Describe your behavioral and emotional battle with weight control before learning about bariatric surgery.
I have always been overweight....I remember starting first grade and knowing I was different. I can remember going to Weight Watchers in the first grade with my Mom. She didn't need to go but she took me in hopes to find a way to help me. I do realize it was for my own good now but alot of years I never just felt good enough. So through the years, I have tried to diet, tried to like exercise and have been successful only to gain it all back and then some once I went back to my old habits...a little bite here, a dinner out there, no exercise for a week and before I know it....I'm hitting the brick wall. I am an emotional eater and being from the South....we eat for ANY reason. Whether it's stress at work, birthdays, holidays, relationship issues...boom! And ideally for that few moments of relief and yes in my world it does offer relief...I feel better and know that things will be okay. I have got to find a way to channel that enegery or that need to stuff my face when my world is going at 180 mph and I can't seem to find a way to jump off!
My first biggest weight loss that I can remember is going into my Senior year of high school...I dieted all summer and lost 30 lbs...I weighed 180...so figure most girls in high school were 100-120 lbs...my twin sister weight probably 110 so even though I had lost some I was still out of porportion to the rest of the world. However, looking back in pictures...in comparison to her...I wasn't HUGE...i was just the chubby one. I was more curvaceous. As a senior though, I did start dating and the first person who asked me to marry him. I did! At 18 years old....My weight was 228 the day I went to be put on birth control pills. The doctor ofcourse gave me the talk about my weight...and from that 11 year relationship I gained 100 pounds. I don't regret the relationship....we grew up together but we grew apart, I wanted different things than he did when he was happy right where he was ofcourse all my unhappiness came after losing 70 pounds and being within 25 pounds of what I was when I married him....there was a big world to see, people to meet, I was being promoted with the Bank I worked for...time to venture out into the "REAL WORLD".
Life and weight gain certainly became a battle from then on out....I've never seem to get back to the VFT of 228...I hit a plateau usually about 245-250 and I just can't seem to get there....am I afraid? Is there something I'm holding back on.....I don't know...right now 250 is looking pretty good. That's 150 pounds away.....so you see, I am at 400 pounds....the amount I was the day I gave birth to my beautiful boy almost 9 years ago...who is the light of my life...for him and for my health, I'm taking this journey....I need to be alive for him! To stop making reckless decisions in my life and be truly happy!!!!
What was (is) the worst thing about being overweight?
The way people stare at you and make comments. Not being able to get out and be an active member of my family. At 400 pounds life isn't about going out at the drop of a hat to meet a friend for lunch. My husband having the realization that I no longer fit in a booth and is mindful to ask for a table anytime we go out to dinner together.
I want my son to be able to throw his arms around my waist and be able to reach....he started doing that a few months ago....and just finally stopped because he knew his arms would never be long enough to give me a hug around the waist!
Sweating and being out of breath just trying to get in and out of the grocery store or Wal-Mart for that matter!
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 have not had surgery yet, I am in the process of filing through the insurance...I have my psych eval, chest xray, and upper gi...to do the first week in March 2012 and it is at that time I am going to ask the PCP to send to Dr. Hart to determine if I can be approved with my insurance.
I lost 115 pounds with weight watchers in 2006-2008, hit that plateau of 246......after a 12 year single stint and one child later....I got married in 2009. Yep, you guessed it! Within 2 years if I can even say that long...it's back with another 30 pounds.
There is so much I miss about being even that weight at 245, the clothes I could buy even though they were still in the Plus size section....I no longer wore elastic waist bands, I wore Jeans for the first time in probably 10 years or more....they are still hanging in my closet waiting for me to wear again!!
I do know with this surgery I'm going to win this battle and I'm never going to do anything to get back to this rock bottom again!!
Sherry T.
