TxToni

I never had a weight problem and weighed between 116 and 120 pounds until I was almost fifty-one years old.  I quit smoking, broke out in hives from the nicotine patches, was given steroids to clear up the hives and, at the same time, given three different types of hormones as the doctor said I was "peri-menapausal".  It turned out that I was not peri anything and was still producing estrogen on my own.  Long story short:  between the hormones and the steroids, I gained thirty-five pounds in three and a half weeks!!  (I quit taking any  of the hormones after the initial three weeks and changed doctors but the damage was already done.)  I owned my own company so I took my treadmill to my office and used it five to six times a day trying to get the initial 35 pounds off.  No Such luck.  I was still fat...I just had firmer fat.  I joined gyms and went to them faithfully three times a week for three years.  I'd lose 15 pounds and gain back 20 as soon as I'd change diets.  Notice that I said "changed diets" not quit dieting?  Over the past eleven years, I'd been on every diet you could name, went to a dietician to learn how to eat properly, and went to a barriactric doctor for over a year.  Regardless of what type of weight loss technique I tried, I had the same results...I'd lose 15, 20. 25 pounds (usually in the first 6 to 8 weeks) plateau for the next 5 to 6 months, change to a different diet and gain back everything that I'd lost plus 10 to 20 more pounds!  I have no metabolism.  During the time that I was going to the barriactrics doctor and before, when I was going to the dietician, I would set timers to remind me to eat trying to boost my metabolism but I never saw any results from doing that.  Prior to that for forty years, I just ate when I was hungry.  I never ate breakfast or lunch and sometimes didn't eat dinner until nine or ten at night and then it might have been just a tuna sandwich or something similiar.  I was always too busy with my school or work to get hungry.  I was overweight, arthritic, and wanted it off so badly but until I got to the over 100 pound mark and was diagnosed as pre-diabetic, I really didn't think that a lapband could help me as I am not an overeater.  I lost my business the end of 2008 (thanks George..) and lost the job that I got afterwards in May of this year so I decided to look into the lap band.  I figured that this is the first time that I haven't worked in almost fifty years so if I didn't get the procedure done now, I never would do it because I couldn't see myself starting a new job and then taking time off for the surgery.  I'm optomistic that it'll help me to lose weight where other methods have failed.  I figured that outside of being a little uncomfortable for awhile after the surgery, what did I have to lose (except weight) by trying the lapband!