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

My name is Kala, and I am now 28 years old. I have no idea if my story will help anyone, but here it is. I had bypass a year and a half ago. I had struggled with my weight my entire life. I was always the girl with the pretty face, or the girl with the personality. I was an emontional eater. I ate when I was bored. I ate when I was upset, I ate to celebrate. Pretty much I just ate, and all of the wrong foods. In highschool and college I was pretty active, but still over weight. Then I had to have knee surgery, and it all went down hill from thre. Well thats not totally ture, everything else went down while the number on the scale and my pants sizes kept going up. At my highest I was at 402 pounds. Imagine at 26 years old being that big. Not a good feeling. I had tried all kinds of diets and exercises, but nothing ever worked long term for me. My health insurance didnt cover the surgery, so at that point, I had pretty much given up. I switched jobs and moved to a new town. An amazing oppertunity presented itself for me to have the surgery at a very discounted rated thanks to some of the doctors I work for, so of course I jumped on the chance. So here I am a year and half out of surgery, and 7 pounds away from reaching my goal.

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

This is a really hard question to answer. I think every single persons answers here will be different. For me though, I didnt feel comfortable in my own skin. I didnt want to go anywhere that would be too croweded because I didnt want to have to push all 402 pounds of myself inbetween people. So I stayed home a lot while my friends went out and had fun. I couldnt fit in just one airplane seat. I couldnt wear a tank top, I didnt own a pair of shorts. I couldnt look in the mirror. I didnt fit in the bathtub. I missed out on concerts and birthday parties and vacations because they all involved things that at 402 pounds I couldnt do or didnt feel comfortable trying.

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

I cant even begin to tell you how different things are now. There isnt anything I am affraida to try, I go out, I feel comfortable in crowds, I get to shop at normal people stores, no more fat lady stores. I can now buy just 1 palne ticket without the extra awkardness ofasking for a belt extender. I can look in the mirror again, although to be honest, sometimes I do and I dont recognize the person looking back at me. I have to be honest here though, well I wouldnt change having the surgery for anything in the world, it is NOT a piece of cake ( i know i know no cake allowed) you will have your good days and you will have your bad days, and you will have to get to know yourself all over again. Your relationships with people will change. Some for the better some not. I USED to have a friend that I hung out with all the time. We dont hang out anymore, because I am no longer her "fat friend" that she can take out and always look better than. Through this journey, you will find out who your real friends are, that I can promise you. Pray Pray Pray and Pray somemore for patience for you and everyone around you. Your hormones change all the time, you will have crazy mood swings, one day you will like something the next you wont. It just takes time to get yourself figured out again. I didnt have a support group, so I strongly encourage everyone to find one. Its always easier to talk to people who have gone through what you are going through. So here I am a year and a half later, and I couldnt be happier. Through all of the ups and downs, it was totally worth everything!