Brenda C.
My weight loss 'story' starts at a very young age, although I wasn't heavy all my life. The first time that I remember having a weight crisis I was about 11 or 12 years old. Most called me either 'CHUNKY' or it was just 'BABY FAT' which I resented because...1) I wasn't a baby anymore...2) sheeees! I was almost a teenager!! I am of Italian decent and as most Italians know...food is the center of our world. No one was allowed to ever leave our house without eating (something or another that might have started out as 'just a peice of pie' but ended as a 'full course meal') And if you couldn't eat it all...you were taking it with you to eat later. We had large family meals when someone was born, when someone died, when someone got married, when someone got divorced (just kidding on that one but you get the idea, right?) 
And just as probably 96% of the average American household, we were always made to feel guilty about the 'poor, starving children in the world', by not finishing every drop, every morsel, every grunion (grunion, what's that? I don't know but it sounded good) of food on our plate.
Then at the tender age of 15, I lost the x-tra weight because the 'boys' all of a sudden didn't all look like 'nerds' and some were actually 'fine'. So I kept my 'bodacious body' weight where it was, well, bodacious, until I was in my early twenties.
Then all at once my life changed dramatically. My dear, loving, awesome mom had a stroke and my step-father was bedridden at the time so I moved in with them and took care of them 24/7. Mom passed 1 year later, and my step-pop 7 years later. I also had temporary custody of a 5 yr. old nephew. I was overloaded (to say the least) emotionally, financially, physically...and there was no time for myself. Too much to do.
Not much else to say, really, except from then until now my weight had always fluctuated UP & DOWN...UP & DOWN......UNTIL...O M G!!! Say it ain't so!!!! I WOKE UP ONE MORNING and just happened to glance at the mirror as I was walking by...OH NO! You've got to be kidding!!! hey, Did someone put one of those funny mirrors from Hershey Park's FUNHOUSE in here while I was sleeping?? C'mon...That's not ME!! I was suddenly over 200 lbs. that had literally 'snuck up on me' when I wasn't even looking! I was in my middle 40's and had high blood pressure, severe sleep apnea and I smoked! And diabetes wasn't too far into the future. I was a walking, ticking time bomb just waiting to explode, sending me into never-ever- never-land. (wherever that is). All I knew was I would never get to see my neices and nephews grow up...I would never get to do all the things I wanted to do in the few years I had left on this wonderful planet. And it made me ANGRY!
Angry enough to have done every diet known to man and spent a few thousand dollars (mucho dinero) on diet plans, diet pills, diet programs, diet this, diet that...OH, here we go again...UP, DOWN, UP, DOWN....same ole' same ole'. Nothin' changes if nothin changes...Then I met a woman who was in the bariatric program in the Hershey Med Center and it's changed my life, gave me hope, and I haven't even had the surgery yet!!! 
Awesome, right?
I no longer smoke... (thanks to one of the the rules of having this surgery, & the drug Chantix!) I have learned how to eat well, the right way, the healthy way. I'm in the process of having a life-altering surgery (LAP RNY) and though extreme as it is...and knowing it won't be easy-going at times, and it's not a cure-all but a means to an end...I am still happy and grateful to be given the chance for Weight Loss Surgery.
And right now I'm just happy as a bug in a rug for ALL OF US AT ALL STAGES OF THE PROCESS (PRE, POST, WHATEVER). and I want to thank all Post-Surgery People who take the time to come on this site to 'pay it forward' so to speak, by sharing and caring enough to help out us 'newbies'. Thank you so much!!!!!! You're all such AWESOME PEOPLE!!!!
NAMASTE' TO EVERY ONE OF YOU!
God Bless......BizzyB
