Shellcat

I guess you could say I have reverse body image issues.   I grew up an athlete.  MVP my junior year in varsity basketball.   I was a size two in college and was always on the move.  I have lots of hobbies that have one by one gone by the wayside as I have slowly gained weight.   I was a runner, Hiker, Scuba diver, basketball player, skier, and and avid fisherwomen.   I started gaining weight with my first child around 18 years ago.  I was pregnant in residency and working 100 hours a week and my theory is that something happened to my bodies set point.   I think that stress has played a roll in my weight gain, along with emotional eating of course.   I had lap band in 2007 at 204 pounds on my 5 foot 4 frame.  I was successful until I started to get continual reflux and regurgitation.   I became a "soft food syndrome" person and started gaining back all but twenty of the pounds that I had lost.   I was awakened nightly by regurgitation and lived in fear of aspiration pneumonia.   Needless to say I had the lap band removed in 2012.... I then slowly went on to gain about 70 pounds at about 15pounds a year.  Insidious weight gain sneaks up on you.   I would look in the mirror and say well its not that bad, then I would see a photo.   I kept active worked out 3-4 times a week but my knees started to fail me.   They really are what drove me back to the surgeon.   I don't want to live in this costume of a fat person anymore.  I want to come out of my cocoon and become who I really am before I am too old to enjoy it.    At first I thought weight loss surgery was the easy way out but now I realize that I will be working just as hard but will have a better chance at succeeding.  Wish me luck.  And God bless all of you who are fighting this same fight with me.