Spotlight: Amber

Recovering binge eater, and gastric bypass recipient. I lost almost 90 pounds while using medical intervention paired with extensive food addiction therapy and psych rehabilitation to battle my eating disorder. I use my positivity and experiences to combat diet culture to inspire other men and women who went through the bariatric experience.

From the age of 7, I used bingeing to cope with years of molestation by a family member. I remember hiding and bingeing on food in any way I could. I’d steal food from grocery stores when my mom wasn’t looking, hide in the bathroom at church after hitting the vending machine, and I’d wake up late in the night to go eat entire bags of chocolate chips and potato rolls. Whatever i could get my hands on. After years of yo-yo dieting, crashing dieting, and fad dieting… I started therapy.

I went to my doctor and they highly recommended weight loss surgery after hearing about just how addicted I was to food. How I didn’t get up higher than 274 pounds is truly a miracle from God. The amount of food and how often? How did that not make me more than 4 or 5 hundred pounds still baffles me to this day. At just 28 I was on high blood pressure medication and severely depressed. I am thankful for the tool that I electively received. It helped me lose the weight and get off all my medications.

Weight loss surgery is not for everyone, and there are a lot of stigmas about it. But it saved me, along with so many people I know. Thankful.