Skin....Really, Would It Have Made a Difference?

 
I think your confused.... or confusing me with somebody else ????

Your assuming a lot......Read my back posts for 2+ years and tell me it's about amusement and entertainment.

This post was made to create discussion and awareness and it did just that.......

There are some amazing responses here that may create some clarity for others....yours included.

Re-read my post.......

Not happy with it..... block me....or let me know and I can block you.......

It's OK really......

frisco

I joke that Frisco is a troublemaker, but I would never actually label him as one.

Frankly, Frisco will ask challenging questions and address issues that some of find find uncomfortable.  I salute and herald him for doing so.  

Once again, I hope you can find some peace in your self image where you can be at a place where you don't hate how you look.  Perhaps it wouldn't feel so tender to engage in these discussions then.

*ruggie...
of course you said that in a joking manner....it was obvious..I also think it was obvious that I relayed it in the same joking manner...

*ruggie and frisco*....(i wish i could reply to more than 1 person at a time-hopefully you will both see this)

I too applaud ALL the posters that raise interesting issues and ask challenging questions...that is exactly what I was doing....being a part of the discussion....I thought that was your intent...NO DIFFERENT than anyone else who offered their view on this subject.....other than .....I did not agree with the majority.

I have..however....unintentionally struck a nerve...and left you with an opinion of me that could not be further from the facts.....which tells me that regardless of how hard I have tried....I have failed to make my point and have apparently not given enough clarity to my words. In the end...I have always spoken my mind..and will continue to do just that...even when it is not the popular view. However.....I have always respected people that do the same. Thus I look forward to engaging in further discussions with the both of you...hopefully without further miscommunication or erroneous assumptions.

No, as long as you don't contemplate making any "clothes" out of your extra skin if you ever get plastics, then you are fine.   "It puts the lotion on it's skin"......

Loose skin won't kill you....ya know unless it gets sucked into a industrial machine or under a bus or something.

 Stay FAR back when you are putting paper in the shredder.....just sayin.........

... or sitting down too fast on a loose toilet seat. Ow.

 Ugh, btdt! 

 The fact that I will have excess skin has not even entered into the pros and cons of having surgery.  I know it's going to happen.  I've already started saving for plastics.  That will be stage 2 of this journey for me.

 Morning Frisco!

The simple direct answer is that No, the skin issue never entered my mind in the 30+ years I was gaining or yo-yoing.  It never entered my mind the last time I lost large amounts of weight in my 30's.  It never entered into my decision making when I was researching and planning my surgery.

I was aware of the skin issue when making my surgery decision.  I am a fairly thorough person, I talked to people, I researched literature, watched documentaries.  I knew given that I had been obese since my teems that I was going to have loose skin.  At that point it simply didn't matter to me.  I was doing this for my health.

As I have been losing weight, what has begun to surprise me, is not how much the skin issue has started to weigh on my mind, but WHY it has.  Let me explain.

As I have gotten healthier physically, I have certainly started to get healthier emotionally as well.  Thats the most surprising thing - I always thought I had it together upstairs, always really thought I knew myself.  What I never realized was how little I thought of myself.  My self image was not just poor, it was practically non-existent.

I always had my intellect as my defining point.  The other guys could be better looking, better athletes, better liked.  At the end of the day when they lost all of that, I'd still be the smartest guy in the room.  Nothing else really mattered, I would always be able to do the things they couldn't.  I am a smart man, i just wasn't smart enough to see what was really going on.  I was convinced I knew myself, but wasn't really looking at my own motivations.

As I started losing my weight and doing the really hard work of looking at my own motivations, really questioning myself beyond just surface answers about WHY did i behave in certain ways.  Doing this, I was able with the help of friends and family who love me, to start rebuilding that self image.  I am no longer just a disembodied brain from some star trek episode.  I am on my way to becoming a whole person, living an entire life and not just a cerebral one.

So how does this relate to the saggy skin?  I have an image of myself in my head.  Its now a fairly accurate image.  As Ruggie said, I feel I look pretty good with clothes on.  I want the reality in the shower to match that image.  I want to be able to go out and get clothes that fit that person for the first time in my life.  I don't want to have to buy clothes that are two or more sizes larger to fit the excess skin.

So what surprised me about the sagging skin?  It surprises me that I care about it because I care more about me now.  It surprises me that I now care more about how I appear to the outside world.  I take better care of myself now than I ever have, with regards to grooming and all of those things I dismissed as merely superficial before.  I am confident in my appearance now like I never was before, I cant imagine how it will be after the next 50+are gone.

I don't detest my sagging skin.  It doesn't make me cry.  Sometimes it fascinates me in a clinical way.  I don't try to hide it - I will wear a short sleeve or a tank outside with my bat-wings.  I kind of see it as a badge of honor really, proof that I have done something rare in transforming myself.  That said, I don't think I will relly miss it after plastics, LOL!