Annette_K
hey, its me....annette 
. i've been overweight for as long as i can remember...i'm only 22 but its something that has been a thorn in my side for many years. as a kid i was chunky and i always felt "less than" even though i was very active. as i got older i continued to gain and i tried many diets to keep my weight under control. needless to say, nothing stuck. highschool was difficult, i hated getting up and figuring out what to wear...i didn't feel comfortable in anything and was growing out of all of my clothes! it was so frustrating but i didn't really have anyone to talk to about this with the exception of my mom. in my grade 12 year i started the herbal magic program and lost 40 lbs. i looked great, felt great and got a lot of positive attention from everyone. that summer i moved out on my own and the money just wasn't there to continue paying herbal magic so i had to quit the program. i became obsessed with eating...it started out as simply not eating for days and then having something small....and then back to the starvation routine. this didn't last long as i've always had a healthy appetite and limited self control. i was working in a food kiosk where yummy, fatty foods were readily avaliable and cheap! i started to binge and purge with laxitives...this lasted for several months and i never lost any weight but was able to keep myself from gaining excessively. after eventually breaking down i sought out counselling and struggled with purging for a couple years following. i have since been diagnosed with bi-polar and i think the disease effects the way i view myself and food. some of the meds that were given to me to help me get stable also made me gain rather large amounts of weight which was really frustrating as it only added to my depression. in the last 2 years i've been able to get my mental health back in check and found out about gastric bypass thru a friend ( i mean you melinda!!!) i had a long and frustrating time gettin my approval from ohip( my dr was the one who made it that way....faxing the application to the wrong place!!!) but i found out i was approved on boxing day...talk about a christmas present!!! my mom and i drove back and forth from michigan a couple times for my consultation and pre-op. my surgery was scheduled for march 17 and went off without a hitch. i'm one week out from surgery and i feel fairly good, haven't thrown up once and am looking forward to what tomorrow brings!
