up-sizing the article of clothing uniformly, all over.

Especially the arms. Hey, if I'm wearing a size 14 top, I can't fit my arms into size 8 sleeves people! My arms aren't longer, they're fatter around.

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I have also been remarkably lucky that none of my BIDs have been from outside sources. My family has been wonderfully supportive of me no matter what size I am. Even my teeny, tiny twin sister never brought up the issue--when she was a size 2 and I was a 12, she respected me and treated me with love and affection.

Noone in my family has said, "You'd be so pretty if..." I was always (and still am) gorgeous in their eyes.

It's all been internal--which require their own special talent to defeat.

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{{{Sean}}} Hope the blue disapates a bit.

The black jean is a staple of my wardrobe and they seem to be disappearing.

As is the nature of black. If you wear it, you disappear t /theater geek

WRT not being thin. A former co-worker was REALLY stressing and upset one day. I inquired what was wrong. She was AGONIZING over the stomach staple surgery. I was shocked. Her doctor "strongly urged her to consider it" (I think those were the words). Mind you, she is not a thin person by any means, but I would never consider her a candidate for the stomach staple thing. And I told her so. She looked at me like "really? Do you really think that?" I said something to the effect, "I'm not gonna lie and say your paper thin or anything. You are large. But not HUGE. Do you get stuck in armed chairs? Do stairs groan? Not that I've seen. I've sat next to you at a show, and I wasn't hugging the other seat handle. You are what you are" Several months later, I couldn't help but notice she had lost a good 50#'s or so. And I commented as much. She thanked me, saying she DIDN"T get the surgery. And realized that she has been stressing for years about her weight, and that she ate more (stress eating, I'm guilty of it too). And that when she stopped stressing about it, it helped a ton. She is still not "thin", but feeling a lot better.

As for me? I got a belly. I need to get rid of it, to make walking on the crutches as easy as possible. Since I can't exercise all that well, and stress eating is in my mode of working, I realize I'll never be "skinny". With that, I have SLOWLY been trying to change my eating habits. No 'diet' per se, but improve my eating habits. First, I started with cutting the soft drinks. Wasn't hard for me, but I was still drinking a couple ginger ales or cokes every day. Next I eliminated (as much as one can) HFCS. That shit is NASTY. But it is EVERYWHERE. So I read the ingredients before buying. If it has HFCS, I don't buy it. Then I worked on MSG. Apparently that stuff is designed to make you ignore your stomach and eat more. Again, not easy to do, since they put it in a LOT of frozen foods. Then I worked on cutting sugar snacks. These 4 steps were slowly implemented over a 18-24 month period. Slowly change habits. I did loose some weight. Not a ton. But I'm not bulging at the seams anymore. And I am not in the mindset that I *HAVE* to keep to it. I will have a slice of cake. Ice Cream. Cookies. I just make a conscious effort to take a small plate/bowl of the snack, and eat that, and not the whole bag or whatever. I've discovered I'm far too lazy to go up for seconds of potato chips. And I snack on apples, honey dew's, grapes, carrots, peanuts, raisins, and oranges a lot more than I ever did before.

OK, that's me. I know it's not everyone. But I'd say 1) don't stress about it, that is fuel on the fire. And 2) try things slow. You can't slap a ship into reverse and expect it to miss the iceberg. But if you keep power up, and turn hard to port, you could avoid being the Titantic.

Thin is like money. Easy to loose, and a bitch to gain.

OK, I'm working. Really I am. I swear. (oh ya, and all of this was written after eating a zip lock of deformed cookies from last night, so ya, I'm not perfect).

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Why do they think that as people get fatter their arms also get longer?!?!?

This is making me laugh and laugh and laugh, because it is so true! And I am a petite size to begin with, so I think it is even worse. Of course, I always get the "you aren't petite thing" from people, but petite means short with shorter limbs people! I am fat and petite!

Also, I find I have a slightly easier time finding clothes as a size 20 than as a size 14, as those didn't seem to exist, but not as easy as when I was a 4 or 6.

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:: said with tongue in cheek ::

I'm sure that, for instance, when I see my Big Giant Torso on the billboard, I'll be struck with "OMG I'm ENORMOUS!!!" and feel bad.

Of course you are enormous, YOU ARE ON A BILLBOARD. Ain't nothing small on them things.

Also, forgot to write, the original reason I came into bitches. I took a quick peak at the medal count. And Google linked me to a .cn site, which I assume is a China domain. Since China is leading in Gold, they have China at the top of the pack. Even though USA is leading in overall qty of medals. I thought it was a funny spin doctor moment. [link]

I'm working... see!

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The gastric bypass (? is that the formal name) is kind of evil. People talk about it like it's the easy solution. First of all, it's SURGERY. The niece of a woman in my office died during this surgery. Second, if you have an emotional problem with food and decide to get the surgery, you'll still have an emotional problem. Several years ago a woman who worked in my office had had the surgery. But she hadn't done anything about her compulsive eating. So ... since you can only fit so much in what's left of your stomach, she'd stuff herself, go into the restroom, throw it up, then come back and do it all over again. Repeatedly. She lost weight, sure ... but she wasn't doing her health any favors.

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Second, if you have an emotional problem with food and decide to get the surgery, you'll still have an emotional problem.

There's a bar owner I know who had the surgery, and then didn't pay attention to what he ate and drank, so he ended up breaking the band around his stomach. Ai yi yi. This is also the same dude who's had 2 hip replacements, and he's only 32. He's got issues, for sure.

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The gastric bypass (? is that the formal name) is kind of evil.

Exactly! That was the rest of the conversation with her. You have to avoid dairy or some such? eliminate sugars? When I heard the stuff you have to do, I was like "well, just do that and avoid the surgery, the results might be slower, but a hell of a lot safer"

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One of my cousins had gastic bypass surgery and lost a bunch of weight, but never dealt with the underlying issues of why she was eating. So she's gained most of it back.

And she has issues, she switched to complusive shopping. Plus most of her family thinks she's bipolar but won't talk to her for fear she'll fly off the handle and cut off access to her children.

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I'm ready to go. I don't really need to leave for a half hour. My makeup will probably all melt off by then.

Someone entertain me! Keep me from being nervous!

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