I have struggled all my life with my weight. I was the chubby kid, the porkly pre-teen, the fat teenager and now I am a morbidly obese adult. Yikes that was a very strong sentence. Yes I had 3 yrs of my early adult life that I was just chubby which is only because I am short (5'3) and was actually happy with my weight and would enjoy shopping and looking nice but it was a short lived 3 yrs. I fell down a hill one evening and tore my ACL in my knee and had to have surgery. I ended up being in a cast from my hip to my ankle for 9 weeks. I wasn't able to do anything and started gaining weight. I went from 140 to 180 by the time the 9 weeks ended and felt sick. I had bills that had piled up due to not being able to work and got extremely stressed out with that. And by the time it was over I had to quit my current job because I couldn't stand for more then 30 mins at a time and get a desk job. You can only imagine what occured after that. My butt widened and my jean size kept going up. During this time I also met the man of my dreams and was happy, he moved in with me after 6months and we got engaged after 9months. I was too embarassed to work out in front of him and started going out all the time eating at fancy restaurants and seeing movies. He wasn't an active person never worked out and ate what ever he wanted, he was also 6'3 so he hid his weight well. Unfortunately his mother was a great baker too and made awesome desserts that melted in my mouth way too easily. By the time we got married 3 yrs later I was up to 230 and getting married in a size 22 dress. In the years following we started a family and had two beautiful girls. Of course through each pregnancy I held onto at least 20 lbs of my pregnancy weight. I had bad post-pardon depression after my second daughter and started eating late at night eating my way to 320 lbs ! I have attempted pretty much every diet known to man and some I succeeded with and some I didn't. I have spent tons of money on food delivery services and programs. Now age 34 I have decided to take the plunge and have Weight Loss Surgery- Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy. I have been working really hard the past 6 months to re-program my thoughts and feel I am prepared for this. I started the actual journey on 12/10/2012 at 318 pounds. I have lost 18 as of today. I have been taking it slowly only because I have arthritis in my feet and my knee can't handle this weight and now my hip pops in and out of place at least once a week now. My surgery is on July 22nd and I am beyond excited , nervous and anxious. I am ready to become that healthy and happy woman, mother and wife that my family and I deserve to experience. I want to be a good role model to my kids and reverse the damage I have already caused with them. I want to teach them good food choices and be active with them so we can enjoy our lives!!!