(Aransas Pass Progress)
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Courtesy: Melissa Snyder Melissa Snyder, 40, is the Utilities Billing Manager for the City of Aransas Pass. It’s taken years for her to come to terms with a cycle of up and down weight gain that peaked at 300 lbs. A health scare motivated Melissa to act, and quickly to decide on a bariatric surgical procedure reducing the size of her stomach and changing her eating habits and lifestyle once and for all.
Visit Aransas Pass City Hall a few years ago and a woman who would have greeted you behind the glass windows in the lobby, the location of the Utility Billing Office, would have looked completely different than she does today.
Even now, community members who stop in to pay for water service and haven’t seen Melissa Snyder in quite awhile are stunned. The 40-year-old has gone through a major weight loss journey, dropping from a peak of 300 lbs. down to more than half that figure, or about 140 lbs., catching many off guard by the transformation.
The procedure she went through to achieve this metamorphosis is called a vascular sleeve gastrectomy (VSG). Snyder arranged with Dr. Craig Chang, a specialist in the field in Victoria, an hour north of Corpus Christi, to have the surgery done. The physical size of her stomach was reduced. It was a life-changing event she knew she would have to pay for out of her own pocket. Snyder’s medical insurance coverage would not. At most, she can consume up to four ounces a meal. That’s all the room that was left in ger gut.
“I thought about it,” Snyder recalled how she considered the drastic move as early as 2016. Much of her life had continued to be a personal struggle to stay in shape. Often, she put weight on without it coming off again.
“You have to mentally be prepared to live that lifestyle,” explained Snyder, having done her homework, and researched how the major physical change in her digestive system would be managed after the fact. She admitted it took a long time before she was psychologically and emotionally ready.
It was a health scare while enjoying camping trip with friends that became the epiphanic moment. A smart watch that monitored Melissa’s heartrate warned it had exceeded the norm, beating much faster than usual. The muscle was getting overworked trying to keep the flow of blood pulsing through her veins. There was a sudden, frightening revelation that Snyder’s heart was having trouble keeping up with demands placed on it by her excess weight. That was enough. A bell went off in her head.
“It made me kind of nervous,” Melissa remarked.
“I couldn’t weigh that much anymore, because it was putting stress on my body,” Snyder continued. She has been placed on prescription medication to control the blood pressure spike, while at a very low dose.
Melissa, as she prepared for the next course of action, talked to relatives who had had bariatric surgery, conversations that helped ease natural fears of going under the knife.
“Within an hour they had me up and walking,” Snyder discussed the post-surgical procedures staff followed, recovery taking much less time than many may have thought.
Meal planning now and what she consumes has changed. A lot.
“I had a horrible diet,” Melissa laughed as she remembers the lifestyle she once enjoyed as a habit. Early in the morning she would routinely down a sugary Dr. Pepper and when the palate for soft drinks required more satisfaction, she’d finish off a Big Red, too. Lunch was fast food, her favorite, a Whataburger meal including a double- meat hamburger, French fries, and more carbonated soda.
My midday, Melissa would pull out snack foods like potato chips, cookies, and candy.
“Dinner, we ate out a lot,” Snyder said, joined by her husband of 20 years, Timothy, to go to one of her favorite Ingleside restaurants, Terry’s Thai Café on Main St.
“There weren’t a lot of doggy bags,” she laughed again, portion control not a concern at the time.
Again and again, Melissa did much like any person struggling with weight. She tried one diet after another, the “Yo-Yo” effect – she described – had become frustrating.
“I would exercise, lose weight, and then gain it back,” she revealed.
Raised in Rockport, long since an Aransas Pass resident, Melissa believes that once she graduated high school and started living on her own is when her attitude about eating changed. Her mother had always done the cooking at home, each healthy meal perfectly portioned, the diet representing selections from the five basic food groups. No more, no less.
“It was the convenience of not having to cook,” she remarked of the difference in her lifestyle moving out on her own. She preferred the drive-through window and meals that came out of a bag or a box rather than the structured diet that was served at the dining room table at home.
“That overindulgence wasn’t there.”
In high school she was active, her weight hovering around 140 lbs. in her late teens. Slowly, but surely, after she graduated Melissa’s clothing went from a size small to 2XL, or larger.
Used to body shamers, as Snyder got fatter, she didn’t let the unflattering comments bother her.
“I’m a confident person,” Melissa said. “I wore a bikini,” she added, no matter how big she got. “It didn’t bother me. I’m confident in my body,” Snyder remarked, adding that her spouse has always remained supportive.
“I’m beautiful, big or small,” Melissa said. “My husband tells me I’m beautiful.”
Getting healthy, though, was the driving force. Having abandoned diets alone as the solution, Snyder took the route of the surgical procedure and hasn’t regretted it. Her knees no longer hurt from carrying all the extra pounds. Melissa’s bouts with plantar fasciitis, an inflammation of the feet caused by her excess weight, have also disappeared. Flattered by all the compliments she receives; Melissa takes them all in stride.
“It’s nice that people look at you,” Snyder said, believing the difference now is it’s not in disdain.
“A lot of my family didn’t know I was doing the surgery,” admitted Snyder, “so, they could see the difference.” Melissa has also documented the changes on her Facebook page (https:// www.facebook.com/ melissa.snyder.581), allowing anyone to keep up with how she’s advanced in her goals.
Getting to this point was not overnight, too, Snyder cautioned anyone considering a similar route for weight loss. Once the size of her stomach was modified, she still had to watch what she ate and exercise, too. In 2022, she dropped 100 lbs. Last year, she lost another 60. She’s now maintaining 140 lbs.
“I want to get to 150,” Snyder said, explaining that with sizeable wight loss like hers there’s also a loss of muscle mass, something she wants to regain, and she’s started by creating a small home gym where she works out.
Four times a day, Melissa consumes meals that measure six ounces each. That’s the maximum. Food consists mostly of protein and vegetables. She knows that many who’ve undergone similar procedures succeeded in losing weight initially, only to gain it all back. Snyder is not prepared to fail. Dropping so much weight has meant she no longer needs medication to control her blood pressure.
“I no longer have to worry if a chair will hold my weight,” she chuckled at the thought, reminded of the times she used to fly and the stewardess would have to attach an extender on to her seatbelt because she was so fat.
“Surgery,” Melissa began, “is a tool. It’s not a fix-all. It just assists you in what you have to get done.”
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