I was always overweight growing up. I love my mom, but she showed her love with food. It’s just the way she is. When I’d come home from school, she’d ask if I wanted a snack. If I said no, she would give me the entire inventory of the refrigerator. She’d throw on burgers, make waffles, feed me devil dogs – anything really. She wasn’t happy unless you had something. I grew up with no understanding of portion control or healthy eating. Everyone in the house was fat and out of shape.
I’m happy to report, that my mom has gotten better. She and my sister joined weight watchers together and are losing weight. My sister has dropped 100 lbs and has reached her goal weight. My mom has also dropped quite a bit of weight, and through weight watchers.
While weight watchers works for them, it’s not something I was ever really able to embrace. I’ve tried, but I didn’t have success. My weight would fluctuate, and always eventually go up again. I was fanatical gym rat, and that helped keep the gains off, but losing weight was another story. For years I went to the gym up to five hours a day. I swam in the morning, boxed or hit the weights in the afternoon, and I’d go for a three mile run before bed. Despite the enormous amount of physical activity, the weight never came off. I was only able to maintain. Weight loss is almost all about diet, and my family history left me woefully unprepared for dieting and proper nutrition.
I got married, I had kids, and life happens. I no longer had time to get to the gym. Everything I was doing to keep my weight in check came to a halt and I began to gain more weight. I felt like I had to do something, so I saw my doctor and he told me that I should seriously consider bariatric surgery. My doctor leans towards the holistic side of medicine. He hates recommending surgery, so I was really surprised. I asked if there were any side effects; he said “yea, you’ll lose a few hundred pounds”.
On the drive home, I thought of my family and knew I had to do something. Bariatric surgery seemed drastic, but I decided to pursue it.
I was 49 years old. 6’1″ and a maximum weight of 402 lbs. I was 386 lbs on the day of my surgery (5/9/2019). Now just a few days later (5/12/2019) I’m already down to 377 lbs.
This is my journey.