My best friend decided to get bariatric surgery late last year and at her suggestion, I explored the idea of it but not entirely sure if it’s something I wanted to do.
I had been yo-yo dieting for years. I was capable of eating healthily, working out, and losing weight. But something was missing. My life as a whole is stressful. I have a high demanding job working in Investments and Planning, along with starting my own client centered skincare business. My personal life was even more chaotic raising toddler twins, maintaining the home and partnership with my husband. Perhaps the stress and low self esteem caused the emotional eating. Maybe it was even deeper than that. But nonetheless, the weight would ultimately creep back up.
Last summer, my anxiety attacks starting increasing more and more. My pressure in my chest was excruciating. I had a hard time breathing and I was getting more scared for my health. My insomnia was horrible, having to take prescribed sleeping pills just to get some sleep. And the snoring. While I was never diagnosed with sleep apnea, I’m sure that was likely the case.
So I scheduled a free consultation with Dr. Srikanth at Center for Weight Loss Surgery (Federal Way, WA). Here’s the thing - I knew that I was chubby but stepping on the doctor’s scale was the cold water to your face that my weight was out of control.
My weight was 235. It calculated to a BMI of 41.5 and my insurance would approve the bariatric procedure with anything above 40; or 35 with health conditions. That number on the scale SUCKED. Let’s put it into perspective. When I was pregnant with TWINS, I was 240 at the time of delivery (32 weeks). But even with all of this, I still wasn’t convinced that I should actually have the surgery. It felt like I was taking the easy way out and that I wasn’t big enough for surgery. These are the lies that I told myself. The proof was in the numbers - I AM MORBIDLY OBESE.
Ugh, that a tough pill to swallow. But now what? What’s next in this whole process? Well, the doctor told me that they’d run a bunch of tests on me and that I’d have monthly check in’s with them as part of the insurance requirement. I would also have to lose 10% of my body weight. Okay - so that’s 23.50 lbs. I could do that. Right? Better put my money where my mouth is and get to work!
This photo was taken right before my initial consultation (September 2019)