Brian1977
Well I have struggled with my weight all my life despite being athletic as a kid and into my junior year of HS. I had played football, baseball and dek hockey (similar to floor hockey but on a bigger rink). I cant remember the last time i was under 200 pounds, I think it may have been as an 8th grader, maybe earlier. I had considered weight loss surgery back in 2003 and opted against it, instead trying Weight Watchers. The day I joined WW I weighed in at 418.4 pounds and measured in at 5'4. I was so ashamed and swore that I was going to be successful. Well, on the WW program, I was able to get down to 356 but hit a plateau and was not able to recover. I never got back as high as 418 but have hit as high as 405 again. In January 2008 I turned to medically supervised weight loss. I tried the Optifast program and lost close to 50 pounds on it but had a falling out with the doctor and switched from Optifast to Nutrisystem. Between these two programs I went from 400 down to 345. My wife and I had scheduled a cruise for May and I did my best to eat as good as I could but still enjoy myself. I set a goal to gain no more than 10 pounds on the cruise, but i gained close to 15. I have no idea how that happened with all the walking I did on the ship and int he ports of call, but it happened. My intent after the cruise was to go back to Nutrisystem and tried unsuccessfully. Alot of that had to do with life changes as my wife and I were readying to relocate from upstate NY back to Massachusetts. I know that I could have gotten back on track despite the changes taking place but chose not to. That all being said, I ballooned back to 400 pounds again and my wife had asked me to consider surgery again. I had actually already been considering it and told her that I would attend a Gastric Bypass/Lapband seminar. Well we went together and after seeing and hearing what the doctors had to say and actually getting to watch a video of both surgeries, I decided that this was definitely for me. I know that this surgery will be a long journey and a life changer and I also know that it can fail, but only if I let it. I know that I will not let myself fail at this because if I do, I know that I will not be able to live a long life. I dont want to be dead by age 50. I want to be able to live a long life and grow old with my wife Michele and the kids we plan on having. I have a great support team in my beautiful wife Michele and my in-laws at this point. Also my dad and my mom are aware of my decision to have this surgery and both have been supportive of my decision and are willing to do whatever they can to help me from afar. I am hoping to have surgery in October 2009 sometime.
