how I lost the weight

Now that I have given you may back ground, I will tell you what led me to finally loose weight and how I went about it. 

My very dear friend, K, was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer at the same time the hubs and I realized we were financially in over our heads. K is my very BFF I'm really closer to her than either my sis's. I was truly devastated when I found out which pushed me into a deeper depression than I was already in - I should add that I did not know that I was depressed at that time. Hubs, L and I did nothing but fight constantly. I figured that with K going through all that she was, I was going to take care of my self go to the doctor and get healthy... I did NOT do that. Hubs and I decided we needed to move for a more financially secure situation so we sold our house and moved into a very nice apartment. I was still quite miserable though. The fighting had gotten better, L and I were not really fighting at all but at this point I had pretty much checked out of life. There is NOTHING worse than having a wonderful child and being so depressed that you can't appreciate it! Hubs and I had a pretty bad fight and I kicked him out - not that I meant it or that he actually left. 

I decided to, finally, go to the doctor. She decided, for my best interest - and health - that she wanted to see me frequently (every four weeks for a bit) to make sure I wasn't getting to a deeper depression. She and I decided I would take antidepressants, which worked for a bit though the side affects were too much to take.

During one of my appointments, she suggested I see a gastric by-pass surgeon to discuss options for loosing a lot of weight in a quick amount of time. I agreed to go and met him on, if you can believe this, my birthday! I researched the heck out of lap-band surgery and decided this was the best approach for me. However, once I met the amazing doctor, we realized that with the band, I could eat what I wanted when I wanted - just smaller amounts. So I said, I could eat ice cream if I want ice cream, he said yes. The amazing hubs told me that I was not going to have the band because if I could eat ice cream, I will eat ice cream so he decided I was going to have the by-pass and I, of course, was completely on board with it - I would not have done it if I wasn't on board completely. 

Now, by-pass surgery isn't for everyone - weight loss surgery ISN'T for everyone but it was perfect for me. It took about six months for me to go through the pre-surgery process, I had to loose 5% of my weight before I could have it and I had to make some pretty serious commitments to myself, the hubs and my medical team. I lost 20 pounds pre-surgery, which was more than I needed to. I also needed to do some serious soul searching, too. This was a lifetime decision, it affected the hubs and L and it was truly a life or death situation - life because it was going to save my life and add years to it, death because if I didn't do it, I could die and if I did do it I could die.... Ultimately, I decided I'd rather die trying than doing nothing and I was so terribly unhappy I can't say if I wouldn't have died from "other" reasons.


On the way to the hospital, morning of my surgery - April 29, 2099 - I looked at the hubs, asked if I was doing the right thing, he told me that he wouldn't bring me unless he thought I was. So, needless to say - I had the surgery! I started weighing my heaviest 321 pounds and lost 141 pounds to my lowest, adult weight, of 185 pounds. I should add that I lost the total weight in six months - normally, you would loose the weight in 9-12 months, I was ahead of the game!


This is where the REAL work started...