I was scheduled to have abdononoplasty July 13. When my dr got my pre op labs (3weeks prior) he told me that because my a1c was a 9.2 I was too high risk.

Now I'm sharing this for a few reasons- which I will get into shortly. I just want to give some background.

In 2007 I got gestational diabetes and was diagnosed at 30 weeks. I was in oral meds and did ok with my diet. In 2013 at 9 weeks pregnant I was sooooo sick and asked them to check my glucose. They informed me they didn't do that until 30 weeks. I convinced them to test me anyway and at week 10 I was told that my glucose was at "dangerous" levels and that I had probably developed type two in the 7 years between, but I was never tested.

I was put on bed rest a few weeks later and forced to leave my job (teaching) because I was so ill. Over the course of my pregnancy I was on four different types of insulin and they wanted to put me on a pump, but I felt like that would be giving in and giving up. I was crazy careful with my diet- I didn't want to put my baby at risk. At 7 months I was flown flight for life because I was hypertensive. I was put on oxygen 24/7 and that seemed to help and they sent me him. 5 weeks later I had my daughter. She was 10.1 pounds and because of my uncontrolled diabetes, she had to be flown flight for life to spend 12 days in NICU because she could not regulate her blood sugar. The last 19 days of my pregnancy I gained 24 pounds due to sever water retention.

My daughter turned two in June. I was determined to fix the damage to my abs and get rid of the excess skin... I was just waiting until I was two years post partum.

When my doctor said I was too high risk- it devastated me. I had a plan!

In many ways my plan was a short cut for discipline and hard work.

Since then, I had been monitoring, monitoring, monitoring. My BG continued to be crazy high. 220-400 range. I ran out of strips the last week in July and was going to wait until I got paid on the 30th to get more. (The ones I had were expired- didn't plan on running out) Well- life happened and I waited to order them until last week.

I've had MFP for years, but never really utilized it, never tried the community, didn't use macros. The last two weeks I have been working out, tracking my food, and more importantly my carbs.

My strips came in yesterday and when I checked my post meal BG it was 125!!! And that is without Metformin (which I am on, but the dr needs to ok my refill and he is out of town or something- small town)

So- my Dr telling me that I was too high risk pushed me to push myself.

BUT... I just called them and canceled my surgery. I have come to the realization that this is going to be a long term journey and one that I am going to do for my health. Not to lower my a1c enough for surgery- and then keep doing what I was doing before the surgery.

I will get the surgery, but it will be when I have developed the skills and lifestyle to be healthy.

My goals are to be medication free and active for the rest of my life. That means LCHF and getting my body moving.

I'm excited and motivated about my new way of eating and activity. That is not something I anticipated two months ago.

I'm going to use the money that was going to pay for my surgery to pay off our cruise and the rest will be put away for when I think I'm ready. At this point I'm ok with it being a year or even two from now.

I have found that this group has been a huge part of my motivation to keep going. So- thank you!!