It was a no brainer for me to decide to elect to have the bariatric surgery. My knees were wearing out and I have a bad back due to an injury that I received in the army. I could have done something else to exercise, but I didn't. Instead, I used it as an excuse not too exercise. I should have been watching my weight more closely. One size of pants led to another until eventually, I was struggling to put my pants on. My overall health was also declining as a result of my being overweight. High Cholesterol, High Blood Pressure, Sleep Apnea and the beginning of Type II Diabetes.
I went from being very active working construction which kept my weight down and helped me keep fit. However, after I got out of construction, I ended up working a desk job. I thought that it was the right thing to do since my back injury. Little did I know that although there were bad days with my back working construction, the work helped maintain my back muscles which were keeping my disk in line to a certain degree. When all those muscle went soft due to lack of exercise, my back problems became worse.
I can look back at everything that I did wrong, it does not take a genius to do that. And I certainly do not need anyone to tell me what I did wrong as well. All that does is lower your self esteem even more. I think there is a certain point to where you say enough is enough. I get it!! If I don't lose the weight, I will die at an early age.
It seems ironic, that I had reached this pivotal moment once before when I decided to quite smoking cigarettes. I was in much better physical shape at the time, however, I was having a difficult time breathing. An accident on a trampoline helped with my decision because I ended up with a 50% compression fracture of my T-1 vertebrae. When the doctors found out that I smoked, it eliminated any chance of corrective surgery that they were willing to do.
After realizing that I needed to get the weight off. I hired a personal trainer to work with me three days a week for almost two years. Unfortunately, due to my bad knees, back and other physical aliments, I was not able to drop any weight. Also, I did not understand how important grouping certain foods together were when you eat.
A friend of mine had the surgery, and it was amazing how much he had lost and how more active he was. He said that it was life changing for him. But he also said that it was not an easy road to take. On the flip side of this, I also know someone that had the surgery, lost a bunch of weight and then gained it all back. I wondered how can one person succeed while the other failed. The one that succeeded, had a better chance at failure due to his life styles and habits. While the other should have succeeded because they appeared to have it all understood. After doing alot of reading and looking at Youtube posts. I came to my own conclusion, don't judge yourself based on someone else's success or failures. You are your own person, if this is something that you truly want, believe that you can succeed and you will. I am going to put into my decision the same effort that I did when I quit smoking. It was not easy, but each day without cigarettes was a victory until, I was counting weeks instead of days, then months instead of weeks and finally years instead of months. The temptation to smoke will always be with me as will the temptation to not eat properly and not exercise. However, I will start with small victories and move up as each day passes after my bariatric surgery is complete.
Wish Me Good Health!!
