I wanted to know from people what the final catalyst was in deciding to be banded.

Mine was when my father was diagnosed with type II Diabetes, along with most of his 7 other brothers. I decided that unless I did something about this weight I was going to have the same fate.

Mine was watching my daughter pick up and act out my bad habbits. I needed to get healthy, We as a family need to get healthy....

Mine was when I get Planter Fascitis (severe heel pain) I had been working out several times a week when this happened and really trying to "do it myself". After I found out I couldn't work out for a few months until this healed and I thought of the more weight I would gain because of this I said NO MORE. I need to do something now as I have just creeped into the size 18/20 and I can't even stand to look at myself in the mirror anymore.

Mine was when I couldnt use public toilets any more and one day I had to come home with a dirty bottom because in the cubical i couldnt open my legs enough to whipe myself (even though whiping was hard enough as it was).

So for me when I couldnt clean my own bum it was time to get it done.

Oh and also when I told my dad how much I weighed and he cried. . and I have NEVER seen my dad cry before in my life.

Colleen McCormack

Good thread :rant:

Mine was when my boyfriend wanted us to be more active and we had started walking together. He always wanted to take long walks and I'd find myself sweating, out of breath, and barely able to hold a conversation with him. I was completly embarassed at age 24 and not even able to walk a mile without it exhausting me. I'd had enough.

I had lost over 200 pounds and put back on 100+ in the last 3 years. I didn't want to regain the other 100 pounds and knew I needed help and opted for the band.

Mine was gaining 20 lbs since the beginning of this year. I was at my all time high. It scared me. My mother had a BUNCH of weight related illnesses that started when she was my age now. I connected the dots and decided I just didn't want to go there.

Mine was a couple of years ago the doc put me on diet pills because I had hit 206 and cried and cried (I'm 5'7") well nothing happened and when my first granddaughter was born a few months ago I started out keeping her every day for my daughter and her husband while they worked. When she started crawling it went to one 10 hour day a week. I just couldn't keep up. I went to the doc and he weighed me and I was at 260, you can just imagine what I did then. So that was the straw that broke the camels back.

Then I found this wonderful web site and now surgery is 3 weeks away.,

Sherri

It was feeling like I was disabled. I was in so much pain that I could hardly do anything anymore and I have 3 little kids! Plus, my dh is in poor shape and will probably leave me an early widow so someone has to be there for my kids and it had better be me!

Pain/disability for me too. There was something wrong with my ankle which nobody could diagnose. I also was diagnosed with a genetic eye condition which causes awful corneal erosions/ulcers mid last year too. I just started thinking, my llife is misery right now, I can barely walk and now I keep getting struck with eye problems, what on earth is my old age going to be like?

Just the glimpse of it I had was enough to get me moving on the thing I could control, my weight. Not so sure about the eyes unfortunately, I had surgery on my left eye two weeks ago and had another major erosion in it in Friday night, so it doesnt appear to have worked, sigh.

My ankle is entirely better though, to the point where I now run five times a week, with no treatment, so it was just the weight I was carrying. And what scares me is I was about 80lb overweight, what would have happened if I'd gotten even fatter?

I was at the point where I wanted surgery, and had done a decent amount of research on it. I had not money and no insurance, so I'd just pushed it to the back of my mind. One day mom and I were having a conversation about someone we knew who'd had the bypass, and I told her that I'd read about a new band that they did and she said "You should get that done, I'll pay for it". I was banded almost exactly one month later.

My mother (who had always been morbidly obese) was thinner than me after gastric bypass. That rocked my boat in a side by side picture of us.

For me it was looking at my vacation pictures. I know it sounds crazy, but I never felt fat before that. This is despite the fact I have been over 200 lbs for six years. All I could think was, "who is this huge women?" I knew I need to lose weight. I tried all the fad diets. Everyone knows how they work out. So, here I am.

Mine was realizing that I was putting my two littls girls' lives in danger by not being able to chase after them. There was a horrifying moment where one of my daughters started running down our little street toward a busy avenue, and I started chugging along after her. But I wasn't catching up to her on her little 2-year-old legs, and my husband came racing down off the front porch to grab her before she got there.

I was thunderstruck that I would literally be unable to save my baby were she to try that again when he's not around. That's when I started looking.

I few years back, I weighed in at 254- the highest that Oprah Winfrey was. Well, I had lost 80 pounds on Weight Watchers and told myself that Oprah and I would never get that big again. Needless to say, I got pregnant with my 3rd child, and before I knew it, I was at 254 AGAIN. That was my magic number and I called the hospital that day. i am hanging around 167-169 pounds, but that is a hell of a lot better than 254 !

Well, for me it was the fact that I weighed almost 300 pounds ( I still cant believe it), had been single for years because I was using the weight to not participate in life. I felt I was sexless...I didnt feel like I was even a woman anymore. I thought that I would never have the attraction of a man ever again...and thats not somthing I ever wanted to do.

I had taken myself out of life..stopped making friends....staying home alone...I never wanted to be seen..or made fun of. I was a dance teacher for years...I longed to go dancing again...but too ashamed to get out there where people can be so cruel. I WANT TO DANCE AGAIN,