bsellis

I have always struggled with my weight. I remember going on my first diet at the age of 10. Through the years my weight has gone up and down. I've tried various diets from Weight Watcher's to low carb. I would lose weight and guess what? I would gain it back. No surprise there! By the time I graduated college in 2000 at the age of 22 I was very happy at a size 14 (I'm tall- 5'9"- so I carry it well) compared to the size 26/28 when I started college. This was the smallest I had been since I could remember and the crazy part was that it was easy at the time! It's called the student diet- full time college + full time work = no time to eat. Fast forward 14 years and I am at my biggest that I've ever. How did this happen? During the six years post college I had one child. This is when I started to put on the weight. I really thought I was suppose to eat for two. 2 grown men apparently!! Geez! Even after her birth I slowly gained. I would go on a diet, lose some and then gain it back plus some. And so the vicious cycle continued. I started Grad school in 2006 and weighed about 270. This was a very stressful time and guess how I dealt with stress? I ate. And ate some more. That's not all. On the weekends I would consume large quantities of alcohol. Again this was a stress reliever for me. It didn't help that fast food became a big part of my life during this time, because I was always on the go. Sometimes I would combine the two... Waffle House after a long night of beer drinking with friends?? Yes please! I graduated in 2008 and took about 4 months off until I started working.Now I do have to say that I am a creature of habit. So while the stress was gone the bad eating/drinking habits remained. I also need to mention that I was a smoker and had been since I was 14 years old. I smoked about a pack a day. I would occasionally try to go for a walk but would get so out of breathe I just stopped trying all together. I've been working the past 5 years at a job I absolutely love. I am mainly sedentary throughout the day. I continued my bad habits. I would go to my doctor twice a year because of having high blood pressure and I would see the numbers go up every time I was weighed. In spite of this I still wasn't ready to deal. I'm a pretty happy person for being so overweight. I think most people expect you to be depressed. Not me though. I guess I just needed awake up call. That came in October 2012. I had a sleep study done and found out I have sleep apnea. I thought wow! Look what I am doing to myself. My oxygen levels were dropping down to 82. Being in the health care profession myself I knew that was NOT good. With the CPAP machine my levels were 94. Good but not great. It should be between 95 and 100. I knew the smoking was getting to me and I needed to stop. My sister had just been diagnosed with COPD and we started smoking about the same time. I knew the apnea was caused by weight and I needed to lose weight. At this point I was quite overwhelmed. I loved smoking. I loved eating. I loved the occasional drink. But it was all killing me. I was stressing about all of this one day at work and I checked my email and saw one from 'My Benefits' program (insurance). I was bored so I checked it out. That's when I found out that my insurance recently started a bariatric pilot program where they cover the surgery if qualified. I started researching my options and jumped through the hoops. I believe this started Sept. 2012. Well today (7-24-13) I can say that I am a nonsmoker (4 months yesterday!) and start my pre-op diet tomorrow for my Aug 9th lap-band surgery!! And here is something I NEVER thought I would say.. I am really loving excercise! What? Crazy I know! I just feel so good afterwards.. must be those awesome endorphins or something!! Well that's my story. I'm excited and ready to start a new chapter in my life. One that includes a healthy me!! :)


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