Testimonial

To care for the health and needs of others, Mary Weathered knew that she first had to improve her own health.

Shown above with her granddaughter Jai’mya, Weathered (left) was born and raised in St. Augustine, Texas. Though she lived for a time in Lufkin, she moved back to St. Augustine to become a home health aide for family members and others.

“I moved back home to help my sister who can’t walk,” said the 68-year-old Weathered. “I have two adult daughters and many grandchildren, so there’s always something to do.”

Let’s be clear – there is nothing easy about the preparations for bariatric surgery, but the rewards can be great.

“I’m not going to lie, it was a big struggle,” said Wendy Blake, 46, who serves as a 911 dispatcher in Mineola. “The preparations and the liquid diet before surgery were not easy. I just had to get through the program and the surgery because losing weight was something I truly wanted.”

Aishia Chism, 44, knows the value of unconditional love that a mother, grandmother or even a godmother can instill in a child’s heart.

A Tyler native who now lives in Dallas, Chism remembers fondly the love shown by her family, especially her godmother.

After years of dieting without successfully losing weight, Maria Tinajero has experienced great improvements after surgery with the UT Health Tyler Bariatric Center.

“Growing up, I was always the overweight child at school,” said Maria, now a 46-year-old mother of six and a manager-in-training at a Tyler restaurant.

For Mike White, a 39-year-old salesman from Lindale, Texas, losing 127 pounds wasn’t exclusively the result of the excellent care he received at UT Health Tyler Bariatric Center. Much of his weight loss was also due to the new mindset he developed about food.

“Everyone can temporarily lose weight by having bariatric surgery,” said Mike. “But changing how you think about food can help keep the weight off for the rest of your life.”

For Carla Lee-Ervin, the days were long and stressful. A 51-year-old widow living just south of Tyler in Flint, for 25 years she worked at Sam’s Club. She started as a teller and worked her way up to supervisor of the local store’s marketing and membership department.

As she worked, she also dealt with gaining weight, which started in her late teens and kept increasing for 30 years.

“I gave birth to my son at age 18 and I never lost that weight,” Carla said. “During my married years, I kept putting on the weight and got up to 387 pounds.”

Our body is like a finely-tuned automobile. Treat it right and it can last for a very long time.

But when you overload a vehicle with too much weight, the tires can wear out quickly and you face the possibility of a blowout. This extra strain also means the engine has to work harder to make the vehicle move, which usually means more problems down the road.

Merribeth Norman, who with her husband shares a love for driving and showing their antique car (above), had similar health concerns that led her to take serious steps to get back into good health.

Sometimes it is easier to do difficult things when you use the “buddy system.”

For the husband and wife team of Don and Lori Cupples, losing weight and recovering from gastric bypass surgery was much easier because they did it together at the same time.

Losing weight and developing a healthier lifestyle is a journey many people want to take. Thomas Martin is living proof that it can be done.

The 67-year-old former gas and fuel oil plant operator has retired with his wife to their more than five acres near Frankston where he raises goats. He spends his days building and repairing fences for their livestock.

But at 340 pounds, Thomas had difficulty maintaining his energy levels while working around the home. To make matters worse, his weight was preventing him from enjoying his real passion: riding his motorcycle.

Rachel Villanueva was not used to being on the receiving end of patient care.

As supervisor of the UT Health East Texas Physicians pediatric clinic on Fifth in Tyler, Rachel oversees the care of dozens of patients throughout the week.

But when it came to managing her own weight and overall health, she needed her doctors' guidance.

"I have battled my weight for many years," Rachel said. "Four years ago my OB/GYN diagnosed me with PCOS, which makes it difficult to lose weight," she said.