I thank God routinely that WLS was not available to me 5 years ago. I would have completely eaten around it. I had not resolved my crap self esteem and medicating stress in my life with food. You may not want to hear this but now the surgical community completely realizes that 90% of your success is the psych portion, not the surgery. Medical professionals are completely rated on outcomes now. History of bad outcomes results in your clinic being removed by insurance as a provider. Losing a Blue Cross Ins contract will bankrupt most clinics in TN. My insurance would only cover 2 clinics in my state. The 2 clinics with the highest success rate 5 yrs out. Both of which required extensive psych evaluations. There is a huge amount of mental stress after the surgery. Pts with a negative body image and low self esteem account for a majority of WLS failures. The surgery does nothing to cure food addiction, i.e. medicating stress with food. Anyone can out eat WLS. And all the crap of life is still there after surgery. I worked on my self esteem and food addiction issues for a year and a half with my priest prior to even considering surgery. I still have a sit down with him every month. Even then I had a 6 month ins waiting/supervised diet period. I also went to lots of support group meetings prior to surgery and will continue to go the rest of my life. Like other addictions I am always in a state of recovery. This may upset you but you may have been given the best gift, the gift of future success. If you can love you unreservedly exactly as you are in this moment you will be well on your way. Obesity is not all about what you eat, it is mostly about why you eat. Don't give up, work with your counselor and time will race by. Good luck.

That has to be very frustrating. I would have taken that hard too. I think timing is important in this though- as much as getting food and eating issues sorted out. I had to learn to be selfish to make this work, to leave my family for a few hours a week to work out, to cook with myself as the focus first and to insist on the time and resources needed to have the best results from surgery. If I had tried to do this a few years ago, it would not have worked. I know I never like it when my timeline is decided by others, but it usually works out for the best.

Since I not have experienced the non-recommendation myself, I don't know how that feels, but I do know that surgery is just a tool to lose the weight. It doesn't fix the brain so it can't take away the cravings or eating your feelings, etc. These things you have to learn to deal with in order to be successful with or without weightloss surgery.
I know I personally thought the surgery would help me have a normal relationship with food once I had lost the weight. WRONG! I'm not exactly sure what a normal relationship with food is, but I know I don't have one. I still have to watch what I eat and exercise or the weight creeps back on. Can I have the things I like? Sure just in small portions and not all the time. No food is strictly forbidden, but you must continue to make good choices or the weight comes back. Also, I am a grazer and surgery definitely doesn't fix the wanting to graze all day and grazing is still possible after surgery so you have to work on the head to fix those kinds of compulsions.