Sleep Disorders are a silent killer. Not getting enough sleep, or even worse, enough oxygen when you sleep- can literally kill you. You know what else can kill you? Being overweight. It can cause heart disease, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and death.

There’s a link to sleep disorders and weight gain…I should know, I suffered from both.

In my upcoming novel, “No Sleep Til’ Slimtown” I will walk you through my experience with sleep apnea, depression, anxiety, weight gain, nerve pain and other struggles.

My book will highlight how they are all linked, what I did to get out from under it all, and what you can do to better your situation if you are suffering from any or all of these problems.

Am I a doctor? No. Do I have years of experience in this field personally? YES YES YES.

If you are tired of being tired, having no energy, having hip and back pain, being irritable, or taking pills for problems you don’t know why you have, then you need to read this book.  While you are waiting, here’s some highlights:

I suffered from major obstructive sleep apnea since I had my daughter nine years ago.  Honestly, I probably had it my whole life, but before I started gaining the pregnancy weight, it didn’t affect me as badly.

Because of my inability to breathe properly and my severe lack of oxygen while sleeping, I put on over 100 hundred pounds in 9 years.

In 2012 I had sleep apnea surgery in my nose and throat to open up my airways and it reduced the apnea but I just couldn’t lose the weight. Weight is linked heavily to hormones and when you aren’t getting enough oxygen, you body releases stress hormones that put on weight and make it very difficult to take off.

I tried dieting, yoga, running, walking, swimming and mixed martial arts. Nothing worked. In fact it made it worse, causing heavy bleeding, groin pulls, nerve damage, etc.

In 2015, I was referred to a bariatric surgeon who basically told me that if I continued to push myself as hard as I do, I would still probably only lose about 2 percent of my body fat.

After many months of research, I decided to get a laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy which if you don’t know what that is means they’re basically cutting out part of my stomach so that I will drop a lot of weight. (More specifics on this will be referenced in the book)

This will decrease the inches around my neck, (because seriously, how do you lose weight around your neck?)- allowing more air to come into my airways at night and during the day allowing they oxygen to do its job- to build muscle and burn fat. 

In March of 2015 my highest recorded weight was 297 lbs. at 5’9″. Before surgery on July 15th, I was 275 lbs, down 22 lbs from the required two week pre-op liquid diet they put you on to reduce the size of your liver. (More explanation on the importance of this in the book)

As of this post, I am one month post-op. My weight is 245 lbs, down 52 lbs since my first meeting with my bariatric surgeon, and down 30 lbs in 30 days.

Want to know more? Look for my upcoming novel, “No Sleep Til’ Slimtown” by Arlene Lagos coming soon!