A Letter to Myself

Dear Veronica,

I know you’re asking yourself right now, “Why did I do this to myself?”
So let me remind you of just some of the reasons you decided to have weight-loss surgery:

1. You were diagnosed with diabetes last fall, remember? You panicked, knowing how hard your son struggles with his diabetes, knowing how his future is questionable because of it, knowing you want to be there for whatever he faces.
2. The blood pressure that for years was “borderline high” now requires medication, and the combination of obesity, hypertension, and diabetes is a killer cocktail you don’t want to die from.
3. You haven’t liked a single picture taken of you for over a decade. You’ve missed many photo ops with your children that you can never get back, and it’s not too late to take some great pictures with them that will make you cry with happiness, not disgust.
4. You can’t tie your shoes without sitting on the bed. Or cut your toenails. Or paint them. Or put lotion on your feet.
5. You panic when you see a restaurant booth. A plastic chair. Stairs. A hill. A turnstile. A tight bathroom stall. A wooden sidewalk.
6. You look longingly at, and then pass up, the porch swing, the roller coaster, the saddled horse, the ski hill, the bicycle, the trampoline, the old wooden chair, the merry-go-round, the lap.
7. You wake up with a backache every day.
8. Your feet hurt anytime you stand or walk for more than 15 minutes.
9. Your thighs are getting thighs.
10. During fire season, you work as a timekeeper because it’s the only job that doesn’t require physical fitness, and what you really want to do is be an Information Officer.
11. You’ve always wanted to become an EMT.
12. You know there’s a thousand more reasons not listed here, and there’s only one reason not to have the surgery…you like food. Big deal, get over it!

Letter by BigGirlsDoCry AKA Veronica, originally appeared in ObesityHelp magazine Jan/Feb 2010.