Marleen’s Story

I had been overweight for many, many years.  When you are not watching your weight, you actually don’t realise that your weight keeps creeping up all the time.  My dad was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and I had to get myself tested too.  Turned out I was borderline and certainly on the way to developing diabetes if I didn’t do anything about it.

I was lucky.  My husband, who is a registered nurse, had lap band surgery in May 2007.  He had done his homework, and carefully selected Dr Padovan for his surgery.  He was having good success with the lap band, and was doing well.  I decided that I would have the surgery after my trip to the Netherlands at the end of the year.  Having witnessed my husband’s journey, I knew exactly what I was getting myself into.  Lap band surgery is not something you enter into lightly, however, for many people like me, it is the only way you are going to get yourself back on track again.

I was 138 kilos at the time I had the surgery in December 2007.  I did use the operation as the push for me to make other changes in my life.  Two weeks after the surgery, I invested in a Concept 2 rowing machine.  While I used to exercise a lot, I even participated in the Judo World Championships in 1993, I had not exercised for many years.  It just all felt too hard.  The surgery had given me the push to do something about that too.  I started very easy with just 6 minutes on the rowing machine each day.  Over the next six months, I built this up to 50 minutes a day.  As the weight came down, and my fitness level increased, I started feeling better.  I now exercise 30 minutes on most days just to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

In the first year I lost 50 kilos, and I lost another 12 kilos in the year after that.  I now go up and down between 76 to 80 kilos.  That works fine for me.  I went from a size 26 to a size 14.

I just want to say that for me it was never about looking better; all this effort has been to be healthier.  My husband and I would like to grow old together, and that wasn’t going to happen if we hadn’t taken the step to have the surgery.  I always jokingly say that I am salary sacrificing into my super and I want to be around long enough to spend it.  The difference is now I believe it.