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

I'd always been heavy. I started gaining weight at age five and just didn't stop. I topped out at around 385 lbs. before my surgery, though I never had an emotional relationship with food. I had tried every diet, every exercise plan, and was active every day. There was no explaining my weight gain until one day I was diabetic. My doctors tried treating me with oral medications, but they made me ill. We started insulin therapy but it made me gain more weight despite hiking six miles a day. So they said a gastric bypass was my solution. Three years later, I finally have my surgery and am looking forward to a second chance to live life the way I have always wanted to.

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

People prejudge an overweight person a lot. I don't know how many times I was offered more food because I was large, or was just expected to want the larger sizes of food at restaurants and movie theaters. When I refused them, I must have "been on a diet". I always ate a healthy diet with healthy portions of food, so I found this behavior offensive. The other thing I hated was not being able to express myself through my personal style. Society still doesn't make fashionable clothes for overweight people, though it has gotten a lot better over the years.

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 am only a few days post-op, but I am already enjoying being able to eat without a horrible hunger pang to warn me to do it. I can take my time preparing the food I want instead of just shoveling in something on the go.