Goodbye stomach!

It's all the rage.......!

The other night, after an after-work marathon cooking session, I fell on the couch, expecting to pass out at any moment.

As my head was bobbing and I was desperately trying to keep my eyes open, I heard a promo on the TV that went something like this....."hear about a radical, yet remarkably simple new weight loss surgery that takes less than an hour and removes most of your stomach......."
Funny how, no matter where I am in life, when I hear the words weight loss, I perk up.
Say the words "....simple new weight loss surgery that takes less than an hour...." and I'm wide awake. (to hear and learn all about it yourself....click on the highlighted words)
No. I don't need weight loss surgery. Thank you very much.
Been there. Done that. Love my Lapband.
Yet, weight has been such a part of my life for so long that I doubt that my instantaneous draw to the mere mention of it will ever go away.
I always find myself drawn like a magnet to anything and everything that has to do with losing weight!
Or, should I say....the promise of losing weight....
As was the case the other night.....despite the fact that I was dead tired after a full day at the office, an hour battle with rush hour traffic plus 5 hours of cooking vats of sauce with meatballs, chili, French onion soup and wedding soup.....
Then, a funny thing happened....
After I intently watched the segment, I was no longer tired.
Well, maybe I was tired.
But, my mind was churning.
The faces of the patients were faces I had seen before.
One of those faces I had seen in my very own mirror each day.
Their images were bouncing around in my head.
I couldn't forget what my double chin looked like. Or my apron belly....
The words they spoke were words I heard before.....words I uttered myself.
I knew exactly how speaking those words felt.....what it's like to feel those things and know those things pale in comparison to the tidal wave that comes with saying those things.....
I kept recalling the feel of those words on my tongue and the sound of the syllables achingly eeking out of my mouth.
I couldn't help but think what it must be like to have most of your stomach removed.
Not just sectioned or banded off.....removed.
As in--yanked out and gone forever. (wonder what they do with them...throw them away?)
They are brave.
Courageous and brave.
Much, much more than I.
I felt humbled as I thought of it all.
It's not easy being obese.
It's not easy at all.
Taking this step is monumental.
I applaud them all.

If you want to know just how difficult it is for an obese person...even an obese person who is trying to deal with their obesity....check out the comments on the article I've linked above....
I couldn't stomach reading them after the first few.....


These people had the courage to take this step.
And, not only that....they had the courage to be on TV.......some of them in those funky hospital gowns and no make-up (gasp!)....and tell the world how much they weigh....in the hopes of helping others--to give others hope!
It makes me sad to know that these heroic, brave people are reading those comments!
(makes me want to rip the stomachs out of those hateful commenters with my big butcher knife....)


My emotions were all over the place.
So, I decided it was time to make potato soup.
Chopping up celery and potatoes seemed like a good idea.
(yes, it was just another day...and night...and night....and late night and into the morning.... in Judiland)