newgigi2006
A little about myself... I am a single mom of an 18 year old son who I adore and have spent the last 18 years focusing on him and his world an neglecting my own. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't change a thing. I am very proud of the way I raised him and tried my best to be the best mom I could. I did however realize last year when he became a senior in high school that he would be leaving me soon and I would be alone. That scared me because I then needed to take a look at myself and that was something I had avoided for a very long time. I realized that I was not happy and didn't like myself and what I had become. I had gradually gained more and more weight every year to top off at 248 pounds. Food had become my companion when my son wasn't around and I would gravitate to it when I was lonely. Well January of 2006 I decided that I wanted to make some changes and I wanted to start with my health and physical appearance. I decided to apply for the tv show "The biggest loser season 3". I was so excited when they called me to go to LA for the semifinals and do some taping. Well as luck would have it, I didn't make the final cut and I felt horrible. As I look back I see it wasn't meant to be. They only picked one person from each state and the guy from California had a much better tv story than I did. I talked to my pcp about weight loss options and she didn't reccommed the bypass for me but knew I was motivated and said the lap band might be an option for me. That was April of 2006. The Biggest Loser experience motivated me to come home and see if I could do something locally to help others around me that might have been feeling the same way. I know a few radio personalities and approached them with doing the BL show here in town. Well after several months of negotitions they decided not too. To my surprise, another radio station got word and decided to do the same contest. I applied and was accepted to participate. There were 3 contestants and we had 8 weeks to lose the most weight and the listeners would vote for the winner. I'm happy to say that I won the contest. Not only did I win but the contest helped me to lose the weight needed for the surgery. This was in September 2006. I was scheduled for surgery in October 2006 but because this was the first group of lap band patients they had to postpone it until November so they would have a large enough group to do. Well November 7th, I was the very first lap band patient to have the surgery at the Kaiser Fremont facility. I am so happy and I am on my way to learning to love and appreciate me and my life as it should be. Happier, healthier and more enjoyable...
