jenn75

Ok, so I've decided to join the troops here in chronicling my story and adventures and trials and tribulations with this whole "extreme" weight loss challenge. How else can I put it? I'm voluntarily having surgery for the first time in my life so that I can hopefully lose tons of weight to become a healthier person.

Here is the back story:

First moments of feeling big:

- being on the softball team around the age of 10 and they did not have pants to order in my size. i had to wear plain gray jogging pants folded up, and have the other girls ask me why i didn't have team pants. good times.

- dreading the moment i was measured for band uniforms and swim suits for the swim team in high school. this was rarely a "private" matter, since it was like mass measuring tons of people lined up on one day.

- having my PCP at the age of 14 tell me i needed to go on a diet and recommending weight watchers to me. (i did join and lost 40 pounds)

- after college shopping at Lane Bryant for the first time

It all goes downhill from here...

And then I find myself, last year, 32 years old, engaged, joining a weight loss group at work because my employees asked me to lead their group (I had no intentions of losing weight for my wedding).

I always made it a point to tell my dad (my worst weight critic - he himself overweight) when I began any exercise or weight loss program. So I find myself on a phone call, trying to act like I didn't call my parent's just to talk to my mom, and make small talk with my dad since my mom wasn't home. My dad asks how my efforts on the weight team are going. I tell him ok. He then starts asking me if I've ever considered the weight loss surgery, he works with a few guys who have had it, how they're all so skinny now and healthy, that maybe I should ask about it. For once, I hear my father talking to me with empathy, like we're both on the same team in this weight war, and that genetics have rallied against us, just as they had against his mother. I felt like he finally wasn't blaming me. He understood.

And so that same week in May 2008 I met with my PCP and she gave me the info for the surgery, told me what the process was, and said that I could benefit from it and that I did, indeed qualify for it, medically speaking. I started the 6 month diet and the rest is history. My surgery date is now less than 2 weeks away - January 29th, 2009.