island_girl
Well, I guess you could say that I have always been one of those healthy fat people. Food has always been my best friend, but my second best friend has always been excercise, so as a child and young girl I was one of the fittest kids around.People still made fun of me because i was bigger than everyone though. At 11 years old i was 5'3 130 and wore a size 7 while all the other girls were still shopping in the children's section. When I got into high school I ballooned up to 160 and started to diet. It seemed that no matter what i did (and i did do everything - excercise, water, watched what i ate) i couldn't lose weight. The best I could do was maintain. Boys still asked me out, but I was too ashamed of my body to give any of them a chance.
As a young adult, things didn't get much better except that I exercised more and more, if for no other reason than to just keep stress levels low. This is when I got up over 200 and started to diet seriously. I moved to an island in CA where there weren't many cars, so I had no choice but to stay active. You had to walk everywhere..Although, I only lost minimal weight and then gained it right back again, the benefit of all those years of excercise is that now at 36, 5'5 and over 100 pounds overweight I am still pretty healthy.
A few years later I met a wonderful man and we got married within 18 months of meeting each other. We have had a bumpy road, with lots of unexpected twists and turns, but we still are living happily ever after. A few months after we married, I got pregnant with our son. As we all know, you gain weight during pregnancy, but i also had the unexpected complication of polyhydrominos. For those of you who don't know what that is it is too much water in the womb which can potentially lead to severe brain damage in baby and maybe death in mother. I had a C section a few weeks earlier than due date and at 2 months old had to admit him into children's hospital for a birth defect that could have at best, stopped him from breathing. at worst, caused death. Fortunately, the problem corrected itself and now I have a highly gifted, energetic 4 year old. Unfortunately, even though I lost 30 pounds of water at delivery, I didn't ever get down to my pre pregnancy weight. Again, with the strict diets and excercise, to no avail, I ended up gaining 10 pounds.
Then I got pregnant with my daughter. They say that the heavier you are, the harder it is to get pregnant. Well, ladies, for those of you who believe that, I am here to dispell that urban legend. At least that was my experience. Anyway, I didn't gain too much with her, however, I was almost 300 pounds when i delivered her and THANK GOD everything went extremely well and I left the hospital 2 days later after my second C section with minimal scarring.
Now that I am getting older and have a husband and children, it is more important than ever for me to get my weight under control. I want to see my kids grow up, I want to play with them and ride rollercoasters with them without wondering if I am too big to ride safely. I want to see my grandkids and grow old with my husband. So I decided that now is the time to do something about my weight. I have already called my insurance company and it looks like I will be covered. I have had my first consultation with the surgeon and will be going to my first pre op required appt next week.
I am very excited that I have begun a journey to change my life forever! I can't wait to go through those turnstyles (we are big disneyland and walt disney world fans) forward instead of sideways. I can't wait to get on the rollercoasters I enjoyed as a kid without being worried if I will be safe. I can't wait to play duck., duck, goose with my kids, or tie my shoes without trouble, or cross my legs. And, don't even get me started on the beautiful clothes I will be able to wear again! :) However, with all the things I am looking forward to, I have to say I am pretty anxious about the procedure. I know it is risky but I feel that it is worth all of the extra years I should have to spend with my family that I might not have if I don't get my weight under control. I am ready to live my life as the person I am supposed to be, not the one who has been hiding all these years behind "you know, the fat girl". So with a LOT of prayer and support, I say BRING IT ON! :)
