Collateral Damage

If you read all the negative hype about this type of weight loss and the surgery itself you'll see all kinds of collateral damage.  Marriages, friendships, even one's own life.

The up side to this Journey is that most of the collateral damage will be things that are bad for me anyway.  Plopping down in front of the couch in my spot watching endless hours of shit on TV.  We've even thought of getting rid of cable and just doing a HTPC.  There are still some things I'd like to watch but I'll have to get out of that habit.

Kelly and I have already stopped buying pop for home.  Sure we still have one every so often but after my surgery I'm not going to be able to have it at all.  I can't give up food but I'll replace that addiction with an addiction to following the plan given to me by my docs.

My size 56" pants (or 4x for those of you playing the home game) and 3XLT shirts will have to go.  I'll keep a pair just to remind myself I'm sure but I won't miss it when I give all of that stuff to Goodwill.  My giant belts and even my extra wide shoes will get kicked to the curb.

It's funny though.  I still see all of that stuff as a loss.  Those clothes were carefully chosen to be comfy and loose fitting.  They are my adult security blanket.  I only have a few sets of clothes.  First of all because fat clothes are way over priced.  Sure the ACME tent company makes them and they take more material but the cheap ass shit they use for material wears out in about a year.  I can't just go to Wal-Mart or Kohl's to buy clothes.

I see it as a loss to not get to roll through McDonald's in the morning to grab 2 Bacon, Egg and Cheese biscuits, a hash brown and large iced coffee no flavor.  I see it as a loss not getting gas at Speedway and seeing how many donuts I have to buy before I get a free one.  I'll miss not getting 2 Monster Coffee Energy Drinks for 4 bucks.

What I won't miss is the money I spend daily on this habit.  Drug and Alcohol addicts spend way more but they don't get to justify it quite like a food addict.  I spend on average $16.00 a day on food.  That's ~$4000.00 a year on food.  Just for me.  And that's after we've spent money for groceries each week.  I love going out to eat but man it puts a strain on our bank account.

The things that you don't take into account when in an addictive relationship with anything is the affect it has on anyone / anything other than yourself.  I'm a good person who loves his wife, children and family.  It's time to start acting like it for a change.