Karen_S.
Well, my story is probably similar to many folks'. I have always been heavy and always had an unhealthy relationship with food. My dear grandmother would tell me "You have such a pretty face, if you could only lose some weight.... " and then would proceed to offer me seconds on my dinner plate.
After I graduated from college in 1991 I decided I should do something about my weight. I had gone up to 301 pounds and at the time had a co-worker who had gone to a local doc for heavy-duty weight loss drugs (basically phen-fen and some other stuff thrown in). I did that for 3 months and lost a bunch of weight, and kept losing a little bit all the way up to my wedding (10/93) when I weighed 219. Keep in mind I am 6'1", my goal weight is around 195 so I wasn't too far off of that. I swore I wouldn't gain it back.... but I did, and then some.
Fast forward 13 years to September 2006. By that time I had an 8 1/2 year old son who is autistic and twin girls who were 4 months old. I now weigh about 420. I had been thinking of having WLS for a long time and I decided while I was pregnant with the twins that after they were born, it was finally time! I had my initial consult with Dr. Curry on 9/21/06. I have great insurance and I know weight loss surgery is covered 100% so I go find out what hoops I have to jump through and I'm on my way. His office staff was so supportive and nice and I really appreciated their help with everything!
4/20/2007 Band Day! I had finally jumped through all my hoops properly so I was on the table getting my band.
Here are my "little goals" for my weight loss journey, most of these were sort of landmark weights for me as I was on my way up to where I am now:
380 - first goal, no particular reason, almost there!
378 - my BMI will be under 50
354 - weight after having my second child (7/99)
348 - weight right before my first child was born (12/97)
340 - my BMI will be under 45
330 - weight after my first child was born (12/97)
302 - my BMI will be under 40
301 - weight when I started taking drugs for weight loss (1/92)
264 - my BMI will be under 35
254 - weight at high school graduation (6/87, God I'm old!!)
227 - my BMI will be under 30
219 - weight the day I got married (10/93)
200 - weight on my driver's license since 1986
195ish - final goal! According to BMI calculators my final goal should be 189 (BMI 24.9) however I am a big bone, large framed 6'1" woman of German descent so we'll see once I get to Onederland what my final goal will be. At my lowest adult weight (219) I looked pretty darn good!
I have no doubt that it will take me a long time to get to my goal. I'm OK with that, as long as the scale is going in the right direction.
