ulyses F.
Hi my name is Ulyses, I'm new on this site so holla at cha boi. 
So this is my story i've always been a fat kid growing up. I grew up in a latino family and lots of food and big portions were a part of life. It wasn't till my teens that i started to lose weight, i got tired of people making fun of me. Kids can be very crewl plus the hormones were taking over and i wanted a girlfriend. 
I lost alot of weight and i went nuts i felt like the ugly duckling that turned into a swan. 
I started hanging out with the popular people and doing what they were doing. one thing they did was get high, I fell in love with the drugs it turned into an addiction.
I managed to keep the weight off due to the drugs. That went on for 20 yrs. of my life much of which i can't remember. 6 yrs. ago i decided to say goodbye to drugs and i entered a long term program and i've been clean ever since it works if you work it.
But the flip side of that is that i started gaining weight i traded one addiction for another. I went from about 170 lbs. to 420 lbs. i was in trouble and i needed 
i couldn't walk without feeling pain in my back and knees. i started isolating 
and my life got very lonely. I decided to try to lose the weight on my own but to no avail one day i saw one of my big friends but she wasn't big anymore. She told me she had bypass surgery and she shared her experience with me
she looked fantastic all her pain went away. I started looking in some bariatric centers and decided to do the lap band because it was closer to were i live. i went to the initial meeting and was told i had to lose 20 lbs. no sweat i could do it i thought but it was harder than i thought food was my best friend and i didn't want to say good bye. 
I got my surgery date and on the pre opp appt. was told no because i didn't lose the weight i was upset.
I had one more chance thats when i went to weschester and spoke to Dr. Yatco he told me i couldn't gain anymore weight. 
This was it i thought to myself if i messed up this time i was going to continue to gain weight and eventually die. after speaking to the nutritionist she explained to me the things i could do to lose weight and little by little the pounds started to drop and it got easier and easier. Now i'm 385and i have another date and this time i'm ready Dec. 11, 2007 
i'm so excited this is my X-mas gift.
I'm a very lucky man i get to reclaim my life one day at a time. i want to thank all the people who helped me threw this journey i am very blessed to have friends like them. 
Well thats all for now good luck to every body who is thinking about making this decision sometimes losing is really winning.
