suplav76
Food has been a problem in my family my entire life. While I wasn't always obese, I believe I have always had a love affair with food. Growing up, my mother was always a heavy woman, and my dad was pretty heavy too. My father and mother were both diabetic, yet it never really seemed to make them change the way they ate. And they seem to have passed that on to us children. I can remember as a boy, going to visit my grandma in Brooklyn, she would always give us kids a $20 bill each. A lot of parents would tell their kids to put it away and save it, but my parents would stop at the grocery store on the ride home and allow us to pick out our own 1/2 gallon container of ice cream and candy. Those boxes of ice cream would maybe last us 2 days, maybe! This set the precedent of how I would eat for the rest of my life. Completely out of control. How can you tell an 8 year old to stop eating ice cream that he paid for after all!
As the years went by, I grew bigger and stronger. I played sports in high school and worked in construction in my 20's so I mostly stayed in good shape. My weight would go up and down all the time. I'd be out of work for a couple months, step on a scale and bang! 260lbs! Go back to work, and a few weeks later, 245. I was always up and down. When I got over 280 for the first time, I got really scared. I asked my Dr about surgery and he looked at me like I was nuts, but I knew 6 years ago, this wasn't gonna be a pretty road for me.
I gave up construction, partly because here in the northeast, there wasn't much work in my union in the winter, but also because, when I would go back to work in the spring, my body wasn't responding quite as good as it used too. I was getting heavier and heavier, and losing all that muscle I used to have. I started working in my friend's pizzeria in the winters to keep me busy while I had no work and eventually, it became full time. I was exposing myself to unlimited amounts of pizza! Every fat guys dream! It didn't take long for it to catch up with me. I remember teetering on 300 and telling myself it would never happen, and as soon as I hit 299, I'll start dieting. Then one day I went to the gym with my boss. I got on the scale, 372! This was all in a matter of maybe 3 years. Thats how fast this can happen.
Several months ago, I began my journey. I weighed in at 366lbs in Sept of 09. At 33 years old, I carried the weight well, but I know, it's catching up to me. I will go for the lap band on Jan 13 2010, just a few days away. I know its time for a change, for a fresh start. Yesterday I went to the gym and stepped on the scale, 339.6. Its like a dream, I've begun this journey without the band, and I will finish it with the help, for me.
