Bariatric surgery helps East Yaphank nurse lose 200 pounds

Kristin Beharry says she has had an up-and-down weight history. “I come from an Italian family. Every time you walk in the door, someone is stuffing food down your throat,” she says.  She tried many weight loss methods but always gained the lost weight back “plus some,” she says.

When Beharry did the Dr. Oz 5-Day Summer Cleanse in 2015 with her hospital colleagues and was the only one in the group who didn’t lose weight, she says she was fed up and went to see a doctor.

“And, honestly, I was looking for diet pills,” says Beharry.  Her primary care doctor instead referred her to a nutritionist who referred her to a bariatric surgeon who recommended gastric sleeve surgery.  In that procedure, about 80 percent of the stomach is removed, according to the Mayo Clinic.

“I jumped in feet first. I was so fed up, I just said ‘Let’s do this.’" she recalls.

After getting medical clearance from a panel of doctors, she had surgery in 2015.

“I knew what to expect from the classes I had taken and the bariatric support group I belonged to.  It’s liquids first, then creamy liquids, then soft food and eventually table food. I was eating regular food by Christmas, six weeks later,” says Beharry. She lost a total of 206 pounds over 18 months.  

“At the pulmonary practice where I work I’m considered the show-and-tell person for patients overweight and having breathing issues,” says Beharry.

She says she takes particular pleasure wearing clothes that fit comfortably and sitting in an arm chair and not “oozing out the sides.” “You never really know how heavy you were until you don’t have to carry it around anymore,” says Beharry.  

"The surgery makes you choose foods better.  It makes you more conscious of what you eat, since it’s only a little bit,” she says. A typical daily meal plan is coffee in the morning with oatmeal or a bagel which she says she eats over a three-hour period.  Lunch can be leftover pasta or vegetarian chili or she'll grab a soup and a salad . For dinner Beharry mostly picks while cooking meals for the family like salmon, shrimp, or rice and beans so she’s typically not hungry for dinner. She often has baby carrots or an apple later in the evening.   

Although she doesn’t formally exercise, Beharry says with her job she is running around every day. “It actually works out to be 3 miles a day.”

“The stigma with bariatric surgery is starting to go away. Some people will always say you took the easy way out, but it’s your life and your health that’s in jeopardy, and you can’t listen to them.”