The Queen of Zumba

Posted on Oct 19, 2012 | 0 comments

When Meg Price pulls on her workout clothes and heads to the gym she feels like the queen of Zumba. But it wasn’t always that way.

Meg Price lost 108 pounds after weight loss surgery.

A year ago, she weighed 280 pounds and was facing life in a wheelchair due to debilitating back pain. “My doctor told me I would probably end up in a wheelchair, but I was simply too young for that,” says Price.

Now a lively and energetic 58-year-young partner in a wedding photography business with her husband, Michael, Price had been able to keep her weight under control for most of her life by exercising regularly. All that changed in 1999 when she started suffering from terrible back and sciatic pain due to a fractured disc. After back surgery and three serious falls, she was almost disabled. Home-bound, she ended up putting on 100 pounds.

“I was in a catch-22 situation,” says Price. “My PAMF pain management specialist Toby Ratanasiripong, M.D., kept urging me to lose weight but I couldn’t get active to lose weight because I was in so much pain. So the weight kept piling on.”

The day Dr. Ratanasiripong said she would probably end up in a wheelchair with an early death, she knew it was time to take charge of her health.

“I had been in denial about my weight and hadn’t stepped on a scale for years,” says Price. “I asked my primary care doctor, Rachel Young, M.D., if she’d recommend weight loss surgery, and she said that I was the ideal candidate as it would also help alleviate my physical problems and pain.”

Price started carefully researching weight loss surgery options.

After an informational seminar and consultation with PAMF weight loss surgeon, John Feng, M.D., Price decided on a sleeve gastrectomy. During this procedure, the surgeon isolates a small sleeve-shaped section of the stomach for processing food, drastically limiting its capacity and restricting the amount of food you can eat before feeling full.

“Weight loss surgery is just the first step in regaining control of your weight – it’s not a magic bullet,” explains Price. “You must also make some big lifestyle changes and follow a very strict diet. To maintain my weight loss I eat fewer than 40 carbohydrates a day, 60 to 80 grams of protein and drink 64 ounces of water.”

Soon after her surgery, in May 2011, she also began walking to slim down and then launched into a whole new exercise regime.

“I work out like a mad woman,” says Price, who has lost 108 pounds since her surgery. “I go to eight water aerobics and six Zumba classes a week, walk three miles with my husband and dog every day and go to the gym all the time.”

The best part of losing weight for Price is her discovery of Zumba, a Latin-dance inspired fitness program.

“Previously my only option for exercise was in the water,” says Price. “Zumba made me feel like a primordial animal that has crawled out of the water and evolved into a completely new being. It’s an amazing and fun work out. I’m smitten!”

Price is quick to emphasize that weight loss surgery was the start of her journey to reclaiming her health and joie de vivre. “Dr. Feng is my savior, he helped me get my life back,” says Price. “Having weight loss surgery is the absolute best thing I ever did.”