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

I love everything about food - how it smells, how many colors there are and the endless ways that these can be combined or varigated, how it tastes, how I remember it tastes - you get the idea :-) It is a source of enjoyment and pleasure that I can experience all on my own - though it is best shared and I do best limiting my portions when I share the experience. I have always had a huge appetite...and I cannot think of one food I don't enjoy, except okra. Never really appreciated the sliminess and limpness of that vegetable. So, my love affair with food is changing and for my health and lifestyle, needs to permenantly change. Sometimes I'm sad that I won't have it to cheer me up or delight me when I need something to brighten the moment. But I am hoping to learn behaviors that will be equally satisfying and ultimately, more healthful.

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

Being overweight is the biggest inconvenience! I hate shopping for clothes, my choices are so limited. I can't do anything on the floor; it is too difficult to get up. Standing for long periods of time is painful. I have injured my knee, and the healing is so slow because of how much weight I put on my knees and feet. And I feel like it isn't really me. In most of my dreams, I'm not overweight. I don't want it to feel like it is me...I want to become what I "feel" - right-sized.

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

My surgery (VSG) is Wednesday May 23rd!!