1 Governor Chis Christie of New Jersey chomped down on a jelly doughnut and mocked his own weight on 'The Late Show with David Letterman'.
2 Ten days later, he underwent a secret medical procedure designed to help him lose weight.
3 And then it was back to work, as if nothing had happened.
4 No mention of the procedure at an event in Lavallette, New Jersey, two days after the surgery or at any of the other meetings Christie held that week.
5 'If I had a choice, I wouldn't have ever talked about it,' Christie said on Tuesday, confirming a news report that detailed his surgery nearly three months ago.
6 The governor, who throughout his career has joked about his weight on television, in social media and before countless audiences, said it was his plan all along never to acknowledge publicly that he had undergone gastric band surgery, more commonly known as lap band surgery.
7 'It's nobody else's business,' Christie said, adding that it became public only because a reporter from the New York Post asked him a direct question about the procedure.
8 'I would never have lied about it'.
9 It is, Christie said, a deeply private matter for a man who has struggled for decades with his weight and a matter for him and his family, not for public consumption.
10 And he insisted it has absolutely nothing to do with politics, even though he is up for re-election and is persistently said to be a potential 2016 Republican candidate for president.
11 Christie told dozens of reporters in a televised news conference on Tuesday that he decided to have the surgery because of his wife, Mary Pat, and their four children and sealed the choice after turning 50 in September.
12 'My long-term goal is to get myself into a position where I'm healthier and I can live a longer life and be an active parent and hopefully someday grandparent,' Christie said, saying that his youngest two children are in elementary school.
13 'I want to try to put myself, as I get older, in the best position I can be to spend as much time with them as I possibly can,' he said.
14 How much weight he has lost, how much he weighs now, and how much he plans to lose were all questions Christie said he would not answer, saying they are nobody's business and calling the media attention 'ridiculous' and 'silly'.
15 But that didn't stop Christie from joking about the operation later Tuesday at the New Jersey Press Association's Legislative Correspondents Club Show at the Hamilton Manor in Hamilton, after Philip Alongi, a professional tenor and executive producer of NJTV's 'NJ Today with Mike Schneider,' serenaded the governor with 'No Pollo for Mio' to the tune of 'O Sole Mio'.
16 (Sample lyrics: 'No more Stromboli, no more rigatoni,' and 'Tomorrow's spaghetti night, Governor Christie please eat tonight'.)
17 'The reason I was so happy and in a great mood tonight is not just because I haven't eaten all day,' Christie said.
18 Earlier, the governor said he had originally scheduled the procedure for after the November election but canceled it when superstorm Sandy hit.
19 He postponed it until Presidents Day weekend, scheduling it after a three-day fundraising trip to California and a week before the National Governors Association meeting in Washington.
20 Nothing was listed on Christie's public schedule for the long holiday weekend, and unlike when he travels out of state, Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno did not serve as acting governor while Christie underwent the 40-minute procedure.
21 'I was in charge,' he said. 'It's like asking if I decide to take a nap on Saturday afternoon'.
22 The only people in the administration who knew were his chief of staff and chief counsel, Christie said.
23 And he discussed the procedure with no one outside his family.
24 Jets coach Rex Ryan offered his personal experiences with the same surgery in a phone conversation, but Christie said he never told the coach that he was considering the surgery at the time.
25 Christie said he has no plans to become an example for weight loss, like former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.
26 'I do not see myself nor do I care to be a role model in this regard for anyone,' he said.
27 'This is an intensely personal issue for me'.
28 Asked if he had a 'last hurrah' before having the surgery, which restricts what someone can eat, Christie noted he was at the Super Bowl just two weeks before the procedure.
29 'Everybody has a last hurrah in New Orleans,' he said with a smirk.
30 Less than two weeks before his surgery, Christie appeared on 'The Late Show,' where he pulled a jelly doughnut out of his pocket and took a bite as Letterman asked Christie if his jokes about the governor's weight bothered him.
31 Christie said his heft was 'fair game' but also said, 'I'm basically the healthiest fat guy you've ever seen in your life'.
32 The next day, former White House physician Connie Mariano, who described herself as a Christie fan, told CNN that she worries about his 'dying in office'.
33 The remark, which Christie said his children heard, drew fire from the outspoken governor who called her a 'hack who wants five minutes on TV'.
34 The governor has been open about his struggle with his weight.
35 During a news conference with reporters after the Letterman appearance, he said 'there's always a plan' to shed pounds.
36 On Tuesday, he said he works with a personal trainer four days a week, something he's been doing since running for office in 2009.
37 He said he began using the personal trainer three times a week in 2008 and the workouts involve lifting weights and cardio exercises.
38 Former Governor Jon Corzine, a Democrat, tried to make an issue of Christie's weight in the 2009 gubernatorial election.
39 Christie responded at the time saying, 'I don't know what that has to do with being governor'.
40 Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Poll, said the election was a referendum on Corzine's term in office and while some voters described Christie as overweight in polls, it didn't stop them from supporting him.
41 'Now that he's governor, it doesn't matter because as long as he hasn't had a health scare - and the only thing that we know about is a trip to the emergency room for an asthma attack - the only thing people judge him on is his performance,' Murray said.
42 But Murray said running for president would be different, because it would put Christie on a stage with other GOP hopefuls, making his weight a factor.
43 He pointed to an October 2011 Monmouth University/NJ Press Media Poll in which 20 percent of those surveyed said it was appropriate to talk about weight in a presidential race.
44 And Murray said that doesn't account for the people who were thinking that, but didn't want to admit it.
45 He doesn't doubt that Christie wanted to lose the weight for his family but said political aspirations are likely to have also played a role.
46 'Let's be fair, you have to take him on his word on that because he's been talking about that for years, but you have to think that the looming presidential election in three years, which we all know he wants to run in, gave him that extra push to try something he wouldn't have otherwise,' Murray said.
47 Christie was emphatic that politics played no part in his decision.
48 And he's also said that he doesn't think his weight should be a factor if he decides to seek higher office.
49 When Barbara Walters told him during her '10 Most Fascinating People' special on ABC in December that some people think he's too overweight to be president, Christie responded, 'That's ridiculous.
50 I don't know what the basis for that is'.
51 The revelation that Christie had weight-loss surgery came on the same day Mika Brzezinski's book, 'Obsessed,' in which she interviewed Christie about his struggle, hit stores.
52 Brzezinski, co-host of MSNBC's 'Morning Joe,' said on the show Tuesday morning that she was glad Christie, a frequent guest, had the surgery.
53 'I'm so proud of my friend, for his kids, for his family, for his own health,' she said.
54 Christie spoke to Brzezinski for a section of her book on the willingness of people to stereotype others with weight problems.
55 'For somebody like me who's had so much success in my life, and really been successful at everything I've tried, to not be able to be successful at this is incredibly discouraging,' Christie says of his weigh-loss struggle.
56 Christie said his size has nothing to do with a lack of discipline, something many people assume.
57 'For people who have never had issues with their weight, they can't understand it,' he said.

Ten days later , he underwent a secret medical procedure designed to help him lose weight .
secret
Why was it a secret?