My gastric band surgery

 Vicky's story

Office worker Vicky Finch, 66, had a gastric band fitted in February 2012, following years of failed dieting and increasing concern about her long-term health. She discusses her experiences here.

 "My weight had begun to creep up when I was 25 after having children, and in spite of numerous attempts to lose weight, I got heavier with each decade. By the time I reached my fifties, I was having to take medication to control my blood pressure and underactive thyroid.
"I've never been one for sport or exercise and have had a sedentary office job my whole life. While bringing up children and working full-time I developed bad eating habits. I ate too fast, had large portions, snacked on sugary treats and didn't sleep enough. I love cooking, but I'd become obsessed by food.

"At my heaviest, I weighed 17.5 stone (111kg) and as I'm 5ft 1in this gave me a BMI of 47. I began to have serious concerns about my health. I already had high blood pressure and kidney problems and had had two knee replacements. I knew I was at risk of stroke, heart disease and developing diabetes.

The road to weight loss surgery

"I visited the GP several times about my weight and was encouraged to lose weight through dieting before choosing weight loss surgery (also called bariatric surgery). I was also offered regular appointments with the nurse to weigh myself and discuss my diet.
"Eventually, I learnt about gastric band and gastric bypass surgery. A gastric band is where a band is fitted around the top of your stomach. This causes a feeling of fullness after eating a very small amount of food, and means that food must be eaten very slowly.

The gastric band procedure

"I was put on a liquid diet two weeks before the operation in order to shrink my liver and to get me used to being on a liquid diet afterwards. The operation went very smoothly. I stayed in hospital overnight, but I felt well enough to go home straight away. I was left with a port under the skin which is attached to an upper rib. This is so that saline can be injected into the gastric band through the port every six to eight weeks, until the right level of restriction is achieved.
"After eight months, I now have 10.5ml in my band out of a possible 14ml, and I'm really starting to feel the restriction. I thought the feeling of restriction would be immediate, but it has taken time."

Living with a gastric band

 "Before the operation, I thought, 'This gastric band is going to be the magic wand'. However, people need to be able to commit to making necessary changes following surgery. I didn't realise what big efforts I'd have to make to change the way I eat. For example, as well as eating more healthily, I always have to take small mouthfuls and chew slowly and thoroughly. To help me control my portion sizes I have to eat from a tea plate rather than a dinner plate, and spend no more than 20 minutes on each meal.
"It's not easy. If I'm hungry, I tend to fall back into bad habits of eating fast and not chewing properly. When this happens, I quickly become very uncomfortable and have to stop eating and wait until some food moves through the artificial neck in my stomach sac. Sometimes, if I have a bad reaction, I end up retching saliva, which is quite antisocial.
"Having a gastric band has made me more cautious towards food. Although I still get hungry, I know that if I don't take smaller mouthfuls I'll feel uncomfortable or be sick. I'm lucky, though – I can now eat almost anything, which not everyone who has a gastric band can. The only food I have to avoid is crusty bread, as I react badly to it.
"So far, my only regret has been that I couldn't lose the weight without the surgery. It was difficult telling family and friends about my decision at first. But since having my gastric band fitted, the weight is slowly but steadily coming off. I've lost two-and-a-half stone and dropped two dress sizes.
"After eight months I'm now 15 stone (BMI 39). My target weight is 9-9.5 stone (BMI 24). I'm trying to introduce more exercise, which will make me lose weight more quickly, and I look forward to a healthier, more fulfilled life, with less need for medication."

Vicky's advice to people considering a gastric band

"For anyone considering gastric band surgery, my advice is to read up about it and spend time thinking it through first. It's important to be realistic about what will happen after the surgery, to understand that you'll never be able to eat the same way as you did before, and to appreciate that the weight loss process takes time.
"You also have to do a lot of the hard work yourself. I think it's easy to be swayed by gastric band success stories in the media, which can hold people back from accepting what the realities of the surgery are. If you don't think you'll be able to make permanent, healthy changes to your diet, then it's probably not for you.
"Personally, the restriction of the band has actually made me feel more liberated in general. I now have control over food; it doesn't control me. And my husband has noticed that I'm slimmer and can move around better!"

 You can read the whole story on: http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/loseweight/Pages/My-gastric-band-weight-loss-surgery.aspx
 

Broadway Actor Kate Chapman Lost 100 Pounds For A 'Dream Role'

Name: Kate Chapman
Age: 43
Height: 5'4"
Before Weight: 225
After Weight: 125


How I Gained It: By my late 20s, my diet had deteriorated into an endless stream of fast-food meals, processed foods at home and dining out. I had also stopped exercising as more pounds piled on. From time to time I would diet, remove some weight temporarily and then regain the pounds I'd lost -- along with several of their friends and cousins. The pounds were just symptoms of a bigger problem, though. I didn't know how to properly take care of myself in order to “be well.”

Breaking Point: Even though I was heavier than I'd ever been, my acting career was thriving. Actually, the heavier I'd gotten, the more work I'd gotten, including five Broadway shows and the role of "Mrs. Claus" for The Radio City Christmas Spectacular. But I was increasingly more miserable each day. By the time I was 34, my joints hurt, I had five autoimmune diseases and I felt myself careening toward disaster. Around that time, my youngest stepson came for a visit. While attempting to play with him on the monkey bars, I had an "Ah ha!" moment. A voice deep inside of me said, "You can't care for him if you can't care for yourself." I'd like to say that voice took me through to where I am today, but I needed a proverbial “carrot” to get me there. Gratefully it came in the form of my dream role, Evita. A friend of mine who ran a theatre company offered me the role in a year's time -- if I lost enough weight.

How I Lost It: With a year deadline looming in front of me, I didn't want to repeat former mistakes and waste time. Dieting hadn't given me long-term success in the past, so this time I made small, gentle changes that I liked. If I found I didn't like a change, I stopped doing it and found another one I liked better. Also, I didn't make big changes, like ridding my cabinets of all processed food in one fell swoop. I stuck with gentle. First, I eliminated high fructose corn syrup from my diet. That one, small, gentle change helped me see the first 10 pounds melt away.
From there I made other small, gentle changes one or two at a time. When I was used to a change, and it felt like a normal part of my life, I would find another one to make. My changes weren't just about food, though. They began to encompass all aspects of health: exercise, social interaction, emotional wellbeing, creativity, home environment, etc. I read articles, listened to experts on TV and started to educate myself about my body -- and what it wanted. I began to work to be able to hear what my body needs, and to be able to provide it without medication or a doctor's care. I felt I had spent too much time in the past relying upon their care and advice, and not enough time learning about the body I kept asking them to “fix”.

After each gentle change took hold, I got thinner. I also got healthier. Up until my mid-thirties my life had been a story of one illness after another. When I set out to lose weight it never occurred to me that I would also gain health. I knew I would feel better, but I never thought I could be "well". I hadn't ever known what that was like, and I didn't think it would ever pertain to me. Surprise! All my diseases went away, I lost 100 pounds, I've now kept it off for over five years, and all from small, gentle changes.

A while back I went back to school to become a health coach. I wanted to support others in finding their own gentle paths to health. I know how much fun the journey can be when the approach is deliberately gentle, so now I get to see others find their own way to their own spectacular self-care. I feel amazing every day. I never imagined that being well could feel so amazing. I'm so grateful I now know!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/20/i-lost-weight-kate-chapman_n_3750040.html?utm_hp_ref=weight-loss

Justin and Lauren Shelton lost 500 pounds together

 Name: Justin and Lauren Shelton
Age: Justin: 27, Lauren: 26
Height: Justin: 6'0", Lauren: 5'5”
Before Weight: Justin: 592 pounds, Lauren: 341 pounds
 
 How I Gained It:
Justin: I started gaining weight after a sports injury toward the end of middle school that prevented me from staying active. From there, I just continued to gain until it snowballed out of control.
Lauren: I have always been such an emotional eater. I turned to food for comfort, whether it was happiness, sadness, anger, stress or excitement that I was feeling. However, I started gaining weight rapidly my freshman year of high school after going through some personal issues. Over the years it continued to pile on until I reached 341 pounds. Eventually, we just accepted that we were overweight and stopped caring.
Breaking Point: Both of us have undergone several different moments when we realized just how overweight we were and needed to change, but it took something drastic to really motivate us.
Justin: I had to visit the emergency room in December 2011. I was too heavy for the equipment needed to test whether or not I had a kidney infection. They just had to guess and gave me a high dosage of antibiotics before sending me home. That was the wakeup call that I needed. I knew from that point on that I was tired of being overweight and would rather die trying to get healthy than spend another moment being miserable with myself.
Lauren: His trip to the ER was a wakeup call for me as well, because I saw how embarrassed and miserable he really was with himself. That made me take a hard look at myself and realize that I needed to lose the weight just as much as -- or more than -- he did.
How I Lost It: In February 2012, we looked to a physician assistant named Lynn at a local medical center. She gave us some great guidelines to start with. That night we cleaned out our cupboards and started from scratch the next day at the store. We cut out salt, breads, grains, oils, sauces and high-fat meats. We began eating a high-protein diet with lean meats and a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables. We only ate out on very rare occasions; I can count on two hands how often we have eaten out in two years!
We started small with exercise, but slowly started to increase it. Now we go to the gym, on average, six days a week and try to do something fun and active in the evenings and on our day off. Also, we knew we always had each other at our best and worst of times through this journey. It would have been so much harder without each other's support.
Our overall quality of life is better, and we can do so much more than we could before. We have learned to appreciate the little things that many people would never even think of: We can shop at normal clothing stores, buckle our seat belts on airplanes, sit in normal chairs and ride roller coasters. We are even trying activities that we were always too scared to do. Instead of our days being focused around where and what we are going to eat, we focus on how to stay active. It feels as though we have been given a second chance at life, one that we can look forward to each day and enjoy to the fullest! Although we are not quite finished, we feel happy with ourselves and what adventures may lie ahead of us!
After Weight: Justin: 245 pounds, Lauren: 164 pounds

Click on the link below to find out the full story of Justin and Lauren
See how Justin and Lauren lost 500 pounds

                                    
If loosing weight were easy then everybody would do that. I had chance to speak to a number of people who have succeeded and was trying to figure out what motivated them to do that, what made them change their "established" way of life, take a U-turn and never look back.I have decided to dedicate this page to an ordinary people like me to share their experience, tips, views and provide support and encouragement to those who have embarked (or considering embarking) on this life changing journey. I do believe it is much harder to do on your own.