I am an Orthodox Jew from Brooklyn, NY who has struggled with his weight for as long as he can remember.  I have been encouraged to lose weight by absolutely everyone anyone can imagine, including family, friends, rabbis, teachers, etc.  Last week, I had the adjustable gastric band procedure (known colloquially as "the band surgery," or "the lap band"), and feel great. But first, a little about how and why I got to this point.

        After being in denial throughout high school and throughout my gap year which I spent in the Holy Land,  in my sophomore year of college I finally came to the realization that I need to do something about my weight and that this was getting ridiculous.  My rabbi and his wife referred me to a doctor that they were seeing that provided weight loss support as well as kosher food that they made that was to be purchased alongside the program.  I was able to follow this program for a year and lose over 100 pounds.  However, I feel that this program didn't adequately support me in the sense that the doctor did not carefully monitor my blood workup, and as such, some of my numbers were somewhat off, and the doctor told me the equivalent of "Don't worry, you'll be fine."  That didn't sit well with me.  Another problem with this diet is that it was essentially no carb, and when I finally hit a major plateau at 100 pounds, I was never given guidance as to how to overcome this newfound roadblock.  For these reasons, I left that diet program.

        Even though I left that program, I turned to a dietitian for support.  It was at this time that I got into exercise and started walking 5k races to challenge myself.  In a period of about 2 years, I completed around 20 of these things, maxing out at a 5 mile run on Thanksgiving Day, which I finished in a respectable 20 minute/mile pace.  It is my most coveted medal, as it is my crowning athletic achievement.  (I've never been on a team or athletic enough to really be part of one.)  

        My family and friends were worried that I was maxing myself out, and pushing myself past my limits.  In one of those "what came first, the chicken or the egg?" deals, I got sick with ulcerative colitis, which had me stop exercising regularly, and took a year and a half, roughly speaking, to get under control.  Needless to say, during this time, I gained all the weight back that I had lost, and slightly more.

        It was around a year after I got sick that I started looking into bariatric surgery, and the NYU-Langone Weight Management Program was recommended to me by a family friend who lost a lot of weight with the band. (I don't really know her all that well, so maybe it isn't saying much when I note that when I saw her in a restaurant recently, I had no clue who she was.)  

        It is my intention to briefly explain the pre op process in another post.