How I Lost 160 Pounds...

I lost 160 pounds a little over twelve years ago.  When I used to teach Foods and Fitness the first day I would pass around a picture of me before I lost the weight but I wouldn't tell the students who it was until everybody had seen it.  Yes, they were shocked.  Of course the question came up "How Did You Do It?".  Before I tell people, I always say a little bit about my history of eating.

The first time I can remember feeling self-conscious about my weight was  when I was ten years old.  We were at a family potluck and my elderly aunt May said, "Lesley, you are taking ANOTHER cinnamon roll?"  I was embarrassed.  I still ate it but from then on I became obsessed with eating. At that time  I was starting through puberty and of course my body was changing and with it came the usual self-consciousness. I started to diet because of course I thought I was too fat. I did the usual thing as so many of us do...try every diet imaginable- diet pills, eating only one meal a day, drinking liquid protein(tasted nasty!) counting calories, eating diet candy to suppress my appetite (actually I would eat several because they tasted good!) and even limiting the number of bites and chews I could have!  Of course I would always "fall off my diet", binge and commit to "starting my diet on Monday".  Slowly I put the weight.

I was never really heavy in high school.  Looking back I would say I was "chunky".  After I began colleg  I lost some weight. After a couple of years though I gradually gained the weight back, plus more.

Most of us do not put the weight on fast, it's gradual.  When I look back I probably gained a pound a month if I averaged it.  At the time I thought it wasn't a big deal.  I could always start my diet on "Monday" and I always did but usually broke it the same day I started it.  That became my routine for over 25 years until I decided enough was enough.

I happened to hear about gastric bypass surgery in the news and began to investigate what it was all about.  I also started having problems with my gallbladder so I made an appointment with gastrointestinal doctor who also happened to specialize in gastric bypass surgery. To make a long story short, after battling my health insurance for coverage for the surgery, I had my gallbladder removed and bypass surgery done.

It took a year for me to lose all the weight.  It was a shock for me as well as everyone else.  That is a story in and of itself that can be shared later but probably the biggest surprise was the fact that despite the fact that my appetite changed, my eating habits didn't. Several years later I noticed once again I started to gain weight, joined Weightwatchers for the upteenth time and got on that merry-go-round of "starting my diet on Monday".  It didn't work just like all the other times so I decided to do something different....I decided to stop dieting and start eating.