Sin City, A Place of Victory!

It's Monday morning... Just two more nights til I am off to the fabulous Las Vegas also known by many as Sin City. I can only assume it has received its nick name from the various "in your face" taboos. Known for prostitution, gambling, unplanned marriages and alcohol, Vegas is also an amazing place to see shows, eat great food and do things you have never done before!

This will be my second trip to Las Vegas, my first one being last May for the last WLSFA Meet and Greet in 2011. Last May, I was healthy enough to truly enjoy all the wonderful things Vegas has to offer. I was 7 months post my Sleeve and down a significant amount of weight already. I was able to walk up and down the Vegas strip without being in pain and see all the free shows. Mt biggest victory of course was riding the roller coaster at the New York, NY hotel! I hadn't been able to fit in a coaster since I was 16!

So here we are, less then 3 days away from Vegas and I am getting excited for this whole new adventure. This year I am sure a whole new set of victories awaits me. Thursday night I plan on going Zip Lining at Flightlinez on Freemont Street with some of my Bariatric Bad Girls! Zip lining is always something I have wanted to try but never could because I was always over the weight limit. NOT ANYMORE!!! I am also excited nervous ready to bust out my brand new, non plus size bathing suit and catch some sun on Thursday and Friday afternoon. Meet me by the pool and come say HI!

I can only wonder what other adventures this weekend will bring. I know some will be getting tattoos. Others will be catching a show or star watching, as I hear the MGM Awards will be taking place in Vegas on Sunday.

Personally, I am looking forward to seeing old friends, making new ones and having a wonderful and supportive vacation!

Can't wait to see you there!

xoxo
Sleeve Pixie

Success Through Failure

"You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space." - Johnny Cash


I read this on my facebook news feed today and immediately thought it's time to blog!

With so many revision surgeries being done these days, many patients going through this, experience an unbelievable amount of guilt and tremendous feelings of failure.

I can and have definitely shared my feelings of failure when after 2.5 years after my Lap-Band I had only lost 27lbs. In all honesty and fairness, I had really lost 57lbs but after all the throwing up I experienced, my body held onto 30lbs worth of everything I put in my mouth the two months after my band was removed.

We all turned to Weight Loss Surgery as a last resort. One final effort to lose the weight and get healthy and at our LAST RESORT, we failed AGAIN!! If you have gone through this you know exactly the feelings I am talking about.

These feelings also keep many WLS patients from seeking the help they need from their doctors when it is probably needed the most. Remember those feelings of empowerment you felt when you started your first steps towards surgery? The feelings of control you had as you were finally going to take the reins of your life and control the direction of your future? Those positive feelings can be hard to get back the second time around. Trust me... I know...

This quote is exactly the mindset we should have. Don't dwell on the failure. Use it as a stepping stone. Figure out what went wrong the first time and do it right the next time around. If that means getting more educated, do it! If that means getting into therapy, do it! It may mean working out or being more mindful of the things you eat... Whatever it is, do it!

To your success!
xoxo
Sleeve Pixie

I Don't Deserve It... Do I?

A few nights ago I was having a convo with a good friend of mine (Who is having her sleeve as I type!), and she said to me (talking about her upcoming surgery), "I still can't believe it's gonna happen. I feel like something will come up and prevent me from doing it last minute."

My reply to this was to tell her that what she is feeling is normal. Most of us who are overweight for one reason or another have this internal dialogue that tells us we don't deserve good things.

As we continued on talking about this topic I recalled to her a few times in my life I have felt this way. The most recent time I remember feeling this way was the night of my wedding. I recall walking down the aisle on December 1, 2005 thinking to myself, "OK this can't be happening. Who is gonna stand up and object to the marriage? When is Aryeh going to realize he doesn't want to do this?"

Then I told my friend about a time when I was young, couldn't have been more than 5 years old... My school used to take us to the park around the corner to play because the school had no gym. I remember walking down the steps of the school outside on the way to the park thinking to myself, "I can't believe this is happening. I can't believe I am getting to go to the park. This must be a dream." AT 5!! A small little innocent 5 year old... I already didn't think myself worthy of good things. In case you were wondering, yes I was overweight at 5 years old.

Now days, I don't really struggle with this so much. I do feel i deserve good things and happiness. I don't know if that is a result of the weight loss or the counseling I did after my divorce or just a shift in the universe. I doubt the latter. So I wanted to blog this morning and throw this out to you. Have you ever srtuggled with thoughts like this? do you still struggle? If not, what changed for you?

I am very much looking forward to your comments this morning!
xoxo
Sleeve Pixie

NYC - MY Walk from Obesity!

This weekend I invited myself to "Obesity Online", an invite only conference for WLS bloggers and vloggers. The conf was held at the Mondrian hotel in SoHo, NYC. While the conference was a room full of 20ish social media moguls, most of whom I knew in one form or another, I am not going to write about that in depth.

The things that happened outside of the conference are what matter to me. The people, the support, the community are the reasons I pushed to be at the conference.

The conference featured some of the higher-ups in the WLS professional circle. Joe Nadglowski, President of the OAC, Robin Blackstone, MD, President Elect of the ASMBS, and Melissa Lierman, a social media expert! We spent the day talking about obesity, advocacy, surgeries, social media and had a few debates along the way.

After the conference some of my friends and I walked around the city. We ate, we laughed, we got lost and found all in one day! I walked more this past weekend then I have in the last two weeks combined! The most amazing and meaningful part of this weekend for me was Yesterday... Every part of my day was both fun and meaningful.

We started our day off with a windy walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. When the cab dropped us off at the entrance on the Manhattan side, I felt both excitement and panic at the thought of this adventure. I didn't know if I was going to make it all the way across but I was excited to try. Then the panic set in and I was afraid if I got stuck half way through, there was no way out. I feared getting stuck and being in pain like I would have been just months ago.

Half way through the bridge!

The support I got from my friends, who promised me they would walk slow and not leave me hanging and push my from behind if needed was amazing! They were my cheer leaders the whole way through. The walk was actually quite easy. I didn't HAVE TO stop to catch my breathe or sit down because I hurt. We had so much fun! We took pics of buildings and graffiti and each other and just had a blast!

When I reached Brooklyn, I couldn't believe it! I DID IT! I walked the Brooklyn Bridge! 1.13 miles and we didn't stop there! We walked to Grimaldi's Pizza Place to find them closed then continued walking to Bubby's for Brunch.

After brunch we hopped the subway back to Manhattan. Another NSV! I didn't have to walk through the turn-style sideways, for the first time in 10 years!! I was amazed and on cloud 9! I think I still am! The walk continued....

Next a few of us headed over to the Museum of Sex! What fun we had!! I walked through 3 floors of exhibits, took pictures and had fun in the goody shop! Walking on...

Next, 24 hour fitness for some protein shake yumminess! I got a strawberry banana smoothie with some whey protein and man was it AMAZING! When we left there I had already walked over 4 miles and over 10,500 steps! It was only 4pm! The last leg...

We headed back to the hotel to hang out and say our goodbyes. At the end of MY Walk... I got the most amazing prize... My life! It's not promised for forever but yesterday I grabbed it by the balls!

xoxo
Sleeve Pixie