Ohm

I have always been tall - bigger than other kids when I was young.  By the time I was about 11 I was taller than most of my teachers.  People tell me I wasn't a fat kid, but I haveseen many unflattering photos of me.  At 7 I was wearing trousers made for 14 yr olds.  I was always bigger than others -b ut was I fat?  I don't really know.  I have big hands and feet and I I have wide  shoulders.  I'm not willowy and slender, and if I was a UK size 10 I would be skeletal - honest.Anyway, when i was a teenager I manaed to look shapely.  I was about 147 lbs for years and years, but as soon as I started to have kids I gained weight.  This was not the fault of anyone except myself.  I sat around the house  withthe baby and ate and ate because food was available and having a little one meant that I was limited in being able to do anything else - and anyway food is pleasant.  I lost the weight after the first baby (Martin) and then gained it all back when I had Jessica.  After she was born I yoyoed for years, starving myself for weeks on end and then giving in and eating the whole fridge!  This is something I do not reccommend!My marriage broke up when my husband had an affair - of course he lied about it but you could always tell when he was lying: his lips moved!  I gave him a year to get his act together and establish some contact with the kids but he didn't so we moved as far North as we could without leaving the country so that the kids would have a rationale for why their father did not see them: he can't come and see you because we live so far away.  Martin was 8 by now and Jessica (aka Nelly) was 6 - and he couldn't be bothered to come and see them or phone them or send birthday or christmas cards or presents.  Git he was.So we moved north and started again.  I went back to University and did some Post Grad stuff and met my present husband and he loved me even though I am 8 years his senior and was all woman (and part of another one).  And we had two more boys- Benedict and Domminick - and I became so fat that I was nearly allocated my own post code.  During my final pregnancy I was diagnosed with gall stones (dear God, the pain was exquisite) and when Domminick was a few months old I had them removed.  Between the surgery and the follow up check up appointment I discovered that my surgeon (Mr Sean Woodcock) was a bariatric surgeon.  When I saw him I asked him if he could help me and he said yes, but you have to go  away and lose weight andyou have to get your GP to refer you.  That afternoon I went straight to see my GP and she ummed and hed and told me I should have to jump throgh hoops and go to psychology groups (I am a graduate psychologist myself) and try behaviour therapy and set diets and then diet pills before I could be referred.Slightly discouraged I wrote to  Mr Woodcock and told him that I would have to jump through the hoops before seeing him, so it would be a long time but I WOULD get there - and he, saint that he is, wrote tomy GP and DEMANDED that she refer me tout suite.  I had begun to be very careful of my diet and to take exercise the day following my follow up appointment with Mr Woodcock, and the next week, when his secretary phoned me and asked me to come and see him I found I had lost 7 lbs!  It was a start.  I had to have 2 appointments with Mr Woodcock and i had to show weight loss at each appointment - as he said to me: if you can't change your lifestyle before a weight loss operation you won't change it afterwards.By the time I had my surgery i had lost 70 lbs.  I think the exercise was the biggest factor.  I had read that you should take 10000 steps a day, which is about 5 miles, so I decided to take 5 miles of exercise every day.  The first time I tried to walk 5 miles it took me 6 hours - now I can run it in about 45 minutes.  I shall never forget the first time I managed to run.  It was winter and I was walking onthe treadmill  at the gym .  I had cranked the speed up to walk fast, I had never been able to run, even as a child.  Anyway, I glanced over and saw that someone else was actuallly jogging ontheir treadmill but their speed was slower than mine - and the seed of a thought began to germinate.  In a moment of decision I started to jog - and I was running and I was doing it and i wasn't dead!!!  I was so excited that i got mymobile and rang all my freidns and family: I'm running , I'm running.  They all thought I'd lost my marbles!Anyway, from there it is all history.  I take exercise every day.  I have run quite a few marathons and I am now far more normal looking.  I had an inverted T abdominoplasty in Feb 2010 and noow have a much more normal body shape - I had had a large pouch both above and below my belly button.  I still need my arms, inner thighs and boobs done, but I already look and feel so much better.So here I am, happier, healthier and feady to start running again next weekend, 4 weeks post abdominoplasty.I'm not sure who will be reading this, but I have enjoyed writing it.  Good luck to you!