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

Since grade school, I was always the big kid- thankfully, I could play sports well and my role on the school playground quickly became "one of the guys". I was very much a tomboy until 5th grade came about, my hips would no longer fit in my straight jeans, my bras needed to be purchased when my Mom got hers. Although I was the only one that deveoped this young in the school, I still managed to hold on to my Tomboy role and push through with the sports teams. The reall part of puberty hit ans so didn't the weight. One summer I went from a size 14 girls jeans to a size 14 misses. As long as I stayed active- I could keep my weight within a god range. My senior year, I was awarded a 4 year Amry Nursing Scholoarship. In order for me to be awarded this, I had to meet their height/weight requirments before college started. With good ole Nutrisystem- I dropped from 170 to 138 in 2 months. looked realy good but could not walk up the stairs without having to rest halway through. This weight was just to low for me. Fortunately for me, the following weigh-in only equired me to make the apropriate bogy fat done by tape measurement of the thighs, hips, neck and arms. I could keep up with this in cllege with a careful balance of binging, diuretics, laxatives and fluid diets. Graduation came, now as an Amry Nurse I had high standards to meet. After 2 prenancies and deliveries in the 1st 2 years in the Army, my body decided it was not ging to bounce back eagerly. Out came the Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers, Slimfast- you name it. Soon after- I got out of the military and in no time, I started to gain more and more. More diets, more weight. Husband deployed for 1 year in 2003 and again in 2011. In 2012, I woke up. It was time to take care of my needs. I needed to there for my daughters, I need to be there for my parent, I need to be there for my husband. Overall- I need to be there for me. This was my time.

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

The worst thing about being overweight was not wanting to do all the active things with the family that you used to do. Seeing my imobility starting to impact them negatively hurt me.

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

Exercise without all the pain, I can do the recumbant bike and not have my belly in the way. The simple things- being able to cross my legs, pull my legs up in my chair when I am sitting, shop without getting excruitiating pain, Shop in normal stores! (and the romance isn't bad either)