FatGuyInALittleCoat
My Story
Oct 22, 2010
Several years ago, someone asked my opinion on weight loss surgery. "It's for wimps!" was my reply. Everyone knows that all you need is willpower & determination to succeed in your battle against obesity. If you really want something, you can achieve it through suffering and hard work.
That was ten years ago, after I had been on a diet for about 2 months. I had lost 40 lbs! I had all the answers! This was easy! I was well on my way to becoming a lean, mean weightloss machine. But after losing 100 lbs in 6 months, I grew tired of the limited food choices. I started reverting back to my old eating habits. I had every intention of regaining control of my situation before things got too far out of hand, and continuing the weight loss. Needless to say, I never did get back on track, and within a year, the 100 lbs. were back.
Since then, I've lost 100 lbs. so many times I've lost count. Honestly. It's been four or five seperate times, and they all run together in my mind. I couldn't give you the definitive number if my life depended on it. What is amazing, is over the past decade, I have lost more than I've ever weighed.
I've known for quite awhile that I wanted to make a drastic change in my life. But I didn't have the will, strength or desire to go through another "diet." I wasn't in despair, but I had no faith in myself. I knew I would gain it all back anyway, so what was the point? I honestly wasn't even thinking about surgery. I knew that Gastric Bypass sounded very extreme, and the Lap-Band didn't sound extreme enough. I had never even heard of the VSG.
Sometimes God brings certain people or ideas in to our life at the very point when we desperately need an answer. Of all places for the answer to reveal itself... I was at my niece's birthday party. I had been enjoying an epic New Orleans food weekend. Seafood, prime rib, muffalettas, po boys, and on & on. Just that morning, I had treated myself that morning to a stomach-busting brunch buffet, and now here I was eating birthday cake.
After the party, the adults(who were nearly all overweight), started discussing the topic of dieting and losing weight. A family acquaintance was there and started talking about how she just had weight loss surgery earlier in the week. I listened in great detail as she described the VSG and how it works. I felt as though the heavens opened up and something within me said, "This is it. This is what you're supposed to do."
I spent the next days and weeks doing all the research I could about the surgery. Complications, costs, doctors, etc. I couldn't even sleep the first few nights, because I was so excited about the possibilities. I would lie awake thinking of all the things I would be able to do after I shed the burden of obesity.
Financially, I'm not at a place where I really should be spending $10,000 right now, but it's the same cost as a funeral, which is what is waiting for me in the near future if I don't make this change. I'd rather be skinny & broke than fat, broke and DEAD.
After spending the first 32 years of my life serving my body, my body is now going to serve me.
12 comments
That was ten years ago, after I had been on a diet for about 2 months. I had lost 40 lbs! I had all the answers! This was easy! I was well on my way to becoming a lean, mean weightloss machine. But after losing 100 lbs in 6 months, I grew tired of the limited food choices. I started reverting back to my old eating habits. I had every intention of regaining control of my situation before things got too far out of hand, and continuing the weight loss. Needless to say, I never did get back on track, and within a year, the 100 lbs. were back.
Since then, I've lost 100 lbs. so many times I've lost count. Honestly. It's been four or five seperate times, and they all run together in my mind. I couldn't give you the definitive number if my life depended on it. What is amazing, is over the past decade, I have lost more than I've ever weighed.
I've known for quite awhile that I wanted to make a drastic change in my life. But I didn't have the will, strength or desire to go through another "diet." I wasn't in despair, but I had no faith in myself. I knew I would gain it all back anyway, so what was the point? I honestly wasn't even thinking about surgery. I knew that Gastric Bypass sounded very extreme, and the Lap-Band didn't sound extreme enough. I had never even heard of the VSG.
Sometimes God brings certain people or ideas in to our life at the very point when we desperately need an answer. Of all places for the answer to reveal itself... I was at my niece's birthday party. I had been enjoying an epic New Orleans food weekend. Seafood, prime rib, muffalettas, po boys, and on & on. Just that morning, I had treated myself that morning to a stomach-busting brunch buffet, and now here I was eating birthday cake.
After the party, the adults(who were nearly all overweight), started discussing the topic of dieting and losing weight. A family acquaintance was there and started talking about how she just had weight loss surgery earlier in the week. I listened in great detail as she described the VSG and how it works. I felt as though the heavens opened up and something within me said, "This is it. This is what you're supposed to do."
I spent the next days and weeks doing all the research I could about the surgery. Complications, costs, doctors, etc. I couldn't even sleep the first few nights, because I was so excited about the possibilities. I would lie awake thinking of all the things I would be able to do after I shed the burden of obesity.
Financially, I'm not at a place where I really should be spending $10,000 right now, but it's the same cost as a funeral, which is what is waiting for me in the near future if I don't make this change. I'd rather be skinny & broke than fat, broke and DEAD.
After spending the first 32 years of my life serving my body, my body is now going to serve me.
