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

I remember discovering in 4th grade I was over weight. My first day of school I went to class and could barley fit in the desk. I knew the previous year I did not have that problem. From that point on I had the realization I was different. As my growing up years went on it was painfully obvious I was just fat. I and everyone knew it. Kids would make comments, but I was used to it. It still hurt though. In high school all my friends were skinny and I was just jut the fat one in the bunch. The boys would talk to me just to ask me to hook them up with my skinny friends. In high school never had ant attention from boys. I was ok with that. I was simply used to being fat. When I was 20 I had my first real job and decided I wanted to loose weight. So I went to Jenny Craig and went from 216 lbs -170 lbs. The weight loss was great but I was just starving all the time, it was very expensive, and I got tired of pre packaged food. So I gained the weight back plus more. When I was 28 I was diagnosed as a diabetic, high blood pressure, and having pcos. The doctor suggested weight loss surgery. I thought that is something I would never do. So after many attempts at weight loss and no success I finally looked at wls. July 19 2012, one day before I turned 30 I went to an appointment at UIHC about 30 minutes away and that started the wls surgery process. I had to 6 months of working with a dietician and behavior changes. I lost 6 pounds. By the time I went to the last appointment I was so fed up with it all I was in tears. Two days after that my insurance approved my gastric bypass surgery. March 6,2013 I had surgery. I've lost 18 pounds so far. There is no way I would have been able to loose this weight without the surgery giving the pocs and diabetes. I have my up and down days but I know I did the right thing and I know I'll be able to loose even more weight. 130 pounds here I come!

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

All the health problems and not being able keep up family and friends. Always having to stop and rest.

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

Well not feeling trapped by food. I now know that my stomach has a limit and I can't go past it. I'm still learning though.