Working the race was exhausting and I was glad to have Ken there with me to do the "heavy lifting" and to help run around and get things done. I was too fat and tired to do much, so I mostly took care of business by directing things from the hospitality hauler. After the event was over, Ken and I continued our vacation and did all the usual tourist stuff. One night, we went to the top of the Stratosphere to ride the insanely scary rides that are on the top. I was SO fat, that I almost didn't fit in one of them... they had to get two people to jump on the lap bar to get it to latch! During the day, we walked around and saw the sights, but because of my weight, my back would get terrible spasms, and I would have to rest.We had a really good time in Las Vegas, but once I got home, the reality of being fat and out of shape took me right back to my usual depressed self. The more depressed I was, the more I wanted to eat and the less I wanted to do. I basically worked during the day so that I could come home, hold down the couch, watch TV, and EAT myself into a coma. That is what I did... I ate to forget about everything else that I was experiencing. Lonely? Eat. Sad? Eat. Worried? Eat. Tired? Eat. Mad? Definitely eat! That was the vicious cycle that I was in.
Then, one day, I was watching TV and saw the show "Big Medicine," which is about a father-son team who are bariatric surgeons. Most of their patients are there to get gastric bypass surgery. This sounded like the last chance procedure that might finally help me escape my fat girl hell. So... I started learning all I could about the various procedures. I watched anything I could find on TV on the subject, read articles in magazines and newspapers, and did a LOT of research on the Internet. After a lot of investigating, I found a very qualified surgeon in Charlotte and signed up to go to one of his seminars to learn more. As the day of the seminar got closer, I was both nervous and excited. I knew that such a procedure can be risky and I also had some doubt in the back of my mind about my potential success. You see, I had been successful on other diet programs-especially Weight Watchers. 3 years prior, I had gone from 285 to about 215 with the program, but gave up when I hit a pretty serious plateau. With my new job in marketing and all the travel it involved, I had just the excuse I "needed" to gain back most of the weight I had lost. By this time I was all the way back up to 268.5 pounds!The day of the seminar, something came up at work and I couldn't get out of the office on time: I ended up missing that seminar. Sometime before I had a chance to reschedule, 2 things happened:
I saw a program where Carnie Wilson spoke about how she had had the gastric bypass surgery, but ended up gaining all of her weight back. I thought, "If someone with this much money and fame can have the surgery but end up right back where she started, it could certainly happen to me." I began to think that if I didn't fix the problem (i.e. my addiction to food and my tendency to use it as a crutch), having the surgery would not be a permanent cure. I didn't want to alter my body in such a way that I could never eat like a "normal" person again only to have the results be less than optimal!
I received a direct mail piece from a training facility called "Fitness Together." The postcard showed a lady who had lost 110 pounds through diet and exercise. I thought, "I've had success with food programs before... maybe if I combined that with the accountability of a personal trainer, I could conquer this once and for all.
I knew that such a program would be expensive, and I figured that my husband, Shin, was probably tired of me spending money, trying new programs, and then failing. Here's a sample of all the things that I've tried:
- Weight Watchers (4 different times)
- Fen-Phen
- Jenny Craig
- Hollywood Diet
- Nutri/System
- eDiets
- The Best Life Diet
Through all this craziness, Shin put up with the cost and the lifestyle changes, so I really felt guilty asking him to go through it with me yet again. But... he told me that he loved me, and if I wanted to try this Fitness Together thing, he would support me. So, I called, made an appointment for my free training session, and that's how my journey began.
In the beginning, I worked with various trainers at the studio until I finally settled into a schedule with my main man, Adam! He has been the perfect partner in this journey and has seriously whipped me into shape. I don't know how I could have done this without him. 24.5 pounds to go... THIS time I'm going to make it all the way!Stay tuned...
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