donna N.
I'm an RN, a mom, and a wife. I'm 52 years young, and have battled with my weight since childhood, when I was very seriously ill. Weight-wise, I've had successes and failures along the way, yo-yoed up and down and back again more times than I can count. When I was 42, I began setting solid, measurable goals for myself. Equally important, I began acheiving them. I did not let obesity stop me. My all time high weight was about 249lbs. Despite that, in the past ten years I have: gone to college and become an RN, attained certification in a specialy field, gotten out of a 30 year marriage that had gone totally toxic, found my soulmate and remarried, become licensed to drive a motorcycle (had been as a kid and then had let it lapse) and gotten a Class A Commercial driver's license, and earned a blackbelt in kenpo karate. (Let me tell you, earning a black belt in your late fourties is tough.... even tougher when you are obese and most of the other students in your class are 20-30 years your junior!)
At this point I am very happy with every aspect of my life EXCEPT MY WEIGHT.
Although I am no longer at my highest weight, I have been obese for the last 20 years of my life. The times I have managed to lose 20-30 pounds it has come right back on. And even when I did manage to lose those pounds, I was still obese and never acheived the full weight loss that I needed for the sake of health and/or self esteem.
This year I had an epiphany of sorts. After all these years, it suddenly dawned on me that when I have succeeded in reaching a goal, it has been the only goal I was working on and I went after it with a single minded determination. The light bulb suddenly went on! I have been making weight loss a secondary goal all these years. I was always going to do something AND lose weight. How simple! How profound! How dumb have I been all these years when the answer is so basic. Make weight loss THE goal. I've researched, thoroughly. I've decided. Surgery is my best option.
Let me be very clear on this. No one is pushing me to do this, although I'm lucky to have the support of my loved ones. This is for me. It's my body and my life and now is the time to lose the weight, for good.
