Curly Girl

My Lap band story is probably not too typical, well part of it anyhow.  I was actaully a personal trainer and aerobics instructor for almost 10 years before my weight gain.  If there was a local 5k, 10k or fitness event, I was there.  My nick-name most of my adult life was "Granola Girl."  I never thought I would end up being an obese person, not in a million years. I think what threw me for the weight gain loop was my first pregnancy, it was a surprise.  I was not ready to start a family, but like so many people in that situation, I wanted to do what I felt was right and that meant becoming a family (and marrying my boyfriend of only 18 months).  I taught aerobics until my second trimester and then decided two jobs at 6 months prego was too much.  Almost immediately after I quit working at the gyms, the weight gain started.  I thought it was okay because it was "baby weight"  I never thought I would have a problem losing it.  What people don't tell you, is that a typical pregnancy only should add about 12-25 lbs. to your body, but when it was all said and done, I had put on 75lbs.  After the baby, I did a pretty good job of losing about 40 lbs.  That took me about a year.  Well, things were pretty good and I must have been looking much better because then came surprise no. 2 (and yes I was on birth control - both times).  Well, there went any success of losing weight and even though I didn't gain that much with my second child, it was enough to make it harder to lose.  Things really began to unraval, I was horribly stressed out, I didn't have any help with the kids, I had no family close by and began turning to food for comfort.  The rest is history....if I was angry, I ate, if I was sad I ate, if I was happy I ate....you get the picture.   So, over the next ten years I proceeded to put on about 100 lbs. I made multiple attemps to drop the weight, and I was very successful at losing 20-30 lbs each time, but when you lose that 20-30 lbs. and look in the mirror and still hate what you see, that little seed of hopelessness begins to grow.  Food is not illegal people, I don't get inebriated from to many tacos, I don't lose the ability to care for my family becasue I have to many slices of pizza, food is everywhere, it's availible 24 hrs a day, it's at the tips of my fingers and every bite was bliss. Yes, I hated myself, but only for a moment, only until that next bite, then for a few moments I was fine.  It wasn't until my son told me that "I tried all the slides mom, they were awesome!  You should try the slides mom, but don't go down the yellow one, you might get stuck, I don't think you can fit."  that I realized I'm not just hurting me, I'm hurting my family.  My Lap Band surgery date was April 8, 2010.