I don't know if my story is typical or not, but here it is. Growing up, I was never interested in food. I hardly ever got "hungry". I never snacked. Often, the only indication I got that I need to eat was I'd become tired and irritable when my sugar levels would start to drop.

I was a healthy weight throughout my childhood and through high school. I wasn't one of those skinny girls - I always carried around about 15 pounds that I could have lost - but I was not very atheletic or active.

In my second semester of college, I misdiagnosed as having clinical depression. That's when all my troubles started. I was put on all kinds of anti-depressants that caused my weight to go up and down like an elevator. Over 3 years, my lowest weight was probably 130 and my highest was 200. As my mood got worse and worse on these meds, I switched doctors and, thinking I was bipolar, he took me off the antidepressants and put me on an anti-convulsive. My weight started dropping rapidly from 200 lbs and finally settled around 150 within a few months.

Things began to calm down and we began to realize that I probably wasn't depressed or bipolar at all. Some blood work showed I had hypothyroidism. I got put on Synthroid and my doctors recommended I stay on the anti-convulsants to help with my migraines.

After college, I ended up meeting my husband. He is a very active person and I went from being a totally inactive person to someone who backpacks, geocaches, hikes, snowboards, mountain bikes, and kayaks. We moved to Montana from Minnesota and that's where my current troubles began.

After we had been out here for a while, I started getting strange pains in my lower abdomen whenever I'd exercise. I didn't have a family doctor to see out here, so I ended up seeing a gynocologist because this pain would get worse during my period. The pain began to get worse and more frequent, and they suspected endometriosis. As I waited for appointment after appointment, the pain became constant and I became trapped in our house because the pain would get so intense if I tried walking. After 5 months of this, I finally was able to have surgery. They found a lot of endometriosis and lasered a lot of it out. By this time, due to going from being very active to disabled, I had gained about 2-3 pant sizes.

The recovery from the surgery took about 2 months for me, and it was another month after that that the constant endo pain finally went away. I figured that I was moving around now, so my weight gain should stop. Well it didn't. Another 6 months went by, and I had gained about 50 pounds! I finally had the money (had been either underemployed or unemployed since moving out to Billings) to see a family doctor. She did some blood work and saw that I was very hypothyroid again. (TSH levels around 16). We got that taken care of, but suddenly all these other problems began cropping up. I had been noticeably tired & exhausted since my surgery. I was referred to a sleep clinic and we found out I had sleep apnea. Plus, my parathyroid levels were way too high, so now I'm seeing an endocrinologist for hyperparathyroidism. Anyway, my motivation for getting weight loss surgery was the day I met the wife of my husband's friend. When I first met her, I was a bit dismayed because she was one of those "blonde skinny girls" who I'd have nothing in common with. It turns out, she had weight loss surgery a year earlier! That did it for me! I joined a doctor supervised weight loss program and I've been in it for 3 months. I'm now trying to figure out where to get this done and if my insurance will pay for it or not. I'm just about sold on the lap-band procedure. I contacted the only place in Montana that does it (Great Falls, MT, about 4 hours away).

 I had my surgery on June 5, the day before my birthday. So it really was like being born again. I had a terrible time recovering. No complications, I just really wasn't doing well with all that anesthesia in my system plus pain meds, and all the other meds I had to take.

When I went in for my 6 month follow-up appointment, the surgeon said I was already at his goal weight which was around 145lbs. Well, that wasn't my goal. I didn't go through all that pain and expense to just lose 80lbs. I've continued to lose weight, and currently I'm bouncing around the 130lb mark. I just need to lose 10 more pounds to get to my personal goal. With Summer just around the corner, it won't be a problem. Being active by mountain biking, backpacking, Geocaching, and playing on our company's softball team, I have a feeling the pounds are going to fall off.

We're already planning our backpacking trips, and I have to start buying all new performance clothing. It's weird - I can actually go into an outdoors store, and FIT into the clothes. Not only do I fit, I'm having to find mediums or small pants, and medium or small tops. Even when I was a normal weight before I gained all my weight I couldn't always fit comfortably into those outdoor clothes. They're cut for people who are active, so they tend to run small. I just bought a cute pair of North Face petite capri pants in size small. I wore them to softball practice, and they were so great for running around in. I guess I'm just excited that I actually look like I belong in these places now.

Now I need to start saving for my plastic surgery. I have lots of excess skin on my tummy, upper arms, thighs, and boobs. I need a full body lift. I think if I was 50 or something I wouldn't bother with it, but I'm not even 30 yet, so I have a lot of years left in body, and may as well enjoy it. Flaunt it while I can!