In the Beginning...

I am finding this blog really hard to start. Becky and I discussed it for a few weeks and thought it would be a good idea to get it going. I thought it was going to be fun and easy, but I've been sitting here trying to get it going for the last three hours. I guess I should have expected it. Dealing face to face with my weight has always been hard for me.

I've tried confronting my weight and doing something about it before, but I couldn't seem to make any headway with it at all. Fits and starts. That's how I've labeled my struggle. Hopefully this start will end the battle once and for all.

I'm 5'2" and weight 275 pounds. Not quite the size you see on TLC's Big Medicine series, perhaps, but definitely too big for me. I know there are bigger people out there. I just don't want to be one of them, and I can see how I might be if I don't take some kind of action.

So after 32 years (I'm 38 now) of failed diets, programs, pills and hypnosis, I discussed the surgery option with my doctor. It seems I'm not the only one who's been concerned about how much weight I'm carrying around. Heart problems, diabetes, high blood pressure and all the other scary things that come along with being morbidly obese is, almost literally, around the corner. I've been lucky so far, but I can't depend on luck for very much longer.

There are other struggles I have to worry about. My weight tends to gather the most around my trunk area, as one might expect. As a result, my back is starting to feel the strain. More and more often anymore it's hurting too much for me to do anything productive. My knees are also starting to feel the strain. Moreover, I worked in front of a keyboard in a customer service position for 10 years. The constant and fast keyboarding have left me with side effects akin to carpel tunnel. It hurts if I type for three hours, not to mention the 8 or 9 of a full time job. Thus, I have no medical insurance and I don't qualify for Medicare.

I have no money. I have no insurance. How to pay for the surgery? Good question.

So that's why I agreed to starting this blog. I'm positive there are other people who are in the same predicament. If there is a way for me to do this, then there must be a way for others to do this. I am going to post the ideas and tips I come across here so that others might be able to save themselves, as it were.

I might also include questions and thoughts. Answers and responses will be contemplated and included, so long as they're done tastefully and with respect. Overweight prejudice is rampant, but I won't tolerate it here. Life for those of us with weight problems is too difficult to put up with narrow mindedness.

I look forward to reading any responses this blog might get.

Mari