Support groups are NOT lame

Really cheesy graphic demonstrating the "rainbow of support"

I will admit it.  I have spent most of my adult life being skeptical of “support groups”.  Maybe it’s because I grew up in a family where support from anyone other than your own self was considered an infringement of someone else’s right to not have to deal with your problems.  We’re Swedish, we can’t help it.  Stoicism rules.

Tonight I attended the lap band support group for Good Sam patients.  I missed the last one, and I was looking forward to seeing people again and hearing how others are doing.  For the first part of the meeting, I didn’t get much out of it.  I was thinking, “I’ve heard all this stuff before.  Get your protein in.  Take vitamin D.  Take vitamin B.  No drinking with meals.”  Blah blah blah.  But at some point tonight, I thought, “Hey! Maybe this ISN’T just all about me!”  That got me to thinking about why I wanted to start a blog in the first place.  My initial motivation for starting this blog was so that I could hopefully be helpful to others in the way that some had been helpful to me.  I found a couple of blogs when I was in the incipient stages of research on the lap band surgery, and they were helpful (dare I say instrumental?) in helping me to come to this life-changing decision.

So, an update on my progress.  I am down  about 77 pounds  total.  That is 77 pounds down from my first surgeon’s appointment in May.  However, it’s over one hundred pounds down from my highest ever.  I am back to exercising regularly after being a little under the weather.  As the time passes, I become less and less concerned with the numbers on the scale.  It’s really more about how I’m feeling and how my clothes fit (or don’t fit!).  I have set a weight loss goal for myself though. I would like to have lost 100 pounds by Dec. 31, 2010.

I have experienced plenty of NSV’s.  (Non scale victories)  I fit in places I didn’t use to.  My underwear is falling down.  (That’s a victory for me, but maybe not for passersby)   At our school’s music program last night, I had someone come up to me (who I had not seen in a while) and she told me that she did not recognize me.  Yay!  That’s what I’m going for!  I want people to not know who I am. I want to start fresh and I want people to lose their misconceptions of me based on how I look. Someone who meets me now, today, would have a different impression of me than someone who met me five years ago.  Some people who lose a lot of weight like this say “I am still the same person!  I just look different.”  Well, I am here to tell you that I am NOT the same person.  I’m new and I’m here!