My Story


My History With Fat
I was not a fat little kid. I wasn't above average size until late elementary. I had two cousins that I was close with, and one was always larger than me, so that made me feel quite thin and not overweight. However in junior high school, I became more accutely aware of how my body size affected my life. I found that I didn't have as many friends, and since I was bigger I felt left out. I wanted to play volleyball and basketball, but because I was a little overweight, I actually felt that I shouldn't be doing these activites! I wonder if I had been encouraged to pursue sports by teachers/coaches/parents, if I would have lost weight and been more active? Well on to high school and now I am feeling even more outcasted. I have boyfriends on and off and do well in school, but socially I still feel bad. I dealt with depression all through high school, partly weight-related I believe. As far as history goes, I have a family history of obesity. My mother and father are both quite overweight and various grandparents, aunts and uncles on both sides are obese.

Why Lose Now?
Well I have been with my husband, Justin, since 1996. I had taken a diet drug my senior year of high school and had gotten down to around a size 12/14 previous to meeting him. After we got together and I stopped taking the drug (it gave me horrible stomach cramps) I slowly gained weight. All my dieting attempts failed and the pounds kept packing them selves on. Finally in around May of 2002 I bought a scale and saw that I was creeping close to 300lbs...That SHOCKED me! I mean sure, my clothes had been getting tight, but surely I wasn't THAT big... Well that was a real wake up call for me and I decided that I needed to do something serious!

How Am I Losing The Weight?
It was in June of last year that I seriously started considering Bariatric Surgery. Sure, I had seen it on t.v like everyone else, but before I realized how fat I was getting, I thought it was too extreme. I thought only the very fattest FATTTESST people got it. But I was scared- almost everyone in my family has diabetes and high blood pressure. My mom was just going in for surgery to get her hip replaced, due in part to her weight grinding it away. So I read my insurance company's policy regarding Weight Loss Surgery (WLS). Because I was 200% of my ideal weight, I qualified and had the surgery September 5th, 2002. It is NOT a quick fix. It is NOT the easy way out. You DO need self control. You DO need to eat healthy. You DO need to excercise. I just can't stress those things enough. Many people have the misconception that this surgery will make you lose all your weight without any effort on your part. That is absolutely not true. It is very hard work, and you have to do your part.