I have always been a big guy and have yo-yo dieted most of my adult life, trying everything from Jenny Craig 3 or 4 times, Lite n Easy, Heart Foundation Diet, Scarsdale Diet, but the result was always the same. I’d lose 10, 20, 25 kg but it would always come back, no matter what I did. I couldn’t see things getting any better as I was heading to 60 and nothing was going change!

So when my wife Phoebe said that she was going to a WeightLoss Solutions Australia information night, I thought why not see what they say?

I was lucky enough on the night to see a young guy, Kirk Senior, about 37 and his mum. From memory, he had lost about 90kg, down from about 180kg. I was inspired, we left the meeting and I said if my super checks out, I’m going to do this. And it did.

I went through all the paperwork, and was sleeved on 3rd  August 2016, I was at my heaviest 137.6kg then. Since Feb 2017, I have been hovering around 90kg. Now in June 2017, I’m at about 89kg. I just got back from a 2 week trip to London to see my daughter and her husband, my 2 year old and my 10 week old grandsons, it was so nice to be comfortable while flying and traveling in general.

The photos below are from me at my wedding in Jan 2015, me in Feb 2017 at about 95kg and me doing my second 5km Park Run in May 2017 at 90kg. My 1st Sleeversary is 3rd August 2017. I now wear size 34 jeans (I was probably 14 or 15 when I last wore that size), I wear L size shirts now, not XXXXL shirts. I work in a male-dominated workplace and I have blokes come up to me every day asking what I have done to lose the weight and I proudly tell them my story, and I have not had 1 negative comment about it.

I feel the best I have ever felt, I have my life back and I’m sure that this surgery will add years of quality lifestyle to my life. I’ve got my confidence back and there’s no stopping me now.

Ron Payne,