Toasting to our 21 years of being married.
This week, Week 39 of 52, I am simply, thankful.
My husband and I celebrated our 21st anniversary this past week and even though we had a wonderful dinner out, I managed to lose the 2 lbs I had gained the previous week. So even with a dinner of champagne, sashimi, steak, shrimp and a yummy mud pie for desert, I still lost. How? Well I just ate a few bites
It doesn’t look like much, but it was plenty and delicious, plus I had champagne and some mud pie!
of each item we ordered (still a big meal for me). But the real reason is that I pushed myself to work out a little longer and harder to get myself back on track and cut out my afternoon cookie most days. This is how it works, folks. Seems so simple now. Why oh why didn’t we learn this way back when? But then when you have felt fat most of your life, a couple of lbs seemed so trivial. Now that I’m heading towards being thin, a couple lbs is more of a big deal. And the interesting thing is that I can feel I’ve gained a couple of lbs, or lost them, unlike before. So it’s all an interesting learning experience.
You can see how heavy I was if you look ‘below’ the table. I have another version of this photo where I cropped the lower part out!
We celebrated our 20th anniversary last year in Switzerland at our friend’s home. That was the start of an amazing 6 months in Europe, and really the start of the most fascinating year of my life. My weight loss surgery wasn’t even on the radar at that point, but we were living in a foreign country, having new experiences on a daily basis, and I was becoming more aware (and so was my husband) of how my weight set me apart from other people in Europe. It is true…. people in the US are heavier and I was one of them. People in Europe just look at food differently; it’s not that they don’t love it, they just don’t eat the huge portions, they don’t drive as much, and there aren’t all the high calorie snack foods everywhere.
Last year at this time, I dreaded every photo we took (and we took a lot of them) wondering how fat I would look. My hip and my feet were killing me at the end of every day, my energy level wasn’t very high, and I never knew what to wear because everything looked horrible on me. As the self-proclaimed ‘Crop Queen’ I cropped me out of a LOT of photos. For the photo above, the version I sent to our friends had the lower part of the photo GONE!!!
Between the experience of living in Europe and the self-awareness that came to me and allowed the two of us to start talking about this uncomfortable subject, and the surgery, I thanked my husband for the most interesting and fascinating year of my life. Now don’t mind having photos taken, my feet are fine, I feel great and I look forward to every day!
Prof. Weiner is known as the ‘Rock Star’ of gastric surgery in Europe.
I’m also very thankful for the great surgical team I had in Frankfurt under Dr. Rudolf Weiner at Krankenhaus Sachsenhausen. I am corresponding with two women who are having a really tough time due to some complications with surgeries and even though we know problems happen, the stories are just horrid. Mine has been such a positive experience that I feel so sad for these women.
The Vertical Sleeve Talk forum has been an amazing resource for me and I know for others as well. People respond so quickly, there is so much information and in general, everyone is so upbeat, positive and supportive. Thank you Alex for doing such a great job putting this together. I would have been lost without it.
The outrigger races go right by our condo. These guys get a GREAT workout!
It’s a gorgeous day in Hilo today…. there are outrigger canoe races going on in Hilo Bay. Here’s a photo I took outside our window yesterday. I still want to get up on a paddleboard before we leave this town…. we’re on countdown now, just 6 more weeks here on the Big Island!
Hope everyone has a great week and thanks for reading my blog and for all of your wonderful support. I am grateful for so many things, including each one of you.
A HUI HOU!
QUEEN OF CROP
Loveitaly
July 16, 2012Your stories are very inspiring to me. I am giving it one last try on Weight Watchers, before making the decision to do the Sleeve. You seem very happy you did it. I’m 52 and actually, look a LOT like you do in your old photos, only with glasses! Haha. Thank you for posting your progress, feelings and truth for us to see. I live in the Seattle area. Thanks again!
queenofcrop
July 16, 2012Aloha Loveitaly (I’m reading a very good book right now called The Hills of Tuscany; about a couple who relocated there from NYC; good book if you like Italy).
Anyway, thanks for the comments; and good luck on WW; it’s a sensible program and has worked for many many people, but not me. WLS is a big decision for sure and you are smart to explore all of your options before making this decision; including reading blogs and going on to the VS forum. I met Kelli when I was in Seattle last month; she is in the same situation as you; trying to decide if this is for her. It’s harder when you are 50-75 lbs overweight I think than when you are super-obese and have more health risks. For me, the deciding factor was that my hips and knees went out, my blood pressure and cholesterol was high and my husband had had enough! That combination was enough for me to say, let’s do it! Keep me posted and thanks for reading my blog.