Health & Wellness Magazine Live + Thrive Magazine - Summer 2018 | Page 7

AT HOME WITH
@Rosemarie_Fit
ONE WOMAN'S GUIDE TO BARIATRIC SUCCESS
MEET ROSEMARIE. After a trip to Sweden had her feeling that
her weight gain over the years brought on by emotional eating was
affecting her ability to get the most out of life, she finally decided to
do something about it. Something that has helped her lose and keep
off almost 90 pounds.
We asked Rosemarie to share her experience with a type of surgery
that may just turn your life around as well.
Q:
So Rosemarie, can you give us a little bit of background about
your story?
Rosemarie (R):
I struggled with my weight since I
was about 12 years old. For a brief period in my high school years, I
was a normal weight, only because I basically stopped eating. I would
eat one meal a day. Slowly, throughout my 20's, I packed on weight.
Had struggled with a number of diets, personal trainers, and
other strategies.
I entered my 30's obese, and after a lot of restarting diets and failing,
finally decided that I had had enough and needed help. I booked a
consultation with [a] local bariatric surgeon and decided to go for it
and take a leap of faith. It was the best decision of my life.
That was December 2015, now about two and a half years out from
the surgery, which was called vertical sleeve gastrectomy. It removed
75 percent of my stomach, leaving me with a stomach the size and
shape of a banana. Since then, I’ve lost about 88 pounds.
Q:
R:
What was your inspiration for getting the surgery?
My inspiration stemmed mainly from a feeling that I had wasted
my 20s. I found it difficult to live with that thought. In [my] 30s, I
was lonely, felt like I had missed out on a lot. I had this problem with
obesity that I was simply ready to move on from, and I didn’t want to
live with and think about it anymore.
I had a wakeup call when I visited a friend in Sweden in summer
2015 at my highest weight, 255 pounds. In Sweden, most people walk
everywhere, and I remember walking around being miserable and in
pain just from walking. I thought to myself, “You can’t keep living
this way.”
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