I guess this is the first post so many draw back on post surgery and think "I can't believe that was me!"

I too want success in my life and it feels like a lot of my personal successes have been stalled or overlooked by my weight problems.

Here's my history...

I was born a normal weight with no issues. I was involved in tons of sports, dance, and activities as a kid and was very thin until about age 12.

After some minor health issues at 12, I started having some unexplained stomach ache problems. I went from dr to dr. Went to specialist after specialist. It was diagnosed as allergies and I went on medications. I was supposed to stay away from foods that triggered the massive stomach aches. Of course as I entered my teen years, I ate what most teenagers ate.

In middle school, I first experienced being called fat. I was probably 5'4 and 130 lbs. I was still in dance and sports, but not as much as I used to be. I wasn't the heaviest girl on campus but I was not as thin as most of the girls either. I was somewhere in the middle. I started bugging my mom to help me lose weight.

My mother herself was (and still is) about 100 lbs overweight at the time I asked for help. As far back as I can remember, I believe at some point she gave up and decided to be fat. She lost some weight here and there but essentially chose to let her weight control a lot of things. I love her and she's a fantastic mom but now that I'm a mom too, I see so many things that she and I missed out on because she didn't feel comfortable or physically couldn't participate. I also remember on a few occasions other kids talking about how fat she was.

In high school my weight fluctuated from 130 to 150 at the most. I was 5'5 and felt HUGE. I was on several of the sports teams and on dance team. I was the largest girl on dance and track at size 12. I bounced from sizes 8 to 12. Most of my friends were a 4 so I thought I was disgusting. I tried some crazy diets, diet pills, exercising like crazy... all to be beat out by the smell of something like pizza and a weak will.

I believe the only reason I didn't reach 200 lbs in High School was because I had my stomach issues and I was SO busy with school, sports, dating, dances, friends. I kept very active. Still, as I look back, I wasn't involved in tons of social stuff- I always felt like a cow and didn't go out to large parties or anything. My senior year I did a weight training program and a vegetable diet. I lost 20 lbs and kept it off for about 2 months.

After high school when I left to go away to college is where the real trouble began. I had a horrible college roommates and the few friends I thought I had in the dorms all of a sudden didn't like me. I think I had changed and wore my insecurities on my shoulders. I felt sad, alone, worthless. I probably wouldn't have wanted to hang around me either.

I amazingly joined a sorority (a pretty good one too) and thank God for that. I'm definitely not your typical sorority girl but had it not been for the sorority I would have left college and not met my future husband.

College (especially college in a sorority house) was practically a weight experiment. I went from 140 lbs to 175 lbs my freshman year in the dorm. Then my second year I topped 185 lbs but then went on these Herbalife drops with a few other friends in the sorority and lost 25 lbs. I met a guy who I ended up dating the next two years.

He was sort of out of my league but I got comfortable anyway. We ate fast food a lot together (which I of course loved) and yet he DID care if I was fat or not. I would go on diets and look good one minute, then fat and awful the next. We broke up a few times and finally for good before graduation. At work on campus I met my future husband. I was 5'5 and about 150 lbs and a size 10-12. Of course, again, I thought I was humongous.

He is a great guy who I thank God I found but that's not to say he loves my weight issues. He never dated anyone overweight before me. Still, I know he loves me. So we date for several years and my weight jumps up and down. I went from size 10 up to 16 and even once to a size 18 from the ages of 22 to 25. I joined Weight Watchers, did MANY at home weight loss videos and programs, crazy diets found online, etc etc.

I still had not reached 200 lbs. I had come close but I was still exercising a ton, keeping busy with my career, socializing.

Age 26 was the real benchmark. At the beginning of the year I was 180 lbs. By the end of the year, I was 220 lbs. I had done nothing noticeably different. I just gain 40 lbs out of nowhere. I went to the dr and had my thyroid checked but they said it was "alright." My breasts had gotten so big I had a breast reduction. I like to say before I had "40 longs" (40E) and after I was 38C.

At age 27, I starved for 4 months before my wedding in 2004 but still weighed 200 lbs and wore a size 18 wedding dress. My wedding was absolutely perfect except for the disappointment and embarassment that 300 people were watching my husband and I up in front where we weighed probably the same. The photos make me cringe a little actually.

In 2005, I woke up out of a dead sleep feeling like I was choking. I had a lump in my throat. What did I do? I got up and went to the computer and googled. Everything that came up said "thyroid." I went to a different dr who told me I was actually severely hypothyroid. By this time I weight 230 and had all but stopped working out. My body hurt and I slept about 14 hours a night/day.

Several issues came up with my thyroid and ultimately it was removed surgically (end of 2005.) Unfortunately, the parathyroid glands were removed accidentally too and now I deal with other vitamin issues too. I have been on synthetic thyroid hormone and vitamins since.

2005 & 2006 were me working but tired, disappointed in my lack of diet will power, and living at size 22/24 and weight of about 250 lbs. At one point my husband tells me how much he loves me but how sad he is about my weight too. To his credit, he was nice about it but it didn't sting any less. I outweighed him by 40 lbs after all.

So beginning of 2007, I joined a weight loss competition and decided despite massive hunger and knee-pain, I was going to win. By the end of month one, I was down 20 lbs and pregnant! I always wanted a family but felt like I was too fat to even think about getting pregnant. It was unexpected but I was thrilled.

I was classified as a high risk pregnancy due mainly to my weight and becoming gestational diabetic. I was 221 when I got pregnant and ended up being 278 on the day I delivered. The gestational diabetes was an absolute nightmare. Testing my blood sugar non stop, the insulin injections, the DIET. Oh yes, not only was I fat and craving of all things, sugar, I had to be on a freakin diet when pregnant.

I had a beautiful baby girl and feel so blessed! Immediately after, I was depressed that I was a new mom at size 24. As a little girl envisioning my future wedding and birth of child, I never envisioned being over 200 lbs and more than a size 18. I felt bad like these events were actually mediocre and that I should've been at a normal weight for them to be right.

(CONTINUED IN NEXT POST...)