{"id":87486,"date":"2025-12-19T15:08:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T22:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=87486"},"modified":"2026-04-21T09:01:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T15:01:24","slug":"losing-140-pounds-regaining-life-with-weight-loss-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/losing-140-pounds-regaining-life-with-weight-loss-surgery\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachael lost 140 pounds and now leads the booster club for her son’s marching band"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"After
After losing 140 pounds through weight loss surgery, Rachael Underwood is thrilled to have more energy. One of her favorite activities is leading the booster club for her son’s marching band at Pueblo South High School. Rachael attended the same high school years ago and also loved doing marching band. Being able to actively support her son and other students has brought Rachael great joy. Photo by Mike Sweeney, for UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a kid, Rachael Underwood was always overweight. After she joined the high school marching band,\u00a0a\u00a0seamstress\u00a0added\u00a0fabric to her uniform so it would fit.\u00a0The track coach let her wear her own clothes for meets, as long as they matched the school colors, because the school didn\u2019t have a track uniform big enough for Rachael.<\/p>\n

As an adult, she tried every diet possible to lose weight:\u00a0low-carb, keto, paleo and more. But the results\u00a0never\u00a0stuck.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife happens,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d lose weight, then gain it back.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until she decided to have weight-loss surgery two years ago that Rachel was able to radically change her relationship with food. She lost nearly 140 pounds and was able to change her life, for good.<\/p>\n

Rachael, 43, had her surgery at the Sangre de Cristo Weight Loss Institute<\/a>, which is affiliated with\u00a0UCHealth Parkview Medical Center<\/a> in Pueblo. Rachael works for UCHealth at the center and now loves being able to help other patients achieve their weight-loss goals.<\/p>\n

Outside of work, Rachael enjoys activities that she\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0have the energy to pursue before she lost the weight:\u00a0planning a wedding for her son and daughter-in-law, serving as president of her other son\u2019s high school band booster\u00a0club and hiking\u00a0and camping. And her health?\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0much improved now, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t ever want to take this for granted,\u201d she said. \u201cI worked so hard to get to this point, and I don\u2019t ever want to go back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"After
After struggling with her weight all of her life, Rachael chose weight-loss surgery. Losing 140 pounds has enabled her to be much more active. She loves hiking, camping and spending more time with her children now. Photo by Mike Sweeney, for UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018Always the chubbiest kid,\u2019 Rachael endured the ridicule of classmates\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"Rachael
Rachael before her weight-loss surgery journey. Photo courtesy Rachael Underwood.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rachael grew up in small towns all over Colorado. She was born in Salida, where her father drove a snowplow over Monarch Pass for the Colorado Department of Transportation. The family later lived in Craig, Eads, and Branson, as her father took new assignments at work. The family settled in Pueblo in December, 1996 when Rachael was in the seventh grade.<\/p>\n

Rachael said she was \u201calways the chubbiest kid\u201d and the subject of classmates’ ridicule. She loved sports and stayed busy playing softball, basketball and volleyball. In those smaller towns, anyone who tried out made it onto the team, she said.<\/p>\n

Her mother did her best to stretch a pound of ground beef to feed their family of six, but nutrition wasn\u2019t always a priority.<\/p>\n

After moving to Pueblo, Rachael\u2019s interests shifted to music. At\u00a0South High School<\/a>, she played French horn in the marching, pep and concert bands. She also joined the track team and made the varsity shot put team. She missed a chance at the state tournament one year with a throw that was just a quarter inch too short.<\/p>\n

Rachael also developed an interest in health care in high school. She attended the school\u2019s health academy and became a Certified Nursing Assistant\u00a0during\u00a0her junior year. She graduated with her Emergency Medical Technician license in hand.<\/p>\n

But throughout high school, her weight was a factor in\u00a0virtually everything\u00a0she did. Marching with the band was tough, so she made excuses to skip practice. Wearing her own clothes to track meets drew unwanted attention.<\/p>\n

By her high school graduation\u00a0in 2000, she weighed 250 pounds.<\/p>\n

She couldn\u2019t have known then, but her high school interests would remain constants throughout her life. Her passion for health care would blossom into the career she enjoys today. And her ties to the marching band? That would become a key part of her weight-loss journey.<\/p>\n

\"Rachael
Rachael talks with her son, Reid, who plays baritone at South High School in Pueblo, where she is the band booster club president. Photo by Mike Sweeney, for UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Diets and an ’emotional relationship with food,’ then a turning point\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

After graduating from high school, Rachael got a job at Parkview Medical Center as a technician in the emergency department. She and her husband married in 2003, and she soon became a busy mom to three children. But her weight forced her to forgo some of the things she wanted to do as a parent. She had trouble getting up off the ground, so she didn\u2019t play with her young children much. She wished she could be outdoors or go on hikes, but she often settled for watching movies instead.<\/p>\n

She would try a diet, lose some weight, and then gain it back again.<\/p>\n

As far back as Rachael can remember, food was about more than\u00a0mealtime. Food helped her cope with stress, sadness,\u00a0depression\u00a0and even things worth celebrating.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always had an emotional relationship with food,\u201d Rachael said. \u201cI turned to food a lot. Food was my comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n

A big turning point came in 2016, when her daughter\u2019s dance\u00a0teacher\u00a0scheduled a trip to Branson, Missouri. Rachael decided to turn\u00a0the trip\u00a0into a\u00a0family vacation. They spent one day at a theme park there, but Rachael was so heavy that she had to stop often to rest. The kids\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0get to go on many of the rides or see much of the park, and Rachael said she was embarrassed and apologized to her children.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a huge eye-opener to do something about my weight, or I was going to be on a downhill trajectory,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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Obesity<\/a> can cause a variety of health problems, including: <\/strong><\/h4>\n