Hello there. My name is Jenn (you may know me from my personal blog, 
Since I work from home and I have a house full of interruptions, I usually head out to my local Panera Bread at least once a week for some interruption-free work time. I’ve been coming here for over a year now. Since I always come to the same Panera, around the same time each week, and I usually stay for the same amount of time, most of the employees recognize me. And I can tell that they can tell that I’ve lost weight. I haven’t had any questions come my way so far, but there have been a few looks. And the one guy who goes around clearing tables often takes my plate and takes notice of the fact that I routinely dissect my food and never finish more than maybe a third of it.
On a related note, here is a side by side comparison of me from this time last year, and me from yesterday!
I’m currently listening to a woman completely bash a co-worker of hers who had gastric bypass. She just said — and this is a direct quote –
“I saw Susan* at the baby shower by the baby gifts table. She went from being fat and looking her age to being skinnier and looking older. She started having hair issues and her skin got loose. She was just so gross looking afterwards!”
*Name changed to protect the innocent from the ignorant.
It disgusts me that people are SO wrapped up with looks that they don’t stop to realize that health trumps beauty every single time. Not only that, but I’m sure this woman had equally judgmental and cruel thoughts about her co-worker when she was morbidly obese.
Damned if you, damned if you don’t.
A video update from yours truly!
Note: this video was taken on April 3rd, 2010.
I’m getting my stricture fixed tomorrow. The procedure is endoscopic, which means I’ll be put out with conscious sedation meds, while they run a tube down my throat and into my stomach, and then insert a balloon into the bottom of my stomach (through the tube), inflate it, and slowly and gently stretch open the stricture.
I’m nervous, but very excited about getting this taken care of!
My underwear size — something I haven’t bothered to figure out until today, when I realized that I’m down to just six pairs of underwear that barely hang onto my hips — is an XL.
XL
Note the lack of a 1, 2 or 3 before that X. Note that there is only one X.
I almost cried in Target this evening, when I went back to pick up a dozen pairs of underwear (at $3 apiece!!! Take that, Fashion Bug, and your overpriced 3/$25 deal!) in a size XL, after I had already bought a pair earlier and took them home to try them on.
This. Is. Awesome.
For me, bread is definitely an enemy. But it’s an enemy that I absolutely loveeeeeeeeeeeee. Sometimes I do okay on it, but most of the time I wind up throwing it back up if I eat more than just a few nibbles. It has nothing to do with the ingredients and everything to do with the texture. It tends to wad and expand, which is just a BIG no-no for my gastric bypass stomach. Boo. 
While I’m sure this isn’t necessary, I’m going to pre-face this entry by saying that I have absolutely no regrets over having gastric bypass surgery. Prior to surgery I was very undecided and unsure of choosing gastric bypass over the gastric lap band, but ultimately I made the right decision, and my (mostly) consistent weight loss is living proof of that. I was 286.6 lbs. on the day of surgery (November 18th, 2009), and as of today I am 222.8 lbs. That’s 63.8 lbs. lost in four months. More important than the amount of pounds loss is the fact that it has been a consistent loss, and I haven’t gained anything back.
Without further ado, here is what weight loss surgery has done for me:
- Motivated me to lose 40 lbs. on my own prior to surgery
- Took me from a size 30/32 in tops to a size 18/20
- Took me from a size 26/28 in bottoms to a size 18 (almost a 16!)
- Shrunk my boobs. DDD? Gone. I’m now at a much more manageable C/D
- Broke the unhealthy relationship I had with food. These days I view food as something I need, not something I want or necessarily desire or even seek out
- Improved my sex life. TMI alert — for the first time EVER last night my husband and I did “reverse cowgirl”!
- Improved my confidence tenfold
- Made me SO much healthier, which is more important than any of the above!