Please share your turning moment u decided to really wanted or need to lose weight

I had come off a year of dealing with my Mom's stage 4 melanoma. She was given a very small chance to make it but went throught some clinical trials and is now clear of cancer(For now!). I am an only child so alot was put onto me. During this time my weight exploded. At the end of last year my eating was so out of control I could not take it anymore. My PCP prescribed appetite suppressants but I tend to sabotage myself and did not lose a lot. Then my Grandbaby was born and I realized that life is just to damn short to exist the way I was. I needed to devote 2007 to healing me of all the issues I was dealing with. By taking care of myself, I could do more for my family also. Life before was a type of prison. I didn't move much-it hurt and i got tired easily. I didn't go to the kid's game-always had some excuse. Main thing I wanted to do was sit in my recliner, watch TV and EAT. That was it, the sum total of my existence. Thank goodness, my PCP asked if I wanted a referral to the WLS. I had never dared ask because I just figured I could not afford it and my insurance was and HMO so I figured it wasn't covered. Imagine my surprise when I found out how easy my insurance was about WLS. You know Lisa, this thread is hard, I am really having to relive some very ugly uncomfortable truths and once I sort those out I will get back to you...

My turning moment was a combination of two things. First, I had some test results come back showing that my organs were losing their functionality. Second, I went to see the Body Worlds exhibit. If you're not familiar, its a traveling exhibit of actual (dead) human bodies, parts. It was fascinating to see the difference between healthy organs and non-healthy ones... and how diseases affect those organs. At the end, they had a cross section of an overweight person there, and it showed how all the fat in his body pushed all his organs over to a small pocket. I really hit home for me. My own mortality was stark. Staring me in the face. I knew I had no choice. I had to get the weight or it would get me. That's when I got serious about RNY, almost desperate about it. I ran from appt to appt doing anything and everything the surgeon wanted as fast as i could. I didn't want the window of opportunity to pass me by. I am so glad now that I did. I wouldn't change this decision for a million dollars.

I have had so many turning points in my life..............started so many diets and even had gastroplasty in 1982. About 15 years ago, I just gave up on dieting.I was done! No more! My weight crept up to 345 pounds but Icarried on. The true turning point for the gastric bypass was my daughter. She is 13 years old and I am a single mom, all she's got. It was so hard for me to face the fact......but, my darling darling was ashamed of me!!! Now, we know teenagers are ashamed of their parents, even if they are gorgeous, successful and super wealthy. But, here was my baby, asking me to leave her at the mall, on the other side from where she was to meet her friends. My heart broke,,,,,not only for me, but for her! I remember just a few years ago when ashe would see someone fat . She was always kind and never saw me as that way. She looked at me through the eyes of love. But not anymore. I recently said something to her about it and she did admit that she was "kinda embarassed." And she apologized for it. Hopefully, she will want to show me off from now on! In spite of everything, she did not want me to hve the surgery, She was afraid I would die. Now, she is happy I had it. So, we are back to being a happy little family.

I just got sick and tired of not being able to do anything. I had to (and still have to) sit on my bed to put my socks on and that is accomplished by squirming around so I can reach my feet, although that seems to be getting easier now. I have to buy cheap velcro sneakers cuz it's just too hard to tie ones with laces, and I work like 10+ hours on my feet pretty much every day, these shoes don't last that long, even though I wear them like for 3 years if I can, because I just can't afford better ones. as I've mention many many times before, the one thing I enjoy doing more than anything in this world is horseback riding, and I had to give that up because it was just getting too hard to get on and off, which made my depression worse than ever. I will be 30 years old next year, and I've never dated or had any real friends, well, not very many anyways. I'm pretty much a recluse. If I didnt have to go to work, I'd probably never leave my apartment, and I usually don't, unless it's to go work out or something. This is a little crazy, but I finally came to the conclusion that I was basically committing a slow suicide by eating myself to death. I just didn't care about anything any more and if this was what my life was, the shorter the better. My doc actually suggested surgery to me like more than 5 years ago, but at the time, I didn't think my insurance would cover, I don't know if it would have then or not. I tried everything, meridia, slimfast, weigh****chers, curves, you name it. I spent most of my college years basically as an anorexic, I maybe ate once a day. but I would binge sometimes, which put lots of weight on. I'm still struggling with a lot of issues right now. I know that the surgery and weight loss won't fix me, but hopefully it will help.

My turning point was having to buy an extra seat on Southwest Airlines last year during a business trip. I had to get to Chicago so I had no choice. The ticket person at the counter was loud enough for everyone in a 15 foot radius to hear as well. All I wanted was a seatbelt extension and thanks to the ticket person, I wanted to die from embarressment. Not to mention, I needed to rehash the embarressment again while submitting my expense report when I got back to New York. I had to explain the entire situation and then deal with the looks of pity from the A/P person in my company. The whole experience was the "final straw"...

They made u buy another ticket??????????? Holy cow I heard of that before but never knew they made someone actually pay for extra seat.. shame on southwest airlines.. I fly alot and I never had to pay for 2 seats .. I am sooooooooooooo sorry this happened to u... this is soooooooooooo sad , people can be so cruel My hubby just traveled to alaska and he was sitting next to a guy that was 350 lbs at least and he embarresed he hung over into my hubby seat and hubby told him hey look i was u a year ago i had gastric by pass so i feel your pain and after sitting with him and talking about WLS hubby said this guy decided he would look into wls. hubby tells everyone it is worth it.. hugs Lisa

lets see my main turning point was when I went to the Dr and could no longer be weighed. I was so embarrassed and I cried like a baby when I got back in the room. That was when I decided to go self pay instead of waiting. I had been waiting for 4 years and been to 3 different programs. I finally just said my life is falling apart. I can't walk for more then 5 min without back pain. I was getting to where I didn't want to leave my house ever. I had sleep apnea, and diabetes and high cholesterol. I was taking an aspirin a day hello I am 30!!! today I only take my thyroid pill and my vitamins. I am SO grateful I found Dr frantzides I only had to pay his fee. My insurance covered the hospital and all that. I now have a car payment each month but it is worth it I am healthy and happy and living my life!!

Lisa, Your posts had me laughing out loud so hard, my dogs think I'm crazy! I don't know if I had a "turning point." I also had gastroplasty in 1999 and I think when I took my job in feb 2006, I knew I was going to have bypass, since the company paid for it. The only thing I had to do was worry about my family's concerns, disguised as resistance, especially after the first surgery didn't work (read my story on my page). I actually had very little, if any, resistance from them. My mom was first and she was all for it . Then, after spending 4 days w/ dad's family in el paso, where I was one of the smaller ones, I told my dad. Our entire family is pretty much super overweight, plus almost every one of them has diabetes, or high BP, so I think it was the right time to tell him, after he saw where I was headed if I didn't do it. Then my big bro, who just said, "wow." and then kinda tuned out of the process from there (strange, since he is my best friend). So, even though I didn't have a "turning point" here are a couple of "real thoughts" that I know: I know the world still views fat people as the one group that it's acceptable to hold back. I know that, for all the brains, ivy-league degrees, timely one-liners, and schmoozing, I can still only go so far as a fat person. I know that people sometimes aren't able to trust a fat chick w/ their money, future, or business, and I didn't want that to be the reason I didn't get that "next" position. I know that, being overweight AND a smoker, I was destined to live a short life and I'm having too much fun to cut this short, so it was just time for me. I know that I deserve better. I know that my body deserves better. I know that my soul deserves to be free.