My Lap Band Journey – Those Before Pants! Come Laugh with Me.

I’m not very good at laughing at myself, especially when it comes to my weight.  I guess we are all different.  I’ve been known to say “I didn’t get the humor gene.”  I suspect it’s a lot more complicated than that.  When my dear friend Sandi, my lap band mentor, and buddy resolved this year to laugh a little everyday this year, I realized I need to laugh more too.  I love to laugh.  It makes me feel good.  I yearn to be around friends who make me laugh.

This week Sandi started a thread on our forums asking…“What has happened to you that makes you smile or laugh since your (lap band) surgery?”

I thought about this question for a while.  I thought about it much too seriously.  But I have to say, by far what made me laugh the hardest was the day Sandi and I took the photo of both of us in her “before” jeans.  If you follow my blog, are a member of banded living, or follow us on facebook, you’ve seen that picture. 

Let me start by sharing that it’s a minor miracle that Sandi’s husband, Chuck, was able to snap that picture.  We were laughing so hard; we almost fell down a few times.  Let’s just say it’s amazing that those jeans weren’t soaking wet, we were howling.

So here’s the story behind that picture.

I was visiting Sandi and we were working on ideas for our banded living community.  I get pretty intense and serious when I’m working on a project, and this being near and dear to my heart, brought out what some people call the type “AA” personality in me.

I get my best ideas first thing in the morning, when I’m working out.  Sandi and I went to the gym, and while I was on the elliptical I popped off and ran to find Sandi.

“Sandi, do you have a pair of “before” jeans?” I asked her as she was standing on the bosu ball.  She looked at me like I was nuts, but said, “yes probably… can we talk about this later…”

So in the car on the way home from the gym, I explained to Sandi that I thought we should take a picture of both of us IN her pants.  She thought I meant holding up her pants in front of us, like most before pictures are taken, but I emphatically said NO, I meant, we each should get into one leg of those jeans.  Instead of laughing Sandi looked at me a bit nervously and said “I don’t think my thighs will fit.”  I said I think they will. 

Throughout the day we joked, yes laughed about the idea.  The laughter was both excitement and nervousness.  We couldn’t stand it anymore so we left the office and went to Sand’s house.  Sandi brought out the jeans, and then we laughed about what to wear before trying to climb into the jeans.  We decided on tank tops of course.  Two formerly morbidly obese people were going to put on skinny tank tops and climb into one pair of jeans.  Drum roll please…..

Now, how exactly were we going to do this?  First we gave Sandi’s husband the camera, and asked him to be ready to take the picture.  Now we were all laughing.  Laughing so hard we could barely talk.  We stripped down to underwear and our tank tops.  We sat on the bed of Sandi’s downstairs guest room, with the warm CA sun streaming through the windows and the smell of the ocean.  Unzip the pants.  My mind is going to the place of all the times I tried to squeeze into a pair of jeans that I couldn’t pull up, yet I was still laughing.  We both wriggled into our respective pants legs at the same time.  Then I heard Sandi say OMG, both of my legs fit. OMG, OMG! So we hoisted ourselves up off the bed and zipped.  That zipper went up easily.  We had room to spare!  We were both laughing so hard at this point that we almost fell over.  Now, how do we move?  Well if you’ve ever seen a potato sack race, that’s how we moved.  We hopped out of that guest room, laughing hysterically and shouting with joy.  We did it.  Two lap band patients in one pair of before pants.

Chuck, please, please take the picture before we fall down because we are laughing so hard or worse yet, before we pee in our collective, single pair of pants!

So every time I look at that picture, I smile, I laugh.  I think a lifetime of not being able to laugh at myself began to melt away that day. And it feels great to be able lighten up and laugh.  That picture is the symbol of my lap band journey and it always makes my smile!  

What has happened to you that makes you smile or laugh since your (lap band) surgery?  Leave a comment here or post on our forums.  It just might make you feel good and propel you on your journey!