stutzman
Well I am sorry to report but my story is much like everyone else! I started out life semi normal and then when I hit about the 2nd or 3rd grade we started to not really caring how we ate as a family. Long nights at the baseball fields and many trips to get pizza and fast-food caused, my “big boned” body to gain and gain. Since my family is mostly German and a majority are large build, people just blamed it on that. Our mom did not have much will power and would do what my brother and I referred to as “Clean the house Diets” in that she would throw all of the junk food out and we were all on a “Diet” well one trip to buy mom a Snickers and we were off the hook….I now know that I was only hurting myself and her but at 7 years old and always told that I would just be a big boy like my family, I did not see the damage I was doing.
Fast forward 16 years and after all of those years of being a “fat kid” I decided I was going to do something about it. I was only working and I was poor so why not take my 320 pound body and loose weight. It was not like I had any money for good food so why not???? Well after 5 months I lost almost 100 pounds by eating chicken and rice for every meal and working out 2 times a day for at least an hour sometimes 2 to 3 hours each day of the week. That was my life… chicken and rice, workout, and work… No friends, no spouse, no free time! Well it was great that I was thinner but I was doing nothing else so I decided I wanted to go back to school… This cut into my time to workout but it was okay… I felt great and finally fit into those little desks in class (I always thought it was amazing that they were the same ones in College as in High School!) It also did not take to long before I met someone who eventually became my wife!
Fast forward to present day (8 years) and I am out of College, have a beautiful wife, an adoptive 15year old boy who came to us through the foster care system, and a 4 month old baby boy. We also moved into a nice newer (and much larger house) and a great career… Everything is great right? For the most part sure but I have not only gained back all of my weight but I am now 405 pounds and have trouble doing simple tasks around the house let alone engage in activities with my young family!
So here I am, I have started my WLS journey and am at the point like most of us that I want it now! And as we all seem to discover that will just not happen… You have to find a good doctor that you are comfortable with and get insurance to pay for all of it then get all of the testing done… it is definitely a journey!
