People may question why I'm getting a procedure like this at my age, but if they had been through what I have with my weight and my body, they would probably resort to surgery too.
A couple of people have even referred to this as "the easy way out", which is utterly ridiculous. There is nothing easy about surgery or the massive changes I am going to have to make to my lifestyle as a whole.
However, if I cared about what people thought of me for making this decision, I'd be hiding it rather than writing this blog.
I started putting on weight in my teens, almost as soon as puberty hit. Curves seemed to develop overnight, which was embarrassing and made me even more awkward than I already was. I also got bullied at school, which made me turn to food for comfort, meaning I put on even more weight and got into a damaging cycle.
Since then, my weight has gone up and down but always leaving me on the heavy side. This fed into my depression, low self-esteem and incredibly negative body image. There have been points in my life where I have been unable to look in the mirror because I have actually hated myself.
In a bid to lose weight, I have spent a fortune on different diets, support groups and techniques. I've been to Slimming World and Weight Watchers without much luck at all. I've cut out carbohydrates, sugar, meat and anything else that was recommended for weight loss.
I also tried an extreme liquid diet that saw me consuming only 500 calories a day. This saw me drop 14lbs in one week, which is not healthy. I tried to do this for as long as I could but was left feeling exhausted and experienced periods of extreme dizziness so my GP told me to stop.
I even tried hypnosis, which helped me to feel like I'd had a gastric band without the surgery as I wanted to avoid going under the knife. This worked really well as it helped me to change how I viewed food. However, when I moved away from Cornwall, I couldn't go to further top-up sessions.
Of course, I have also tried eating less and getting more exercise. It is hard to exercise when you are big and can actually leave you in a lot of pain so that one session at the gym leaves you needing days to recover, especially when you have a bad back and bad knees.
After all of this and being on a diet for more than 10 years, I am ready for the more drastic approach.
I know that the surgery is not a magical fix and I'm not going to be a supermodel overnight. There are miles to go and a lot of hard work to put in.
The procedure changes what you can eat as well as how much you can eat, but you still need willpower to avoid foods that are bad for you. Failing to stick to a strict diet can see you put weight on again, as can failing to continue with your appointments.
You need to exercise regularly, which can become easier as you lose weight. I have already looked at new gyms and spoken to personal trainers so I can create a routine that works for me. I won't be able to do much to start with, but every little achievement is going to be a big step.
There is no easy way to lose weight.
Saying all of this makes it seem as though I am only going through with the surgery to lose weight just because I want to lose it. This isn't the only reason.
I tend to be in pain most days due to my back or my knees or both, which is exacerbated by my weight. I can't actually think of the last time I wasn't in at least a small amount of pain, which is not normal.
There are also the fertility issues. I have PCOS, which I have recently been told is affecting my weight quite badly. My weight also impacts this syndrome and makes my fertility problems worse. I would like to have a baby in the next few years, but I need to be at a healthy weight to make that possible and to ensure it is safe.
I have spoken about body positivity in the past and the progress I have made when it comes to accepting and loving my own body. My decision to have this operation doesn't mean that I am not promoting body positivity. I still believe that loving your body is hugely important, but I know that I cannot fully love a body that causes me pain and may stop me from having a family.
While others may be happy with bodies that are the same size as mine, I know that I need to make a change and this is all that is open to me now. The decision was not taken lightly and it took me years to get to a place where I felt right about taking this step.
I'll be blogging my progress and any difficulties I encounter, both mentally and physically, throughout this., but for now, I'm just going to focus on recovering from surgery.