Your Ah-ha Moment?

[SuzanneG 1]

Well, my ah-ha moment is not a poignant one, but a practical problem. I hope this isn’t TMI, but my moment was when I had to figure out a new way to wipe my behind because I could no longer reach. :sneaky: I was appalled that I couldn’t normally perform a function that was necessary to everyday life.

I immediately thought about some of the folks on Big Medicine who are bedridden and totally dependant on another person to take care of them. I realized then and there that I was heading in their same direction, even though it was far down the road, I was heading straight for it. I decided to get while the getting was good.

[ReadySteadyGo 8]

What a wonderful thread.

[Sweet_pea_2 0]

My final straw moment happened to me when we were vacationing in Rocky Mountain National Park last summer. I was sitting there looking out at the beautiful mountains after a horrible hike thinking I was going to die. I spent a lot of time that trip watching instead of participating, so it was then that I decided something must be done. Came home and started researching the band again. Had looked at it the following summer but talked myself out of it. Soon got the ball rolling and had surgery Nov. 5th. I woke up in the recovery room with a picture of the mountains on the ceiling. It was my sign that this is what I needed to do!

How ironic; my ah ha moment also involves vacationing in the Rocky Mt. National Park which my whole famliy is doing this July. I made the reservations including airfair to Denver knowing full well that although I would enjoy the beauty I would also be totally miserable starting with the flight just to get there.....seat beat extension, discomfort in the seat. And then the altitude alone in the mountains is taxing on healthy people let alone obese people.

My father was diagnosed with lung cancer and has his left lung removed 3 years ago. He goes to the gym 5 days a week and walks on the treadmill and works with weight machines. Right after we made the reservations for our summer vacation we had a scare and thought that his cancer may have returned. Luckily by the grace of God he was cleared of cancer. He is only 76 and has plenty of time left on this earth. At that moment finding out that he was cancer free I reflected on my poor quality of life and how much more life I have left to live. I view my obesity as a handicap. It prevents me from being active, from being able to get in and out of a seat without effort, from being able to look into the mirror and see my pretty face because my cheeks are so fat. I want to go to Disney in the summer of 09 and be able to fit on all the rides. I want to go to the Water park with my granddaugher and go down the big slides. I want to play tennis with my husband who is 9 years younger than I am and in top shape. I want to L I V E my life without factoring my size into the equasion.

I drew $15,000 out of my retirement to pay for the surgery which I had on March 17th. I got on the scale this morning and I am down 22 pounds since March 16th. I am on my journey to a new life of health and happiness.

I wish all of you the very best on your Quest for good health. Remember to take one day at a time. Do something good for yourself each and every day. Make healthy choices, take a walk and thank God each night for the opportunity he has given you for a new beginning.

Janet:wub:

[coolcrystal 1]

I had two moments:

1. went to ihop with some friends and got a booth. The booth was digging right into my gut and I was so embarrassed. everybody in that section was looking at me and I tried to fold my arms over my belly.

2. went to Cozumel, got in the ocean and stayed in there for about an hour, when I went to get out, I couldn't walk. My body felt like it was 800 pounds after floating in the ocean for so long. My husband had to litterally hold me up. I felt all my weight for the first time in that moment. It felt like I was 120 pounds with a 500 pound fat suit on me and I was trying to figure out how to walk in it.

[sadie11 2]

Janet- you are so right- I am indeed thankful that I have the resources to self pay for this life saving surgery. I am paying the VISA bill today (the biggest VISA bill I have EVER had!) and aren't I lucky to have the money to pay it. (Even if I had to hit all my savings accounts! yuk yuk)

And I am thankful that I had the courage to go ahead with the band and put up with the gas and pain for a couple of weeks for a better, healthy life. I am sure that the $10,000 I just paid will be repaid over and over again in happiness, longevity, and just plain savings on health costs.

I have good friends who are literally drowning in their fat and will not even consider band surgery. I see them trapped in a sheath of fat and I am sorry for them. I wish I could get them to open their minds a bit.

My ah-ahh moment was realizing that I just could not COULD NOT go on another diet! 50 diets over my life and i finally realized THEY DON'T WORK! I lose, then I gain back more. Just took me 45 years to get it. I was either going to have WLS or just be fatter and fatter and die of a stroke and/or diabetes. No other choices. The band as changed my life already!

My motto has always been "Leave no stone unturned" and it has served me well in my career and now, my health.

Best to all

Sadie

[three sixty six 1]

I never thought I'd have an "ah-ha" moment. I was scared that it would never happen, I'd never hit rock bottom, and I'd be destined to be 800lb and die before I'm thirty.

My "ah-ha" came with my 25th birthday. All my life I thought that by 25, I'd be an attorney, married, and living in a house with a picket-fenced-in yard. My life hasn't been on track (still in school, didn't marry the guy I thought I would, still single, living in a condo, no fence!) and I thought, by God, change what you CAN!

I vowed to be my best self.

[MissMaryAnn 0]

I've been obese for over a decade now, but I've always been in fairly decent physical shape, which may be why I haven't had many comorbid conditions (except for killer sleep apnea). Last Thanksgiving, I walked my second half-marathon. I improved my time from the previous year by 20 minutes, and I felt strong and wonderful, and so proud of myself after the race. That is, until I got the race photos. :ohmy:

I looked enormous. For some reason, the contrast between the euphora I remembered feeling and the misshapen body that I saw brought it home to me that I have to do something to change my life, along with the realization that I'm not likely to improve my time any more without adding running, which is extremely difficult for me because of teh excess weight I am carrying.

I think that, on some level, I thought that I could just exercise all the weight off if I tried hard enough (despite the fact that the day I stop training I start rapidly gaining weight-- I've gained 10 pounds since then.) After I sat for a while and thought about the photos, I decided to stop beating myself up about overeating. My body doesn't produce satiety signals very well, and I use food as a coping mechanism to deal with my emotions. Neither condition makes me a bad or immoral person, just someone who needs help. I just cannot exercise enough to lose all the weight, not when I can't control my eating habits well.

I'm very grateful to live in a time and place when help is available. :biggrin2: Now to just get through the application process...

[Thin4Anisha 0]

My ah ha moment, there were a few that happened in the same two week period:

1. My daughter is my mini me, same hair, face ect. And everyone is always telling she and I how much we look alike. One day she said to me "Mommy, I look just like you huh?". I agreed and she replied "Am I fat like you are too?" I almost broke into tears as I got on my knees and explained to my beautiful 5 year old that she was healthy and perfect.

2. Went out to eat with a girl I work with. As we slid into the booth I got agitated thinking the booth table ahd been over onto my side more as I could barely fit. Then I realized, no it hadn't been slid over, I was just to fat to fit anymore.

3. I got onto the scale and saw that not only had I exceeded the 250 mark but had surpassed it by 18 pounds. I realized at that moment that if drastic action was not taken I would be that woman in the grocery store using the carts because she cannot walk anymore. At 25 years old the thought of that left me cold and sick.

[imb316 0]

Was this past summer I went with a friend to a Water park with our kids and I told her son I would go on the tube ride with him. He looked at me and only as a 6 year old can he said - but what if you pop it - meaning the tube!

[Ang1982 4]

I'm not sure I had an exact "a ha" moment but one of the contributing moments would have been this past summer after a family get together for my grandparents 60th anniversary. Someone must have been taking pictures with my camera which I left laying around and in the random shots of someone else, I was in the background walking out a door. WOW. When I saw that picture it made me cry. I've been overweight my entire young life and I guess it just never really hit me how bad until that point. Not long after that in the fall I was researching my lapband options.

[NanaRenan 0]

I've had many, many Ah-ha's over the years, but I guess the most serious one was in 2000 when my mother was felled by a stroke, brought on by her diabetes and lifetime of obesity. I spent a couple of weeks down in La. helping my dad adjust to her being bedridden.

It was entirely too sobering to realize that even after having lost 100 lbs a decade earlier, it still took two or three people to roll her over to change her bedding. And that they did not make Depends large enough to fit her.

I went home and told my husband, "I have seen my future and I do NOT want to go there." I immediately started trying to get approved for bypass, but failed to accomplish that (Not enough documentation, the ins.co. said!). Had some moderate success with WW, but eventually gained that all back.

Then in Dec. 2006 I had an episode with my heart and was diagnosed with diabetes. The meds for both added to my weight gain and made me SO lethargic. I literally felt like I was dying a little each day. My cardiologist shocked me when he said, "It would take you two to three years to lose the weight you need to "IF" you could do it and your history does not make that look likely -- Simply put, you don't HAVE two to three years!"

He referred me to Dr. Miranda, who's office staff was AWESOME and they did all the tough, insurance stuff FOR me. Here I am a year after my first consultation, banded, down 72 lbs and off of 8 out of 9 meds I took before surgery!

[kathystrick 3]

As others have said, I have had many over the years. The first was 2 years ago when DH and I took our son and a friend to Six Flags and I went to sit down on a roller coaster and realized there was no way I was going to fit. As I tried to discretely get off, I noticed the 2 men sitting in the seats behind ours laughing and pointing, announcing to everyone within listening distance that I was too fat to fit.

Then, last summer, my family moved to Atlanta for DH's job. As I began looking for employment, I faced something I never had to before: weight discrimination. Every interview I had began on the phone, where I was a great candidate, good personality, impecable references, etc. Then, when they would call me in, I would be faced with an office full of slim, petite, beautiful ladies, looking for another one of them to join their ranks and not a "fat chick". I couldn't understand how I could be so great on the phone and unqualified in person, simply because of my weight. On a lark, I checked our new health plan to see if it covered LB. Thankfully, it does and here I am!

[aubrie 6]

My ah ha moment? My DH started to cry and told me he was afraid if I didn't stop gaining that he would end up wheeling me around in a wheelchair and that it would break his heart.

[betrthnever 107]

I could write a book containing all of the "A-Ha" moments I've had in my adult life - from knocking my children down with my thighs because they stood too close to me and I couldn't see them (this is true! I'd knock them down!) to my son playing with my bat-winged arms saying "oh, soft and fluffy". And then I'd be motivated for a short period of time, the longest was 6 months with Weight Watchers where I lost 50 pounds. But there was always somthing that brought be back to eating for comfort. I was banded on 2/19/08 and hope that the I have and will kick the comfort food moster for good.

[OH Juli 15]

I could write a book containing all of the "A-Ha" moments I've had in my adult life - from knocking my children down with my thighs because they stood too close to me and I couldn't see them (this is true! I'd knock them down!) to my son playing with my bat-winged arms saying "oh, soft and fluffy". And then I'd be motivated for a short period of time, the longest was 6 months with Weight Watchers where I lost 50 pounds. But there was always somthing that brought be back to eating for comfort. I was banded on 2/19/08 and hope that the I have and will kick the comfort food moster for good.

Not to hyjack the thread, but now that I'm smaller the bat wings are wingier. The lose skin just hangs. My six year old finds nothing more pleasurable than flapping them around when we are cuddling. Also she asked about the stretch marks in that area, and was please to tell me if they went in two directions they would be plaid, not just lines.

Bless her heart. I see the loose skin as a sign of all my hard work!