'treats' every day to assuage the difficulties and denials of dieting!