Describe your behavioral and emotional battle with weight control before learning about bariatric surgery.
The first time I really remember realizing I was overweight was in 5th grade. My sister and I had gone to the doctor to get shots and she found out how much I weighed. It was a lot more than what she weighed, and being 11 years old, thought it would be cool to tell everyone how much I weighed. I was 11 years old and weight 111 pounds. I grew up on fast food, as it was just me and my mom most of the time and she worked a lot. Do I blame her for being overweight? Not at all because the more I grew up, the bigger I got and a lot of it was my own doing. When I graduated high school in 2006, I weighed 300 pounds. In the six years after that leading up to my surgery, I gained another 66 bringing my highest recorded weight to 366 pounds. That's a lot of weight for anyone, but it was especially bad for me because I'm only 5"1'. During most of those years I went to school full time while working 3 jobs, so it was pretty normal for me to eat out three meals a day. Burger King or Sonic for breakfast, Jack in the Box or Wendy's for lunch, and Dairy Queen or Taco Bell for supper. And of course with all those meals I had a large Coke to go along with those large fries! It wasn't until I had my gallbladder removed that I knew something had to change. It's a real kick in the butt when you're 22 and your surgeon tells you that you need to have weight loss surgery or you'll be dead by the time you're 30. That was a fate I didn't want to meet. So with a lot of research and a little bit of therapy, I decided that surgery was the only answer if I wanted to be alive to see my nephews grow up. It took me almost 4 months to make that first consultation appointment with my surgeon, and another to schedule that first nutrition class and the only thing I would change would be to do it sooner!
What was (is) the worst thing about being overweight?
The worst thing about being overweight to me was all the stigmas that came with it. People looked at you funny, people assumed you were a lazy slob, people would go to any lengths to avoid being near you. It hurts, there's no other way of putting it. It's bad enough when you can't comfortably sit in a booth or a movie seat, when half a flight of stairs leaves you breathless, when you can't buckle up in the back seat, and when you have to buy your clothes online because the store don't carry your size. To have people judge you for that makes it a million times worse. Before surgery, I didn't realize how horrible I felt.
If you have had weight loss surgery already, what things do you most enjoy doing now that you weren't able to do before?
Having surgery has been the best decision I've ever made! I still have a long way to go, but things are so much better than they used to be! I can not only walk 5+ miles, I can run, I can ride 15+ miles on the bike at the gym, I can cross my legs, I can crawl around on the floor with my nephews, I can feel things like my collar bones, I HAVE A WAIST NOW! Everyday I discover something new and everyday it still blows my mind. Sure it sucks that I can't eat a lot of what others eat, my skin is sagging, and we won't even talk about my boobs! I'll take all of that though for the simple fact that I'm here. I'm alive and healthy! I don't take blood pressure medicine anymore, I'm not a pre-diabetic, and I don't suffer from Sleep Apnea anymore. Having to change my eating habits and everything else that comes along with weight loss surgery has been one of the hardest things I've been through, but I've learned so much from it. The only I regret I have is not having the surgery sooner. I feel like I have so much lost time to make up for!
KScarlettB
