I have NO doubts about the LB, but some days I'm still amazed that I'm doing this. I think back to almost a year ago and where my head was at that point...I would never have even considered WLS (WAY too drastic…only people that are dying from obesity do that!). So here’s my story and my ‘moment’ of what brought me to the LB.

I don’t have any fat child stories to tell, because I wasn’t…fat. I did have two of my sisters who struggled with weight in childhood, and I saw their pain and sometimes felt it when I defended them against other kids teasing. I was rail thin up until the time I stopped growing in high school. I gained about 25 pounds one year, but by living on TAB and lettuce I lost it all before college. After college, I worked and also taught Aerobics classes, at one point I was teaching 8 classes a week. I tell you that because I want you to know that I really understood the importance of health, diet, and exercise. I knew what it felt like to be thin and fit.

I started gaining weight after my first child was born. We moved 10 days after she was born, I was away from my extended family for the first time and I suddenly wasn’t exercising. There wasn’t time or money to join a gym. DH worked shift work then so I didn't have a sitter at night. I soon started the cycle of gain and loss, even lost 50 pounds at a time several times, but I never lost as much as I’d gained each time…I was always either gaining or losing. Sure I, like most of you, have plenty of embarrassing weight-related stories I can tell and plenty of specific depressing moments...those moments usually spurred me into yet another diet. I gained a lot more with two more children and about 7 years ago I found myself over that dreaded number of 200. My age started making it harder to take off weight as easily and my weight started making it harder to exercise. I was circling the drain. I have 4 siblings and they are all obese, some morbidly obese. I watched as they started to have health problems…my younger sister had 2 strokes and was diagnosed with diabetes. My father has had 2 heart attacks and 3 stents. It scared me, but I’d pretty much given up.

That takes me to last year. With kids heading to college we don’t have a lot of extra cash flow, but it’s important to us that we do a family vacation each year, even if it was camping, and we save for a bigger vacation every 5 years, the kids always picked Disney. Last year was one of those 5 year vacation years. Our DD was a junior in college and suddenly we were helping her to plan a semester abroad studying in France. We decided that this was our last chance to take a really great trip before the kids get old enough to go off and have their own lives, so we changed our travel plans to take our family to France for a week. DH and I had been lucky enough get to go to Paris on one of DH's business trips years before and we knew it was the perfect trip. We scrimped and saved and I spent lots of time figuring out the best deals, and we were set to take our “Trip of a Lifetime”.

I was worried about my weight, since I knew how much walking we’d have to do. It spurred me to diet and I used the treadmill every day in preparation. I lost 20 pounds, and I was lighter than now- but still 208# then. Our first day in Paris was May 12, 2008; we climbed the very steep staircase up the hill to Montmarte-village (235 steps) as the funicular was broken. It was a killer, but I made it after a few rests. Then we climbed the narrow spiral staircase to the top dome of Sacre-Coeur-church which sits at the top of the hill (about 300 more steps). There's no turning around (you come down a different staircase)...my legs were shaking and I rested in the few tiny alcoves on the way up and flattened myself (yeah, right) to let people pass...I seriously thought I was going to lose a lung or have a heart attack. My family was waiting and wondering what happened to me at the top. My feet which never swell at home, looked like someone had pumped them up with a bicycle pump…luckily, I was afraid enough of blisters that I had splurged on some expensive stylish walking shoes that had an adjustable strap in the back or I would have been buying shoes.

These don't look so bad...from the top.

Sacre Coure and the Dome

The next morning we visited Notre Dame cathedral (402 spiral steps to the very top)...I was sitting on the plaza while the rest of my family waved to me from the bell tower...my "Moment". I was on our ‘Trip of a Lifetime’ and I was missing a major moment with my family...it wasn't the view, because I'd seen that before...it was missing the view with my family. I was so upset and angry with myself at that moment. That week I also didn’t climb the steps with my family to the top of the Arch de Triomphe or to the next level of the Eiffel Tower (luckily that one has an elevator). I have plenty of wonderful memories from our trip, but I came home and started ‘just looking’ into the Lap Band. I find it fitting that I’ll probably be getting my LB within a week or so of my one year anniversary of my ‘Moment’.

Notre Dame from the Plaza

View from the Bell Tower

Wow, I can see why you'd have your Moment then.