XP Sharing Snippets ...

martitalinda
on 7/6/11 12:46 am, edited 7/6/11 1:38 am
As I sit at my desk today looking like this.. Yup I love my extensions...
I will never forget that I am the same person in a smaller frame who sat at my desk 4 years and 5 months ago yesterday looking like this...

I will never forget me ... because me is where my heart is ... grounded in the same place where it has always been... a place of love and acceptance ..of tolerance and understanding ... a place where joy is not predicated upon my moods nor my challenges .. a place where my inner peace and self worth cannot be altered by the word of men....

Four years and Five months ago yesterday I embarked on the best journey of my life ... and I am well traveled ... and well experienced in pleasurable moments as well as in adversities ... but this is MY Journey ... for MY LIFE ... MY QUALITY OF LIFE and I celebrate it each and every day in an Empowerment Journal that I have called 'a picture a day keeps the pounds and the inches at bay'

I have captured my moments throughout my life post weight loss surgery just as I captured them pre-weight loss surgery.  Of all the things I value most are LIFE ... LOVE ... MY FAMILY ... and my fellowmen.

In the midst of my adversities I will always embrace Joy ... the joy I experience has nothing to do with my physical countenance nor with my feelings ... I still cry...I still experience sadness... I still experience fear .. I still experience challenges that leave me winded for a moment ... but over all that I embrace Joy ... the Joy that is my essence ... the joy that will be always there when my midnight hour is over ... when I open my eyes to the light of a new day ... where I can wake up and once again make a difference ... for me, for my family and for whomever I can reach ... with a kind word... a helping hand.. a smile or an ear ... 

These are snippets from my Journal ... A picture a Day ... it is just me today ... doing with improved health and mobility all the things that I did yesterday ... but better! ... I still eat but I have changed by eating habits and have embraced eating healthy as part of my lifestyle ... I was encouraged to do so at my pre WLS seminar ... at my psych eval ... by my PCP...by my nutritionist..by my surgeon and by my peers who went before me ... and it is working for me seamlessly today ... no struggles ... no regrets... I want for nothing ...

Me today with my extensions in my hair ... NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN ... I did the same thing in my before...

 I love love love to sew ... I did it yesterday and I do it today....I sew for me... for my friends ...for my daughter ..for her friends and I do it for fun ... 

when the piece I am sewing gets complicated and I start getting aggravated I fling it away and move on to the next fun thing... like playing with and tickling my 8 beautiful ferrets...

tired out after a days play they are all zonked in their basket ... except for Caspar my Albino ferret bouncing a ball off his brothers sleepy heads LOL

 and when my furry boys and girls (6 boys and 2 girls) don't want to deal with me anymore I can move on to my canvas, my paint and my sketches)  ...

I love to sketch fashions that I can sew for myself or my friends after... I sketch avies of my OH friends on my fashion runway ... that is if they are amenable to it ... some I have reproduced the fashion on fabric by getting their measurements and forwarding it to them no strings attached .. no sales because this is my hobby and my gift ... no sales pitch I do it because I want to and I love to and I have fun doing it too....

Sketches on Parchment Paper using charcoal and graphite ....



 Or I would sketch or paints gifts for my friends or my children's friends ... my sketches and paintings have made awesome gifts ... a gift for a gift ... I JUST LOVE IT! 

On Monday I sketched one of my DDs friend so she could present it to her on her B-day... framed it and wrapped it too....

 I painted a canvas of my friends on their engagement day and presented it for them as a gift at her shower and stuck a buck in it and she LOVED IT... I thought it was a Cinderella gift but her expression and everyones expression when they saw it eased my heart LOL...

 I also love celebrating my OH sistas and brothers with my brush and my acrylics on canvas ... I love sketching and painting people ... I have done it since the age of 3 or 4 when I could first use a crayon ... I remember sketching a nun in a swim suit in elementary school ... I thought that living in the tropics like we did in Panama until I came here in such weather she would be too hot ... and I drew her in a cool swim suit just to get in mega trouble and made to stand in a corner ... but guess what? it did not stop me from sketching and drawing people ... not even all the times I got in trouble for scribbling drawings of people in ALL my notebooks ... even now when I go to meetings and even in church...

This is Just Ducky our OH Sista with her AWESOME GUNS that she shared on her surgiversary... I have painted so many canvas and done so many sketches since I joined here in 2007 and since wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy before then ... from my toddler years ... my paints... my brushes... my charcoal and my artists pencils and graphite are never ever far away....

 MSW will not Settle at goal...

Chelle and her grandbaby...

FOUR YEARS AND FIVE MONTHS AGO YESTERDAY ... WAS MY MONTHLY-SURGIVERSARY ... MY SPECIAL DAY ... I celebrate life each and every day ... always did ... today I am  celebrating health, mobility. and 5-co-morbidity left behind .... I am maintaining for life ... for quality of life ... it makes me feel good to be able to run at the crack of dawn each morning ... imagine me running like a pigeon toed gazelle at the age of 53 .... swimming non-stop for 1-2 hours ... dancing... exercising.. weights... spin.. yoga... Bikram ... BRING IT ON ... I AM LOVING IT!!!!

THANK YOU FOR ALLOWING ME TO SHARE ... SNIPPETS OF MY JOURNEY POST WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY.... I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ABLE TO LOOK IN THE MIRROR .... BECAUSE THE EYES OF THE WOMAN LOOKING BACK AT ME REFLECTS MY INNER CORE ... MY BEING... A HEART THAT REMAINS IN THE RIGHT PLACE ...

THE REFLECTION IN THE MIRROR SHOWS MY NOW WITH MY YESTERDAY BESIDE ME... ENCOURAGING ME ALWAYS ... REMINDING ME HOW I FELT PHYSICALLY WHEN MORBIDLY OBESE ... THAT FAT WOMAN THAT STANDS BESIDE ME IS ME AND I EMBRACE HER FOR WHO SHE IS ... HER DELIVERANCE IS MY RELEASE AND MY RELEASE IS HER DELIVERANCE FROM DIABETES, HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE, GASTROESOPHAGEAL REFLUX, DYSLIPIDEMIA, AND SLEEP APNEA .... ALL IN REMISSION .... AND I AM KEEPING THEM THERE!!!





MY YESTERDAY .....

 THANK YOU FOR ALLOWING ME TO SHARE!!!
I am embracing Joy over misery ... each and every day ... Joy that is not predicated upon looks nor feeling .. Joy as in my essence ... my inner core ... my inner peace ... as a believer I say the Joy of the Lord is my strength ... my very dear friend and unbeliever embraces Joy as her inner core ... her inner peace ... her strength ...she embraces Joy each and every day and lets it happen to her ... and she gave me the formula and the words and I LOVE IT!!! ..  Despite all adversities ... I am embracing Joy and making it happen to me! each.and.every.day.

Don't worry.... be HAPPY!!!!

View more of my photos at ObesityHelp.com

autumnsiggy2RNY 2/5/07 no regain having implemented lifestyle changes....

 

laura_vermont
on 7/6/11 1:23 am
Beautiful post - and artwork.  Thanks for sharing.

Laura
High Weight 278; consult weight 234; Surgery Weight 219 Surgeon's Goal Weight 150 -10/27/10  -  Personal goal weight 140 - Achieved 12/11/10  
  
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