So there I was ...330 pounds of exhausted, heavy breathing, high blood pressured, diabetic, sleep apnea laden, shell of his former self humanity. I had taken the "normal" way many times, the slippery slope of hundreds of diets, miracle cures, and sure fire programs only to tumble back down in a heap, more unhealthy than before.

My wife began talking to me about weight loss surgery. She had been up that slope as many times as me and fell down with the same result. I was appalled that she would choose such a drastic step, I volunteered to hold a gun at her head at dinner time... in my mind the same as what she proposed. The batting of her big, beautiful eyes melted me down as it always does and I ended up at an "information" meeting held by the surgeon at our local Center of Excellence bariatric hospital.

My steely resistence melted away when I detected the sound of sound science and saw the many results obtained by the patients there. I came away from the meeting sleeve-minded to the shock and delight of my bride.

Now, a year and a half later, I am free of excess fat, diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and all that accompanies them. The only heavy breathing I do is when I run up a steep hill with 2 1/2 pound weights on each foot, carrying a 20 pound kettle bell, full speed, 12 times. Even then I am back to normal breathing before I hit the shower back home. This from a guy that used to compare the steps to the upstairs bedroom with Mt. Everest.

So now I feel guity. It was a lot easier to get the operation than suffer with the effects of obesity. It was easier to make an effective intervention than run down a thousand more dead end streets. It was easier to take a chance on life than taking a dirt nap that odds are would have happened by now.

But, you know, guilt can be earned or slapped on you by ignorant people. The same folks that charge you with the high crime of "taking the easy way out" would take the same route in a heartbeat if they weren't such lilly-livered cowards.

So I will file the guilt of "easiness" away in the same folder with the shock belt I bought some years ago that was supposed to melt away fat but succeeded in just making burn marks on my belly; the folder of dumb ideas.

GMANBAT: You have said it just perfect!

My daughter and I were walking into Forever 21 looking for some yoga pants and she even admitted that this surgery wasn't the easy way out. That was really shocking for me because when I was in the process of preparing for it, she thought it was the easy way out and that all I had to do was stay on a diet. She has learned from me that she only needs to eat until she feels full and takes the rest home now. I am constantly educating them on healthy eating now and getting down on them for always getting fast foods with a quick explanation of the unhealthiness of all the fat and non nutrition in that food.

I love my sleeve and it is still work. I need to keep myself focused on eating proteins and staying away from sugary foods. when i eat something that is sweet, I want more....So this is not an easy way out but i love the consequences of my skinniness and getting looks from men as I walk by. It is so rewarding! Yep! I said rewarding.....

Awesome post! Love it!

Well said. This sums up how most of feel when someone tells us we took the easy way out by having wls surgery.

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Thank you for sharing !!! And making me laugh !!

Thanks G-man.. You said it all!

But, you know, guilt can be earned or slapped on you by ignorant people. The same folks that charge you with the high crime of "taking the easy way out" would take the same route in a heartbeat if they weren't such lilly-livered cowards.

So I will file the guilt of "easiness" away in the same folder with the shock belt I bought some years ago that was supposed to melt away fat but succeeded in just making burn marks on my belly; the folder of dumb ideas.

This was perfect timing for me because Im supposed to see my husbands family in a month (Ill be 75 pounds lighter than when they last saw me) so I know Ill be getting 20 questions if not more and Ive been struggling with 'do i tell the truth or dont i'. But the people that will be looking down their nose at me and judging me are also very heavy and miserable. So thank you for your perspective because Ive decided to hold my head up high, looking fierce and tell them the truth. Then when they say "oh well Ive been doing weight watchers" I can say "yeah? and hows that workin' for ya?" Thank you gmanbat

Wonderful post!! I couldn't have said it better or even as well! The only guilt I feel is waiting so long while my life passed me by!! Congratulations on your success!

I don't give a hoot what anyone else thinks of the path I chose. If they care for me, they are happy I am at a healthy weight now after years of struggling. If they don't care for me, what difference does it make to them what I do?

For me it was the only way out, besides that dirt nap that was increasingly scaring me the longer I stayed morbidly obese. The call it morbidly for a reason.

Lynda