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

I have been overweight all my life. In grade 8, at the age of 14 I weighed 180 lbs. I remember as a little kid, maybe 10 or 12 years old attending T.O.P.S. at my community center. I was by far the youngest there, and the only male too. Throughout High School, I somewhat maintained my weight, but I was not happy. I drank a lot of alcohol in those days. I was an outsider, too fat and out of shape to play sports, to shy and insecure to even try to get a date. After high school, I worked construction and at a processing plant, where I was active and was able to maintain my weight, but never did it go down. Then I started NutriSystem, I was maybe 18 or 19 at the time. (This was before NutriSystem was online only.) I lost a lot of weight, dropping over 100 lbs. But I still felt fat. I had not learned how to deal with my insecurities. After a year, the weight was back, and then some. By this time I had made a major career change. I went back to school and became a desk jockey. Now being less active during the day, my weight soared. I tried Herbal Magic, and NutriSystem Online, but nothing worked. I would lose a few lbs, but then put them all back on +++. Finally I convinced my family doctor to refer me for bariatric surgery. After 3 years of waiting, and 1 year of preparation and planning, I had my surgery on July 30, 2013 at the age of 47.

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

The medical conditions. Depression, High Blood Pressure, Sleep Apnea, Asthma, Shortness of Breath, the inability to climb stairs, flying is pure hell are but a few.

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

To early to tell, but it appears that I don't get short of breath anymore. My high blood pressure is gone, as is my sleep apnea.