Ready to Work

Hi, my name is Erin.

That's probably the scariest sentence I've ever written.  It was never my life's ambition to be associated with gastric bypass surgery.  I don't like to admit that I'm fat and I hate to admit that I need help. 

The thing is, I have legitimate reasons for being overweight.  I'm not lazy.  I'm not uneducated on matters of health.  I'm not a glutton.  But I've reached a point in my life where I have to deal with things as they are and not as they ought to be.  My clothes refuse to fit better because the fat isn't my fault.  My heart doesn't beat any stronger because I intended to run.  The scale doesn't adjust for injustice.  And that's why my husband and I have finally decided to undergo weight loss surgery together.

Like many people, I used to think surgery was the easy way out.  I imagined a conveyor belt of obese people gliding in to one side of the hospital and emerging healthy and happy from the other.  I was more ashamed of the idea of "cheating" at weight loss than at the prospect of being overweight my entire life.  

But I've come to understand that there is nothing magic about the operating room.  Weight loss still requires discipline, knowledge and extremely hard work.  And I'm ready to work.