My age and stage-in-life is one of my biggest motivations for me to start living a healthy lifestyle. I hope my bad habits, like overeating and laziness, will be easier to break if I start now, rather than wait. I want to really start enjoying my 20s and stop being held back by my weight. At my heaviest, I was 298 about 2 yrs ago and have yo-yo’d from that to my lowest at 255 (when I was abroad). Now I am around 281.

Health: Another motivation is my health and the health of my family. As of now I have no co-morbidties, but with a BMI of 44 they are bound to creep up on me. My family history consists of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer: unfortunately, the lives of my loved ones were taken too soon because of weight issues. My dad passed away from a heart attack when I was 7 yrs old. He is a big motivator looking down from heaven. He is a great reason why I want my family to change our eating habits and activity level. Since I still live at home with my mom and one of my brothers, it means so much that they are ready to support me by changing and living healthier too. We have already made family goals, like run/walk a race for a charity next fall together and instead of celebrating birthdays with food, we will do something instead. At dinner, we’ve cut out ice tea (filled with sugar) and traded it to diet tea and water. We’ve stopped eating white bread and never bring whole milk into the house. I think these are great steps to prepare our kitchen for life after surgery.

Energy: I have been chubby since birth, but my mom made sure I was active: I did swim team, dance, gymnastics, T-ball, basketball, and lacrosse. It didn’t help my weight problem, but it kept me actively running around. Since high school, I have stopped any form of activity other than some gym memberships, here and there. Now, I get winded walking around campus and feel like I’m going to die trekking up flights of stairs to get to class. I’m ready to be active and finally have energy.