sakirby

I have been heavy ever since high school. I have tried several diets with some success but no long term results. At my heaviest I weighed approximatelly 390 lb, I was 29 years old and was scared to death I would never see 40. So I went on the popular low carb diet and then a popular low fat weight loss program, and it worked, by the time I turned 30 I was down to about 245 lb, eventually I got down to 235 lb. Now I am 39 and scared to death that I will not see 50, I weigh 336 lb. What has happened in the last ten years you ask? after working so hard and having such success how could I put myself through this or let my self down? The best answer I can come up with is that I have the wrong type of relationship with food, I use it as a tool to get through emotional times, I use it as a source of pleasure, I use it as a way to please others (I love to cook for people, but I also take alot of what I call chefs priveledges), I use it to fight boredom, and worst of all when I do all this I usually make the wrong choices on what I do eat. Oh I kept the weight off for a little while but then it slowley crept back on, I knew it was coming back on but a couple pounds here, a couple pounds there then the next thing you know you've put on 20 pounds then 45 then 60 then 70 and on and on. I would diet again and loose 20  but then the next thing you know I put 30 back on, just your classic yo-yo. My wife was overweight too, about 7 years ago she had a gastric bypass and lost well over 100 lbs. She has kept it off, however she had several complications that led to about 15 hospital stays and a couple near death experiences along the way. Because of this and just because of how invasive a full gastric bypass is, I never even considered it an option. Then a few years ago I started hearing more about Lapband Surgery it sounded like a much safer option then a bypass, but my insurance didn't cover it. About a year later I switched jobs but I didn't think about my new insurance would cover it, in retrospect, I think I probably wasn't ready to admit that I couldn't do it on my own either. Then I heard of a few people at work having lapband surgery and realized that not only does my insurance cover it but I am blessed to have very good coverage and can have it done with very little out of pocket expense, this is when I really started to research it. My research led me to realize that a lapband will not make me suddenly loose 100 lbs, but if I follow the program not only can I safely loose this weight but more importantly I will keep it off. I mean I leaarned a long time ago that there is no such thing as a magic bullet, but there are powerful tools that if used correctly can help you accomplish almost anything. To me the lapband is not shovel that you can use to dig out of a hole it is a bulldozer you can use to move a mountain, but you better know how to drive the bulldozer because anyone can use a shovel. Anyway here we are I have jumped through all the hoops my insurance company required and last Thursday I got my approval, tommorrow I will see my surgeon and set a surgery date, I am hoping to have my surgery around March 17, 2010.