shonette

I have struggled with my weight my entire adult life. Things really seemed to spiral out of control during my many miscarriages. Finally, God blessed me to have a son and by that time my weight had peaked 365 pounds. I retained fluid really bad and my legs were swollen daily. I was in constant pain and I developed broken veins in the back of my legs. Oh my God- I was so very unhappy, but daily I tried to count my blessing and I often made light of being over weight. I am 6"1 and it was really hard to tell how much I weighed. Yes, it was obvious that I was over weight, but I dressed really nice and it knew what did and didn't work well on my body. When I would see myself in pictures it was so "in my face" how large I really was! At times- I honestly hated being me and I wanted to lose weight more than anything. I have tried almost every diet under the sun. I have lost up to 30/40 pounds but I was still 300 pounds give or take. I needed something that I was unable to do on my own. I researched weight lost surgery for several years before it actual happened. I had some friends and family who had under gone the gastric procedure. My brother lost a lot of weight, but he gained back a large portion of his weight. I needed something that would help me on a long term basis. Therefore, I chose the lap band procedure. Any thing I could read or watch concerning the lap band, I was on it immediately. It was a very long process complying with my insurance demands to be approved for the surgery. It took six long months but I was told "yes" you can be banded in June 2010 and my surgery date was scheduled on July 21, 2010. From that point forward, my life has changed in so many wonderful ways. I had to learn what things did and did not work with my band. Yes, there were some ups and downs throughout this process, but overall the rewards have been worth it all. I have learned not to consider my success or failures based off of others, but to count every little victory as a victory. Before being band I was wearing a size 26-28 and a 3x, and currently I am wearing 16-18 & 1x. I really would like to wear a size 14 out of any store. My personal motto is “a body in motion stays in motion and a body at rest tend to rest"! Therefore, I always want to keep my body in motion! Thanks for reading my story.......