My weight has been up and down during my entire adult life. In fact, while in the US Army, I was unable to maintain my weight within the military standards, which ultimately forced me to leave at the age of 31 after serving eight years. I was always on a diet, but never exercised. I was a single mom, concentrating on my son’s life, and gave little thought to taking care of my health and happiness. I became a nurse in 1993 and my weight spiraled out of control. In 2006 I met my husband, Ronnie, who loved me for who I was. I weighed about 180 pounds at the time, which made my BMI 35. I continued to lose and regain weight; I was 262 pounds by 2011 when my primary care doctor told me I was borderline diabetic. As a registered nurse, I cared for many patients suffering devastating effects of uncontrolled obesity, yet was in denial over the negative impact my weight was having on my own life. The news that I may become diabetic was the wake-up call I needed. It was not until 2011 that I became serious about my excess weight, and in August 2013 I had Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery with Dr. Pilcher in San Antonio, Texas. I have never once regretted the decision to have surgery. I started this journey at 260 pounds, standing 61 inches (5’1”)! I lost a total of 140 pounds and regained a few to reach my current set point of 135 pounds. I was a size 24-plus and am now a size 6 to 8 petite. It took me about one year to lose the weight. I had no serious medical problems post-surgery. The combination of exercise and nutrition were key to my success; but exercise was and continues to be my saving grace regarding weight loss, weight maintenance, and mental stability. I want to give a big thanks to Amanda Albiar, from JKFITNESS, for physically training and motivating me to do more each week. To date, I have completed three 5Ks, a Dirty Girl 5K obstacle race, and can Zumba with the best of them—amazing for a 59-year-old with two prosthetic knees! Today I am happy, healthy, and active thanks to my doctor, my dietician, my trainer, my bariatric support group members, my husband, and myself. I love life more than ever and continue to strive to improve in all areas of life. If you are contemplating bariatric surgery or are dealing with chronic obesity, I will tell you to start slow but keep moving. If you are interested in becoming more active, make sure you are evaluated by an educated and experienced personal trainer who can adapt exercise to your fitness level and limitations.

I started my journey to better health in August 2008. Tipping the scales at a whopping 500 pounds and smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, I was miserable and had been for years without even realizing it. My weight gain had happened so gradually over decades that it was out of hand before I recognized how big the problem had become. I remember even joking sarcastically about being on the “see food” diet, or about smoking, “No one likes a quitter.” I lashed out at healthy eating advocates by suggesting their tips only made me want ice cream. 

At age 48, I began to understand the ways in which my weight and smoking were limiting my life. Flying on airplanes was true misery (and for those poor people sitting next to me). I hated going outside nine months out of the year in South Texas because I found the heat and humidity overwhelming. Buying clothes was terrible because I was limited to the very few items in my size (60-inch waist and 5 or 6XL shirt). The time had come to find my way back to reasonably good health. After considerable research, I decided to begin my journey with gastric bypass surgery. I had tried all kinds of “diets” in the past but had just managed to yo-yo my weight. Amazingly, I’ve had triple-digit weight loss three times in my life! As I’ve traveled my path over nearly a decade, there are some things I have learned along the way. In sharing these observations, I hope I can help others benefit from my experience.

 Natalie is the cover model and fitness model throughout this book. She had the gastric sleeve procedure on August 24, 2017, and went through the largest portion of her weight-loss transformation during the authorship of this book. Natalie struggled with her weight ever since she was a child, claiming she was always chubbier than the other kids, but at 13 years old her weight really started to come on after her dad unexpectedly passed away.  Natalie grew up on a farm, so activity was naturally a part of her life, but once her dad died, she stopped helping around the house or doing anything really physical. She was depressed and began to isolate herself and use food as a coping mechanism. This emotional battle over food and inactivity went on for years, and Natalie understands that bad eating habits and minimal or inconsistent exercise are what contributed to her weight gain. Like most weight-loss surgery patients, Natalie was not new to weight-loss programs. She had tried to lose weight on several occasions, but the most she ever lost was through a medical weight-loss program her mom helped enroll her in at the Mayo Clinic when she was in high school.  Natalie lost 40 pounds with this program, but the weight loss was temporary. She also didn’t couple this program with a consistent exercise program. In fact, she never really committed to a regimented exercise plan until she started working out at JKFITNESS in 2016. For years Natalie claimed she would have never considered weight-loss surgery, but in early 2017 she started to change her view. What pushed her into considering the surgery was that work was really difficult. As a registered nurse, being on her feet and shifting and moving patients all day long, she was experiencing significant pain throughout her body. “Everything hurt,” as Natalie put it. She had tendonitis in her Top: Natalie before. hips, plantar fasciitis in her feet, and pinched nerves in her Bottom: Natalie after. spine that were causing severe havoc on her back. At 302 pounds, her physical health was really affecting her emotional health. Another thing that really hurt, but at the same time drove her to get serious about weight loss, was when she was home playing with her five-year-old nephew and he said, “Natalie, you’re fat.” She wanted to be a positive role model for him. It was time to change.