The struggle with obesity is real. I deal with it every day. I have always been a larger person. I've never been the "skinny" girl. I've never been a size 2 or a small. I've always had boobs and hips. I've struggled with my weight ever since I was a little girl. I remember when I was a little girl other kids would make fun of me because of my weight calling me "hippo" or "chunky". One experience was the worst. I was in 6th grade sitting next to this boy who one of the "popular" kids. To make matters worse he was one of my brothers best friends. He name was Austin. We were in math class and I was sitting next to him. I was wearing shorts. I remember working on some math problems and then hearing Austin gasp and say "Dang!! Look at your calf's!! They are huge! Did you know how big they are?" I remember going home and just crying to my Mom asking her why I was fat and why I had to be this way. It was absolutely devastating.
Life did get better. When I was 16 I joined a barn and became an avid horseback rider competing in Hunter/Jumpers with my horses. It was one of the happiest times in my life. I was fit, attractive, wore cute clothes and for the first time in my life, I felt confident about how I looked. Horseback riding was my passion and I was good at it too. Due to some life changes (I met my Fiance and moved to a new town 3 hours away) I stopped riding. I miss horses and horseback riding more than you could ever imagine. Once I stopped riding, I gained over 100 pounds. With this weight gain riding horses became very difficult. My ultimate goal after WLS and my hopeful weight loss is to get a horse again and compete. When you loose the ability to easily exercise and do physical activities you end up eating. A lot. For me it came to the point of when I ate a meal I would start to think about what I would be eating for my next meal. The first thought I had after waking up was what I was going to eat for breakfast. Coke was my go to drink. Drinking a two liter in one sitting was easy. My social club was food. Desert was needed with every meal. Ice cream comforted me when I was sad and a big bowl of pasta calmed me down when I was upset. Food became my best friend. My addiction to food ballooned my weight to 299lb in December of 2014. This was the heaviest I have ever been. When I saw that scale tip to 299lb I knew I needed to do something. So I tried diet after diet after diet.. Weight Watchers - The point system. I tried it but I didn't really loose that much weight. Jenny Craig Medifast - How does ingesting cardboard powder sound? Counting Calories and Restricting Vegan/Raw - I did this "life style" change for almost a month. It was hard but I did feel some great health benefits. It was just so restrictive that I found that I wasn't getting my proper vitamin and nutrients that my body needed. Juiced Diet - Ever watch Fat, Sick and nearly dead? Well like the thousands of other people who watched this documentary on Netflix I ran to the store and bought my self my very own juicer to do a 60 day diet. It is so much work and the diarreha, yeah.. It's just not my thing. Now that $160.00 juicer is sitting on top of my microwave. FitGirlsGuide You name it, I've probably done it. I'd loose some weight but in the end I would always gain it back again. My weight has declined my quality of life so much that there is so much that I am missing because of it. I talked to my Ob/Gyn and he told me that I most likely have PCOS. PCOS or Polycystic Ovary Syndrome is a problem that woman develop when their hormones are out of balance. This is very common in overweight people. PCOS causes a variety of issues in your body such as acne, thinning hair on the scalp, irregular periods and more. Guess what one of the worst symptoms is.. weight gain and trouble loosing weight. Yup, with PCOS it becomes very difficult to loose weight. Isn't that just so cruel? You can make diet changes and exercise but because of PCOS loosing weight just became a lot harder. When my hair started to fall out I made a call to my Doctor. She prescribed a variety of blood work to be done. Once I got the blood work done the results were terrifying. I am almost pre diabetic and I am starting to develop Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. This was a huge wake up call. My health is starting to decline because of my weight. I knew I needed to make a change. I talked to my doctor and she told me about Kaiser's Bariatric Program. This is the program needed to get approval for weight loss surgery. I started my journey to getting weight loss surgery on September 14th, 2015. Please follow me and I learn the Ups, Downs and run around to Finding the Thinner Me. Xoxo, Anna |