MelissaMommyto5
Just 5 short days ago, I changed my life forever...
Feb 21, 2012
I've made some amazing, courageous, life-changing decisions in my lifetime and this is definately a top 10! This choice ranks up their with my decision to get married and to have children = the ultimate life changes! Right?! While this change takes on a different appearance than wedding rings or diapers, my choice to have the vertical sleeve gastrectomy on 2/16/12 was one that will forever change my life. I have no doubt of it.
I have always been 'a big boned girl,' 'sturdy,' 'hefty,' or whatever twist you want to put on it. And in those childhood years, those terms may have even been accurate, but as I ended my college days & moved into a young professional & a newlywed, my body composition went from 'sturdy' to 'floppy.' I steadily gained weight from my early 20s until my late 20s, shooting from an overweight 220s to 300#s. I managed to loose 65#s when I was 28 on 'the point system' of WW. I was working 75+ hours per week, living in an unfulfilling & horrible marriage, and sticking to my guns about my food choices worked for me at that point. I gained the courage to leave that life & search out happiness. I found it...and I found all those pounds I managed to loose...but it was in the package of beautiful twin babies! My delivery weight was almost smack, on the dot, the same as all that weight I had worked to loose before. Over the following couple of weeks, in melted back off & I thought I was A-OK, but in a matter of a few more weeks, the weight had came right back. So seriously, I went from 300, to 250ish, & back to 300 in less than 4 months time, that was in 2005. I don't know exactly what happened then, but I do know that I was stuck in 300-land. I tried a few things unsuccessfully, but honestly...raising my kids overshadowed taking care of myself at every single corner. Then in 2010, I found myself pregnant again, unexpectedly, but amazingly happily. With my obesity & PCOS, I never thought it would be possible without fertility intervention (which was used to conceive my twins), but I was...between God's plan & my womb, our precious miracle began growing. But this time, instead of being 236 pre-pregnancy weight, I was 323 at my first ob weigh-in. Yikes! So not only am I 'of advanced maternal age', but now I'm severely morbidly obese & carrying child. I cannot begin to tell you how heavily that weighed on my heart. My poor choices were directly affecting the viability & survival of this innocent heavenly creation. Essentially, that is when I made my decision that my life needed a u-turn. By the grace of God, I managed to safely carry & deliver our bouncing baby boy, 10#s 5oz, and by being so committed to my diet during the pregnancy I only added 13 #s to scale in the process (topping out @ 336#s)! But just because he arrived safely didn't free me of my self-commitment for a change, I knew that mentally I had already began forging a path towards health. Next step, I knew I wanted to nurse our surprise miracle & preferably for the first year. My plan of action was to start doing whatever I needed to do while breastfeeding to make changes & then after I weaned him, I would pursue the weightloss surgery. I talked to my doctor about my choices and my desires. He gave me some resources for more information and we began the document trail of past & present weightloss attempts. The time seemed to creep by sometimes & other times I couldn't believe we had covered so much ground. My baby turned 1 in Oct 2011 and I wrapped up all my insurance requirements for having the VSG in Dec 2011.
A hop, skip, & a jump later, I was sleeved on February 16, 2012. I have already managed to loose a total of 24#s (yay). I'm really shooting for much more than the declining scale values though (big perk, but it's not my purpose). I'm eager to live a more fulfilling life for myself, for my children, for my husband. I want to roller skate with my kids, fit in theatre seats, be able to fly on a plane (in 1 seat), and walk through a store without feeling like my butt has its own zipcode. I want to grow old with my husband & live to bounce our grand-babies on our knees! I could probably write a novel just on the things I want to experience differently, but I felt like I summed it up well in my title...Just 5 short days ago, I changed my life forever...!
2 comments
I have always been 'a big boned girl,' 'sturdy,' 'hefty,' or whatever twist you want to put on it. And in those childhood years, those terms may have even been accurate, but as I ended my college days & moved into a young professional & a newlywed, my body composition went from 'sturdy' to 'floppy.' I steadily gained weight from my early 20s until my late 20s, shooting from an overweight 220s to 300#s. I managed to loose 65#s when I was 28 on 'the point system' of WW. I was working 75+ hours per week, living in an unfulfilling & horrible marriage, and sticking to my guns about my food choices worked for me at that point. I gained the courage to leave that life & search out happiness. I found it...and I found all those pounds I managed to loose...but it was in the package of beautiful twin babies! My delivery weight was almost smack, on the dot, the same as all that weight I had worked to loose before. Over the following couple of weeks, in melted back off & I thought I was A-OK, but in a matter of a few more weeks, the weight had came right back. So seriously, I went from 300, to 250ish, & back to 300 in less than 4 months time, that was in 2005. I don't know exactly what happened then, but I do know that I was stuck in 300-land. I tried a few things unsuccessfully, but honestly...raising my kids overshadowed taking care of myself at every single corner. Then in 2010, I found myself pregnant again, unexpectedly, but amazingly happily. With my obesity & PCOS, I never thought it would be possible without fertility intervention (which was used to conceive my twins), but I was...between God's plan & my womb, our precious miracle began growing. But this time, instead of being 236 pre-pregnancy weight, I was 323 at my first ob weigh-in. Yikes! So not only am I 'of advanced maternal age', but now I'm severely morbidly obese & carrying child. I cannot begin to tell you how heavily that weighed on my heart. My poor choices were directly affecting the viability & survival of this innocent heavenly creation. Essentially, that is when I made my decision that my life needed a u-turn. By the grace of God, I managed to safely carry & deliver our bouncing baby boy, 10#s 5oz, and by being so committed to my diet during the pregnancy I only added 13 #s to scale in the process (topping out @ 336#s)! But just because he arrived safely didn't free me of my self-commitment for a change, I knew that mentally I had already began forging a path towards health. Next step, I knew I wanted to nurse our surprise miracle & preferably for the first year. My plan of action was to start doing whatever I needed to do while breastfeeding to make changes & then after I weaned him, I would pursue the weightloss surgery. I talked to my doctor about my choices and my desires. He gave me some resources for more information and we began the document trail of past & present weightloss attempts. The time seemed to creep by sometimes & other times I couldn't believe we had covered so much ground. My baby turned 1 in Oct 2011 and I wrapped up all my insurance requirements for having the VSG in Dec 2011.
A hop, skip, & a jump later, I was sleeved on February 16, 2012. I have already managed to loose a total of 24#s (yay). I'm really shooting for much more than the declining scale values though (big perk, but it's not my purpose). I'm eager to live a more fulfilling life for myself, for my children, for my husband. I want to roller skate with my kids, fit in theatre seats, be able to fly on a plane (in 1 seat), and walk through a store without feeling like my butt has its own zipcode. I want to grow old with my husband & live to bounce our grand-babies on our knees! I could probably write a novel just on the things I want to experience differently, but I felt like I summed it up well in my title...Just 5 short days ago, I changed my life forever...!
