Stevie Blair

I come from a large family of six girls. Being the youngest and last chance for a boy, I ended up with the name Stevie. My sisters and I were blessed with my mother's genes and eventually all of us had a weight problem.

Thinking back, I started to gain weight around the 3rd or 4th grade. I had watched my sisters try every crazy diet around, and eventually I had tried pretty much all of them as well. Weight loss was a monkey on my back for most of my young adult life.

After the birth of my daughter, I knew I had to make a change. I had lost my mother when I was 22 and vowed that I would not do the same to my daughter. I decided to have weight loss surgery to help me deal with my increasingly serious weight problem.

I gave careful consideration when choosing my procedure. Knowing my eating style and patterns, I decided that the best tool for me would be one that provided portion control as well as a consequence if I abused sugar. I had RNY gastric bypass surgery on July 10th, 2006.

My starting weight was 310 pounds and I have since lost 126 pounds. It has been wonderful to finally have physical freedom from my weight. Having worked for a bariatric clinic before, I was well prepared for and informed about the surgery I chose. I had 5 years experience taking patients from informational seminars to surgery. What I learned after having my procedure was that there was so much the post-op community needed as far as support and education!

After my surgery I sought work in another bariatric program. I was so blessed to find this small specialty hospital not far from where I lived! Their program was almost 2 years old. I immediately pushed open the door and said "Hi, my name is Stevie Blair, and I would like to work in your bariatric program." Plain as that! Having never really had the guts to sell myself before, I was so passionate about this that I transformed into a very confident, almost pushy gal!

After being hired on a temporary basis, I was determined to show my worth! I grew their support groups from 12 in attendance once a month to 20-40 attendees twice a month! I welcome all pre and post-op patients regardless of where they had their surgery.

I started a monthly newsletter in February 2008 for our post-op population and am currently working on my 19th issue. I took the back on track certification program and look forward to launching a 12-week program for my patients sometime this fall. I am also currently taking a course to be a certified Bariatric Life Coach. I am positive this will help our post-op program! I hope one day to be a counselor for post-op patients.

We recently hosted our first Walk from Obesity here in Rancho Cucamonga, Ca and had the pleasure of hosting the walk in Beverly Hills, Ca. I work out with my trainer, Janet Bannowsky at Anytime Fitness here in Rancho Cucamonga and have been so delighted to see most of my support group join the gym as well!

Since my weight loss, my sister Casey (funny how we have boy's names) was inspired to have weight loss surgery. I told her not to worry, that I would take care of her, and I fought her insurance for approval. On June 30th, 2008 she had gastric bypass surgery here at my hospital. I served her first protein shake in a champagne glass and am happy to report that she has lost over 100 pounds so far. We are working on getting insurance approval for her husband now.

My passion is to teach balance to our bariatric community. We must give equal attention to nutrition, supplements and fitness to succeed long term.