Vicki's Weight Loss Surgery Success Story

Lost 100 Pounds

When I was in fifth grade I found out that my parents were getting a divorce and this devastated me.

My parents were and still are a very integral part of my life. I didn't know how to deal with this experience, and found that eating made me feel better - for a minute. I had always been a little chunky, but soon after that year I started to put on the pounds. I am very much an emotional eater. Whenever something is bothering me, I want to eat. I am learning now to find other ways to deal with stress and emotional upset, but that pattern that was started so many years ago is still deeply embedded in my brain.

The decision to have gastric bypass surgery was not in any way an easy one. After multiple attempts (and every diet known to man), some successful, others not so much, I was desperate to be the healthy person I deserved to be. Losing the weight was not always the hard part, keeping it off was a different story. My heaviest weight was 305 pounds and that was after more than 15 years of dieting.

Three years ago when I found out my cousin was having gastric bypass, I thought she was taking the easy way out. I never thought of her as obese, she just seemed "chunky." After I saw her a year ago, I was overwhelmed by how good she looked and how happy and confident she was. I never thought about how she may have been like me, quietly struggling with her weight with a smile on her face so no one knew how much she was hurting.

I started to hear commercials on the radio every day about gastric bypass. So I started to do research into weight loss surgery. I even read the book, "Weight Loss Surgery for Dummies," which was actually pretty informative.

I realized that the surgery was a tool and that I would have to commit to a lifelong lifestyle change. With my history of dieting I knew a lot about what I should and shouldn't eat. I also knew how important exercise is to losing weight. When I started thinking about everything I had tried in the past, I knew that gastric bypass surgery was anything but taking the easy way out.

Update: I continue to maintain my weight and I’m enjoying more activities than I ever thought possible. I can do more activities with my kids and we love being active together. I enjoy hiking, biking and just being outside. My goals for this year are to go white water rafting, hike Long’s Peak and go sky diving (the indoor kind. I’m not crazy enough to jump out of a plane…yet). A lot of people say they got their life back after losing so much weight. I can’t say that. I would have to say I finally have the life I desired, but was never able to obtain because of my weight. I still catch my reflection once in a while and wonder who that skinny girl is and then I smile because finally I am the skinny girl.