Hilary's Personal Weight Loss Journey

Everyone knows the saying, “You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain”.

Hilary Welch knew losing weight meant gaining so much more than a number on the scale.

The London, Ontario radio morning show host made the biggest decision of her life when she decided to undergo gastric bypass surgery at the end of April. “ I knew I wanted more for my life”, she says.

It’s been almost two weeks since that life-changing day flipped her world upside down.

If you met Hilary prior to the surgery, you would never guess that she had a single issue with her weight. First, she is gorgeous and she knows it. She exudes an enviable, intoxicating confidence that every woman wishes to possess.

While she has always been confident in her own skin, even at her largest weight, she says was starting to feel uncomfortable.

“I was never really one to let being overweight get in my way but it did cause a lot of stress when it came to events at work or flying”, she says.

It was around this time “I knew I was letting my weight hold me back from going after promotions too”, she says. Her weight was not just affecting her work life; it was starting to affect her personal life.

Hilary, a self-proclaimed “water baby” with a love for the ocean, recalls scuba diving for the first time and how “I almost didn’t do it because I was worried the equipment wouldn’t accommodate me.”

Not long after this, Hilary says she “started noticing some physical changes, my joints were sore and swollen”.

The timing could not be worse and “things got really bad” as she was just starting her new position as an on-air morning show radio host in London.

She explains how, “I was having an autoimmune disease flare for the first time called “rheumatoid arthritis.” (Autoimmune arthritis caused when the immune system is not working properly and it’s basically an overactive immune system that attacks the joints.)

The decision to continue debating surgery came to a halt, she says because “I knew I couldn’t do the weight loss on my own if I couldn’t get out of bed so I knew it was time”. That is the exact moment Hilary made the life-changing decision to undergo gastric bypass surgery.

According to Bariatric Surgery Source, gastric bypass surgery makes the stomach smaller and reroutes the intestines. With gastric bypass surgery, a smaller pouch is created to replace the stomach and the intestines are rerouted. This leaves patients feeling fuller sooner when they eat and it also reduces the release of the hunger hormone ghrelin). Hilary says, “My stomach is actually still inside not being used”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaD05ukqqgM

The most vulnerable Hilary says she’s ever felt was the days leading up to and after the surgery. Luckily, her friends were there every step of the way.


One of the biggest misconceptions “is that you have your surgery and you are instantly skinny. It’s going to take a year at least to get to my goal and it isn’t going to be easy”, she says.

While Hilary is able to acknowledge that “we all have our own paths” when it comes to weight-loss, there are still so many misinformed people who believe bypass surgery “is the ‘easy’ way out”.

She says some people feel that “unlike gastric bypass patients”, they “worked hard to lose weight on their own”. Hilary explains why surgery is not a magic wand, “sure, that first 40 or 50 pounds will fall off”, she says but “people who get surgery have a long way to go”.

“We all have our own paths and challenges and one person’s success shouldn’t negate another’s no matter how they got there. Just like every other diet there is calorie and carb counting and exercise.”

Despite knowing all of this, she was still terrified to tell friends & family at first because she “was really worried people would judge me or think I was being lazy” adding that she “originally had planned to wait to tell people until it became so obvious from how I looked.”

But Hilary did something that, most people would be terrified to do. She went on the radio and told thousands of people her most intimate secret. It is similar to those nightmares where you are suddenly walking down the halls of high-school in your underwear, or worse…naked.

LISTEN HERE

Not only did Hilary receive an outpouring of encouragement from listeners, she also had a rock solid network of support from friends & family.

One of her biggest fans is her boyfriend & partner-in-crime who has “always been incredibly supportive” of her decision to get gastric bypass surgery.


“Being confident sexually with my partner hasn’t ever been a big issue even at my largest but as I approached surgery a lot of questions about the basis of our attraction came up.“

She says for the first time, she was worried she wouldn’t feel sexy in front of the person who loves her the most.

“I had built up a lot of worry that the surgery may take that away over time. Be it the loose skin I’m bound to have when I get closer to my goal or that my breasts that were once bouncy will be smaller and maybe not as pretty or the little dimple on my lower back right above my butt that he loves might disappear and somehow change things for us.”

Let’s just say, nothing changed and there is plenty of exercise happening in the bedroom since the surgery!

Check out Hilary’s hilarious blog “Losing It! Out Loud” about the first time post-op).

Now that she has extinguished any insecurities in her personal relationship, she has other fears to face.

“Staying hydrated and making sure you get enough protein becomes a full time job. It takes forever to drink a cup of water. I can’t just eat whatever I want in smaller portions. Yes, we are told not to deprive ourselves once we reach the later stages but I haven’t had solid food in 3 weeks. In another week I move up to puréed food and then soft solids in two more. Eventually I’ll be on a 1000-1200 calorie maintenance diet”.

What’s more, she says hair loss is a big concern. For a woman who has had every colour of the rainbow in her hair, taking a break from hair dye has been a dull but necessary change.

She says, “The stress of the surgery and low cal diet can cause your hair to go into a dormant growth stage. So the hair that would normally fall out at the end of it cycle does but you aren’t producing any new hair”.

Hilary says she is also afraid of getting loose skin. “Depending how old and how damaged your skin was by being stretched out, it will not go back to normal. Some patients see a drape of skin that hangs where their belly once was, others have loose skin in the thighs and arms and breasts.”

She says that’s a “hard pill to swallow – that no matter how hard you work, you’re never going to have a rock hard body without more surgery”, she says. Not to mention money. According to plasticsurgeryinfo.ca, skin removal surgery can cost anywhere from $8,000 – $20,000.

Hilary’s ultimate goal is to “improve my mobility and my health in the future” and while she “didn’t start this journey wholly for the vanity of the scale” she would say that her only goal in terms of numbers is “to lose a total of 125lbs”. So far, she has lost a total of 30lbs. For Hilary, it’s about how she feels, not the number she sees on the scale.

Surgery was April 25th and Hilary says she is already noticing results.
“The numbers on the scale haven’t moved too much lately but I had a couple of NSV’s (Non-Scale Victories) today, I notice my face is looking different in pictures. I was feeling pretty today as I headed out for a coffee this morning and realized that I could be better at taking photos for this blog.”

To follow her journey, check out her blog Losing It! Out Loud….click HERE