Hi everyone

I have never had a blog before and until now never thought I would ever want to. So bare with me because I am not the most eloquent person, nor am I supper entertaining.

I am writing this first of all for me; I want to be able to go back over the months or years and see where I started. Remember how I felt and what I thought during this time of my life. I also want a reminder for myself on why I am never going back.

I am also writing this for you, my readers. I want others to be able to hear my story, maybe relate to it themselves or just understand where I came from. I want to be able to help others in their journey just like so many of you helped me through mine. I want to be encouraging for those of you who are just thinking about weight loss surgery, or helpful to those of you who are just getting started.

I don't really know where to start with this so I guess I will just start at the beginning A little about me and my history to give you a back ground of who I am. First my name is Amber; I am starting my weight loss journey at 293 pounds. I am 5.6 feet tall and am a size 22 / 3X. I have never known myself as a small person. Even as a kid I was over weight. Through high school I went from over weight to fat. High school was rough, I was a band geek because I was not comfortable in gym class (with the exception of one non optional 9th grade PE class). I didn't date and had few friends.

After high school I went on the wonderfully exhausting spiral of fad diets... One after another... After each new diet (Atkins, Low call, Eat right for your blood type, Weight Watchers) I would loose about 10-30lb and then gain it all back plus some. You all know that story and have probably lived it.

Now I am 30, still single after relationships that were few and far between, Very low self esteem, low energy and tired of always feeling like the odd one out because I just don't "fit" into the image that all of society expects.

Well I am tired of it! I am done not living my life, done not being healthy, done not feeling attractive. I am ready to make a change and start living. So after much research, encouragement from my wonderful sisters, and a lot of prayer I am going to have weight loss surgery or WLS...

I chose to have the gastric sleeve, and have part of my stomach removed. You all have done the research and I am sure I don't need to go into all the details. But now you know. I choose to be thin. I choose to have energy, and be physically able to hike mountains, and run a marathon, and have children. I will be confident enough to feel attractive and pretty. Its a whole new life ahead of me, and my only regret is I didn't choose do do this sooner.

I hope you all follow along; learn and sweat and cry with me..

I know I have a long journey ahead of me and that there is going to be allot of hard work. We have all heard it time and time again, "the sleeve is a tool to weight loss, not a magic pill that will do it for you". I am going to use this tool, and make myself into the person I want to be.

I hope you join me

Amber