These pictures are from Danny's 18th birthday party. I like them - it was nice to not try and hide from the camera or place myself behind someone to hide some of my body. The first pic is me with my two handsome sons, Danny, the reluctant birthday boy (he hates being the center of attention), Tony and his longtime, wonderful girlfriend (and hopefully my future daughter-in-law), Melanie. The second one - and I'm guessing you can probably figure this out - is Tony, Melanie, Rudy and me.So now it's Sunday night, we just got back from St. Pete Beach, Rudy fell asleep on the couch watching some boring thing on History Channel, Rocco is curled up with him, and I'm exhausted.
Two weekends in a row Rudy has gotten tickets to a baseball game for one of his teams - The San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A's. Last weekend we spent in West Palm Beach and saw a game at the Dolphin's Stadium in Miami and this weekend he had tickets to a game at Tropicana Field, which is in St. Pete. They unspoken deal we have is that if I have to go to a baseball game, then I also get to go to the beach. We've had a lot of fun. But it is tiring going out of town two weekends in a row.
Today, sitting at the Hurricane Grill on Pass-A-Grille beach (which is an awesome little place, just past the Don Cesar Hotel on the end of St. Pete Beach) and eating my peel-and-eat shrimp (they were delish!) I looked over at a guy eating and I told Rudy that there are a few visuals related to food that I think of wistfully and still kind of make my mouth water.
One: a person picking up a french fry (preferably crinkle cut - my favorite) and dipping it into ketchup and putting it in their mouth.
Two: A person cutting a corner slice of cake with lots of sickening sweet bakery frosting and sticking their fork into it to take a bite
Three: This is a visual and a sound - a person opening a can of Diet Coke or Diet Dr. Pepper and pouring it into a frosty glass with ice ... the way the ice crackles and you can hear and see the sizzle of the carbonation in the glass.
Honestly, it's not like I constantly am thinking about food, or feel sorry for myself that I can't have these things, or really obsess about it at all. I like the food I'm eating, and I'm very satisfied. But those things I will probably never eat/drink again (well, I might have a fry or two after I can have carbs again), so the visual does kind of get to me.
The other day in The Avenue (a plus-size shop, for you average-sized readers who might not be familiar with it. :)) I had a cool experience. I needed new crop jeans because my size 20's were literally falling off of me - and when I say literally, I mean it - they fell down when I was walking through the living room! So I went to The Avenue and grabbed a few pairs of 18's. And tried them on. And they were all too big! So I went out and got the same pants in 16's. And - get this - THEY were pretty loose too! And I know that, if anything, I need to buy pants a little snug right now so they'll fit longer, so I thought - it can't be - could I really wear 14's??? So I gingerly went out and picked the 14's off the rack. And glory be -- they fit beautifully!! It's been about 10 years since I've worn 14's. I bought a pair of black crop pants and a pair of jeans.
At the register, the clerk asked me if I wanted to open an Avenue account. And I told her - well, actually, I had a gastric bypass, and as much as I like your store, I'm hoping I won't have to shop here much longer. She said "I THOUGHT you looked like you'd lost a lot of weight!" (I've been shopping there for a long time). So that started a whole conversation with her and the other clerk about the surgery (they were both big girls and had wondered about it). I told them that I was a size 26 before the surgery and now I am buying 14's in pants, and their shirts are all too big for me. Then a customer overheard us and she came over and said that she had also had the surgery about 3 months ago and she was down from a size 30 to a size 22. (Again, for you thin ones - that's 5 sizes smaller - 30, 28, 26, 24, 22). She was thrilled with how she felt and then we started talking about whether we'll have to have plastic surgery and how we were getting along and it turns out we got it done at the same place!
It's interesting how just mentioning this opens up conversations because big or small, people are fascinated with it. U.S. Bariatric gives all their patients this medical card to carry with you that has medical info for paramedics on one side and on the other side it says this:
SPECIAL DIET REQUEST The owner of this card has had weight loss surgery, which has reduced his/her stomach capacity to less than 3 ounces. Please allow him/her to order a smaller portion or make a selection from the children's menu. Thank you for your cooperation.
Cool, huh? I've only pulled it out a few times, but it has come in handy. Last weekend we went with our friends to a Japanese Steak House - you know, those places with the chef who does all the wacky stuff with the food, flipping it on to your plate and making corny jokes and building an onion volcano and stuff like that - anyway, they're pretty expensive, so I asked if I could get the children's shrimp dinner and bashfully showed them my card and they said sure.
I'm kinda skiddish to pull out the card because for some reason I feel a little strange about it, but so far it's been fine. I don't use it most of the time, though, because if you think about it, what foods are on the children's menu? Chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, hot dogs, burgers, pizza ... not exactly the healthiest of choices. But at a place like the Japanese steak house or a breakfast place where it's basically the same food, just smaller portions, then it's perfect.
One more cool encounter before I give you the update - Rudy and I go into this 7-11 almost every Sunday on our way to the beach, and I guess we hadn't been for awhile, so one Saturday I stopped in to pick something up. I was wearing (my new size 14) crop jeans and a close-fitting tank top. So the woman at the register (I know this sounds awful, but I don't even know that I've ever noticed her) said "Oooh, girl! How much weight have you lost?!?!?" I was like, wow, thanks for noticing, and she said how could she not notice - I looked like a different person, she hardly recognized me - and I gotta tell ya - that felt REALLY good.
REALLY good. :)
Okee dokee, here's the update at 20 weeks post-surgery:
Original pounds to lose: 140
Pounds lost so far: 83
Pounds left to lose: 57
I've had a couple of small plateaus lately - when I had lost 75 I plateaued for a while, then at 80 it did again. But now it seems to be on the move!
