MBowman189
I've been heavy for as long as I can remember, in fact I remember weighing 80 lbs in kindergarten, 200 lbs in 9th grade, and 250 when I graduated high school. My entire lift has been a been a roller coaster of diets, some worked, some didn't, but all failed as the weight just comes back on. When I got married in 1984 I had recently finished the Nutri Systems program and had gone from 290 down to 225 lbs. I was a Heavy Equipment Mechanic at the time, so hard work and exercise helped slow the gain, but my wife is a wonderful person and good cook so it made a bit of a challenge.
We'll 10 years and 2 kids later, I promoted up into management positions, long stressful hours, mentally exhausted when I got off work, lead to poor eating habits to deal with the stress. In addition, I'd developed type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure. 15 years later, the stress is even worse, weight has come back, and then some. In 2006 I injured my knee in a tree trimming accident, which has made exercising such as walking, and bike riding difficult, but it's getting better now. About 5 years ago my wife and I went on Optifast and did fine went from 345 to 240, but it came back in about 2 years. We tried Optifast again 2 years ago didn't do as well, only went from 325 to 265. We'll here 2 years later, we've decided that diets just don't work for the long term, and WLS is our best solution. When I went into Kaiser for a Bariatric surgery referral on September 30, 2010 my weight was 335 lbs, 6'0" tall, 135/76 BP, which gave me a BMI of 46. My wife GBowman189 is trying to get a referral as well, has a 39 BMI, doesn't have any serious health conditions, so is just short of the 40 BMI, that is needed to qualify with Kaiser, so we may be doing a self-pay for her. 
We'll the decision to get WLS, and the referral was the first step in our life journey of permanent long term weight loss, and healthy life.
