Describe your behavioral and emotional battle with weight control before learning about bariatric surgery.
Before I went to a seminar on bariatric surgery, I was always thinking that I could "do it the right way....diet and exercise...". Hmm. We have all been there. As the years went on and I dieted one diet after another, losing up to 38 pounds at the max, falling off the wagon a little and then letting it all go ....gaining more back...the discouragement settled into failure after failure...there was no way I'd ever get past this major barricade to happiness and health it seemed. I'd failed so many times that I was depressed and tired of hiding all of my fears, disappointments, and shame behind a wall of fat. I had convinced myself that bariatric surgery would be possible, but it was a "cop-out" and people would see that as a weakness. All I had to do was say this to my wonderfully challenging therapist..Dr. Seth Ersner-Hershfield. What???? the easy way out? How!!?? He'd asked me...well...it's all history since then....May 3rd...my first seminar with Dr. Alexander Abkin...my life began to change since that night...
What was (is) the worst thing about being overweight?
Being overweight....what is the worst thing? Getting close to 50, being a diabetic, needing more meds, feeling like I'm slowly and definitely killing myself...hmm...what else? Not being able to tie my shoes easily...feeling like I should be pregnant about to give birth....what else would a big apple belly be doing on me? Hating myself...hating my lack of control...that everyone can see....having people tell me I have such a beautiful face...feeling like the fattest person in the room, AND being the fattest one. Feeling like a fatty at the beach, feeling like a fatty in the store...feeling like a fatty failure. That's it. A failure.
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 enjoy running up the stairs ahead of my class and jogging around the playground with them...I love not having my feet in excruciating pain at the end of the day..(well, it used to be in the morning when I first got up!)....I love not having to take a bunch of meds with horrible side effects, and Iove how clothes feel again...I enjoy shopping and knowing that I don't have to go in the fat lady department....I love feeling strong and free from the binds of fat! I love feeling that I am NOT the fattest one in any room....I love feeling that I am strong in mind and body and will continue to seek the best for myself because I am loving life!
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