ladyblue3
My name is MJ and I just recently had RNY Gastric Bypass on 10/15/08 at Kaiser Richmond in CA. I think my story probably begins even before I was born. My parents are from one of the poorest countries in the world and as such they have known about hunger. My mother once said to me, how great it felt to be able to provide food for her children and know that they would never be hungry. And my brother and I never were. My parents provided generally healthy home cooked meals for us, but we loved the processed foods we saw our friends eating and the snacks they would sell at school.
Anyway I ended up being a fat kid and was wearing a size 14 misses in the third grade. I don’t remember too much of my weight history, but I know when I started high school I weighed 320 lbs and was wearing a size 32. During college, I became a vegetarian and lost over 100 lbs. It was the first time in my life where I had set my mind to do something and was actually doing it. It was empowering and this was such a happy time in my life. I began exercising 6 times a week and it felt good to have some control of my body. The weight loss didn’t last, mostly because I started socializing more and thought it wasn’t fair that I had to work this hard and my friends didn’t. Oh, if I knew then what I know now.
So for the next 10 years I struggled with my weight and would lose anywhere from 10-50 lbs always gaining what I lost plus more back. It was sad, depressing and disheartening. I went away to grad school (where I was diagnosed with high blood pressure) and ate when I would feel lonely. I eventually met two of my best friends (skinny minnies and athletes nonetheless). I started working out with them and they were awesome and so encouraging. Life took me to Atlanta for a 3 month internship, where I was lonely, broke, depressed and pining for a boy who only wanted to be friends and who was 3000 miles away. Needless to say I ate to numb myself and it worked. I made it through those 3 months but I also gained about 50 pounds. I left Atlanta as soon as I could and made my way to CA (Bay Area).
I’d made a promise to myself a long time ago, that if I didn’t have my weight under control by the time I was 30, I would do something (weight loss surgery) about it. My 30th birthday rolled around and the promise kept nagging at the back of my head. I decided I needed to give it one more good ole college try. I realized I needed help and made the decision to pursue weight loss surgery Thanksgiving 2007. I had my first orientation class in January. I weighed in at 418 pounds. What? 418? How could that be? 400 pound people didn’t look like me. They weren’t as active as me and no, there was no way that could be right. Well it was and yes 400 pound people can be active and surprise, surprise they look like me. I gained 5 pounds between orientation and my psych appointment in May. I finally decided to get serious and by the time I saw my surgeon in August, I had lost about 38 lbs. I ended up losing 62 lbs before my surgery and coincidentally on the very last day of my 30th year, I finally did something about my weight. I’m currently 10 days out and joyously looking forward to the rest of my life. I’m looking for something to hold on to because I have a feeling, it’s going to be a crazy ride.
