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Loida Casares Ruiz

Wife, Mother, Writer, Advertising Manager

Loida Casares Ruiz grew up in Northeast Houston. She graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Minor in English. She received a Master of Arts in Communication in 2001. She works in advertising by day and is a mother, wife, and writer by night. She has al...

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Weight and Body Image

Loida Casares Ruiz

I read a really cool blog recently by a larger woman who is kind of in denial about being larger. I didn’t say that, she did. She said that she never refers to it and I thought that was really interesting.

I guess that I’m just one of those people that lays it all out there because I’ve always been very open about my weight and my size. Especially now that I had lap band surgery and have lost weight. I even chose to blog about the experience on my personal blog.

I had lunch with a friend a few years ago and I was telling her that I needed to lose weight to be healthier and she looked really surprised. She told me that she never thought that my weight bothered me. She said that I carried myself in a very confident manner and that she thought that I was happy with my weight. I knew what she meant. She didn’t mean it in an insulting way. She did agree that we all need to be conscious of our weight for health reasons, if not for vanity.

But I thought a lot about what she said. I’ve been overweight all of my adult life. I was always around 15 lbs overweight in high school, but I got far from my recommended weight in college. But it’s been in the last ten years since I’ve been married that I gained a good 30 or 40 more pounds.  With the lap band I’ve lost 30 pounds so far.

I really need to lose another 50 lbs to get to my ideal weight. I’m hoping that the lap band continues to help me to get there. The lap band and my own exercise and self-control. The interesting thing about the lap band is that you still have to do a lot on your own. The lap band is just a tool that helps make it a little easier for you. A little helping hand, is how I like to think of it.  As long as it helps me get to my healthy weight.