“But you have such a pretty face!” I would often hear that as teenager, and, believe it or not, nothing was more hurtful than hearing that. As a little kid growing up, I had healthy eating habits, but as I got older I started using food to help control my emotions. I became a typical binge eater, eating lots of food – and not the good stuff – in private because I had the feeling that everyone was looking at my plate and judging me. I’d lie to myself to feel better and then just keep on eating more and more food. I even used my pregnancies as an excuse to eat anything and everything I wanted and I ended up gaining so much weight that I hit 340 pounds. That was it, I knew I had to do something and that was when I had Vertical Banded Gastroplasty (VBG), also known as stomach stapling surgery.

The VBG was effective and I was able to lose weight and to stay thin for 2 years. After that initial period of success my bad habits came back and I started packing on the pounds again. I put on so much weight that it became obvious the VBG wasn’t working for me anymore. I went back to my doctor looking for help and that was when he told me about Slimband. Because I had already had one weight loss surgery, I was worried that I might not be able to have another, but when the Slimband doctors gave me the okay, I decided to give it a shot.

This was my second chance at life, and I wasn’t going to blow it. I made sure to follow all the instructions Slimband gave me and slowly but surely thanks to the ongoing support I received from them, I started losing weight. In the five years since surgery, I’ve gone from 291 pounds all the way down to 179 pounds! With Slimband, now I have the body to match my pretty face.