By Trisha Harms
OK, so this wasn't really something that "happened" to me. I made an educated decision about my body and my future.
I have always been fat, and for a long time, I really hated it. I spent more than two decades of my life wishing I would magically wake up "normal." Until I was in my mid-20s, I didn't know what it felt like to not wear a heavy cloak of shame and insecurity.
Like so many other fat girls with Internet access, I discovered that body positivity was a thing, and that I could feel good about myself and I didn't really have to give a fuck about what other people thought. I decided to be happy, regardless of my size. I began identifying as a fat feminist. I actually started feeling okay about my body. I was doing okay and there were people who liked me, even loved me, despite my fatness. At some point, I even started kind of liking myself, and then my fatness became somewhat of a non-issue. Eventually I came to be at peace with my body. It was mine and mine alone, and it was beautiful.
As I moved into my 30s, life happened. I was thriving in a supportive community of folks who embraced me as I was. I got a good job; I found my soul mate; I got engaged. My size was a non-issue, and I was happy.
But I wasn't healthy. I was on medication to prevent my high blood sugar from turning into diabetes. I slept with a machine attached to my face to keep me breathing at night. I didn't have the stamina I needed to be able to do my work every day. Polycystic ovary syndrome, which is closely tied to what doctors liked to refer to as my "morbid obesity," meant I might not be able to have babies, and I was more likely to get diabetes or certain kinds of cancer. Physically, I didn't feel good. Emotionally, I was at a crossroads.
In short: I could continue not caring about my weight and go about business as usual. Or, I could lose weight. I'd struggled with depression and, yes, even suicidal thoughts in the past, but when I started having health problems, I was at a happy place in my life -- and I wanted it to stay that way. I wanted to be my best self, and for me, that didn't just mean being happy with my physical body, it meant having my physical body be healthy.
My decision to have weight loss surgery was not made lightly. I spent a lot of time trying to reconcile my body-positive politics with my desire to live longer and have babies and be able to walk up the flight of stairs to my office without getting winded. I also spent a lot of time trying to lose weight through more conventional methods, like diet and exercise. My medical conditions made that nearly impossible, and no matter what I did, my health kept declining.
Ultimately, the same philosophy that allowed me to find peace with my fat body also allowed me to make the decision to have weight loss surgery.
I made an educated decision about my body. It was mine, and mine alone.
Yes, weight loss surgery can kill you. And yes, I'm an advocate for health at any size. But, real talk: Being fat was actually, actively killing me. For me, the benefits of weight loss surgery outweighed the risks. Having your guts rearranged is not fun, but overall, my improved quality of life has made this process, albeit difficult, worthwhile.
The experience of losing more than 140 pounds in a very short period of time has been socially and emotionally difficult, too. When you lose weight, everyone starts to pay very close attention to your body. People I barely know now find it appropriate to tell me how happy or impressed they are by my change in appearance, while I often feel judged by the fat-positive community in which I once found comfort and acceptance.
My body was nobody's business before I had surgery, and it's nobody's business now.
For me, weight loss surgery was not an "easy way out." It was a tool that was available to me, and I made the informed decision to use it to take control of my health. I can't think of much that's more empowering -- or body positive -- than that.
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