I had a Duodenal Switch on October 10, 2018. From the time I can remember, I have always been a heavier-set person. Growing up in Las Vegas with a lower-class family, eating healthy wasn’t a priority, and a lot of the time, the cheapest choice was all we could afford. So early on in life, I developed some pretty bad eating habits. Combined with the fact that I had hypothyroidism, maintaining a healthy weight was not easy.
Continue reading “My Journey From 600 to 230 Pounds: Josh Bounce”
Growing up, I was always overweight. I don’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t always the “fat one.” It was so hard to watch my two siblings and cousins play sports and enjoy “normal” childhood activities. I wanted to do those things so very badly, but because of my weight, I was an introvert and always opted out of everything. I am a huge sports fan, but never played anything. I love to be outside, but never took part in activities. I love being with friends and family, but never did anything.
My weight loss story began 7 years ago and I am still on it today. Since my surgery in April of 2012, I have struggled to lose the weight and keep it off. Many people will say that weight loss surgery is the easy way out, but I (along with the rest of the weight loss surgery community) know that having the surgery is not at all easy. Every day is a challenge to make the right food choices and to not end up where I began.
All my life I have been on the heavier side. From the time I was a young girl, I would turn to food to deal with my emotions. I would turn to food when I was happy or sad or angry. Food was my comfort and quickly turned into my demon. Over the years, I knew my weight was getting out of control, but I was terrified to face the scale—so I didn’t. Until one night when my curiosity set in. I stepped on the scale, and the number I saw had me in disbelief—500 pounds!
The first time I remember struggling with my weight, I was probably around nine years old. I remember as I sat in my third-grade classroom, my teacher started to ask for my classmates’ weights for a math problem. As they called out their weights, all averaging about 75 to 80 pounds, my heart pounded. I began to dread the thought of my teacher asking for my weight, to which I would have sheepishly answered with a whispered “One-hundred and fifteen.” As I sat there, I met shame for the first time. And it was horrible. That night, at nine years old, I decided to go on my first diet.
I began struggling with my weight at the age of 19, shortly after my first pregnancy. Over the next 13 years, I would lose weight only to gain it back again. I tried everything to lose the weight and keep it off—fad diets, weight loss groups, prescription weight loss pills. And nothing ever stuck.
My weight loss story began when I was a young adult. At just 21 years old, I weighed 174 pounds. Then I got married and had three kids which resulted in a lot of weight gain over the next several years. I gained about 100 pounds over a period of 20 years.
