Marianne C.
7/7/06 I am 52 yrs old, 14 years happily married to a wonderful and supportive man. I have 2 terrific and beautiful daughters ages 21 and 24 by a previous marriage. We are now retired but until retirement I ran a very successful pet sitting business in upstate NY. I continue to run the business but do very little of the pet sitting myself. I have 2 helpers now that do the visits and I am now the owner/manager. 0
We are "Snowbirds" and live in Saratoga County NY for 5 months of the year and during the winter we live in Hudson, Florida. My good friend Mary had RNY lap. surgery in Albany NY in January of '05. She has been an inspiration to me and during the summer of 05 she sent me information via email including the link to ObesityHelp.com. I logged on and began reading sporatically over the course of the next year. The following summer of 2006 I had a health related scare after a couple days in the hospital, began to be more serious about it and did a lot more reading, actually registered with ObesityHelp.com and joined a Yahoo Group called GastricBypass-InfoCentral. On August 7th '06 I attended my first WLS support group meeting in Saratoga NY led by Jaime Ellis. The following night I attended another WLS support group meeting at Albany Clinical Nutrition with Kathleen Callihan in Albany NY. My friend Mary who had the surgery 18 months ago met me there. I have to say that attending both of those meetings put wind in my sails to go forward with this and find out just what I need to do next.
I was not overweight as a child but while in high school began to gain weight slowly. High School was when I went on my first diet and lost 10 pounds. Of course I put it back on and then some. This is what started my series of yo yo diets for the next 35 years. Each time I'd lose some weight. Sometimes I'd lose a little weight and sometimes a lot. Each time I'd regain it all and then more. I was only able to stick to a diet for a period of time because hunger always got the best of me and I'd give up. Thirty five years later, I have dieted myself now up to 250 pounds. (My ideal weight according to the charts is 126) I can not afford to keep doing this as I know it will take it's toll on my heart. I am desperate to be healthy and active again and have decided that together with determination and WLS I WILL achieve my goal. Here is a picture taken at the start of my WLS journey when I was 250 pounds. It was taken just one year before my surgery.
About Me
Before & After
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