meltingaway72

Growing up I was always on the chubby side. When I graduated from high school I thought I was fat at 180 lbs. Boy, was I WRONG! LOL! I tried multiple diets from Atkins to Weight Watchers and while I did have weight loss with them I was unable to maintain it. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't keep it off but I have since noted two reasons as to why this was.

First, my family eats all the time! Every weekend is a family dinner with meals that are not prepared in the healthiest of ways and nothing is ever served in moderation. It's funny that I never realized this until I started this journey. Now that I can't eat the amount of food I previously could I can see how much we actually eat and it's frightening. I didn't tell my extended family that I had WLS so it's hard for me to attend family functions because I get tired of hearing "you need to eat, you hardly ate anything." It's funny to hear those words for sure.

Second, I've learned I'm a stress eater! Since having WLS I've noted that whenever I feel stressed out the first thing I think of is food. I want food really bad and because I guess it had previously been a source of comfort this has been more difficult to deal with than my family. I know I shouldn't get comfort from enchiladas, cheeseburgers, fried chicken and the list could go on and on but I do. Why couldn't I have been born as one of those people who don't eat when they are stressed out???? Well, I wasn't so its an issue that I work on daily. I say daily because you can easily drink your calories. Starbucks has plenty of evil calorie laden choices in which to cope with stress. So, when I feel stressed i start drinking as much water as i can and if its possible I get on the treadmill. It has helped and its really a mind thing not an I'm hungry thing.

So on October 7th, 2009 I had a lapband placed. It was great for the first two years and 199 was my lowest weight with the lap band. Unfortunately, it slipped in December 2011. Since that initial slip I could never get to that sweet spot again where I was losing weight. What I did have was severe reflux. It was horrible and it made my life miserable! I could go without eating and still have reflux. My doctor and I worked hard at getting it back to a point where I was losing weight and not suffering from the reflux to no avail. I had two more slips since that initial one and when the third one occurred we discovered a hiatal hernia as well. At that point I decided a revision was my best option so under the knife I went again. I had the lapband removed and revised to a VSG on June 18th, 2013. I weighed in at 225 on surgery day. It's been 3 months since surgery and I'm down 30 lbs to my lowest weight of 195 in 20 years. Im okay with the slower weight loss. My doctor warned me that it may be slow since i had been revised and my body wouldn't be as "shocked" due to the lapband. This was definitely the best decision ever. The sleeve feels more natural to me. I don't feel like I've had any kind of WLS like I did with the band. I feel terrific and best of all no more suffering from reflux.

I've limited who knows about my WLS because this is my journey :-). Those who I've shared this with have been VERY supportive and it's been wonderful to have their support. One of my closest friends has helped my going to the gym with me.

~Melt