My weightloss journey

I haven't always been fat. In fact in high school I was a cheerleader. It wasn't until my freshman year of college that I began to balloon up. I know it didn't happen overnight but it sure did seem like it. It's like one day I was jumping around in a mini-skirt and the next I was struggling to get around in sweatpants.
I decided to have gastric bypass surgery for several reasons. One is I did one of my occupational therapy assistant rotations in a physical rehabilitation hospital I saw how hard recovery was for the people who were overweight. I also felt the strain of my weight as I tried to get close to my patients in order to treat them but my size made it difficult. I realized I was at risk for stroke, heart attack, diabetes and early death. Not mention the fact that I was so big it would take 3+ people to transfer me when I would need to move. My next rotation was at a school for blind kids. This was an eye opener. Most of the kids were impaired because they were preemie's and the chances of prematurity went up when the mother's weight went up. We want kids and I knew if I was going to have a healthy baby, I was going to have to get serious about my weight loss.
My doctor told me that the chances of me losing weight on my own was slim. He made a referral for me to see a bariatric surgeon and that is how it all began. For most people there is a 6 month waiting period before approval to see the surgeon but because my BMI was 57 (healthy BMI is 20-25) and my weight was 295lbs I was fast tracked to the surgeon. I was appalled at my size. At only 5' tall I was nearly 300 pounds.
Once I met with the surgeon he put me on a liquid protein diet for 3 weeks. The weekend before I started the liquid diet my husband and I "said good bye to food". We went to our favorite restaurants, ate our favorite snacks and nearly feasted all weekend long. Starting Monday February 2, 2009 I started my liquid protein diet. This part sucked because the whole reason I was fat was because I love food. I only did the all liquid part for a day and then I moved to a high protein diet eliminating carbs, fats, and sugars. I really reduced my portions and I lost a total of 11 lbs before surgery. The day before surgery I had to stop eating at 3:30 pm. Because I was hungry for the 3 weeks before surgery this wasn't too bad.
I am going to track my weightloss through this blog and I encourage you follow along as I begin my transformation from FAT to FAB. My goal weight is 130 but I would be perfectly content with weighing 150 pounds. I look forward to the little things like fitting comfortablly on an airplane, sitting on the floor and being able to get up easily, dropping something and not deciding weather it is worth it to pick it up and being able to shop for clothes that are cute and not just comfortable.