Lost 92 Pounds

There no other way to say this: I got my life back. And I got myself back. I didn’t start becoming overweight until my early thirties, and my self-image never really adjusted. Every time I looked in the mirror, I expected to see the person I used to be, and no matter how often that expectation was dashed, I never stopped hoping to see that person looking back at me in the mirror, rather than the one I never really accepted or understood. In our evaluations before surgery, we are told over and over again that this surgery isn’t magic. But it is. The transformation is completely magical; it’s just that the magic requires a lot of hard work after its initial “overnight” effects. People ask me if I feel constrained now; if the surgery made me feel imprisoned in some way by the fact that I can never again binge the way I once did. Quite the opposite. I have been freed. And other aspects of my life, relationships, work, everything, has all been affected for the better. It’s an amazing journey. And it’s still ongoing.