A year after bariatric surgery, she weighs 184 pounds for the first time since the 1980s. Her health and mobility have significantly improved. And she no longer needs to take heart or diabetes medication.

To her surprise, she’s often asked, “Are you sure you’re not losing too much weight?”

Or as her daughter put it, “Where’d your butt go?”

The surgery has been life-changing for Brewster, who had struggled with her weight since junior high. Her only regret is not doing it sooner.

“It was the first time that I had a tool where I felt in control, where I felt like I was going to reach my goals,” she says.

The weight started to fall off right away. At first, she dropped sizes so fast she shopped in thrift stores. She’d buy clothes that were too small and put them away for later. Sometimes by the time she pulled them out of her closet, they were too big.

Now she cooks most of her own meals, takes the stairs, walks at least 20 to 30 minutes a day and has started practicing yoga.

She isn’t as hungry as she used to be, but she still sometimes has cravings. Food advertisements and references seem to be everywhere, and they are hard to ignore. Many work and social gatherings are also focused on food, especially around the holidays.

Brewster has found ways to have her favorites without compromising her health.

For instance, she bakes Christmas cookies with her daughter but cuts the sugar in half. Her occasional chocolate fix comes from one truffle, individually wrapped and kept out of sight. When she wants pasta or potatoes, she thinks about how bad she feels after eating them, and they don’t seem as appealing. Now one bite of a rich dish can satisfy her.

In a North Portland cafe a year after her surgery, she sips a half-cup of decaf coffee with a protein shake, her new favorite breakfast.

She looks trim in a soft pink sweater and dark, fitted pants. Short brown hair and glasses frame her face as she scrolls through photos on her phone. She pauses on one at her heaviest. Her face was rounder then, and her body, covered in a loose top, twice as big.

“Now I see how huge I was, but before I couldn’t see that myself,” she says. “I’m thinking, ‘How did I get there?’”

“When I first thought about it, it seemed so extreme,” she says. “I had lost weight before, so I thought, ‘I can do this. People lose a lot of weight with diet and exercise all the time. Why can’t I do this myself?’ I really beat myself up.”

Then her wife decided to have bariatric surgery, and Brewster decided to do it, too, so they could support each other. Brewster had the surgery first, and her wife followed in January 2018. Together, they plan meals and cheer each other on.

She also finds tips and encouragement in a Facebook support group. Members share weight-loss milestones as well as “non-scale victories.”

Brewster’s victories include crossing her legs, a new driver’s license photo and buying jeans online in a smaller size that turned out to be too big. She can also sit on the floor, get up without leaning on furniture and bend over to pick things up without struggling. Even showering is easier.

“You gain the weight so gradually, and you lose all those things so gradually,” she says. “You don’t realize what you’ve lost until all of a sudden you can do those things again.”