MY WL JOURNEY

I have started and stalled my weight loss journey since around 2004.

Sometime in 2004 my friend joined Weight Watchers & after seeing her success with it I signed up too. I lost about 30 lbs before I fell off the wagon. I had gone from 260 lbs to 230 lbs.

From 2006 to 2011 I allowed my weight to climb, one day I got on the scale and saw 314 lbs. staring back at me. I had never seen a number 3 at the front of my weight before. It scared me and I got serious about getting my weight under control. By 2012 I had lost a total of 115 lbs.

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I lost weight the "old-fashioned" way by counting calories and exercising. I spent half of 2011 struggling with the new Weight Watchers program. I wasn't losing weight on it the way I had before. Around the middle of 2011 I quit following WW and started using My Fitness Pal to count calories and the weight really started to come off. Disclaimer: I have nothing against WW. It's a wonderful program and it works for A LOT of people. It just wasn't working for me. I also started running using the Couch to 5k app and completely fell in love with it! I ran my first 5k on Thanksgiving Day 2011. I also started strength training & found that I really enjoyed that too!

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At the end of 2011 I graduated college and by April of 2012 I had found a job in a new state & moved away from all my family and friends. I kept most of the weight off the year I was there but still gained about 20 lbs.

At the beginning of 2013 I moved back near my hometown and completely quit tracking my food intake and exercising. I was eating crap all the time. Fast food every night. Some nights I would eat a whole pizza by myself (meat lovers stuffed crust from Pizza Hut was my fav). I refused to step on the scale. I knew I was out of control but I didn't care enough to stop. Oh, I guess I cared a little bit because when I looked at myself in the mirror all I felt was disgust. Every once in a while I would try to do better and I would start counting calories again and try to walk on my treadmill. I'd do okay for a couple of weeks before I allowed myself to fall back into the same old, bad habits again. I tried to start running again but I was so disappointed with how out of shape I was that I couldn't stand to do it. My heart wasn't in it even though it felt like it was at the time.

I got married November 4th, 2016. Everything was perfect and I felt beautiful. That is, until I saw our wedding photos. I tried my best to love them because they are so beautifully done by one of my very best friends but I just don't like the person I see in these photos and I don't want to be that girl anymore.

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This January I stepped on the scale for the first time in years when I got a new job and signed up for their health improvement plan. I weighed in at a heartbreaking 344 lbs. No wonder I felt like crap all the time! I have been so incredibly lucky because for so long I did not have any obesity related health issues but last month when I went to my PCP my BP was high 135/72. My blood pressure has always been perfect. This really scared me! I realized that if I don't change my lifestyle, I am going to die sooner-than-later.

I have also recently discovered that "baby fever" is a real thing. And y'all, it ain't no joke! It just hit me like a freight train one day! I want to have a baby. As I am almost 32 now, I am really feeling the time crunch. I don't want to have any obesity related issues with my pregnancy and, depending on what I've read, there's a chance being obese while pregnant could negatively affect my child. Whether that is true or not, I'm not sure, but I would much rather not take the chance.

So for me right now I would say my biggest motivations are:

  1. wanting to have a baby,
  2. wanting to feel attractive and
  3. for the sake of my own health and mental well-being.

In January 2017 I decided to start counting calories and exercising again. I've been using MyFitnessPal to track my calorie consumption. I also bought an Apple Watch and I use that and try to meet my 30 min. exercise goal daily (I'm not always the best at this, exercise is still really hard for me to do). I joined the gym across the street from my work & have started going there after work now that summer has arrived and I don't enjoy exercising in these 90 degree temps here in North Carolina.

One of my good friends had VSG at the end of February and I have been eagerly following her journey thus far. She has done really well & lost quite a bit of weight already. (I can't remember the exact number but it's definitely enough to be noticable.) After watching her journey I started researching having VSG done for myself. After reading peoples experiences on forums, on IG & in FaceBook groups I decided that VSG surgery was the right choice for me. At the beginning of May I started seriously reasearching my options. Bariatric surgery was an exclusion for my insurance so that was out for me. My only option was to self pay. In the US the price was, on average, $15,000! YIKES! My friend was a self pay in Tijuana, Mexico & had a great experience. I started researching the different options in Mexico I decided to go with the same company my friend chose, A Lighter Me (ALM). My price for VSG through ALM was $4,900 & that was with me having to pay extra for having a BMI over 50. I took out a loan for $5,000 to cover the cost of the surgery. 

My surgery date is August 20, 2017 & I CANNOT wait!

 

NON WL RELATED/ABOUT ME

I got married in November 2016 to my best friend. Things haven't been easy for us since we got married, with new jobs, moving & being away from each other half the week, but we are happy. My husband is super supportive of me no matter what I want to do. I'm always wanting to try new things and changing my mind about stuff and he just goes with the flow and supports whatever crazy thing I have my mind made up on at the moment. I am a workaholic and he supports that and is really great about taking care of the things around the house whenever I forget or am too tired to do them. He's truly a great husband!

I have a 5 year old dog, a vizsla, named Rusty. He has a great personality and is always making me laugh with his silly antics. He is always so happy to see me when I get home and makes me feel like a rock star. I love him to the moon & back.

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I love playing with makeup! I am terrible at all other forms of art but it seems that makeup is an art that I am decent at and I love it. I've only ever really practiced on myself and don't think I'm very good at doing other peoples (I did do my mom's for her wedding) but doing my own is kind of like therapy to me some days. I don't wear makeup at work so I don't play with it nearly as much as I'd like to but when I do I always have fun creating something new.

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I also love to read. I have an immense book collection that keeps growing and growing. I'm already in need of another bookshelf as it is! I love to read a book and have it transport me somewhere else, inside someone else's life. I will die having lived many lives and that makes me happy.

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Written 2.25.17

Updated 6.22.17

About Me
45.6
BMI
VSG
Surgery
08/20/2017
Surgery Date
Jun 22, 2017
Member Since

Before & After
rollover to see after photo
Wedding photo - 11/4/16
340lbs

Friends 3

Latest Blog 6

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