I'm With the Band Pt. 1

In July, I revealed that I decided to have lap band surgery. I've jumped through all the necessary hoops and finally got a surgery date - October 8th. So for the next 6 weeks, I'm going to share a bit about the various parts of the surgery. Well, all the "before" stuff anyway.

Part 1: The Basics

1. What is lap band surgery?

Lap Band is the brand name of an Adjustable Gastric Band, but is commonly used to describe the procedure (much like people refer to tissues as Kleenex regardless of brand).  A silicone band is placed around the stomach and then filled with saline to reduce the size of the stomach. Read more about it here. 

2. Why did you choose lap band surgery?

There are several answers to this question...

I have always had issues with food. I'm an emotional eater, but my main issue is that I'm a volume eater. I remember being younger and having my mom's friend laugh because I could eat an entire Stouffer's Lasagna by myself. The high school boys that worked at the local Subway thought it was amazing that my junior high self could eat an entire meatball sub. I never thought it was weird that I could eat so much and it never really occurred to me that it was a bad thing until I got older. After years of overeating, I've broken the natural system in my body that tells me when to stop. I have no idea what it means to be "full" until I'm uncomfortably stuffed. 

I've tried losing weight many other ways and have been successful, only to gain the weight (plus more!) back soon after. I don't want to spend the rest of my life losing the same 15-30 lbs over and over again just to regain it. 

I have a lot of weight to lose. If  I had 25, 30 or even 50 lbs to lose, my thought process may be different. But I have so much weight to lose (100.7 lbs to be exact) that it really seems impossible and I get discouraged before even starting.  

I know what it takes to lose weight. But I tend to forget that I'm dieting until after I've 'screwed' up. I need constant accountability.

So why did I choose Lap Band over other types of weight loss surgery? Tune in next week to find out!
(Have questions about the procedure? My decision? My sanity?? Leave them in the comments or email me! I'd love to answer them!)