Describe your behavioral and emotional battle with weight control before learning about bariatric surgery.

My God, this has always been a battle for me. Nothing embarrassed me more than my grandmother counting out how many Saltine crackers I could have, and repeatedly pointing out that my cheese had to be so thin you could read the newspaper through. I quess that as far as encouragement goes, that was the best she could really offer. But Lordy, that was not what I needed. Thankfully, I really thinned out during my high school years, but of course the boys noticed. I got pregnant my senior year and had a beautiful girl who looks just like but always insists that I don't understand anything in her life. However, my thyroid "broke" when I was pregnant. I have huge goiters now, and we can't seem to get the stupid hormone levels right. I sort of wish we could just take it out and accept that I will have to be on hormones for life. Anyway, the bean burritos I craved while I was pregnant stuck around for about 10 more years before I did anything about it.

What was (is) the worst thing about being overweight?

Ah, there are so many things to hate about being fat. First is feeling like people are always watching you, especially when you eat. Once, during a celebration of some sort, I ordered a Chicken Fried Steak. This is something I NEVER give myself the pleasure of eating, mostly for my arteries' sake. However, the restaurant was knows for their, and we were celebrating, so what they hay, right? A short few minutes after our food arrived and I was happily dividing my steak up into bite sized sections, one teenager at a table nearby said to one of his friends, amidst their constant twittering, "yeah, no wonder she's so fat. Look at that Chicken Fried Steak!" His gallant friend replied that their should be a scale by the front door that tells customers when they are too fat to order such greasy, fatty food. Second, I hate buying clothes. Nothing ever fits right and I feel like nothing ever looks good. I know plenty of plus sized people who look fine, but I don't ever feel like that is me. Third, I hate that you can't just quit eating. If you are an alcoholic, you can stop drinking. If you are a drug addict, you can stop doing the drugs. You can't quit eating because you are overweight. Lastly, I hate that I can't do things with my kids. I took my kiddos to the Pleasure Pier, and while I was able to tell by looking most of the rides I wouldn't fit into, I misjudged one and was horrified when the over-the-head lock would not latch. I had to leave my kid on the ride and was in tears as I walked off. My kids deserve a mom who can do stuff with them.

If you have had weight loss surgery already, what things do you most enjoy doing now that you weren't able to do before?

Rather than discuss where I was pre-op (Lap Band 2005) and pre Revision to Band Removal and Gastric Imbrication (01/10/2012), which were both miserable times for me, I would like to talk about the brief year I had where everything was going right, I was loosing weight, and finally enjoying my life once again. It was amazing. As you can tell from one of my earlier comments, I am a shopper. It was amazing to me to walk into any clothing retailer and find clothing that fit me. Sometimes I would got into expensive stores and try on expensive things just because I could. One my delights has always been good shoes, and, when I lost the weight, I lost a lot of width and puffiness in my feet. I was free to frolick in high heels once again! In my older youth, I had been very active in my Girl Scout Council's canoe program. I loved canoeing Texas Whitewater (small rivers, very cunning though). I finally reached a point where I was not only able to kneel in my boat again, but was actually a very good paddler, which helped me become a good leader among canoeists. I also loved it that my weight finally dropped low enough that I could take my kids horseback riding, should I ever want to. Not on my agenda right now, but maybe... The greatest part of losing the weight was the overall sense of achieving an outer image of what I felt inside.