I have not been obese all of my life. I am 5’8” tall and never really showed the extra weight that I carried, but I was always trying to lose those few pounds. Weight watchers was my life, on the plan awhile, looking good, and then gain it back. I bounced between a 10 and 14. After I got married the trips to Weight Watchers were shorter and farther apart, I was more of a 16 by then, but I started exercising (I loved riding my bike outside) and I could control my weight, or at least how I looked that way. Then I got pregnant and the doctor said no more bike riding and I didn’t replace that exercise with anything else. That was 13 years ago and now I am 50 pounds heavier than I was when I was full term. When I hit 300 pounds, I started to panic, I woke up every morning ready to diet, but by 10am I was done. Last February my sister and I took different roads, she choose the surgery and I choose a weight loss study. Through the study I was given a study drug (which I’m sure was a placebo – or at the very least a very ineffective drug). I was monitored by a nutritionist and a doctor and did loose 18 pounds but it took me 9 months to do that, of which I gain 8 pounds back before going the WLS route. I’m am now mentally ready to take this next step, and determined to make this work!