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My name is Jamie and I am 25 years old and I live in Bradenton FL. I am the oldest of 4 children and my family is one of
the most important things in my life. I am very active in my church and I love my pastor and his family. They have really
meant a lot in my life. I also love to go to the movies and the theater. I love to read and listen to music. My all time
favorite thing to do has got to be SHOPPING!! Especially shopping with my sister and spending time with my wonderful goddaughter.
It is so neat to see the world through the eyes of a child.
I have been overweight pretty much since childhood, but
I never really thought of myself as fat until the summer after my 6th grade year when my parents sent me to Camp Weight Watchers
for 2 weeks. I remember I lost like 12 pounds and weighed right around 110 pounds. (That's the last time I ever saw 110
pounds!!) From that moment on I always had a little voice inside me that said I was fat. Since then I have tried every
diet known to man and I have been successful at some, but not for long. I was always the best liar, you know the lies like...I
like myself this way, I am comfortable being this size and so on. Well, I was so convincing I actually started to believe
that I liked being fat. I basically used that point of view as a survival tactic so that I wouldn't be hurt when my family
would make comments to me about my weight or suggest a diet. It has taken me a long time to realize that I love who I am
on the inside (I really am a great girl :o)!!) and I use who I am on the outside as an excuse. An excuse not to go and have
fun and live the life that I want to. I find myself not wanting to go to the mall or not wanting to go to a new restaurant
because I know that I can't fit in a booth. I love to shop with my sister, but it is hard to go with her into all the "skinny"
stores because I feel like everyone is looking at me like what is she doing in here. I hate the fact that I can only shop
in certain stores and that I get tired at the mention of a full day of shopping. I also have very bad knees. I used to play
softball all through school and in my Senior year I hurt my right knee and had my first surgery 2 days after graduation.
That next year I hurt my left knee and had another surgery. After that injury I hung up my cleats and I haven't played since.
I have had more knee surgeries due in part to the rapid weight gain since I can't really exercise. Due to the excess weight
I can't have the additional surgeries to repair my knees. I am hoping that with the gastric bypass procedure and the weight
loss I won't even need the other knee surgeries.
I decided to have gastric bypass surgery about a year ago. I even
thought about not telling my family that I was having surgery and just going with my best friend Christina to the doctor.
At first I was ashamed about even thinking of having the surgery, like I was a failure since I couldn't lose weight any other
way. But as I have researched the procedure and I have talked to people who have had the surgery I am more excited than ever
to have it done and I don't really care who knows. I hope that through this website and through reading my journal I can
give you a little glimpse at what it is like to be me and what it is like to jump through all the hoops to have gastric bypass
surgery.
Please sign my guestbook!!
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