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

I was overweight in kindergarten, obese by the time I was in 2nd grade, morbidly obese by 6th grade and super-morbidly obese upon my entry to high school. From the time I was 5 years old I was on a diet, continuously yo-yoing up and down. Prior to WLS I had lost and regained well over a thousand pounds. I am intelligent, driven, a hard worker and was successful at everything I set my mind to. Except the one thing that mattered most... getting and staying healthy.

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

The physical disability... not being able to walk 1 block without having to stop because I couldn't breath and my legs couldn't carry me any farther. Being so tired that all I could do was work, eat, sleep and get up and do it again. Having the elevator break down at work and not be able to walk up the stairs to the 3rd floor. The constant joint pain.

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

For the first time in my remembered life I have physical freedom! I love dancing, biking, walking, and jumping on my rebounder. Oh... and I LOVE that I can now run up the stairs without even getting short of breath. One of my most humiliating moments pre-WLS was having to call my boss and tell her I couldn't climb the two flights of stairs to get to my office when the elevator was broken. Running up those stairs affirm my freedom and success over and over again!