The Beginning

I am 26 years old and I think I'm pretty typical for my age. I have a job that pays the bills. I'm single and looking for a man that . . . well, thats a different topic all together. I have a great family and amazing friends. Typical in most ways, but I would say most is the operative word. The one area that I would consider my self atypical about myself is my weight. Yes, all women have parts of themselves they dislike, but this is not that kind of issue. I am not considered overweight, or obese even. I believe the words used for me are 'morbidly obese.' I'm sure there are all sorts of questions about how do you let yourself get so far overweight. My answer is, its really not that hard. A small problem gradually becomes a bigger problem until it takes some event for you to realize its not a small problem anymore.

NOV 2, 2009
For me it was a simple question asked to me from a gate agent when I was going on vacation. "Can you sit comfortably in a seat with both arm rests down?" An innocent enough question thats probably standard for airlines, but that question changed my life. I, of course, lied to that nice lady and was uncomfortable on both my outbound and return flights, but the foundation had been laid.

I spent the better part of the following month obsessing over how a want to lose weight had become a need to lose weight. I thought about how I would go about this incredibly daunting task. Should I join a gym? Buy a diet book? Try to develop an eating disorder? (As some of my closest friends say, I've got the binge part down, but I'm still working on the purge part). How do I get through the holidays without gaining more weight? I began thinking about my most likely options and I have tried Weight Watchers, Atkins, South Beach, and a few of the fad diets (maybe the taco bell diet this year???), but I wanted a more permanent solution. Through the magic of the internet and having the world at my fingertips, I started to do some research on bariatric surgery, in the beginning specifically on banding systems (lapband, realize, etc). And this, I came to understand, was the beginning of the end of my weight battle.

DEC 16, 2009
So on a very cold, snowy Chicago night, I went to an informational meeting regarding weight loss surgery. The surgeon spoke for about an hour on benefits, risks, eligibility, prerequisites, insurance & costs, and on his personal abilities and successes with surgery. As I sat there, I found myself thinking that it was kind of like sitting in a sales pitch for something I already knew I wanted to buy. Later that night, in discussing it with my family, a decision was made that surgery would be a feasible option for me. I scheduled a consulation and was left to wait for weightloss.

There is more to this story, but my inherent loquaciousness limits how much I can cover in one post! Stay tuned, because this post will be the most boring of all.