I am starting here because well, there seems to be no better place to start.  I am a 45-year-old mother of 2.  45?  How the hell did that happen?  Anyway, I have a 10-year-old daughter with Down syndrome and a 16-year-old daughter who is transgender.   I have been married for 20 years to my best friend and I have a handful of very dear friends. 

As for me, well I am Elizabeth (Beth for short) I am an only child, my mother died in 2020 and my father lives with me and my family.  I had always been fat, a fat kid, fat teenager and a fat adult.  Trying every single diet program known to man from Jenny Craig to Weight Watchers and everything in between.  The diets would work for a bit and then I’d gain it all back and then some.  I have had a lot of things happen to me traumatic things, if I am being honest. My marriage was not perfect, and we struggled in the beginning.  Fast forward to having my daughter in 2011, born with Down syndrome and needed open heart surgery by the time she was 3 months old. I feel like the first 2 years of her life I was numb, and I really packed on the pounds. I ate to shove all the feelings of grief and heartbreak down.  I grieved the baby girl I thought I was going to have and was aching inside for this tiny, fragile baby that I was given.  My weight climbed to the highest it had ever been.  285 lbs.  As the years went by, I tried so many things to get the weight off and I was losing a little.  I got down to 266 but shortly after that my mom died and the weight started to creep back on.  

It was in 2021 that I decided to get Gastric Sleeve surgery.  I had been researching it for a year or so and finally decided this was it, it was now or never

I started at 284 lbs. and today I weigh 196 lbs.  I am nowhere near where I want to be but I am on the right path.  
I hope that this blog helps just one person.  I hope you know that you are not alone. I am here and I have walked this road many times. Join me on my journey and we can learn together.