Brinabrina77

I guess I can say that I have been overweight my entire life.  Most of my family is overweight as well. I have overcome so many obstacles to be where I am, but the one obstacle I have never been able to successfully overcome has been my weight.  Although my weight predisposed  me to conditions such as high blood pressure, heart problems, and diabetes I fortunately never suffered from any of those.  However, they ran rampant through my family.  I tried every diet in the world..and they all failed.  Most importantly, I failed.  So once again, I pulled myself up by my bootstraps and decided that I was going to lose the weight.  Well, I was hit with a wall of discouragement that rivaled the Great Wall of China because I had reached the grand ol' weight of 325lbs.  I had even set aside funds to buy exercise equipment and all that good stuff only to discover that most equipment had a weight limit of 250lbs.  I finally found some equipment that could support me.  So i exercised my butt off...well a small amount of it..before I managed to injure my knees.  For the first time in my life, my weight was causing me pain.  I ended up going to the hospital becasue I could barely walk.  When I got there, I had to do a standing xray (on already throbbing knees) becasue I exceeded the weight limit of the xray table.  Then later that month, I had to fly.  Guess, who could not fasten the seat belt around herself?  I cried the entire flight.  I cried when I got home.  I cried every time I passed the place I used to work out because I considered myself too fat to exercise.  If i was too fat to exercise, how was I goign to lose the weight?  Again, I had failed.  I felt like i was in a hopeless situation.  

 

I accidentally came across information about the Lapband procedure.  I was still scared to death about ANY kind of weightloss surgery, but this one scared me a lot less than gastric bypass.  I talked to my regular physisician and she recommended Lapband for me.  Dr Bagnato performed my lapband surgery on 2/25/08.  Around that time I was 5'3", 325lbs, and a size 26/28.   I am currently 201 lbs and a size 16/18 (sometimes 14/16) as of 1/1/2012.  I am not the fastest loser, but I am fine with that.  I still continue to lose weight and I am even happier with that.  My longterm goal is 170 lbs, then I will reevaluate and see if I need to lose more.    No matter how long it takes me to be of "normal" size, I will still say that having the LapBand procedure performed is one of the best decisions that I have ever made for myself.  

 

Good luck in your weight loss and weight maintenace goals.