I always tended to be on the heavier side, even growing up, but I didn’t start my first diet until senior high school. I only needed to lose about 42 pounds, and I was so happy when the pounds started coming off.

Unfortunately that first diet started a trend of losing and gaining the same 42 pounds over and over again. Every time I was losing I’d feel on top of the world, and every time I was gaining it felt like the world was crushing me. From my late teens on there was never a time when I wasn’t planning a diet, on a diet, or breaking a diet.

At my highest weight of 190 pounds I was self conscious and hid in black clothes and yoga pants. The weight may have come off with dieting, but it never stayed off for long.

In early 2010 I had a doctor’s appointment where my family doctor told me that my yo-yoing weight was dangerous to my health. I went home and just cried and cried. What was worse than that, my doctor only told me the weight had to come off – and stay off for good. He didn’t give me any ideas about how I was supposed to make this happen.

Around the same time, my niece Niki came to visit me in Vancouver. She looked absolutely incredible. Since being banded in 2008 Niki had lost 80 pounds and kept it off for more than a year. Her success drove me to research Slimband, which I eventually decided was right for me as well. I was banded in September 2010.

The difference a few months after my surgery was astounding. I weigh 148 pounds now and get closer to my goal weight of 135 pounds every day. Best of all, I haven’t regained a pound since my surgery. I no longer feel self conscious, and as the weight drops off my confidence has only gone up. I followed Slimband's program, and the weight is falling away, I’m confident it’s going to stay that way.