I’ve been 360+ lbs for about 15 years now. In that time, I’ve managed to get back into the 200s twice and have always regained the weight. Over that time I’ve also developed diabetes that at one point was a significant issue and I had to get on a statin for my high cholesterol. I also had to stop taking my adderall due to heart palpitations. My lower back pain has been debilitating over this period, having required an ablation and significantly reduced my ability to do almost anything. I haven’t been able to put my own socks on without significant pain since college. So when I say that I’m currently in the best position in years with regard to my health, the bar maybe isn’t that high. But I still want to tell you about it.

Last November I started working out daily. This workout consisted of 15 to 25 minutes on a recumbent exercise bike at a low wattage. Yes, that’s all, but it was a lot for me. I did this for almost 40 days in a row, feeling like I had great momentum. Then while trying to clean up a spill on the floor, I tore a muscle in my back and ended up unable to get out of bed for six weeks. I met with a back surgeon who told me that I had minimal structural damage. Surgery wasn’t the answer. However – he also said that my hamstrings were the tightest he’d ever seen, and that a lot of my back pain and injury risk would be eliminated with physical therapy. As it happens, my work covers 100% of physical therapy costs (a miracle, I know). So off to PT I went.

It took less than two weeks for me to feel like I’d gotten all that momentum from November back, and then some. I was stretching well, and seeing minor improvements. I started losing weight again. And I stumbled upon a yoga program specifically designed for obese people with debilitating back pain that felt like it was made specifically for me. After another 8 weeks of PT and yoga, I’ve lost another 20lbs and I’m regularly finding myself picking up dog bowls off the floor to refill, getting in and out of chairs without wanting to cry out, and picking up dropped objects from the floor instead of kicking them under furniture.

A second thread has been running underneath this year’s health journey. I made myself a promise last November that if I couldn’t maintain progress and keep the weight off for good this time, I’d look into bariatric surgery, specifically gastric bypass. When I got injured, I bit the bullet and scheduled a consultation. By the time it rolled around, I had been doing PT for a couple weeks and was feeling wind in my sails again, but I still went. I’d played with the idea for about a decade; it was time to at least talk to someone.

For those outside the know, gastric bypass surgery involves removing the majority of the stomach, reducing it to the size of an apple. It also re-routes the GI tract to go from the stomach to a later part of the small intestine, making it harder for the body to absorb nutrients and calories from food. Post surgery, food intake is severely reduced and most successful patients limit their calories to 1000 or less per day. It is a major life change, but it is also 99% effective at causing permanent 100+ lbs of weight loss.

My meeting with the surgeon was eye opening. He told me I was at high risk for metabolic syndrome, a combination of diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol that tears decades off of peoples’ lives and jacks heart attack risk up very fast in peoples’ 40s. At it happens, a gastric bypass would all but eliminate my risk factors, likely extending my life by 20 years and removing my need to take diabetes and cholesterol medications. All of that sounded pretty spectacular to me, leaving aside the fact that I’d be likely to lose around 120lbs in 6 months post surgery. I met with a nutritionist as well, and began tracking calories again. My base metabolic rate is 2050, so I could get a decent amount of weight loss with a very reasonable calorie cut.

My last four weeks of calorie tracking and yoga have led to a week of daily mile walks up to today. My momentum has never been this positive. I feel like I can make the kind of lifestyle changes necessary to be a successful bariatric patient, get the most out of the surgery, and maintain a healthy life going forward. I don’t mean to only talk positives about an invasive, voluntary, and inherently ‘non-vital’ surgery. There are risks. Everything it offers can be accomplished with proper diet and exercise. And everything it offers requires that you engage in proper diet and exercise regardless. But I know this is right for me. I’ve talked to a number of post-surgery patients and what they’ve told me has helped me commit to this decision. Things are looking bright.

I’ll probably end up scheduling surgery for this fall, and will surely have plenty to share as I go through that whole process. For now, I’ll continue using this momentum to work my way up and out of the health pit I’ve dug for myself. Have a great week!