What does it take to decide on weight loss surgery? Therapist Derek Colvin (@giant_therapist) and his wife Sheena share how they each chose sleeve gastrectomy, recorded just two days before their surgery together.

Derek is a former basketball player, six foot ten, and a licensed therapist. After three knee surgeries, years of intense workouts, calorie cutting, a carnivore diet, and serious thought about GLP-1 medications, he decided bariatric surgery was the right tool for him. He also had to unlearn two beliefs first: that surgery is "the easy way out," and that he wasn't "big enough" to need it.

Sheena wanted surgery for more than ten years. She spent hours at the gym and months on strict diets with results she couldn't see. The operation doesn't scare her. The changes afterward do.

Host Jason talks with them about:

• Getting denied by insurance the day before surgery, and what happened next
• Eating as part of your identity
• Why diet and exercise alone stopped working
• GLP-1 medications vs. bariatric surgery, and why both are valid treatments
• The myth that you have to reach a certain weight to "qualify" for help
• Surgery to protect joint health and avoid knee replacements - Sugar cravings and snacking on the pre-op diet
• Grieving food and the life you had before surgery
• Advice for anyone on the fence about weight loss surgery

Whether you're considering surgery, medication, or both, this episode is for anyone on an obesity treatment journey who's still deciding.

Follow Derek: @giant_therapist on Instagram and TikTok

Meet Derek and Sheena Colvin:

Derek and Sheena Colvin have been married for 26 years, raised seven children together, and have spent much of their lives taking care of the people around them. Now, they’re making a major decision together for themselves: undergoing VSG on August 7, 2026.

For Sheena, the decision has been years in the making. After four C-sections and struggling with her weight since the birth of their first child, she has also dealt with high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and what she openly recognizes as an unhealthy relationship with sugar.

For Derek, a former college basketball player, the decision took longer. At 6'10", being the big guy who could eat a lot had become part of his identity. But after years of trying to lose weight through diet and exercise, recurring knee injuries and three major knee surgeries repeatedly interrupted his progress. Eventually, worsening knee pain, sleep apnea, rising blood pressure, and the emotional toll of no longer recognizing or feeling comfortable with the person he saw in the mirror forced him to reconsider what getting healthy needed to look like.

After supporting friends through bariatric surgery and seeing firsthand how life-changing it could be, Derek and Sheena realized it was time to take their own next step. They enter this journey differently, but together—hoping not simply to lose weight, but to reclaim their health, mobility, confidence, and quality of life for themselves, each other, and the family they’ve spent 26 years building.

Support the show: The BariNation Podcast is produced by the BariNation Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit offering science-based, stigma-free education and peer support for people living with obesity.

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This episode is for educational purposes and is not medical advice. Talk with your healthcare team about the treatment options that are right for you.