ObesityHelp

I am an elementary school teacher who has a variety of interests! I'm a musician, I sing, compose, and play the piano. I enjoy cooking, and am what I call an amateur gourmet! I will cook for anyone who is willing to wash dishes...lol I have a great, but twisted sense of humor. I'm one of four children...the only one with weight issues. I was a skinny kid, and started eating for emotional comfort in my early teens when my parents split up. I don't blame them, but just realize that is when this cycle started. I love the mountains and the beach, and enjoy camping and white water rafting.


June 8, 2005
I've been a member of OH for a few weeks now. When I first learned about OH I was very much interested in WLS. After going through and doing a good bit of research, and meeting a number of wls post ops, I have mixed feelings. I look at myself and where I am now in my health, and what my weight and BMI is, and currently I don't have as many of the health problems that so many others I have talked to have as pre ops.

I started about 2 months ago trying to make better choices about what I was eating. Trying to increase my veggie and fruit intake to at least 3 of each a day...more than that if I could, and to make a conscious effort to start eating low fat dairy products. I'm cutting back on my carb intake, and am choosing multi grain or whole grain carbs whenever possible. I am working on getting more water into my diet...that has always been an issue for me. When I drink sodas now they are diet, and iced tea is now sweetened with Splenda.

Now that school is out, my plan is to take this summer and for the first time in my life, to start taking care of me. I'm more mindful now of myself and of what I'm eating and why I'm eating it. When I started a couple of months ago, I weighed 302 on my scales at home and at 5'10", it gave me a BMI of 43.3. As of this morning I weigh 291 with a BMI of 41.8. I'm not a habitual weigher. I don't get on the scale normally more than about once or twice a month.

Something else that I have now that I have never had before is a support system. People who are or have been obese, who know what a struggle it is. People keep asking me if I've had the surgery...which leads me to think that maybe I don't need it at this point and I can do this on my own, with effort on my part and the encouragement of those around me.