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Caitlin Whyte: Michael Lajoie had always heard the word obese growing up, but didn't really know what that meant. He would go shopping with his mother in the husky section, but he was always athletic.

Michael Lajoie: I played basketball. I did track. As I graduated and started working and started moving less, the weight just piled on. I mean, I went into the Police Academy in New York city and I was, you know, 277 pounds. But I could run two miles no problem. I could, you know, do pushups. I was in decent shape, but I was big. Then, you know, sitting in the police car and eating lunch in the car, you know, not knowing if you have 5 minutes to eat or 25 minutes to eat, and you kind of inhale your food and, you know, you don't really have as much time in the day to go to the gym or do what you need to do to get the weight down.

Caitlin Whyte: With that busy schedule, he says also just came a bit of laziness when it came to watching his weight.

Michael Lajoie: Before I knew it, I was, you know, 366 pounds. At six-foot-two, six-foot-three, it's big, but you wear it well, you know. So people always never knew how much I weighed. They knew I was big obviously just by looking at me, but I was on two blood pressure medications. I was on a BiPAP machine asleep. You know, I obviously had sleep apnea. So it was time. It was time to do something.

Caitlin Whyte: Michael said he tried for years to do it on his own. No carbs here, WeightWatchers there. And those programs did work, but the weight always came back on.

Michael Lajoie: I was just done with, you know, getting on a plane and worrying, "Is the seatbelt going to fit? Do I have to ask for an extender?" You know, I was done going to amusement parks with my kids and, "No, I'm not going to go on the roller coaster," because I don't want to be the guy that they can't close the rollercoaster on and has to walk off like the walk of shame and everybody's waiting for you. And it's embarrassing.

Caitlin Whyte: He had seen some friends undergo similar surgeries, so he went with his wife to a consultation.

Michael Lajoie: There's so many different things. You have to go speak to a therapist to make sure you're doing it for the right reasons. You know, you have to try to lose weight with a nutritionist.

Caitlin Whyte: He says he still remembers his first appointment with his nutritionist. On the wall were two pictures, one of a standard cheeseburger and fries you might get from a diner and, next to it, what an actual serving size should look like.

Michael Lajoie: You know, and it made me think back of like you go to work and for breakfast, you have a bacon, egg, and cheese on a roll, which is big in New York and New Jersey, right? Bacon, egg, and cheese on a roll. For lunch, what do you want for lunch? All right, let's get Chinese. All right, we'll get a Sesame chicken combination, right? And then what's for dinner? All right. Well, you know, a couple of pork chops and a baked potato. And I thought about this. I was like, "If I put all that food in a bucket for one day, the amount of food that I eat is ridiculous. It's ridiculous."

Caitlin Whyte: Michael got a gastric sleeve in almost two years ago now in February 2019. The surgery itself was quick, but he's done a lot of work to get to where he is now.

Michael Lajoie: From that day on, my life has absolutely changed. I mean, I went like a size 48 pants to now I'm in a 36, I'm running five-mile races, no problem. I'm working out, you know, four days a week, five days a week, depending on my schedule, if I can get it in, you know. I'm going for runs up to six, seven miles just to get out of the house. It's amazing, you know? I look at food completely differently, you know. It's a matter of now, all right, instead of living to eat, I eat to live, right?

Caitlin Whyte: Michael says his only regret is not getting it done 10 years sooner.