By: Sandi Henderson

At the end of a long holiday weekend I was reflecting on what a great weekend it had been and thought about what it might have been like if I had not chose to have lap band surgery.  If I had not died from one of the complications of obesity, my life would have been severely restricted and the day of the holiday party and barbecue at my house might have looked something like this:

• Get up in the morning
• Take a shower and get dressed
• Sit down and rest
• Make breakfast
• Sit down and eat it and rest
• Start preparing the house for the barbecue I was having later
• Sit down and rest
• Do some more preparation
• Do some more sitting and resting
• Yell at my husband to help me with the preparation
• Greet my family as they arrived
• Sit down and rest
• Send my family off to the beach
• Sit down and rest because I couldn't walk in the sand so I couldn't go to the beach with them
• Start getting dinner going while they were at the beach
• Sit down and rest
• Get the kids into showers and then everyone to the table for dinner
• Sit down and rest

The picture is pretty dismal - a lot of sitting down and resting, not a whole lot of activity or interaction with my family.

This year, six years after having lap band surgery this is what the day actually looked like:

• Get up in the morning
• Start my laundry while I was having my first cup of decaf
• Prepare the food for the barbecue
• Check my email
• Straighten up the house and put in the dining room table extension
• Make breakfast
• Bicycle to the Farmer's Market and get fruit and veggies for the rest of the week
• Keep laundry going while all of this is happening
• Go for 45 minute power walk on the beach
• Shower and put on clean clothes
• Take a ½ hour break to read a book and enjoy sitting in the sun
• Greet my family
• Put out healthy munchies for everyone to snack on
• When everyone arrives head down to the beach
• Chill on the beach with the family for a while, catching up on what's going on
• Come home, get the sand and surf off the grandkids and get the table set for dinner
• Finish the preparations and let my husband do the barbecuing
• Eat dinner and enjoy
• Clear the table, put up a pot of decaf, and serve them dessert. I pass on dessert because I'm not hungry
• Play the latest board game with everyone for an hour or so
• Get the leftovers packaged and out the door with my daughter and grandkids
• Walk everyone out and safely into their cars
• Clean up the rest of the dishes and put the dining room back to normal
• Start the laundry for the towels the kids used at the beach
• Sit down with a warm cup of tea to chill for a few minutes and reflect on what a great day it's been

Besides the obvious health benefits of having lost 250 pounds such as no longer needing medication for high blood pressure, asthma or arthritis, and looking better and wearing normal size clothing here are the differences that are near and dear to me:

• All of the sit down and rests in between each minimal activity are gone - I now have energy to get through a day normally, pain and exhaustion free
• The power walk would have been out of the question.  I couldn't even walk to the door without stopping to catch my breath
• The healthy munchies for the family would have previously been chips, dips and otherwise high fat foods instead of grapes and hummus with veggies.  While these still have calories, they are better choices than potato chips and onion dip, and I had a few tablespoons of hummus with cucumber and grapes as my lunch.  Before my band I would have eaten lunch and then snacked on whatever I wanted. 
• Going to the beach with my family, especially after a power walk in the morning was impossible.  As I said, walking to the door was difficult before I was banded and lost weight and resolved my health issues
• Did you notice - I didn't yell at my husband to help me with the preparation.  Many reasons for this including I was able to do most of it myself; when he sees me doing thing he pitches in since he no longer has to do everything; I am definitely a happier person because I am not in pain all of the time
• At the end of the night, after everyone left and the house was clean I had the energy and emotional stability to reflect on enjoying the day, instead of picking it apart, finding my and everyone else's faults because I was so miserable. 

In summary what I am saying is that here I am, six years post op and I realize that my success after lap band surgery really changed my life.  I can enjoy my days, enjoy my family, enjoy myself and participate as much or as little as I choose.  My physical restrictions no longer control me.  I am fit and I am healthy and I have a wonderful family to spend time with.  Not only that, I live in a beautiful part of this country and can now truly enjoy it.

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