Support Welcome, But Not Necessarily Required

I want to take a minute to thank all of you for your support about my decision to have surgery.  One of my faults is to worry too much what people think about me and my decisions in life.  At 37 years old I still worry more than I should.  I'm learning part of that is because I can be a pretty critical person myself.  Over the past years I've really been working on being less critical of others and in turn not worry so much about what they think about me.

I share all that to share that when I told a friend about my surgery and her reaction was less than supportive I told my husband I had a major breakthrough -- I didn't care.  She wasn't offering me justified reasons to reconsider, i.e. risks, etc, she simply kept repeating "I get it [the skin], but WHY [have the surgery]?!"

That was the night I realized I would need somewhat of a reason to explain investing a large sum of money into removing skin that no one other than my doctors and husband would every truly see.

Of course, my husband said I don't owe anybody an explanation, but I knew I also wanted to have my reasons down for myself.  You don't spend lots of money and allow someone to cut on your body without knowing why you're doing it.

So, I figured out my why and put together the blog post announcing my surgery when I finally felt it was time to share my decision with "the world". 

More than figuring out my why I also figured out, or came to the conclusion, that I don't really care whether people support or reject my choice.  I don't mean to sound harsh, but my husband and I discussed at great lengths whether or not I should have this surgery.  As I got smaller and smaller and truly understood what it is to have saggy skin that can make clothes shopping and exercise frustrating both he and I realized this kind of surgery could be very beneficial.  

There are those who I think may worry I'm changing too much by being willing to go through surgery; they will think it all vanity.  But as I told one close friend...  I am still Leah.  I'm still just working on my new ending in life with regards to my health.  

Those who are my friends will have to trust that I'm going to continue being the same me.  My priorities in life have only adjusted slightly to include staying active and eating less food, but that started way before my decision to have abdominoplasty.  

To sum it up, I didn't start losing weight and exercising to please anyone and I'm not doing this surgery for that reason either.  So, I'm grateful for the support from those who offer it and I'm not worried about the ones who don't agree.  For a girl who spends too much time worrying about what others think this is a huge breakthrough for me, and another breakthrough in my weight loss journey I'm glad to have experienced.