Week 1, Day 5

Current AM weight – 228

Well, I’m starting to feel a lot better.  Woke up this morning without my back feeling like it was thrown out of whack from sleeping on my back, propped up by a folded blanket.  I don’t watch the clock for when I can take my Tylenol (I really should have opted for the Oxycodin for those first 4 days, let me tell you), and I plan on going out and walking today.  Food is less on my mind and slowing down how quickly I eat my three gulps of jello is at the forefront.

I’m still reeling that 1/3 of a Jello cup makes me full.  I mean, really?  JELLO?

It’s hard to remember not to take big gulps of water, too.  I keep getting a huge mouth full of my strange concoction of water/special k protein powder/stool softener (at ease…) and I remember and I have to sit there with water in my mouth, swallowing it slowly.  Yeah that sounded weird to me, too.

What shall we talk about today though?  Oh, I know.  The subject of my “support system” keeps coming up.  Honestly, I don’t get why your family wouldn’t support you.  I mean, ok I can see a person being maybe jealous – people see the surgery as a quick trip to size 6 jeans.  I certainly do not.  This was the very last thing option for me.  I did not want to do this surgery.  At all.  I wavered on 60/40 to NOT do the surgery since I started Madigan’s Pathway which was 6 months long.  I was so undecided, I gained 10lbs while waiting. =/  But I’ve had a few friends, very few – I’d rather not advertise I’m so over weight that I need surgery – that were perplexed by the idea of me even getting it.  That was until I told them how much I actually weighed.  That is the beauty of being Brown, my friends.  Short and Brown – we carry our weight fabulously, or so I had hoped.  Even this morning I told my father (who weighs 140lbs wet and fully clothed) how much my start weight was and even he paused.

“What?  Really?”

“Yeah, Dad.  I weigh almost as much as Paul, my brother who is a beefy handsome beast who carries his weight in his arms and shoulders.

“Really?”

“Really, really, Dad.”

I had one friend offer to go with me to weight watchers which is something I think I’ll get into to maintain my smaller eating portions when I can eat.  Ultimately I decided to do the surgery as I was talking non stop for 30 mins to the psych doctor, the last part of the required ‘pathway’ for the surgery.  He was, well bald but I suppose that’s not the point, and very helpful.  He just let me talk.  You know how helpful it is sometimes to just have a sounding board?  Well mine is in South Korea, so this bald guy was plenty fine for me.  I talked about how unsure I was about actually going through the surgery.  How, damnit, I like to eat and I think I’d really miss eating.  Granted it’s only for a short time, but oh my god I LOVE EATING.  Then I progressed to talking about the kids, specifically Catherine.  Especially how she’s mimicking my eating habits.

“Huh,” I said.

“What’s that?”

“I am fairly certain I am going to go to my car and cry after this.”  I did, by the way.

“Why’s that?”

“Because my daughter eats exactly how I do.”

So, that did it for me.  The less I snack, the more she’ll see it as a good thing.  She talks about wanting to ride bikes with me when I’m skinnier and is genuinely excited for when I can walk more than 50 feet without getting winded.  She wanted this for me, so I could be there for her.

Huh.  I think I’m going to go and cry again.