Weight Loss Journey: Episode 7: One Year After Bariatric Surgery
CHI Health Weight Management Program
https://www.chihealth.com/en/services/weight-management/bariatric-program.html
My name is Tara Gustin. I’m 43 years old. Just over a year ago, I had gastric bypass surgery and I’m down 89 pounds.
Anybody that I can talk to, that I can help get past the fear of this process, I’m all for it.
I look back at pictures and remember being so unhappy with myself and how tired and irritable I felt. Now a year later I sleep well. I’m off medications, I’m healthier, I’m active – I think I’m more pleasant to be around. Life is wonderful.
I’m surprised at how different I look now. My features are a lot more prominent than they were before. You don’t realize how eyes become squinty when your face is so full. I feel like I’ve been given a second chance at life. I get to make all these wonderful memories with my kids. These are things I couldn’t do a year ago.
I feel younger just by virtue of the fact I can do things I couldn’t do before.
I don’t know if God put me in this place so I could help other people. I was terrified; I thought this was going to be a long drawn out process of recovery that I would feel bad for a long time. I was terrified this wasn’t going to work for me. None of diets I had been on before worked for me. Now I see this does work, it’s not as scary as I thought it was going to be. It’s not as hard to recover as I thought it would be and it’s not as long of a process as I thought it was going to be.
I thought I would miss fried food. I grew up in the South where everything is fried and I can honestly tell you a year later I don’t miss fried food at all. I crave fruit now. Every now and then I have something I shouldn’t and my body lets me know.
I no longer take medicine for diabetes high blood pressure or high cholesterol anymore and it’s wonderful. Knowing I don’t have those health issues anymore, I can’t tell you what a relief it is.
It was wonderful cleaning out my closet
As I lose weight, something gets a little big, I get rid of it. I will never go back to being obese. There’s no food on the face of this earth worth it.
