Shanna NYC

I was born and raised and currently reside in New York City. I have been overweight pretty much my entire life. Tried Atkins back in high school, a few different drug store gimmicky weight loss pills in and shortly after college. Weight Watchers off and on during my twenties. Lose some, gain more back and so on.

In 2014 I had a lightbulb moment and I was just ready to make a change. I found out about a DietBet and thought it was just the right incentive to get the ball rolling – bet $25 in the community pot, lose 4% of your starting body weight in 4 weeks and win a piece of the pie. Worse case, you were out $25 if you didn’t hit goal. Hit goal and at minimum you get back what you put in, best case you win more. I started April 1^st and went on to do a few more. At the time, I was just tracking via MyFitnessPal and making better food choices. No specific program or diet, no exact macro tracking, just basic calories in vs calories out. After several months of just changing my diet, I started walking, from there I fell in love with the gym and would often spend hours several days a week there. I lost majority of my weight in the first year and with some minor fluctuations up and down, I lost a bit over 100 lbs and maintained most of that loss for several years. Started the journey at 304 and lowest weight I hit was 195.

By February 2020, I weighed in at 240 having gained some and then dum dum dum – March 2020 and the dreaded pandemic. Life came to a screeching halt. Not only not able to go to the gym, but my typical movement of commuting on the subway, lots of city walking and stair climbing was reduced to a commute from the bed to the desk to the living room. Living dynamic was also changed in February with a roommate who didn’t really eat the healthiest.

By 2022 I was back up to 305 and for the first time, put some serious contemplation into WLS. I did it before naturally but knew I couldn’t do it again the same way nearly 10 years older and with more pains and less time to live at the gym. I did my research, watched a million youtube videos of other’s experiences, I compared different surgeries, watched reels on IG – even did some research into the starting wave of Ozempic which I quickly decided was not for me. I spoke with my PCP who never pushed a weight issue as she’s seen my history and that I was overall a “healthy” fat person – no HBP, no cholesterol issues, no blood sugar issues or sleep apnea. But she was happy to support my decision whether is was an injectable or surgery.

I researched my surgeon, booked the consult in January 2023, followed the steps and was booked for RNY GB April 11 and here we are.