Gastric Bypass

My before bypass picture taken at a Christmas party

in 2005

After being diagnosed with Type 2 weight induced diabetes. 

I was not in shock as mostly everyone in my family was big anyways.

However, at the age of 32 I was the youngest to get diagnosed.

After many attempts at Weight Watchers, Adkins and the "new" South Beach

Diet nothing seemed to work. I was doing everything that I was told to do.

I exercised, journal my eating habits and portions. 

Nothing seemed to work.

After a year of complete frustration my Dr. recommended for me to be a candidate

for the Roux en-Y  gastric bypass procedure. I was a little leery and when 
talking with my husband he was not sold on the whole idea. I was still
inquisitive enough that I wanted to know more though. I started 
going to a few of the support group meetings and talking with 
people that had went through the surgery and finding that almost 
everyone was positive and said that they were happy with their results
and that the positive outweighed the negative. 
So I went for it!

There is nothing easy about a bypass or weight loss for that matter!

My struggle has been easy but hard at times. I had to figure out the

food that causes me to get sick and also figure out the food that I have

to eat in abundance so I can stay healthy with the right amount of protein,

carbohydrates and foods rich in B12. 

My motto throughout was to do as the Doctors instructed me to do.

I weigh myself once a week, allowing myself a 10lb leeway. Helping with

water retention or hormonal days. If I weigh in two weeks in a row at the high

end of my 10lb scale then I know I need to reevaluate what I have been eating

and what I need to fix in my diet to get back into the middle of my scale.

After 7 years I have been able to keep my weight off and be healthier now in my late thirties

than I ever was in my twenties. 

I just remember to take it one day at a time. Never getting mad at myself

and know that I am control of what I eat and how I react to the weight gain to be

in control to take it back off.