The Starting Point...

My name is Jacky, I am 37 years old and i am a little over 20 stone. I am about to make the biggest change in my life. On September 9th 2010 I am having a Gastric Sleeve, (Weight loss surgery) at the Spire in Southampton.

I have been overweight pretty much most of my adult life. I was not a fat child but I was larger than the other children. Mum tells me its because I was fed properly, the other kids were too skinny. I remember the words puppy fat being used a lot as a teenager. I have battled my way through adulthood on diet after diet, with my clothes size ranging from 12 to 22 for the most part. I am now at my heaviest and wearing clothes size 26/28. A year ago I was diagnosed with PCOS and told this was a reason for finding it so difficult to lose weight, my doctor suggested a gastric band and referred me through the NHS. I was refused, I am just not fat enough. I have to have a BMI of over 65, a heart attack or become diabetic. I wrote to my local MP but being at a point of a general election, he had more important things on his mind. I decided to look into going private. I met Mr Van Den Bosshe at the Spire in Southampton. He expained the options to me, and I decided against the Gastric Band, it comes with to many complications and continuous care. I have decided on the Gastric Sleeve, and this is permanent, this is going to be a whole new way of life.

Last night I had a party at my house to celebrate the start of my new life. It was the last time I will ever drink and eat what ever I wanted. Tomorrow I start a diet to ease me into my Pre Op Diet which starts on Thursday.

I have set a goal for myself, this is not a weight goal or a size goal, this is a fitness goal. One year on from my surgery on 9th September 2011, my goal is to be fit enough to walk 27 miles across Hadrians Wall, raising money for charity at the same time.