mike30

I just wanted to say hi! My name is Mike, and I have been stopping by the website for a few weeks now, just reading some of the stories, and looking at some of the fantastic before and after pictures of all you success stories. I have been chubby most of my life, but slendered down and then bulked up( I found out about the weight room) in highschool. I know what it's like to be thin and muscular, but after being a single father all these years( my daughter is almost 10 years old and a perfect weight for her height, and eats like a health nut! ) I feel like I do not even know how to eat properly anymore. In sports, I could eat whatever I wanted, and after high school I was a power lifter, so again, tons and tons of protien and carbs. Now I find myself with little time to myself, and my gym time isn't productive as I spend more time trying to shy away from people and less time hitting the weights. I have a tred mill at home, but you know how that is, my clothes hang off the side of it just fine. I bought it and put 100 miles on it the first three weeks, and now it sits two years later with 102 miles on it... ughhhh.... I recently saw a picture of myself as the best man at my brothers wedding, and I am ashamed to say, I was embarassed at the way I looked in those photos! I know I am a good man, and I am not down on myself as a person, but I have to say, i truly look rediculous. I went from a chubby kid, and found the light,. I became healthy, and then slowly back to the heaviest person in the room... at 6 feet tall, I weigh in at 320 lbs. I am 30 years old, but have the physique of a 60 year old Santa Claus inpersonator! I have been reading and researching the band, and sit here right now at work anxious to attend the meeting tonght to learn about the system from the surgeons and others who have been through this rough decision. I hear people say all the time, losing weight is easy... Just eat less, and work out more...... This is probably the dumbest thing i have ever heard. I mean, it's not that I have not put two and two together, but when your hungry, your hungry.. These same people that dish out this breakthrough advice are the same people that have to eat by 12:30, because if they don't, they get "light headed", or say things like" when I am hungry, I get grumpy".. But for me it's " oh, it's easy.. Just eat less, and workout more." Then I get some story about how they once lost 8 lbs in a week for a wedding... I could lose eight lbs standing on my head! LOL, do you know what I mean? Anyway, so you see where I am coming from and the kind of support that I have.. I need to relearn how to eat, what to eat, and what a portion is.. and how to make just one portion fill me up! I am hoping to learn more about the surgery, how it wil effect my weight lifting on the long term, and if I am a candidate fro the surgery. I really think this would give me the help I need to break the cycle of being heavy, and the second chance I need to make myself happy. If any of you reading this have any photos that you would like to share, I would love to see them, I could use all the inspiration I can get. I am not a person that particularly likes Doctors, so this is hard enough of a decision to make. I may even return that wedding photo that made me decide this might be the right decision for me....as a motivator. If it were up to me, I would burn all those pics, but since I can't, maybe I can use them as a tool....something that I can look back onand not want to go back to. I would pass it out so that people could hold me accountable by saying" I have your first photo, when do I get the next one...."or "what kind of progress have you made? send me the new pic". I don't really know what to expect with all of this, but I hope this is the first step in becoming the person that I would be proud to see in pictures ( like I once was) and more importantly, be able to hold my head up high, be proud of myself as a man, and be there for my daughter as she grows, and her children when she becomes a mother. I want to live my next thrity a lot better than my first thirty!:mad:

Oh and P.S. Bill... I am a fellow GM guy.. I am a G body man myself.... 1984 Monte Carlo SS original

Bill, I, much like you , have no been banded yet, but am so excited to start the program. I have not been approved for the band just yet but I am going through the insurance hoops now... I can't wait to begin again...turn 31 on the 18th of this month, and look forward to living a healthier second 30! best of luck to you , and congrats on your decision! I can not wait till I get my date set! Keep us posted on your results!

Bob, After I decided to learn about the program, I reszearched it like crazy... As you seem to have found out, there are not many men talking about it. Truthfully, I am not telling the my friends about it either, but I am confident enough to speak my mind here.. Once I receive the surgery, and the results can speak fpr themselves, I will certainly be more open about the procedure that gave me my healthy active life back, but until I succeed, I plan on keeping my surgery on the downlow. Also, In talking to the Dr, he explained to me that the ratio of men to women is extremely low for the surgery.. He says he bands 8 or 9 women for each man that bands... Seems like guys are a bit more shy then women, and I can say truthfully that 5 years ago I would not even have considered this..It's just my time to make a change.. I saw that picture and I never want to feel that shame again... As I thought about it that night, I also started thinking about the health side of it too.. That my knee does hurt if I walk long distances, I don't want to play football with the guys on saturday even though I love the game... I am too embarrassed that I would not make it through about ten minutes before I would have to sit out... My feet hurt daily, I snore like a chainsaw, and I don't fit to comfortably in a plane seat either... Enough was enough.. .I deserve better, my daughter deserves better, and my future wife will deserve the best i can can give her too... This is a change I can really live with! I am so excited, I can't stop thinking about it!

Thanks for the support so far. I have done my consultation, and I have decided that I am going to do it! I am going to get the band! I have to jump through the insurance hoops, so i will be lucky to even get it performed before January, but I am scheduling with my Dr. to start jumping and get in my three monthes of assisted weight loss in. Hopefully, I will do so well with that, I won't even need the band, but after all I have tried, I don't think that is the case. I hope to celebrate Christmas 2010 a much thinner, much healthier man. I plan on logging onto this site regularly, so please keep up the comments and pictures.... Thanks everyone!