Ya say that jacket from high school fits?!? yes!

This weekend I had plans to go out with some old friends from High school and have dinner, I had planned on a steak and potato dinner but the fact that I have been laying under a heavy quilt all weekend because of the sore throat that I have had stopped that in its tracks. Being sick @ 350 pounds is much different than at 534 pounds which my wife was glad to point out to me, Saturday I made the suggestion that we go out for a ride just to get some fresh air and we ended up running a few errands and then back to my quilt and brandy laced tea for the evening but where are the differences you might be asking? Well let me tell ya, @ 534 pounds when I got sick (which was much more often than now) the world would have to stop so that I could rest, I would need 14 hours of sleep per night and the rest of the day was literally sitting on the couch or in bed drinking as much orange juice as I could get, the only movement that would be given was the movement that HAD to be given because of the mess that would have happened if I didn't move my arse to go to the bathroom. I would get a cold and still have it 2 weeks later all the while the universe was at a stand still because of it, the stark differences in then and now are obvious to me as well as Wify and I know this all by the look I got from her when the subject was brought up! Being healthy (or should I say healthier) has more benefits than expected and honestly being sick longer than normal because of the distress my body was in thing never even dawned on me, with that said though my throat is still very raw and sore this morning but Wify said that I sounded better so hopefully it will only be another day or two before I am back to normal. Everything is where it should be besides the exercise or lack there of, The warmer weather that is just around the bend will be welcomed by me and the small patch of lawn that I can see through the melting snow makes me glad that spring is on the way! With spring will come many hours of manual labor in the new yard, lots of walks around the lake and some hiking for sure, all of which will help the weight come off while making our new place exactly what we want.

I want to talk about the extra skin deal that comes with this weight loss gig for a paragraph or so, My back has been itching me for the last couple of weeks and I couldn't think of any reason why until I mentioned it to my wife, she said something about a preggo belly and how it itched etc and then said that its probably the skin doing its elasticity thang, so for the past few nights she has been giving me a back rub with some lotion which I am hating every minute of by the way, but anything for the weight loss right? (Insert evil grin here) This seems to be doing the trick, though it still itches a bit it is at least 75% less itchy since she has been doing that for me. At times I think about the loose skin and feel like there is no way that at 265 pounds I will be happy with how it looks and feels on me and there are times that I think that it will all be ok and it will stretch back to a reasonable amount of looseness and I will just live with it, this is fast becoming something that I think about as the weight comes off and decision that will be made in a couple years time after my body has had ample time to recuperate from the stress its been under for all of these years.

Which brings me to my next point and something that I am more than excited about! Though in the past three months the weight loss has slowed as far as the raw numbers go I am shrinking every day and I only know this because of the way clothing is fitting, the Jacket that I wore in High school zips up!!! Yesterday I was half kidding when I said to wify "I'm going to try the jacket on" She just looked at me with that "um ok” look so I put it on and when I pulled the zipper together I was honestly amazed that the two sides came together! So I pulled the zipper up and besides being a little short the jacket fit me! I was measured for this jacket when I was 17 years old! Say it with me, seventeen! Years! Old! So this means that I am approximately the same size right now as I was when I was 17! I know I know that’s one helluva big seventeen year old! I honestly did not expect to be able to zip that jacket until I was less than 300 pounds so I was pleasantly surprised to say the least. This lead me to pull some dress shirts out of the closet, now if you are or were a huge fella like me you know the trials of wearing a button up shirt, make sure it is long enough, make sure it stays tucked into your pants because with every movement it creeps out and you have to constantly tuck it back in, sit down? Yep its going to pull out of the back of your pants so plan how and when you will stand up so that you can tuck it when no one is looking and that’s IF you can find one long enough to even tuck in! Can I sit down without sending someone to the hospital with a button injury? The other option is leave it untucked and look sloppy, or keep your jacket buttoned over it to slightly hide the fact that its not tucked in but you know that its sloppy and everyone that notices knows this too, yep its not fun but let me get back to the good part of this, I pull out some of my old dress shirts and they ALL fit me! Some were a bit short but they all buttoned up with more than enough room to sit without worrying about taking someone’s eye out with a button merely from having a seat!

To be 534 pounds vs. 353 pounds is different worlds on more levels than you could possibly know if you haven't walked that walk and I wish it upon nobody because it is not a pleasant experience to be on the heavy side of that statement. This post has gone long enough so it shall end here, I did not get any weekend posts up because of the falling of the laptop so this was slightly longer than normal and for that you should drink TWO glasses of H2O! See, there was a rainbow at the end of this very long post for ya! Thank you for following along and the support is appreciated!

As Ever
Me