cheyanne S.
Hi everyone... So my story is simple but complicated at the same time. I am 26 years old and had my Roux-en-Y (Gastric Bypass) this past December, two days before Christmas Day. It took me approximately 10 months from start to finish in order to get the surgery, however it wasn't the act of applying for the surgery that was the difficult thing. It was the path that I took in between that was really hard for me.
Growing up, I was always the heavy kid, always the new girl, and always the outsider. As a kid, my family moved alot so I was always going to a new school every year or so and was never able to really put down any roots until it was too late. As a result, I learned to eat my feelings. I never had any friends to play with so instead, I grew a love of books- the characters in each story that I read became my best friends, and they could never hurt me. My parents, and much of my extended family, were all heavy set and had poor eatting habits. Although my mom did attempt to teach me and my brothers how to eat a balanced me, we didn't do it much. Growing up, my mom cooked a lot of carb heavy meals like goulash and spaghetti, but she always tried to pair it with a veggie of some sort whether it was a side salad, corn or green beans. Even though my mom tried her hardest, I still failed to learn to eat healthy foods and by the age of 10 I was already nearing 100 lbs.
Holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter were completely centered around the family and food, and my dad's side of the family was no exception. My grandma had three boys and a marine for a husband so she always cooked like she was feeding an army. When it came to holiday meals, it was essentially eat or go hungry. My uncles are basically gluttons and so in my family, if you didn't get something on your plate the first time around, you would be lucky if you were able to get it at all. You would also have to guard your plate because if you didn't watch out, someone would try to take things off it. NO JOKE.
Growing up, my eatting habits consisted of junk food, scarfing down my meals as fast as possible, and lots and lots of pop (soda for the non-midwesterners)- mostly mountain dew or pepsi. It got so bad that a lot of the time, I didn't even taste my food and often was the first person done at a meal, going for seconds and sometimes thirds. I had no idea about portions or how to properly weigh out my meals and as a result, I am sitting here today in the situation that I am. I could never understand how I got to be nearly 250 lbs until I had to sit down and really think about my relationship to food. I have a love/hate relationship. I love to eat it but hate myself afterwards.
It wasn't until 4 years ago that I started thinking seriously about my weight, my health and my future and I came to the realization that if I didn't do something now, It would never happen. My mom and dad, both, had the RNY surgery a few months apart from one another when I was 16. My dad had it first losing over 100lbs (starting at nearly 400), followed by my mom who lost 125lbs starting at 250 lbs. So in my last few years of my teenage life, I was able to learn a few tips and tricks to eatting properly but even a good thing can turn sour. Because of all the years growing up and eatting poorly, my body essentially went into starvation mode and with every calorie I ate of the good food, my body desperately clung to it and doubled my weight until I reached just over 200 lbs by age 19.
Ever since then, I have been fighting tooth and nail to keep the weight down but lost the battle, reaching my highest weight of 250 at my last official weigh-in with my surgeon just a week prior to the actual surgery, and losing just .4 lbs during that week leading up to it.
As a whole, I am not proud of my story by any means, but there are bits and peices within my story that I will cherish forever. Because of my choices, both prior to and after the surgery- I will never be the same person and I'm glad for it.
About Me
Before & After
rollover to see after photo
