Dana Goosesns: My name is Dana. I’m from McHenry, Illinois. I was 178 when I started, when I decided I gotta change something. My shirt was tight on my arms, my boots didn’t fit me right, everything was just going through almost… like I can’t, I can’t be like this. This isn’t me. This is not me.

The quick fixes never worked for me ’cause they really literally are just quick fixes. It’s just for a short period of time. This program made you eat normal and feel your body getting full and realizing, ’cause these balloons are not gonna be in here forever, so you really had to work hard at listening to your body. This is a lifestyle change, this is not diet. I had drastically changed my life in the last six months when it comes to the eating habits, and not even just portion, but the physical type of food I’m putting in my body. This was the first time that I’m actually eating normal, and I’m losing weight, and I’m seeing results.

People think, “Oh, I’m not gonna be able to eat anything or you’re only losing weigh because you’re not eating anything.” Well, if they look at my food log, they’ll see that I eat every two hours, on the hour, but I was feeding myself healthy things and portion control. So I think with my good habits of listening to my body and slowing and thinking about the portion control, having the balloons really made me conscious of what I was doing and what I was putting in my body, and then taking accountability for writing it down. The six month process allowed me to make those small changes, so I didn’t feel overwhelmed with it.

The procedure itself, for me, it was easy, in and out, maybe 10 minutes at the most. It was fast. I didn’t feel nervous at all and once it’s in, I mean, you don’t feel anything. The other good thing about the procedure is that it’s very discreet. You leave and nobody knows, nobody knows, you look exactly the same. You’re not on any medications that would make you groggy or tired or… so that was another good thing. You’re in, you’re out, t’s like getting your teeth cleaned. I could return right back to work as well, so that was another great thing about the procedure.

I’m actually complaining that I have no clothes that fit me because they’re too big and luckily I’ve saved all my “skinny” pants or “small” shirts, so I haven’t really done any shopping. I’d love to go on a shopping spree, but I got some things that fit me and I feel good in, so I’m okay with that.