Holly Winslow shares her journey with The Center for Bariatrics at Bailey Medical Center today on our blog.
Where do I begin? Well let’s start with where “my” journey ended, with me weighing in at 260 pounds. My knees hurt when I walked and I got really good with hiding my real feelings behind a smile. I was miserable, and yet every exercise I tried seemed to end in total failure and me turning to food. I felt like I was not worthy of being healthy or thin for that matter. Each diet I tried ended in disappointment and more pounds packed on. I would weigh myself each morning thinking, OK I am at 160, I can live with 160, but at 165 I will for sure diet and lose some weight. Then I would reach 165 and think, OK this isn’t so bad I can live with this, but 170, for sure at that weight I will begin to diet. Next thing I knew I was 260 pounds with diabetes, high cholesterol, and sleep apnea.
I felt like I was on a one way ticket to an early exit from this world. To add to my stress my son, diagnosed with kidney issues, would at some time need a kidney transplant and at the rate I was going, I was not even a candidate to help him. Depression would set in, what kind of mother was I if I couldn’t help my own children? To ease that kind of pain, I ate and added to the weight.
Thanks to Dr. Kirk and his team, I can now live a life like never before. On May 8, 2013 I began my “NEW” life after Gastric Sleeve Surgery. I now challenge myself monthly with a new exercise routine. In May, I completed a squat challenge and completed the month with 1,960 squats. This was huge for me, because before my Gastric Sleeve Surgery, I could barely even bend over to tie my shoes and here I was doing squats. I took the month of June off and began again in July doing a walk and run challenge and completed the month with a total of 82.5 miles logged on my treadmill. I am now currently 105 pounds down and in the best shape of my life.