The tipping points are "the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable."Bryan Walsh.
I don't recall the tipping point when I decided that bariatric surgery was the solution for my weight problem. I do recall that my mom and sister encouraged me to look into surgery as a way to address my obesity. I recall discussions about surgery with my doctor over the years, at first casual and later more serious, but without any resolution. I recall watching a TV program that documented Canadians that had the surgery that more than intrigued me. And of course, there is Al Roker, the NBC weather man, who had gastric bypass in 2002 after he reached 320lbs.
Surgery was a passing curiosity until the year when I finally became a type 2 diabetic; I had a couple of incidences relating to my heart health, and my knees started to complain. What kept me going was a cocktail of pills and I was getting worse and worse.
My weight was at the highest point ever - 350 lbs. This weight was only 20 lbs higher than the previous weight record that I reached 11 years earlier. I was 38 then. Now at 49 my body was starting to go down hill. As my dad once told me, once you cross 40 the body stops forgiving.
My last dieting cycle, I lost 80 lbs in just over a year. I was 40 and I went from 32o lbs down to 240lbs. It was a very hard struggle. It took a harsh diet regime, extreme exercise program (2 hours a day), and super motivation. I was living to lose weight and I swore that I would never go back to that weight again.
"No matter how hard it seems to lose weight, it is extremely easy when compared with the insurmountable effort that is required to keep it off"Avi Lior
Needless to say, the first 20lbs came back very fast, the next 90 lbs took 10 years. During this period I tried to diet again and again with such diets as the low carb Atkin's diet and also various low GI diets. To no avail.
Now in my late 40s, being an overweight diabetic, with declining health and no motivation to diet. What to do? I have to lose weight a lot of weight. The thought of going on a traditional diet again, the thought of gaining it all back. Been there, done it - I was defeated.
The idea of gastric bypass surgery was against every moral fiber in my body. I then discovered Gastric banding. I started getting my head around this procedure because it was done laparoscopically and totally reversible. I started to read a lot of material on this procedure. I was encouraged by my sister. I then watched the CBS 60 Minutes report on gastric bypass procedure and I learnt that it "cures" type 2 diabetes in 85% of the people who undergo this surgery.
Before I knew it, I was tipped...
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