Elia-B
I was a fat girl for a long, long time. In fact, I grew up fat. I was the kid other kids made fun of. I grew up in a home eating the same food as my skinny family members - but I was fat. My weight has negatively impacted every aspect of my life save for helping me to understand the same struggle of others. I am thankful for that. I am thankful that I "get it". I was killing myself slowly, and I was miserable doing it. I saw stretched out before me two paths... the one I was on and the one my peers were on. Each year that passed the disparity of where I was versus where they were in their lives was going to grow more and more. And, I knew that in 20 years as a woman of 60, I was going to be in bad financial shape, probably alone, and BITTER. I had given myself years to figure out my weight issues - with limited and never lasting results. To sum it up, I was killing myself slowly and I wasn't having any fun doing it.
For me, I decided living was worth dying for. Weight loss surgery can be scary; it can be very risky. I didn't know if I would like my life afterward. I didn't know if I would be happy. But I knew for sure, without taking some step to get control over that part of my life, I ... was... not... happy. Pervasively. Things had to change and whatever the risk, it "outweighed" what being fat was doing to me. So I jumped off the cliff of chance - and I have found a happier me.
