The Frazzled Scribe

Yesterday I put out a call from my WLS friends for their blogs (this will be another post) but then I started thinking about my website preferences which is now leading to this post. So if anyone has any reflections, observations, or opinions based on my fave sites, please share them with me because, as Socrates said…”the unexamined life is not worth living.”

Blogs:

The World According to Eggface – mentioned below this is the website for recipes post-WLS. Eggface also includes some of her musical preferences and other insights that have lifted my spirits many a day. Her recipes work well for non-WLS people too (especially those who want to curb carbs, pump up protein and eat more veggies). http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com

The Vegan Lunchbox – this blog is run by a lady named Jennifer who is a lunchbox artiste! She and her family are all vegan and so all the foods she consumes are meat-free, dairy-free and, I’ve just learned, not soy dependent. Plus her lunch boxes are so pretty! She makes shapes and adds colors and it all just seems too pretty to eat. I don’t make too much from this blog but it makes me not so afraid of vegetables. http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com

Pink is the New Blog – Trent is it! For all my celebrity goss and the 4-1-1 on what’s happening in Hollywood I turn to him. I like his blog better than some other blogs because he gives his insights without scathing words. Perhaps this is why even the celebs he writes about love his blog. www.pinkisthenewblog.com

Project Rungay- Their tagline is “Project Runway and Fashion from a bitchy Gay perspective.” What could be better? Anyone who knows me knows that I lurve Project Runway. I’ve even recruited the kids into my madness (we watch the runway show and pause after every outfit to give a thumbs-up, thumbs-neutral, or thumbs-down). This blog sums up the show nicely and gives some good tips too. http://projectrungay.blogspot.com

Websites:

Television Without Pity – if you are a snarky person (and if you don’t know what that means…chances are you’re not), you’ll love this website. There are so many reasons why I love it, I had to edit this paragraph three times just to shorten the whole thing! First off, they do recaplets. What is a recaplet? Well, if you missed a show you can go on there and read everything that happened. BUT…it is a recap without pity which means the recapper injects his/her likes, dislikes, neuroses into the recap which makes it all the more better because then you know you are NOT the only one out there thinking of this stuff. Plus, there are message boards for every show you love and hate. I score killer spoilers for my soaps on this board. www.televisionwithoutpity.com

I-Dressup – ok, technically this started as a website my daughters went to…but now I’m hooked. This is an online dressup community. Basically here’s the deal: you get an avatar and some i-coins..which you can use to buy your avatar clothes to put in her closet (which is completely customizable of course). You earn more i-coins by playing dress-up games. Some of the games are really, really cool. There are many studios with real designer clothes (Michael Kors, Anna Sui, Juicy Couture, Baby Phat, Roberto Cavalli, you name it…they got it), and also by going to other people’s closets and playing dress up. Both my daughters have killer wardrobes on there. Be careful to monitor kids on this though…it is also a social networking site which means people can contact you and you can contact them. One good thing though is that everyone’s age is displayed on their avatar so hopefully that helps. www.i-dressup.com

Bag, Borrow, and Steal – technically this is a retail site but I like to just go there and drool. It’s the same concept as Netflix except with purses. There are different level plans (which I guess get you better purses). Keep the purse as long as you like and return it for another. I don’t subscribe (funds are tight) but I’d imagine this is a good way to impress your friends at the high school reunion. I’ve made a deal with myself. If they get the Hermes Birkin bag…I’ll sign up. Otherwise, no deal. www.bagborrowsteal.com

Merriam-Webster website – now before you call me a big ol’ dork let me say this. I like to know what the words mean that come out of my mouth. So when I come up against a word I don’t know, I ask my peeps at MW. When I need a thesaurus…I ask them. When I want to see a word used in a sentence…well you get the picture. They also have a word of the day every day and it gives the meaning, use and background on that word. From this I found that “bogart” is an actual word thankyouverymuch (as in “stop bogarting the chips!!!”) Who knew? www.m-w.com

And last but certainly not least…

JK Rowling’s website – choose the UK version and there is all sorts of magic in store for you. She hides what she calls “Easter Eggs” in her site which you have to perform magic spells to unlock. I’ve gotten nearly all of them and have seen handwritten pages of the Potter manuscripts, character descriptions and never-before-seen stuff. If you’re a Potter fan, this site is a must visit. If you are inconsolable about the series ending, you might also consider Harry Potter Fan Fiction, which is a site devoted to…you guess it…fan fiction. Can take the edge off those lonely nights ya know? Rowling’s site: www.jkrowling.com, Fan Fiction: www.harrypotterfanfiction.com

So there you have it. My favorite net places. What are yours?

Surgery Date: January 8, 2008
Starting Weight: 327 lbs.
Current Weight: 227 lbs.

Yeah, yeah I know. I’ve been gone a looooong time. So shoot me. I’ve been out there living. So naturally, there is a lot to tell about. Does anyone read this friggin’ blog???? If you do, please leave a comment so that I know I’m not talking to an empty world. Yeesh.

So let’s get to the juice.

Physically

I know since all my people are intelligent and savvy that you noticed the numbers above and that I’ve lost 100 lbs. since surgery!!!! Somehow I wasn’t as excited about that as I should be. Otherwise, physically I’m great. I have not been working out nearly as much as I should, but I have learned that I don’t like working out at home. So, much as it pains me to spend gas driving across town to the Y, that is what I do because that is what keeps me on track. Between going to the Y, walking more, and the step club (more below), my fitness level is improving. Here are but a few things I can do now that I couldn’t before:

Run on the treadmill – I was self-conscious about this at first. I thought everyone in the gym would think “what the hell is that fat girl doing running on the treadmill?” Well dagnabbit I run now without fear or shame. And yes, they are thinking that but you know what else I think they’re thinking? “I gotta work out more. This fat chick is showing me up.”

Exercise on the elliptical machine for more than 20 minutes without passing out or cursing the machine out – and, surprisingly, I don’t get out of breath anymore. Now I am still a sweaty, funky urchin when I come off the thing but that’s normal.

Work out for an hour – and feel like I can keep going!!!!

So all is good in the fitness department so far. For my birthday I am thinking about commissioning a few personal training sessions just so I can get my butt kicked and to take it up to the next level. I don’t just want to be small. I want to be small and strong.

Other physical changes: well, I notice that I am not that interested in TV at all. Aside from my soaps (which I tend to watch a couple of times per week off of my TiVo instead of rushing home everyday to watch them) and Project Runway (of course), I don’t watch much tv at all. I find, though, that since my energy level keeps climbing I get restless very easily. This is my theory on how skinny people stay skinny. They can’t stay still. At first it all felt very ADHD but now I think I like it.


Me vs. Food

Well people, it was bound to happen. My appetite came back. Sigh…it was nice being an anorexic for the time that I was. Mind you I still can’t eat that much most days. About 4-6 ounces and I’m done. I recently went out to sushi with some friends, though, and managed to eat 7 pieces which both pleased and alarmed me at the same time. But then the next few days I was on the two-bite plan so I guess it all evened out in the end.

I find that I like cooking a lot more now that I can’t eat much. And I enjoy feeding other people. I’ve been cooking all kinds of stuff. I discovered the greatest blog ever for post-WLS people. The World According to Eggface…this chick is a GENIUS! Half the battle for us surgery folk is knowing what we can/can’t eat. For some reason we assume we are resigned to a diet of yogurt and tuna for the rest of our lives. Thank God for Shelly because she dispels that myth quick, fast, and in a hurry. Between her recipes and the ideas they inspire in my own head…we’ve been enjoying all sorts of foods. The children have grudgingly accepted that green vegetables are now a permanent fixture on their plates and I even think my oldest has gone through fried chicken withdrawal (we’re still looking for the 12 step program for her).

I found that left-over food tends to stress me out so I found a solution to that too. The Lunch Fairy. Whenever I make too much of something (which is most of the time) or I make something the children absolutely refuse to eat, I pack up my little Gladware containers and bring in food for my co-workers. Judging from their reactions, most of my dishes have been pretty good so far.

Life

Well last we spoke I was in a very self-centered place. I still am to a certain extent. I have been told that I talk about surgery stuff a lot. In my mind, I think I just gotta embrace that for several reasons. First, I spent 31 years NEVER talking about myself, never giving myself any regard. So if I seem a little self absorbed now…I’m making up for years when I put myself absolutely last on my list. Thankfully most of the people in my life don’t mind…and I am trying to keep it in check more. So far as the need for compliments and whatnot…let’s just say that nature is taking its course. I’m getting smaller…I’m dressing nicer…I get the compliments. The difference now is that I don’t need them so much any more. Like I said, I missed out on that narcissistic phase in my life. I went through it, I embraced it, it’s coming to an end.

Let’s see what else…I’ve been dating. I started out dating a lot of people and now I am dating one person. Life is a trip. Relationships, I find, are hard. This may be why I’ve always been so averse to them. They are a lot of work and sometimes you feel like you’ve been in an all-day battle by the time you climb into bed. The plus is that the guy I’m dating is a nice guy and fun to be around, the down-side is that he hasn’t been on this journey with me and I’m not sure he completely understands what it takes for me to make this life transformation. I’ll have to keep y’all posted on how this all goes down. I will tell you that everyone is rooting for me. I’ve been anti-commitment for so long. Further, I’ve been single for so long that I think that my family was wondering if I was hiding same-sex tendencies or something (for the record I’m not…no disrespect to lesbians…but I love my men!).

So that’s the last couple of months in a nutshell. This post was hella-long so I’m going to end it now. Two goals by next post:

#1 – figure out how to put pics on this thing so I can do a “before/after” thing
#2 – share my blog with more people so that they can know the wonder of the frazzle scribe!