BonnieMcC
As a child I was always aware of what other people looked like around me. At times feeling normal and other times as young as elementary school feeling overweight. I didn't let it bother me much, I wasn't obsessed. As a teen my weight fluxuated a lot but I never did much to control it either. I got married at 18 and within a couple of years I had gained about 30 pounds. This is when the yo-yo dieting began. I would go on strict diets and lose the weight and then gain it all back very quickly. I always ended up weighing more in the end that I did to start. I had my first son when I was 23. I gained 60 pounds during that pregnancy and I did Atkins and lost 50 of it. I gained 15 back pretty quickly, went through a divorce, got remarried, got pregnant again at 27 and went from 185 to 230 (full term weight). That was in 2001. I have been on just about every diet you can think of and have lost 10-20 pounds here and there. With Nutrisystem I lost 50 in 16 weeks (with extreme exercise) and gained it all back in 4 months. This person I see in the mirror and in the pictures is NOT ME. I see a stranger when I look at those pictures and it makes me want to cry. I used to be a roller coaster junkie and now I can barely fit (and some I can't fit in at all). I feel like a disappointment to my family and mostly to myself. I have been researching Lap-Band for awhile now. I went to Dr. McEwen's seminar and was just going to go with him. My husband said to do my research on doctors and different facilities/hospital/clinics and compare notes. While I haven't met with Dr. Evanson yet, I have read so many things about him and I think thats who I want to go with. I have made my initial consultation appt at the end of June. Hopefully everything will work out. I have a lot of questions and will probably be on this board a lot. I am going to my first support meeting next week with a friend who had gastric bypass with Dr. Diaz. I hope to make some new friends on here and get lots of info on the Lap-Band system.
