K.Whitley
I started gaining weight at 18. Not much at 1st but I really put it on after I had my 2 kids. At 28 I went to a weight loss center & lost 65 lbs. The plan was very restricitive, 12 oz of protein & 12 gm of carbs a day. I managed to keep it off for a while,but, I was taking Dexatrim & purging. I finally gained all of my weight back plus some over the years. I've been to wt watchers (serveral times) OA, Tops, several exercise studios & diet dr's. Nothing worked. In 1999 I ran across info on the lap band on the internet . It wasnt offered in TN at the time, but I knew I wanted it when it was. I just couldn't lose wt on my own no matter how hard I tried. I felt like such a failure & freak. I had lost respect for myself & I was tired of hearing my husband tell me I needed more discipline. Trying to lose wt weight was like trying to bench press the max amt. you could & holding it up for ever. It never got any easier. I never got to the point where I didnt want to eat all of the time. I could do a good job for a couple of weeks & then the bar bell would fall right back down on top of me & I would gain the wt back. I felt so alone in my pain. I just couldnt do it no matter how hard I tried & no one understood except my sister & niece. They both have had wt loss surgery . My sister had the gastric by-pass and my niece had the lap band. I could see their progress & the confidence they had & I knew that the lap band procedure could help me. My ins wouldnt pay for it so after talking with my husband we decided to pay for it ourselves. By the way he still felt like I didnt try hard enough. He went with me to the seminar & afterwards came away with some understanding that it was not all my fault. He is still somewhat skeptical that I can lose the weight....Boy will he be surprised!
