Hello everyone. I am not, necessarily, new to this site. I have been reading many of the forums and topics on here since May of 2012. I would have to say thank you to everyone for the great encouragement to me and those that have questions or needs. I am 41 years old, husband of 20 years to my best friend and father to 4 awesome children. I started my journey on April 15, 2012 with my initial information appointment at my surgeon’s office. After that meeting I knew that this is what I was supposed to be doing. My recorded weight at that visit…400 pounds. One advantage that I had throughout this whole process is that my wife and I did this together. I had my surgery on June 8th 2012 and hers was the following week. Within hours after my surgery I was up and walking. I was, and still am, motivated to make this work. I have never been at a healthy weight my whole life and struggled with Yo-Yo dieting continuously. So walking was a must, even if my feet and knees disagreed. I was so excited about having the surgery that I walked a lot. I did not have any pain or discomfort issues. I was able to keep down all the fluids that I was supposed to have and then was released a day early due to the fact that I was doing so well. I am blessed to continue doing well on this journey. I am currently at 250 pounds. My surgery weight was 385. But I am going by the highest recorded weight for a total loss of 150 pounds this far, but 135 pounds since the surgery. This is one of the best decisions I have ever made. I feel great and look forward to maybe encouraging someone else along their journey.