Just in case you didn't get the memo...you are kind of awesome...

I keep hearing this same narrative over and over again:

"Why couldn't I lose the weight without surgery? Why did it have to come to this?"

To sound like a broken record, the story you tell yourself is important. And from where I sit the people who say the above are telling themselves the WRONG story.

Do you know how awesome you are? Even if you haven't had surgery yet, you are professing in a BIG and very PUBLIC way that you have a problem and you need help. I say public because even if you don't tell people about your surgery you have to deal with the scrutiny associated with dropping half to 75% of your weight in a year. Do you know how BRAVE that is?

And do you know how awesome you are if you are a new post-op? You are doing something that most of your naysayers have probably NEVER done: you've stepped off the edge of the known world and trusted there'd be a soft spot to land (as my grandma would have said). Each day brings new challenges. It's scary! You never know if food is safe or not. You never know when you'll be confronted by some emotional attachment you never even knew existed between your mind and food. And yet you keep on keeping on. 

And do you know how awesome you are if you are an "in-betweener"? (Not a vet, not a newbie) This is the point where the rubber hits the road. You aren't losing as fast as you once were. You have to really push for it those goals. Some of you can eat more than you once could (and many of you choose to eat good things in the face of that!). You guys are exercising and continuing to reinforce those goals you set as fresh, newbies. Except now you don't have the same level of instant gratification you once did. YET YOU STILL DO IT! Do you know how awesome that is???

And my people...my vets! You should know how awesome you are, right? Because you have been walking this lifestyle for some time now. Long gone is the thrill of dramatic scale drops. These days, it's more like dramatic blood sugar drops. And for some of us the wearing off of the shiny newbie coating means we have to decide what we want to do withour lives now that we are no longer  "a person with a weight problem." That can cause identity crises and some more stuff. But we persevere! When we make mistakes, we use what we know to get back on track and we keep pushing for the kind of lives we know we want to keep! This is a lifelong war and even though we've won many battles we know it isn't over. And that's awesome!

I point this out because we are so inclined to down ourselves. After all, society has always done it, why shouldn't we try to beat them to it? But really, this is no sissy thing we're doing here. We are transforming our lives. That's awesome. Never forget that and never, EVER let anyone make you feel like you should apologize for it.

You've hit lots of nails right on the heads Nik ....you are my hero!

You have such a way with words, Nik. I think you need to write a book! 

Thanks, I needed that!!!

Great post! I knew I was awesome! Lol! But seriously, it is true. It's a hard choice to so this and decide to live your life this way. Not everyone can do it. I hope, in the long run, that I can.

Thank you Nik!  I hope you know just how awesome YOU are!  Your constant support and encouragement is a Godsend to people like me...who at 7 months don't consider myself a newbie per say nor an in-between (is that what I am?)  I'm not losing so fast anymore but still I keep going on since this is for life, not just a 2 year adventure.

Lately things are kinda rough as the anniversary of my mom's passing just went by and November tends to be a somber month for that reason, so your kind words could not have come at a better time.  Plus I'm having empty nest syndrome at the moment.  I'm very close to my two girls and I'm very proud of them, just didn't realize I would miss them this much... (One is in New York, the other in Florida)

So anyways...thank you Nik!  You should really write a book on this surgery and it's adventures!  Not just blog about it!

NIkki... in my opinion you can change your permanent address to "sitting on the corner of awesome and bombdiggity"

(can you tell I work with young folks? LOL )

Awesome post

Not gonna lie--I teared up a little.  I am a newbie (RNY on 8/27/12) and have been struggling with a lot of self-doubt.  This reminded me of everything I should be happy about that I have accomplished so far.

Wow, great post! Thank you

Amen Sista'...