Chianti

Yabrae’s Journey to Optimal Health!
               As a child, I was labeled as morbidly obese, always having to struggle with keeping up with the other kids on the playground, and always coming in last place during regular physical education activities.  Over the years I adapted and got “used to it”, however about two years ago, at the age of 38, I had escalated to my heaviest weight of 344 pounds and felt as if I was just existing and not truly living my life to its fullest potential.  This amount of weight became extremely overbearing to where I noticed it had a major effect on my health.  I started to have frequent panic attacks to where I couldn’t breathe regularly.  I couldn’t climb a flight of stairs without feeling as if I’d ran a marathon.  I had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure and was prescribed medication for both.  My knee joints constantly ached with excruciating pain and discomfort.  Along with the realization that I lost my father at such a young age of 43 from making poor choices with his health and the fact I felt myself slowly deteriorating, I knew I had to make a major change with my life. 
In the past I had always had experience with fad diets and I took weight loss medications and only had temporary success that ended quickly and left me worse off than where I had first started.  I was watching television one day and was intrigued by a TV series called “My 600 Pound Life.”  Even though I wasn’t near 600 pounds, I was still very interested in the show and the struggles of the people who were existing with near death obesity and who had overcome obstacles with deciding to have bariatric surgery.  I did my own research on bariatric surgery, took the precautionary steps to meet the protocol to get approved and on 4/20/2015, I had made the best decision of my life by deciding to have gastric sleeve surgery.  I was on my way to the losers’ bench and on my way to a life that I could finally live and enjoy. I have used my gastric sleeve surgery as a tool to help guide me and never did expect it to be a “magic pill”.  I have lost a total of 110 pounds and I have about 50 more pounds to lose to reach my goal.  I am no longer required to take type 2 diabetes medication, my knee pain isn’t as severe, I don’t suffer with an overactive bladder anymore, and I’m off of my blood pressure medication!
 This journey hasn’t been easy at all, I’ve had many obstacles to overcome because of the eating pattern that I had gotten used to.  My biggest obstacle was overcoming sweets like cake, cookies, donuts and pie.  These were my comfort foods so I had to trigger my way of thinking to focus on the importance of my health compared to eating this type of stuff and it worked.  I refuse to diet because dieting doesn’t work for me so instead I take part in mindful eating.  This allows me to pay attention to my body more because I am able to focus on signals of hunger and fullness, without judgement.  Being active has become a major part of my life!  I try my best to stay active by taking brisk walks at least twice a day five times a week and I love doing aerobics.     
I’m thankful for all of the love and support I’ve received throughout my life changing journey and am forever grateful for my family and friends and it feels so good to be able to play out in the yard with my 10 year old son, jog up a flight of stairs without getting tired and be able to walk 2 miles during the middle of my day and still feel energetic!  I can finally say and truly feel that “Life is Great”!