Personal story till surgery
I have always struggled with my weight all my life i think it all started as a child when my mother took me to the doctors because i was not eating properly and she was worried because i was not gaining weight as i should have been, from then on both my parents tried everything to get me to eat from making funny faces out of food or making me milkshakes with lots of fruit and ice cream in them.

Your diet experiences
I soon started putting on weight and eating as they thought i should but i just kept on eating and gaining weight every year i gained a stone in weight when i was 13 years old i was 13 stone and so it went on at my highest weight i was 21 stone and i tried every diet you can think of from attkins which is a low carb diet to weight watchers which is calorie counting i yo - yo dieted for years i lost almost 5 stones at one point but then gained all the weight and more. The problem is i didnt have the will power to stop eating all the foods that had made me fat in the first place.

What is your reason for surgery?
i wanted surgery six years ago when i got to the lowest point in my life i was extremely depressed and went to my G,P who after i paid privately sent me to a surgeon who did stomach stapling this surgeon was quite rude about my weight and told me to go away and go on a 1000 calorie a day diet which obviously i could'nt stick to because i am a comfort eater i eat when i am depressed, the more weight i gained the more i ate because i was depressed it was a vicous circle so i went away feeling bad about myself i felt a failure.

Personal experiences in Belgium
I then finally decided to have gastric bypass surgery after researching it on the internet i looked at lots of sites the found E.O.C and telephoned them right away i was put in touch with someone who i could talk to who didnt make me feel bad about my weight Mr jaap suyk, i then met Marc when i went for my surgey in Belgium who talked to me about the surgey in great detail he had also had a gastric bypass so understood my hopes and fears about the surgery i was the taken to the hospital where i met the surgeon Dr Dillemans who was so nice very helpfull and made me feel at ease the hospital was spotless very clean and the staff very friendly i was up and walking around after a day resting, my experience of Belgium hospitals was a good one.

Results after 1 month - 3 months
A month after surgery i had lost around 1 stone - 7 killos now 3 months on i have lost in total 3 and a 1/2 stones around 22 killos. I have to be honest i thought i would lose the weight much more quickly than i have but i still have a long way to go i only hope that my weight continues to come off.

What did you find difficult comparing with before surgery?
What i found most difficult after surgery was that i still wanted to eat all the things that i did before surgery but obvously i couldnt if i did try and eat too much i would vomit and feel really ill i also found it quite hard not being able to drink alchohol becuse since surgery if i drink i get very drunk very quickly and feel really ill the next day, it takes a while to get used to your stomach and i still have the fear that i will stop losing weight and starting putting weight on again like all the times when i have dieted before but thats just psycological unfortunately only your body changes after surgery not your mind.

Would you do it over again?
I would have the surgery again most definately i have no regrets.