There’s a woman in the state of Victoria in Australia who’s in my gastric banding group on Yahoo!.  She was featured on a tabloid news show in Australia last night because she’s lost 160kilograms.  That’s more than 350 pounds LOST with the aid of a gastric band.  Note that I said aid of a gastric band and not because of it.

Everyone who has a band, including Kat, will tell you that the band helps but it doesn’t do all the work.  We still have to watch what we eat, even though we’re eating less.  If we fill up on cake we’re going to get sick.

When she was first banded she weighed 239 kilos (over 500 pounds) and rarely went outside the house.  When she turned 30 she decided that she needed to do something to get back into life.  Since being banded she’s started walking and now has a job – something she only dreamed about when she was morbidly obese.

Next month she’s going to have surgery to trim all the excess skin off and doctors tell her that she’ll go from a size 12 to a size 10 just by removing the skin.  How cool is that?

I’m overwhelmed by the courage it must have taken to make that first step.  She’s an inspiration to me.  If she can keep on keeping on to lose more than 350 pounds, surely I can lose 30 more.