I'm Sara, 37, from Stockholm, Sweden. (Used to live in NYC with my American husband).
Four children, 3 sons, one daughter, 18, 13, 7 and 4.
I'm a psychologist.
I started turning to food for comfort around 13 years old, but as soon as I put some pounds on I would diet it all off, and have done so my whole adult life. I've been slim to normal weight most of my life because of it. But to a great cost, starving myself, working out all the time etc. I have a thyroid issue (diagnosed at 20), so I always had to work extra hard to lose/maintain weight.
I gained quite a bit during my pregnancies, but always lost the weight, I guess I'm vain, so I became very disciplined. Or rather, I've always been very disciplined when losing weight, but then I get fed up and binge and then back to starve mode, so safe to safe that I messed up my body a lot.
When my now 4 year old son was 4 months old, I was diagnosed with aggressive cancer and after almost 3 years of chemo, radiation and constant cortisone I gained over 60 pounds in 2 years. I worked very hard for a year and a half to get it off, but what used to work, no longer did, I would lose a little bit (and all my cancer treatments had messed up my thyroid even more) and gain even more back.
I became more and more depressed over my weight, since I was just getting bigger and bigger and couldn't control it like I used too. And I just saw a future of more and more weight related issues.
My BMI was between 28-29 when I decided to have the surgery (obviously self pay), and I was sleeved May 11th, 9 weeks ago, and I've lost just under 40 pounds - with 20 pounds to go. I might go for another 10 more after that depending on how I feel. I'm a size 8 now, and I don't want to get under a size 4/6. I'm 6 feet and like to keep some curves as I feel it looks better on me being so tall.
Of course I like the fact that I'm starting to look like my old self, but more than anything, I feel healthier and I don't worry about future health problems, as well as feeling like I've broken my binge/starvation "addiction". Which is the best feeling of them all.