Lori Pool
Hi. Lori here. How do I begin? The stories I read on here are all so familiar. I started gaining weight at the age of 23. At 23 I was a size 14. Now for me that was huge. In high school I was always a size 6/8. I was very athletic. So, I couldn't understand why I continued to gain weight. At 24 I was a size 16 and was told that I need to lose weight or I would need to leave the Army Reserves. Yes, I was in the Army. I worked so hard to lose just enough weight to stay in. The following year I had gained it all back plus more. Did I mention I was athletic? Yes, I continued to run 3 miles every other day. Nothing seemed to help. I just couldn't lose the weight this time. So, at 25 I left the Army Reserves. Then nursing school really kicked my butt. I stopped working out like I did. I was working full time as a waitress and going to school full time. I went up to a size 20. The years to come just got worse and worse. I would diet, lose some, then gain it all back plus more. Now at 36 years old I am a size 26/28. What woke me up to finally making the decision to have this surgery was when I trained and walked the breast cancer 3-day. For a whole year I walked every night to train my body to walk 60 miles in three days. I was doing this for charity; but in the back of my head I had also hoped to finally lose weight. I did manage to lose 18 lbs in that year; but, of coarse, gained that plus 30 more in the past year. So, here I go. It was not a decision made lightly. I have done extensive research. Wish me luck! :-)
