...on with the show this is IT!!!

So...I've been thinking about it...and thinking about it...and thinking about it some more...and the time is here and NOW! So...welcome to "Oh Lori Where Art Thou?!" This is the journal of my adventure with Weight Loss Surgery. My thoughts, feelings, concerns, triumphs, challenges, you get the idea.

So, reminiscent of Maria Von Trapp, "Let's start at the very beginning...it's a VERY good place to start." I don't think I was a fat child. Looking at photos of myself as a kid, I don't see a fat, chubby, pudgy kid at all. I was happy, and most importantly, healthy. I do remember that food was a "reward" at our house...and could be a penalty at times too. If we were "really good" at the store, didn't ask for TOO many toys, etc. we would get a treat on the way home. If we did all of our homework after school, we could have a scoop of ice cream after dinner. Food was also a loss of a reward, or a sign of disappointment. When we were a little "out of sorts" or behaving badly, the promise of dessert after dinner, or a trip to the corner store for candy would be taken away. So food has always had VALUE to me.

When I was 7 or 8, I really developed a love of reading. Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House on the Prarie" was my favorite. I desperately wanted the whole series in the cool "collector's shelf boxed set." It was pretty expensive back then, and being that my dad was a minister there wasn't a lot of money to play with. Nevertheless, mom made a deal with me. If I lost 10 pounds, she'd buy the books for me. I did, and eventually got the books. It was summer vacation, and while I wasn't heavy, I think mom feared that if I just sat around all summer reading and eating, I'd definitely become overweight. I think she was just using the "lose 10 pounds" part of the bargain to keep me moving and active during the summer. So...even at 7 or 8, I was learning about dieting and food and rewards.

Flash forward a few years to high school. Freshman year at Denver Christian High School. There were 60 kids in the freshman class. We were divided into 2 PE classes. The first semester of freshman PE was all about fitness, with the ultimate goal of developing in us a life-time love of exercise and sport. Not exactly what I got out of the class. Several of the senior boys at school had been chosen as teacher's assistants for Coach Van. They were all good looking, football players, very popular and INTIMIDATING. First day of class, the assignment was to record all of our vital statistics. We took blood pressure measurements, pulse rate, height, and you guessed it...WEIGHT. And the senior boys worked the scale. HORROR!! I remember being one of the last girls to weigh in...and the class was CO-ED, not just girls. I remember stepping on the scale and Tim S had to move the "50" pound weight on the scale from the 100 spot to the 150 spot. Again, HORROR! Scale read "161 pounds." I was humiliated. That was more than a lot of the BOYS in the class. Looking back, and seeing photos of myself at 13, I was an athlete in fantastic physical shape. I had a very low percentage of body fat, was SOLID and very healthy! I think I was just blessed with a very solid, Dutch frame (at least that is what my grandma told me). At any rate, while I see that NOW, then all I saw was the "161" and the knowledge that I was BIGGER THAN EVERY ONE ELSE. Weight, and what the scale said, have been a part of my way of thinking since I was 13. Wow...37 years!