At age 41, feeling the need to make a drastic change in life, Cheryl Parker decided to turn to Naval Medical Center Portsmouth's Bariatric Clinic to begin the process for gastric bypass surgery.

In June 2014, Parker weighed 272 pounds and began to complete the pre-surgery requirements, including an EKG, chest X-rays, blood work, a psychiatric evaluation and a four-hour long seminar.

After sitting through the seminar, Parker said she began to feel nervous about what she had just heard. After the surgery, she would not be able to do certain things anymore, including drinking from a straw or eating bread that hadn't been heavily toasted.

"I thought that this was going to be the only way I could lose as much weight as I needed to lose. But when I sat through the classes it just made it even more real. It made me think twice," Parker said. "I thought that this was going to be the easy way, but when I sat through the class, I realized it's not the easy way. It's just another tool in the bag and I would have to make major changes to lose the weight."

Parker said that she had been battling her weight since college.

"I was usually a size 14 or 16 in my early 20s," she said. "Sometimes I would exercise like crazy and get down to a size 10. But I had to eat so little and exercise so much, that it was impossible to maintain."

Always feeling like she needed to lose weight, Parker stated, "I knew I was on borrowed time when I peaked at a size 22, and I started feeling hot all of the time, and having shortness of breath while doing small tasks and strange feeling heart flutters."

Parker knew she had to make a change either way, so she started to think, "I may as well change by not being cut on."

This thought was heavily reinforced after meeting with a nutritionist. In order to qualify for surgery, patients must not gain any more weight, and they are required to see a nutritionist monthly.

As she took the no-weight gain rule very seriously, she began to watch what she ate and by the time her first meeting came with nutritionist Christine Zirpoli, Parker has lost 13 pounds. Parker continued to meet with Zirpoli for the next two months when she was finally cleared for surgery.

"I was down to 249 pounds!" Parker exclaimed. "I thought to myself that I had already lost 20 pounds, so maybe I could do that a couple of more times."

This is where Parker's journey took on a new path. That day she asked to continue meeting with Zirpoli rather than pursue surgery, and the two embarked on her weight loss journey.

"I knew that in order to be a 'healthy' weight for my height, I would have to lose more than 125 pounds," Parker said. "I just knew in my heart that I needed serious help, and that there was no way I could lose the weight on my own."

Accountability is what helped keep Parker on the way to her goal. Parker kept her regularly scheduled appointments with Zirpoli, but found another source of accountability from an unlikely source.

"I had created a Facebook page for my close friends and coworkers; anyone who I wanted to let know that I was planning on getting surgery and why," Parker said. "I wanted to explain myself rather than having people talk, but it also helped me because everyone was being really supportive."

Parker switched her Facebook page from a private group to a public one, inviting strangers to hear the story of her journey to weight loss.

"It felt so good to get my story out there, because I want people to know that it can be done," she said. "If there's a fast weight loss trend out there I've tried it, I've tried it all. I want people to know that they can do it with actual real food - that it's just a numbers game."

While being a motivation for others with her story, Parker was being inspired by the new followers to her page, which helped her to continue pushing through to ensure she had met her exercise goal and calorie intake.

"I know that every month I am going to stand on the scale for Chris - it's my accountability to her," Parker said. "She knows what she is talking about, and she would know if I cheated. Knowing that she is here for me as my ally has helped me so much. She's like having a personal coach."

According to Parker, her coach is always in her head.

"I always think of her and what she would say about something; I always keep her advice in the back of my mind," she said.

Another change that helped Parker during her journey was changing her exercise habits. Shortly after starting to see the nutritionist, she bought a pedometer.

"My only real goal was to get to my magical 10,000 steps before I went to bed each night," Parker said. "I didn't really care if they were fast steps or slow steps. At that point every step was a step in the right direction."

After some time, Parker began hitting her goal regularly and decided to step it up a notch. She kept her original goal of 10,000 steps, but now she had to walk at least two miles at a brisk pace.

"On occasion, I would hit 15,000 and, one day, I even hit 20,000 steps! I was so excited I shouted over to my neighbor that I had hit the 20,000 steps," Parker said. "She realized she was almost there too and had never hit it before. So we went on a walk so we could hit that milestone together."

"It feels so good to be active now," Parker said. "I feel strong."

Parker is still working toward her ultimate weight loss goal, adding in new challenges such as completing Virginia Beach's Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon. Parker had never run in a sanctioned race before, but after seeing her son complete his first marathon, she was inspired. She is now in the process of training for a full marathon.

She attributes all of her success to her husband, retired Chief Fire Controlman Wendal Parker, to her son, Jordan, and to her nutritionist Chris Zirpoli.

"I'm always surprised when I look down and my stomach is thinner, I can't believe I can actually see muscles now," Parker said. "I am happy to report that the heart flutters that I felt at 272 pounds stopped somewhere at the 50 pounds lost mark, and I don't feel as hot or exhausted as I used to."

Parker has lost a total of 113 pounds on her journey and is still going. Her advice to anyone in a similar situation is to talk to a doctor, visit a nutritionist and to go to the three- or four-hour informational seminars about bariatric surgery.

"You are not obligated to anything by going and finding out some answers. Explore all of your options and then make your choice; there is no one right choice for everyone," Parker said. "Most importantly, don't be afraid to change paths once you've already started one. I never guessed at the beginning of my journey that I would make such a sharp turn and end up here.

"Physically, I feel strong. Mentally, I feel confident," Parker added. "I now know that I not only can do this, but I did do it and I still am. That makes me very happy."

For more news from Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, visit http://www.navy.mil/local/NMCP/.