Hi my name is Pamela and I had been very unhappy as an overweight person. I was always an obese person even as a child. In high school I was popular but I knew deep down inside I was just the "fat friend with the cute face". I graduated from high school weighing 190 pounds. I then went off to college and the freshman 15 (that is how much you typically gain during your first year of college) turned into the freshman 30. Even by the time I left college I was much heavier than I was in high school. With this being said I still was not to the point were I was fed up with my weight. I felt I could live with it and if no one else could, well that was their problem. I had gotten married in 2004 and became really comfortable with my life. I had a husband who loved me for me so I subconciously figured I could eat whatever and whenever I wanted. Well I kept this up for the next 2 1/2 years and ended up ballooning to the weight of 292 pounds :omg: . I thought to myself what the hell happened. Well the fried chicken, ribs, mac and cheese day in and day out happened. Not to mention the Reeses easter eggs (both in white and milk chocolate) and the Pillsbury deserts, you know the ones you drizzle caramel and fudge on top when you take it out of the . Well I had got to my "Ah ha" moment. I knew I was slowly but surely killing myself. I knew I had diabetes and hypertension that ran on both sides of the family. So I had to do something. I had heard about the Lap-Band procedure but knew nothing about it. So I did my research and found a surgeon by the name of Dr. Robert Quinlan :clap2: who is my godsend. I had a seminar in October of 2006 and was officially notified that I a candidate for surgery. Well this was the best news for me but I still had to go through the pre-testing such as the ultrasound, pschy, and various other testing to see if I could physically stand to have the surgery done. I wasn't concerned about the test results being that I was 27 years old and had no current health problems besides being morbidly obese (oh and the 3 three protruding "love" handles that were on both sides of me in addition to my "thunder thighs"). Well it took me six months to go through the mandatory testing to be approved for surgery. When the surgeons office finally called me to let me know that my insurance was approving it I thought I was going to faint. Six anxious months had finally paid off. And not to mention I had lost 12 pounds before surgery to decrease the size of my liver. I had my surgery March 29, 2007. The day I went home from surgery I weighed 280 pounds and to date (Sept 3, 2007) have lost 60 pounds (yay! :bounce:). I eat ABSOLUTELY nothing fried and no sweets. I figured that between unhealty food and my obsessive eating its what got me to this point in the first place SO NO MORE!! I exercise at least three times per week whether it be going downstairs to the gym, power walking outside (which isn't very fun in 90 degree weather) or turning on exercise tv and working out. I hate to exercise :whoo: but I know it's half (if not 60 percent) of the battle of weight loss so I force myself to do it.
I love the band and have no problem tolerating any healthy foods even fibrous ones like broccoli. I want to at least get down to 150 pounds and plan on having a abdominoplasty (tummy tuck) done at that time. I would encourage anyone who has had repeated failures at weight loss whether it be Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, or Slim Fast (oh and can't forget about the Richard Simmons way of weight loss too been there done that), go to a lap band seminar and get the skinny on the way to a better life. Now I understand it's not for everyone but it really saved me from continuing to lead myself to an early grave.
