The Easy way….. HA HA HA Yeah Right, Have you met me?

Ok, no most of you have not met me in real life but I don’t choose easy for anything. The choice to have weight loss surgery is a hard choice it is admitting I could not lose this weight on my own. For me it was admitting I was a failure at one more thing in my life, I let my family and myself down AGAIN. So when I made my doctor appointments (yes I said appointments, with more than one doctor) and I walked through their office doors I was looking for a quick fix but that is FAR from what I found. Most of the doctors told me to lose 200 lbs. then come back, if I could do that why would I come back? When I made my appointment with Dr. Nowzaradan, I had little faith that he was really going to help me but when he told me he was going to, I was ready to do whatever he ask me to do to have the surgery to change my life.

It seemed like so many steps to get the surgery I wanted, meeting with a psych doctor, meeting with a Dietitian, so many more appointments but if he would have said stand on your head a bark like a dog I would have done my best to do it, so I could have the life changing surgery. I was just so sure I was going to have this surgery and the weight was going to just fall off all on its own and would not have to do anything about it and my life was going to be wonderful. Little did I understand there was going to be so many up and downs and that I was going to have to watch everything I put in my mouth and then the scale would still not move or even would go up instead of down at times. I did not understand the will power that I was going to have to get control of and the ideals I was going to have to get out of my head telling myself that I am not eating that much. Little did I understand that I NOT this surgery had control over my weight loss or weight gain.

Easy my A$$ it has been the hardest thing I have ever done in my life and I would do it again every day. Every day of my life I am grateful for all that I have been through it has shaped me given me the strength I did not know I had. Every day I would take the same path I took to get me to where I am today and every day I will fight to help others get to where they want to be.  As I said before the first step is always the hardest, but if you know where you are going and you keep your eyes on what you want the fight is worth the battle.

Until we meet again,

Mel

Where does my time go?

I have all these great plans on what I am going to do but my time just gets away. My normal day starts between 5:00 am and 6:00 am I get up to a crying baby (well a one year old), then breakfast for the two little kids, then I try to get to as many email/ messages as I can, I drop Allona off at school and then the fun starts. I am now a part of the Softball board, School Athlecit booster, then I have house work, all while taking care of Eli (baby number 2), and then pick up Allona from  school home by 3:30 pm, we have softball, baseball, football, volleyball. Once we are done with that I have to make dinner, check homework, talk about our day, have dinner and the next thing I know it is 11:30 pm. I do my best to answer every ones questions and to help them figure out how to succeed in their weight loss journey.  I am sorry I have to sleep at all I would love to answer every message and email, but sadly I cannot.

I am working on the diet for non-weight loss surgery and I hope to post the diet for those who have had weight loss surgery soon. I will also try to post some sample menus for both diets. A few things that I will tell you is that just because you went off your diet and you ate half a pizza or a bag of chips all is not lost. You can start all over again RIGHT NOW, you do not have to wait till tomorrow or till next week, we all make mistakes, so chalk it up to a mistake and keep on going. You can be where you are at and be happy or you can know where you want to be and work on getting there. I say all the time you cannot fix stupid you can work on you and fix you but you cannot fix stupid, just say it was a stupid mistake and I am moving on.

You are who you are, I found that out the hard way, I just knew I would have this weight loss surgery and life would be so different and so much better. The truth is I am who I am, all my problems before surgery was still there (I can deal a little better now), and the person I was before surgery is the same person who came out of surgery. Love yourself because once you do and start to let people know I will not accept anything less than this than you will find a happiness you never knew you had.

Until next time, thank you for your time!

Love,

Melissa

I am a 673 pound person just trying to figure out how to live a normal life in the body I am now in.

Life changes us whether we want it to or not. It changes us sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad. I chose to put my life on TV for the world to see and in doing so my hope was to change one person’s life. I had no clue it would touch so many people’s lives. As I sit here today, I am over whelmed with gratitude and humbled about how people have reacted to my seven year journey. There is so much more to tell than what you have seen on your television screen about my life.  I am willing to tell it to whoever is willing to listen and whoever is willing to take the time ask questions and I will do my best to answer them.  
Many people have had so many questions for me and I have tried to answer each and every one of them as best I can. I am not a registered dietitian nor am I nutritionist. I am however, nine years out of gastric bypass surgery and I work with my weight loss surgeon, Dr. Younan Nowzaradan. I believe the he knows just what he is talking about when it comes to diet after weight loss surgery. Many people disagree with what he has to say and what I have to keep telling each and every person. But I know it works because I have lost 500 pounds on his diet and I manage to keep most of my weight off because I continue to follow his instructions.
I will also answer a few, but not all questions, about my personal life.  I am sorry, but there are something’s that I am just not ready to share with everyone. Questions like what size clothing I wear, how much I weigh, how much I want to lose, and about having a baby after weight loss surgery, I will do my best to answer them. I still have problems looking at the numbers on the scale, I have problems when buying the right size clothing, and I am always watching what I eat to try to lose weight. I will add photos of Allona,Eli, Nia, and Kore this is my new family and who I love and everyone of them is growing quickly. I will give tips on weight loss even if you don't have surgery or planning to have surgery. I will also from time to time, try to do a live question and answer sessions.

In closing, welcome to my crazy life.  I hope we can share and rejoice in each other’s life and weight loss journey. I hope I can be your cheerleader, this form can be a support group, and I can be your person to turn when you don’t know where else to go. Just remember I am a 673 pound person just trying to figure out how to live a normal life in the body I am now in.