Describe your behavioral and emotional battle with weight control before learning about bariatric surgery.

I tried everything and more! There is no diet ever invented that I have not tried. I started my first diet when I was 9 years old and I'm 39 now so over those 30 years, there's nothing I haven't tried. I was the diet queen! And I was good. I would loose 80 lbs and then regain 105, loose 50 and regain 70. I continued this until I weighed 331 lbs. I knew more about nutrition, calories, carbohydrates, fat, etc. than some doctors by the time I was 20. I knew more about exercise, heart rates and weight training by the time I was 15 than some people will know in a lifetime. But with all the knowledge and the ability to modify for the short term, was all for not in the long run. And my body paid the price.

What was (is) the worst thing about being overweight?

The worst thing about being overwieght for me was the effect it had on my son. Because I was always too tired or too embarassed to move around too much, my son was forced to be my hands, arms, legs, and feet and boy did he ever get a workout! I will regret that forever. No child should have to go through what my son did. I wouldn't call it abuse, but I would definitely call it unfair. Also the embarrassment I felt when I was overweight. I was embarrased because I couldn't keep up with my friends walking from the car to the resturaunt. Or having to ask the airline attendant for a seatbelt extension. Or having to explain over and again that I preferred my laces untied (I couldn't reach them and my son wasn't around). And of course there was the pain, the ankle pain, the arthritic knees and the lower back pain was the worst.

If you have had weight loss surgery already, what things do you most enjoy doing now that you weren't able to do before?

I Love To SKIP!!!! Sounds silly I know especially for a 39 year old woma, but I can skip now