Well guess i should introduce myself. Im Jenn from long island, ny. i'm 23 and overwight. I've just recently decided on going through with weightloss surgery. after a lot of research i've decided to go with the lapband surgery. And i wanted to document my journey along the way. I've been overweight most of my life. Had a shotty childhood involving my dad and was mostly raised by my grandparents who gave me everything to eat. whatever i wanted and being a normal kid, i wanted junk. And then in middle school i got into some drugs with friends. i grew up in FL, so it was all around even at such a young age. Everyone was doing it, and there was nothing else to do in our little town. so thats where i ended up in middle school and the 1st 2 yrs of high school. Then my sophmore yr, my parents divorced, thank god..i couldnt stand my dad..and my mom ended up getting back together with her childhood sweetheart from where she was born, in NY. so summer of sophmore yr i was yanked out of FL and away from friends and drugs and pulled into NY. Looking back, it was very jolting. i went from having friends and going out everynight to having no friends all summer and then i got sick over summer. i lost my eyesight. turned out to be optic nueritis and they still dont fully know more. They say its MS, then its not, then its an isolated incident. i have a 4% chance of developing MS when im old. who knows, all i know is i got my eyesight back in 2 weeks, better than ever. i think it was stress!! but thats me. So when school started here, i knew nobody, and not to mention, i now lived in massapequa, which happens to be an all white area. so there was not 1 other race but white in this school. and the school has over 1500 kids. and they're all clicky. so my 1st yr there, u can count friends out. it was very lonely. but i started working at modells sporting goods and made friends there and was able to go hang out with people. my senior yr things were also better. i had a lot of friends, i lost a bit of weight too. i've always been around 250, im pretty tall tho too. im 5'7. so senior yr before graduation i lost about 20-25 lbs. but over that summer i was in a toxic friend relationship that left me lost for the next yr and a half, until he moved and i gained the weight back. i started a new job after he left and found some good people. i was happy again and then lost some more weight, i was down from 250 to about 200 at my lowest. but then i started another job yet again, and was put in a office environment with skinny girls who ate a lot and ordered out everyday, instead of out on the sales floor moving around. So the weight slowly crept back and higher than ever. now im at 260. and i just hate it right now. So lets close this, i just started the requirements for lap band in November, have to do 4 months with my Dr. so i have the last visit with Dr. Ferrara on the 4th of february. and that visit im hoping she will set my surgery date. she originally told me the end of february, which is around my bday, so i got to celebrate that early so i can eat lol. but in the meantime before then, i want to lose about 5 lbs before my appointment on the 4th. i have a little over a week. So i think im going to get into weight watchers again and walk a few nights a week. i want to drop about 15 before surgery which is doable, so i guess i'll be pouring myself into this blog while i do it!! Words of encouragment are ALWAYS welcome and appreciated!! thanks for reading!!