Describe your behavioral and emotional battle with weight control before learning about bariatric surgery.
I have always been heavy, always. I was a big baby (over 10 lbs at birth), was well over 100 lbs by the first grade, 200 lbs by the time I was a freshman in high school and 300 lbs by the time I hit 20. I tried many diets, but none of them ever worked for me. Food was everything for me, I ate when I was happy, when I was sad, when I was stressed, it was my coping mechanism for everything. There was nothing in life that could not be fixed by a double cheeseburger (although that too was a lie, and deep down I knew it!)
I understood that I was killing myself, but felt like there was little or nothing I could do to change my weight since I had tried so many things and failed so many times. I felt hopeless and broken and lost, especially after I started a family and found out how hard it was to care for my family when I could barely care for myself.
What was (is) the worst thing about being overweight?
The worst thing for me was that I could not be the mom, wife and friend that I wanted to be. My weight kept me in the house because I was ashamed and embarrassed by my size and my inability to do many of the things my friends and family could do. I missed out on so much of my life because of my weight.
If you have had weight loss surgery already, what things do you most enjoy doing now that you weren't able to do before?
Wow, that is a hard question. There are SO many things that I enjoy now that I could not before my weight loss, just this summer I was able to ride every ride in an amusement park, take my kids to the beach, hike with my family, ride 14 miles of trail with them, run my first 5k and participate in things like camping and horse back riding, all of which I would have found impossible before my surgery.
I am more active now then I have every been in my life, I can enjoy whatever I am doing in the moment because I have become fearless and adventurous. I want to make up for all the time I lost being trapped by my obesity.
tripmom02
