At just 24, Sara Young met with plenty of resistance from friends and family when she first said she wanted to get weight-loss surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad told me, \u2018You don\u2019t want to change your life. You\u2019re young!\u2019\u201d But that, she said, was exactly the point. \u201cI said \u2018No, I\u00a0do<\/em>\u00a0want to change my life. That\u2019s why I\u2019m doing it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Choosing to pursue surgery despite concerns from her family, her partner and others marked a milestone for the Black Diamond woman that had nothing to do with her weight. \u201cThis is the first thing I did without the support of every person around me,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m usually a people pleaser.\u201d<\/p>\n By the time of her surgery, they had come around and were fully supportive, Young says. But she admits that at first, even she wondered if she should wait. Her biggest concern was how it would change her interaction with friends. \u201cWould I be able to hang out with friends and be comfortable with what I was eating? Is my social life going to change?\u201d<\/p>\n After vertical\u00a0sleeve surgery in February 2019, Young\u2019s social life did change. \u201cIn a great way,\u201d she says. \u201cNow I\u2019m more social. Before, I was timid going out. I felt like I was always being judged because of my weight.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, \u201cit\u2019s not the first thing I\u2019m thinking about when I walk into a room.\u201d<\/p>\n Young said though she was in her early 20s, she had toyed with the idea of weight-loss surgery for a while. \u201cI had always been an athlete. I\u2019d done all the fad diets and I was fed up.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite playing sports and watching her diet, weight was always an issue. \u201cFor some reason my body just always wanted to hold onto the weight. It didn\u2019t matter how much I ate, how much I worked out.\u201d But the weight-loss surgery was instantly different. \u201cThis was the one thing that gave it a jolt to start losing the weight.\u201d<\/p>\n The Center for Weight Loss & Wellness was her first choice because she was already familiar with MultiCare and felt confident about the care she would receive.<\/p>\n \u201cI just started scheduling appointments and never stopped,\u201d she says with a chuckle.<\/p>\n She weighed 245 pounds at the time of surgery. \u201cMy highest weight was 265.\u201d Today she\u2019s happily maintaining at 135.<\/p>\n Young says her friends and family are thrilled with one particular result of the surgery. \u201cThey loved me before and they love me now, but I hear that I smile a lot more now.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s the response of strangers that has changed the most. \u201cPeople actually see\u00a0me<\/em>\u00a0rather than see my weight.\u201d<\/p>\n Young says the changes to her eating habits were pretty easy. The hardest part is other people. \u201cPeople are always asking if I like their food. They think you don\u2019t like it because you don\u2019t eat much of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Clothes shopping \u2014 both online and in-person \u2014 is a lot more fun now. Before, she wouldn\u2019t even look in certain stores, describing one major retailer\u2019s clothes as \u201cjust mean.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs a young person I didn\u2019t want to have to shop in what I considered my Mom\u2019s section,\u201d she says. Now she can go anywhere and if she orders clothes online and they are too small, \u201cit doesn\u2019t upset me like it did before,\u201d she says. \u201cNow I know these clothes are dumb, they\u2019re not me.\u201d<\/p>\n Though she was active before, Young\u2019s energy level is dramatically higher now. She recalls a hike where she easily passed her companions, got to the top and kept going. Another time she decided to run until she got tired and hit five miles. \u201cThose two moments were really big for me,\u201d she says. \u201cI didn\u2019t know my full potential until I didn\u2019t put a limit on it and I just did it.\u201d<\/p>\n Young says she\u2019s glad she didn\u2019t wait to have surgery because she has more time to enjoy all the benefits, and she encourages other young people not to wait until their weight begins impacting their health. \u201cGo live your life because it\u2019s a lot more fun when you aren\u2019t thinking about your weight.\u201d<\/p>\n