Stranger Here--WLS book update

I've finished the book. She put more links at the end about Fat Acceptance types groups than she did for anything about WLS, though she did include OH in her WLS links.

I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, since I'd rather err on the side of "love yourself fat" than "cut out your stomach, reroute your innards, play russian roulette with your diet and be thin."

She is still waiting for her epiphany, for something to happen to her that will finally force her to take care of herself, or so it feels to me. I could be wrong. Mind you, she's very aware of this, and is NOT recommending anything about her journey to others. She wrote a very frank accounting of her own shortcomings. It feels incomplete, though. The "tied up in a love-yourself-at-any-size bow" didn't feel genuine to me. It felt like something she knows (and always knew) but still doesn't experience. But memoirs don't work without that Big Revelation when all becomes clear.

It's a really good book, though.

This is the problem I'm having with my own book. How to end it. Because having this big triumphant ending where I learn the secret to life and SUCCEED just seems kind of fake. I'm still learning and still growing and always will be.

That is your ending, then.  It's REAL.  It never ends.  End with where you are today.  Tell the truth--what you've learned, and what you're still working on. :)

I am thinking I will end with my big comeback from this last injury. So I'm in the middle of my ending! I am going to do a race as a relay in April so I can end with that but I want to be biking again and maybe running too. But the book will take a while to finish. I have time.

Okay, I apologize for jumping in here, but I have been away for a bit.  What book is this...sounds fascinating...

STRANGER HERE by Jen Larsen.

I remember Jen Larsen a bit from when she posted here. I am pretty sure she was part of what I think of as The Cult. They pushed the DS at every opportunity and presented it as a Free Lunch. They told everyone having VSG was like being on a diet every day and that we'd all be gaining our weight back in 4-5 years. But some of them were nice and some were knowledgeable and I enjoyed talking to them while some were bat**** crazy and mean and everything in between. I don't remember where Jen fell or any individual interactions. I am drawing a complete blank on everything but the name.

I do know that her story is not being headlined the way she is telling it and that she is a very good writer. She wrote a blog post about that:

http://jenlarsen.net/2013/03/still-not-miserable/

Because I'm writing my own book, I won't want to read anyone else's right now. I'm afraid it will pollute my voice. But I plan to read it when I'm done with mine.