WLS Afterthought No.1

Weight: 181 (parents' scale)

A HUGE congratulations to MaryBeth who is celebrating 4 years post-op in this post today! As I've written previously, MB's earlier blog,  The Fat Diaries, was a great source of inspiration and information in my early days as both a pre-op and blogger.  She's an amazing writer and person and has also had a fantastic weight loss, not only because of her surgery, but because of her dedication to exercise and lifestyle modification.   MB's also got a great sense of humor and amazing fashion sense.  Kudos chica!

This has been said before, but if you're planning to have wls in the next few months (or are a recent post-op), don't forget to budget for clothes.  Really.  As I remarked to my dad yesterday NOTHING I wore 18 months ago (including gloves, shoes and socks) fits me now.  I'm not saying this to be discouraging, but as something to keep in mind.   Hats, glasses, whatever.  Nothing fits that I had before except a couple scarves and my earrings. Watches, necklaces and rings are all way too big. 

Mostly being smaller sizes is a great thing, except for shoes.  I wasn't an especially large shoes size pre-op,  (8.5 - 9 if the shoe was pointy).  I had lots of shoes I liked.  Now I wear something between a 7 and 8 -- depends on the width of the toe box.  I've got a few pairs of really nice new shoes, but as the season is changing again I'm starting to feel the lack.

And no, I don't save much (any) money on food.  Really.  I don't eat  much and my junk food is way down, but the food I eat is expensive.  As anyone who's ever worked at a food bank knows, low fiber carbs are cheap.  Protein is expensive.  Plus I'm really much pickier now, especially about leftovers.  And yeah, I eat smaller portions when we go out, but again they bring me the same amount anyway. 

But the whole dining out issue is worth another entry.  Maybe later.

Comments

[Marybeth]

Thank you lovebug, you're just too sweet for words. I love you to pieces and am so proud of you!

My shoe size dropped from an 11W to a 8.5/9 so if you have a need to get rid of any of thse shoes, you just let me know!! :)

[Melody]

As a parent and a teacher, I TOTALLY agree with you.

As a parent, I supervise the video games my sons play, and purchase only those that are age appropriate, the content on my oldest's MySpace - randomly, not daily - and we have everything on cable that's rated R blocked so that you have to open it with a password.

As a teacher, I see kids every day who are overly aggressive, posess far greater vocabulary than they should have at a young age, and generally are far more jaded than my children are who are older.

The world does not have to be regulated; children do. And that is a parent's job, not the legislatures!!

Thank you for saying it so well.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mel