The banded live among you and you never know when you will stumble across one of us......

So today we are all sitting around outside during our short lunch break at the nursing home. There are five of us - and only person there knows I have a band. That's Margaret who I am doing this Success Fast Track course with. We are all chatting away and one of the girls says to me, "You don't eat much, do you?" I just scrunch up my nose and say, "It's because I'm just not very hungry, you know, busy morning and all that,"  (which is true - and there's the band factor....) Anyway, this lady let it slide for a second and then poked at the subject again. She mentioned something about everyone else eating sandwiches and I am on yoghurt (I'm caught for the second time with the amount I eat and what I eat lol. This happened during the theory side of the course also but with a different set of girls.) I had a fleeting thought.... tell them about the band,  went nahhhh... then had it taken out of my hands. I was outed. "One of my friends has a lapband, and she eats like you," said another. This was followed with a raised eyebrow. Did I have something to tell them, her face said. Ok... time to 'fess up?
     
So I did. The reaction I got was astounding. There was a moment as they all processed and then they all started talking at once... "Why on earth do you have a lapband?..... You don't look like you need one," .... to ...... "You have such narrow shoulders and hips... I can't believe you were ever overweight....... were you really?........ No way? You can't have been.... how much have you lost? I reckon maybe 10 kilos?" (hahahaha) This was followed by a lot of nodding of heads...  I laughed and said, "No...it's actually 32 as of yesterday. Believe me when I say I DID need to get it done. I was a big girl." This was met with silence. Finally one of the girls said, "You're shitting us?" 
    
"Nope," I said. "I was well over 100 kilos before I started. I was a size 20-22 and now I'm a 14." I could see them doing the mental math and let them work out their own tally. They were probably out by a stone but I couldn't be bothered correcting. Obese is obese... the actual number is just semantics. Then I got.... "You don't have saggy skin. I thought people who had lapbands ended up with really saggy skin when they lost weight. I can't see that anywhere."
     "My arms aren't the best," I answered. "And my stomach...but no, I'm not super-saggy. Just lucky I think... maybe genetics."
     I saw her do a sideways glance as she eyed off my stomach. "Do you have kids?"
     "Four I said."
     "Get the f**k outta here," she shrieked. "My stomach is bigger than yours and I haven't had any."
      
The conversation went along for a bit longer along the same lines. They were fascinated and amazed and they learned something new. I'm slowly starting to come out of my 'don't-tell anyone about it,' phobia and becoming a little more relaxed about it. I'm happy about this. I loved the reaction. It was a classic. The reason I posted this conversation was to show how others  perceive us. We never really know, do we? And this is the second time I've been told by a person I just met that they can't imagine me big. It's a great feeling. Personally, I don't think I'm thin..but I do know by now I am just a 'normal' size. It's bloody brilliant!!!

Seeya soon
Cara xxx