Gabourey Sidibe

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, she reveals that she got laproscopic bariatric surgery after she and her older brother Ahmed were diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.

“My surgeon said they’d cut my stomach in half. This would limit my hunger and capacity to eat. My brain chemistry would change and I’d want to eat healthier. I’ll take it! My lifelong relationship with food had to change,” she writes in her wise, witty and unapologetic memoir, out in May

“I truly didn’t want to worry about all the effects that go along with diabetes. I genuinely [would] worry all the time about losing my toes.”

Gabby’s memoir will reveal much about her struggle with weight. In it she
writes:

“It has taken me years to realize that what I was born with is all beautiful,” she writes in her book. “I did not get this surgery to be beautiful. I did it so I can walk around comfortably in heels. I want to do a cartwheel. I want not to be in pain every time I walk up a flight of stairs.”

It’s been 10-months since her surgery and Gabby continues to shed the extra weight. She works out, eats right, and she’s loving her new body.

“I was in a war with my body for a long time. If I’d started treating it better sooner, I wouldn’t have spent so many years hating myself. But I love my body now.