Thursday 29 September 2011

Extra Small!

There is nothing I love more than shopping.  I adore spending money and carrying bags around with new stuff to play with.  I am the most terrible saver on the face of the earth and always spend every cent of my pay, always.  Any money I have lying around burns a hole in my pocket and makes me itch.  It must be spent.  Here's the good news. I'm very quickly running out of clothing.  Gosh darn it.  But I am trying to be sensible.  That's a funny word, sensible.  I don't really understand what it means.  Anyway, I digress...

About a week ago I jumped onto Virtu, one of my favourite online clothing stores.  I found a gorgeous stripey singlet that I thought would be perfect for summer.  Team it with a nice block colour maxi skirt or cute denim shorts, sandals and a big hat and it would be fab!  But what size do I get?  Since they sell clothing from size 12 - 24 their sizes are a little different.  12 - 14 is xxs, 14 - 16 is xs, 16 - 18 is sm, 18 - 20 is medium and so on.  So I was a bit unsure what to get.  I'm a good size 18 now so small would be perfect for now.  But what about when I lose more weight?  Should I get an extra small? (insert silly giggle because the word extra small was used to describe something I will wear).  Nah.  I should get the small... No. You know what? Fuck it. I'm ordering the extra small!!

So I waited patiently for the shirt to arrive...
"There's a package for you" said husband tossing it to me. 
"Oh, it's my shirt I ordered the other day."  I opening it up to have a look.  "Pfft.  That's going to sit in my cupboard for a while!" I said seeing how small it was. 
"I don't know, hun.  I recon it might fit you... give it a go!"

So I slipped my arms in and pulled it over my head.  Expecting it to get caught on my boobs (which clothing tends to do, a lot), I had already prepared a robot arms comedy piece to avoid the awkward 'it doesn't fit yet' moment.  But you know what? It slid, somewhat snugly, over my boobs and sat almost perfectly on my hips.  I danced.  Not something you'd see in an awesome night club in The Valley, rather something you'd see at a hoedown full of special people with absolutely no ability to locate the rhythm in a song.  I even threw in a yee-hah for good measure!  I continued this amazing display of interpretive dance around the house whilst also throwing in a conga type experience with "I'm an extra small - yeah! I'm an extra small - yeah!" to complete the set.  Husband just smiled and shook his head at me, again.  I think, after almost 8 years together, he's getting used to my insanity...

Sunday 25 September 2011

10 Week Surgiversary!

I know the latest update photo's are slightly late - sorry!!  Although life has returned to its quiet state, I find myself busy every day!  I have thrown out another 2 bags of clothes that no longer fit me, I LOVE doing that!  It is so incredibly fulfilling to throw out the old!  

One item that I just can't part with is my denim skirt(s).  I have had them for so long that I really am having trouble parting with them!  They are far too big now and make me look much bigger than I actually am, particularly around the stomach and hips.  If I need anything above shoulder height I have to hold onto the waist of them or they end up around my ankles.  Not funny in the frozen section of Woolies reaching for something on the top shelf, I can assure you!  I've gone through so much with these skirts... From not being able to do up the top button or zip after weeks of over indulging to not needing to undo the button or zip to get it on and off because I'm existing on liquids!  Parting with them will be saying goodbye to a staple item of my wardrobe.  I will need to replace them with something or I may need to resort to something hideous like bike pants.  Looks like I'm going to have to hit the shops!

People keep asking me if I feel amazing.  Nope, I feel the same as I did 3 months ago.  For a while I was expecting to wake up with boundless energy and feel the overwhelming urge to go for a run.  No, no.  Running is still only for emergencies.  However, a couple of things that I have noticed that are different include:  
  1. I am much closer to my toes.  I can bend over and get much closer than I could before.  No longer do I have to kind of squint and wonder if there is a broken nail down there.
  2. I can feel bones in my frame.  I have located the elusive hip bone that everyone has been talking about for years.  It's quite big really.
  3. I have a jaw line and the beginnings of collar bones.  This is exciting.  I use to look in the mirror when I was 13 and wonder why my collar bones didn't jut out like my friends did.  Well they've finally started to show!
  4. I no longer see flesh when I look down.  Don't get me wrong, I can still see stomach, but in ground breaking news I can also see toes!
  5. Forearms and arms in general.  I saw a semi defined muscle the other day!  I'm not lying!  I saw it and husband saw it too!  He nodded and said 'yes, i think it is a bicep!'  SO exciting.  It looked like a little lump just above my tuckshop lady arms.  I was pretty happy about that!
  6. I'm learning to take compliments.  It's hard sometimes to acknowledge and accept a compliment graciously.  I am trying to learn to say 'thank you, I'm really enjoying the journey' but it still comes out as 'ohthankswellyouknowit'sexpectedsinceidon'teatanymore!'
  7. Portion sizes are ridiculous!  I'm getting used to serving myself up much smaller portions, however, I am still putting too much food out!  
Anyway, here are the photo's!!





This one is a comparison from the pre-op diet to now.

Thursday 15 September 2011

Sydney

Husband and I went to Sydney last week.  I've never been to Sydney.  We had a great time and I did a spot of shopping, however, I am hesitant to get too excited yet.  My plan was to go into Zara (the flagship store is in Pitt St mall) and buy a dress in a size 14 that I could hold onto until it fit.  The dream dress, if you will.  I'm an 18 now so only 2 dress sizes to get there.  A reasonable goal, yeah?  
Anyway, after a day of (again) walking the streets of Sydney, I managed to convince husband that he would be thoroughly entertained by the various (in number and level of talent) buskers that are always performing in the mall.  I whipped into Zara but was not, in any way, prepared for the hundreds and hundreds of women involved in a feeding frenzy over a table of knits.  Holy crappola!  There were people absolutely everywhere, I've never seen anything like it!  The Zara store is 3 levels (1: kids and women, 2: women and 3: men) and women literally push past you.  I felt totally overwhelmed and had to take a second to absorb what was going on.  I sharpened my elbows and eyes and threw myself head first into the throng.  There are literally hundreds of different pieces of clothing in a seriously diverse range of fashion styles.  I was desperate to find "the dress"  but couldn't even find anything that I liked the look of.  Being the beginning of September, I figured that the store would be full of gorgeous spring skirts and dresses but nope, winter is still very much on the minds of Sydney shoppers!  I was SO disappointed.  I left the store really underwhelmed with the whole experience.  Considering that Zara is internationally renowned for it's cutting edge fashion I was disappointed with what they had on offer.  
Eating out every night was also a new experience and I continue to learn my personal limits.  At home I just eat tiny amounts of whatever is on offer but when you eat out, you and your partner usually want something different.  It's hard to choose something when you know that you'll only just scrape the top of the serving and you don't want to look ridiculous leaving most of the meal.  
Most often, I chose something from the entree menu.  It is still far too much food for me to eat but it is easier to look at than a full main meal.  We went to Felix, a gorgeous French restaurant in The Ivy.  I ordered the smoked salmon salad and when it came out, i was quietly confident that I could get through most of it.  I got about half way.  I was fairly happy with that achievement, however I really didn't want to waste the smoked salmon.  It was AMAZING and is just so expensive to buy!  Thank goodness my cousin offered to help finish it!! Thanks, Pete!

Another night I ordered a meal at the hotel restaurant.  I asked if it could be made smaller but was told it was "pretty much standard size".  Whatever that means??  Pre-made maybe?  When it came out it was ENORMOUS!  I laughed out loud when I saw it!  After I had eaten my fill it went back to the kitchen looking totally untouched!  I had to laugh.  I think if I had said that I wanted entree size but would still pay the full price they might have been more likely to make a smaller one for me.  

A couple of tips I've picked up... 
  • I now share a meal when possible.  I'm only going to have a couple of mouthfuls and it's really not going to make that much of a difference to the meal.  Most of the time they're happy to share, knowing how little I eat.  
  • Don't order a drink.  If it's there, I'll drink it.  If it's not, I won't.  It makes the temptation easier.  I also try not to have even a glass of water in front of me when I'm eating.  Too much temptation to have some.  Disastrous results when you drink and eat. *Shudders*
  • Sugar. Lollies make me feel nauseous instantly. I avoid them.
  • Old habits die hard.  Really hard.  Although I am now accepting of the whole quarter of a stomach thing, it is really difficult to understand that I can't finish a meal.  I see a tiny entree sized meal and think; pfft, I'll get through that easy peasy.  Nope.  Wrong.  I'm really still learning how much I can eat.  I think it tends to vary, depending on the type of food and time of day.  Maybe I'm crazy but that's how it seems!
 

Wednesday 14 September 2011

First Night On The Turps

We went to Brisbane for a good friends 30th birthday a couple of weekends ago.  I was totally unsure what to do or expect from a night on the turps since I hadn't really tried drinking yet.  But I did have a theory...
Since I only have a quarter of a stomach I figured that alcohol would travel through the area very quickly.  That would mean WAY more trips to the loo and not as much absorption of alcohol.  With a standard drink costing about $7 these days I needed to work out how to make the most of what I was consuming so I could get tipsy but not need to re-mortgage the house to do so.  

I thought maybe if I drank shots all night, the alcohol (which is thicker than water) would stay in my stomach longer and therefore absorb the alcohol.  So I started with shots.  A few different ones.  The lovely lady behind the bar, who I referred to throughout the night as princess, had fun mixing up different things each time (my favourite was a jam donut - Chamboard and bailey's in a sugar rimmed shot glass!). The problem with this was that once you've had your shot, you're done.  Drinking is a very social event and so I was left with nothing in my hand to hold.  It just didn't "feel" right and after having 5 of them, I still felt completely sober.  
I tried a pot of apple cider but it just has too many bubbles and so the minor discomfort when swallowing a mouthful, paired with my uncontrollable burping (usually at the most important parts of a story) ruled it out as well.  
So I went back to my good old friend: Vodka, lime and soda.  With one slight difference - half soda.   Because there was only a dash of soda in the glass it went down easily and there was none of the burping issues!  I continued on with my plan and ladies and gentlemen...it was a winner!!  Finally after 4 hours I actually started to get a little bit tipsy.  I didn't take it too much further because I didn't want to get to the drunk stage, again because I don't know what to expect yet.  I didn't feel overly full or bloated and I was able to have something in my hand to hold.  I also tried vodka, lime and water - another winner!

We had a great night and caught up with some great friends we haven't seen in a long time.  Thanks again for a great night out Duffy!