Decision To Do Something

Now that you have some of my background, now I want to discuss why I decided to eventually do something about my weight.

Like I said in my previous blog, I have always been a bigger person, but never really could find the motivation to do something about it.

To give a little more of a background on me, my parents have always been bigger people, now weather its genetics, lifestyle or a combination of both that got me to the lifestyle I was living, I didn't really care because for the longest time I wanted to do something about the size that I have become.

My mom while I was in middle school (9 years ago) decided to go through with the mini gastric by pass operation.  At the time, I really didn't realize what was going on, I was 13-14, but I never saw my mom as a big person, I always saw her for the beautiful sweet lady that was always there for me.  So, long story short, she went through with the operation and over time I saw the struggles she had, the ups and downs, but in the end I saw her go from a very unhealthily lifestyle to a fairly healthy lifestyle with the help from this operation.

As time went on my lifestyle continued to be the same that it has been since a early age of 8.  I was constantly eating the wrong things, at the wrong time in the wrong proportions, so after college I decided something needed to be done; but I needed to get a solid financial grounding before embarking on this type of endeavor.

As I was graduating college, a lot of insurance companies were starting to come on board with the fact that weight loss operations were beneficial and could really help their customer base, so my goal was to find a job that had good health care insurance (this was pre-Obamacare so good health insurance wasn't hard to come by).  I was very lucky right out of college to get a job with THE EI GROUP out of Raleigh, NC; and they had very good health insurance; but due to my low self motivation, and drive to work I let the thought of having weight loss surgery slip through my mind and never really moved on it.  Long story shortened, I left the EI GROUP and moved back to Mount Airy, NC and got a job with Forsyth County Emergency Services working in the 911 center.  This job was the best and probably the worst thing for me at the time.  I was able to apply my personality and drive to help others in a job that quenched all my desires when it come to that need; but on the other hand was a very sedentary job (which I had never really had before); so over the next two years I gained almost 70 pounds working in this type of field.

I had the opportunity to go back to work for THE EI GROUP in Charlotte, NC (where I went to college), so I quickly took the offer and moved to Charlotte.  As soon as I got here I found out what kind of Insurance I had and decided to move forward with the operation!

Continue to the next post for my pre op journey and decisions that were made from there!