I redefined My life
and you can too
I’m shocked when I look at these before and after photos of me and frankly a bit embarrassed. I thought I was in decent shape when I wasn’t. Even after all the health issues I was having it wasn’t getting through to me. They may look like an ad for some fad diet like you might see on your Facebook feed, but they are real, and they were taken only a few years apart. I did all the fad diets; I rode the rollercoaster of weight loss and just kept getting heavier. My husband is very physically active and loves to cycle. I couldn’t participate so he got me an electric bike so that I could ride with him. After my surgery and weight loss not only did pretty much all of my health issues go away, but I was getting in shape. We started with easy walks, then harder and harder hikes and bike rides with less and less electric power. One day my husband said, “it’s time for you to become your own motor, you’re ready”. I got a nice new gravel bike and haven’t ridden the electric bike since.
So why did I decide to have a gastric by-pass, isn’t that a bit extreme? After being alive for over 5 decades I knew, I wasn’t going to use will power and diet to change my life. I tried many times and failed. One day some friends of ours, that were both heavy, appeared on Facebook looking really good. I got in touch with them, and it turned out they went the surgery route, so I checked with my doctor, and he referred me to a surgeon to see if it was right for me. My husband wasn’t sure it was a good idea but after our health insurance company said it would be covered, he was confident that it must improve health outcomes otherwise they would have said no. I had to go through a lot of psychological evaluation and pre-surgery weight loss to show I was ready for the lifestyle change required. It’s not as simple as having the surgery and you won’t have to worry about what you eat afterwards. It drops your appetite dramatically, but you have to address your emotional eating issues, or you’ll figure out how to eat a large volume of food in small servings and be back to where you started, I’m sure you’ve heard these stories or maybe even know someone who had the surgery and gained their weight back.
My pharmacist knew me when I was obese and watched as I stopped taking many of the drugs I was on, lost weight and got in shape. He saw my story play out in real life and asked if I would talk to a few people who were considering surgery. One of them was a woman named Annie who ended up losing a dramatic amount of weight and was looking for someone to share her struggles with along the way. Since I had gone through and was still going through the same emotional issues, we traveled the road together and became good friends. This continued to happen with other people I met. We had dieticians we all worked with, and we could talk to our doctors but having someone to work with, who knows exactly what you’re going through, makes a dramatic difference. If you’ve never been overweight or you’ve never struggled with emotional eating you really don’t know how hard it is. If it was as easy as just eating less we wouldn’t have the obesity issues we do.
I learned that another thing that many people struggle with after they lose weight is a non-supportive spouse. This surprised me as my husband was very supportive and he loves the fact that we now share in activities that he had to do alone in the past. We have had so many amazing adventures together in the past few years and our relationship is stronger than ever. Sometimes the change comes not only with your own emotional challenges but those of other people in your life.
I’m a retired nurse and built my life around helping people. When I saw how much I could help having gone through the same experiences as others who are thinking about or have chosen the surgical path to weight loss, I started to look into an educational program that would supplement by healthcare experience. I am proud to say that I have completed all the course work required and have become a Certified Bariatric Counselor through the American Association of Bariatric Counselors. 
So here I am, at the beginning of a new journey with the goal of helping others to redefine their lives in a way they never thought possible. Feel free to reach out to me, even if it’s just with some encouragement or to say hello. Maybe I can help you, a loved one or a friend to redefine your life in a way you never thought possible.
