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On Sept. 4, 2008, I underwent gastric bypass surgery. I'd already dropped 25 lbs. on my pre-surgery diet; as of today, my one-year "surgiversary," I've lost a sum total of nearly 150 pounds. I'm down 8 sizes (and no, that's not a typo) and am now wearing clothes I haven't been able to fit into for 12 years. My sleep apnea is gone, my Type II diabetes is in remission, and my blood pressure is perfect. If it weren't for the wacky hormonal fluctuations I've been having the past four months, I'd say I feel the best I have in my entire life.

This is all of the good stuff.

There is some not-so-good stuff. Like the fact that good bras are expensive, and right now I'm needing a new size at least every two months. Ditto for panties. Yes, I know there are worse problems to have. But money is tight, and I cycle through clothes so quickly that my wardrobe is very limited at times. Either that, or I end up wearing things that are two to four sizes two big, which just makes me look hulky.

Vanity Gripe #1: The last time I was this size/weight, I did not have a double chin. WHY DO I STILL HAVE A DOUBLE CHIN? I hate the double chin with a fiery and irrational passion.

Vanity Gripe #2: Skiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin. As in, loose skin. As in, crepey skin. As in droopy, saggy, riddled with tiny, nude-colored stretch marks skin (because yes, you get stretch marks when you lose a lot of weight in a relatively short period of time). If I lay on my side and kick my leg straight up, I have athletic-looking thighs. When I stand, loose flesh and the remaining bits of flub droop down around my knees. And don't get me started on my boobs, which look like tube socks with tennis balls at the bottom of them. Joe will kill me for admitting this, but I can smack my own face with the right boob, which cracks me up and makes him shriek "Stop!" like a little girl.

Lastly, after a year of losing weight and inches very, very quickly, all of it has slowed to a crawl. My surgeon says I should be shooting for a 1 lb. a week weight loss. Say wha? I still have 75 I'd like to lose, and about 40 that I should lose before attempting the bun-in-the-oven thing. I'd like to drop two more pants sizes and three more tops sizes. I WANT TO FIND A WAY TO GET RID OF THIS DOUBLE CHIN.

The upside: even though the weight is coming off more slowly, my body composition is still changing pretty frequently. For instance, I've only lost about 10 pounds since early June, but I've dropped an entire clothing size (normally, I have to lose about 20-30 lbs. to switch) and one whole bra size. I can do more physically than I have since I was in middle school - and feel (mostly) good while doing it.

So, yeah. Mostly good things (chin not included).

And oh! Here's a really good thing: to mark the occasion of my first ever surgiversary, Joe got me a little silver scale charm for the bracelet he gave me at Christmas. (He also got me a book charm, as an overdue congratulations gift for SWEET LIFE's pub date.)

Best. Fiance. EVER.

Hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend! I'm off to labor right now in our bonus room, which is in desperate need of purging and sorting.


P.S. I posted updated progress pictures on my Facebook page, but they're accessible by friends only. At least, they're supposed to be.

Author: Jeanne Willis (on JOMB)
Illustrator: Tony Ross (on JOMB)
Published: 2009 Andersen Press (on JOMB)
ISBN: 9780761351511

Unrealistically scrawny pop culture ideals, issues of acceptance and fears of unhealthy body image have made fitness and healthy eating tricky issues to address. This brazenly British picture book pulls no punches about the dangers of the couch potato lifestyle.

What do you think?

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

WOW! My 50th blog recommendation. Even though I am a YA Librarian I am a slooow reader. Maybe it is not so much slow, as distracted by other demands. No, I am a slow reader. But nonetheless, this is my 50th review since starting last August, 2008. I haven't figured out how to be less distracted and read 350 or so books like some librarian I know and adore, but hey, doing my part here!

Well, I must say that between the Bones book this month and GemX I am definitely into the future past and the future to come. GemX, Maxo, is an amazingly perfect, engineered son of the top scientist and top art connoisseur of the Polis. One day, along with other GemXs, Maxo screams as he discovers a crack at the corner of one eye. On "the other side of the tracks" is Gala, a beautiful Natural, a Dreggie, whom Maxo sees on the TropScreen and instantly falls for. When he meets her he beams in on her delicate foot which he asks to kiss, a pretty hysterical scene, appreciated, as this is not a humorous book. Anyway, the Leaderene, Euphony Clore, what a celeb, decrees that the faulty GemXs must be destroyed as they are not perfect. To appease their parents, the Dreggies are framed, with Gala's brother Phyllo being the chief malignancy to eradicate. I know it sounds complicated, but it is entertaining and easy to follow, with more to come than what I divulged. And, I am hoping for a sequel.


ENDERS Rating: Entertaining barbs at future worlds

a Website on Nicki Singer

Author: Kristen Tracy (on JOMB)
Published: 2009 Random House (on JOMB)
ISBN: 9780385736879

A big thanks to guest host Lucy (10) for joining Andrea today to discuss this book.

Life can be challenging and fair’s got nothing to do with it. Parents are people. Friendship’s a worthwhile risk. There’s a lot to think about when you’re ten in the real world. Which is why I’m so glad Lucy (10) and I read this fun and fabulously thought provoking book.

Mentioned in this chat:

• Life Without Limbs: Nick Vujicic
• Don’t Need Friends
• Horrid Henry

More books including less-than-perfect families on JOMB:

• The Grandmother Doll
• When-I-was-a-little-girl
• My Dad’s A Birdman
• Mummy Never Told Me
• more here.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

Author: Teresa Bateman (on JOMB)
Illustrator: Lynne Cravath (on JOMB)
Published: 2002 Albert Whitman (on JOMB)
ISBN: 9780807566282

Swapping dainty dancing for hoops and hoots, this upbeat spin on The Twelve Dancing Princesses brings spring and spirit into the age old tale.

More fairy tales gone wild and fun with the familiar on JOMB:

• The Frog Prince Continued
• And the DISH Ran Away with the SPOON
• Badness for Beginners
• Bantam of the Opera
• Bill in a China Shop
• Cinderella Skeleton
• Falling For Rapunzel
• Monster Goose
• Oops!
• Petite Rouge, A Cajun Red Riding Hood
• Rumplestilskin’s Daughter
• Science Verse
• Such A Prince
• Swine Lake
• The Crow
• The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza
• The Three Fishing Brothers Gruff
• The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig
• Wait! No Paint!

Pop over to Becky’s Book Reviews for today’s full menu of poetry offerings. Poetry Fridays are brought to us by Kelly Herold of Big A, Little A.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

Head over to My Favorite Author today for an interview with yours truly and a review of Purge.

I'm really happy that the book is starting to generate discussion about body image and eating disorders. And you know what makes me REALLY happy?

This:



It's always wonderful to see your child engrossed in a book. But there's something really special when they are engrossed in YOUR book.

The problem is my daughter keeps asking me what's going to happen, and I won't tell her.

"You're just going to have to read the book, honey. Most people don't have the author standing at the kitchen counter making dinner while they're reading."

I'm such a meanie, aren't I?

I'm recovering from the launch party, which went very well and I'll be posting pictures and a report later. But in the meantime I'm proud to be a part of Body Image Week, a very exciting event taking place over at My Favorite Author

Feeling good about yourself is important and it's something that everyone struggles with every day. It's not just a problem for teens . . . adults have this problem, too. So I think it's important to talk about all the different ways that this issue affects us and how we can deal with it.

We have invited bloggers from The Story Siren, Presenting Lenore, and In Bed With Books to participate and share their perspective and experience. And we are excited to also have authors Deborah Lytton, Sarah Darer Littman, Sara Zarr, Megan Frazer, Laurie Halse Anderson, Sydney Salter and Erin Dionne share their perspective, experience and advice. At the end of the week, we'll have a great giveaway for you to enter (by accepting & reporting on the Body Image Challenge) to win some of the books that we blog about this week!

The latest installment in our Ypulse Youth Website Profile series is the new teen site Fitsmi. The site is currently in closed beta, but since we were given a sneak peek we thought we'd blog it… What it is… a new health site for teen... Read the rest of this post

It’s is nice writing this post knowing that most of our readers have no idea what I look like.  Please set aside your assumptions about my size, it is irrelevant.  Instead, take a look at yourself.  Are you satisfied?  Most studies say that a majority of women are not happy with the way they look- and that the repercussions from this lack of self-acceptance are serious.

But I’m not here to preach.  I was a pudgy little kid, my preferred description is “pleasantly plump,” and while puberty slimmed me out I still remember the trauma of a family friend coming up to me at my high school graduation party (which was 80’s themed and had me decked out in spandex) to tell me that he was so proud of how slim I’d gotten.  He was likely trying to give me a compliment but my fragile ego interpreted it as an insult.  Similarly, I remember my college graduation when a family member pulled me aside to tell me I looked too slim and that they were concerned.  I took it as a compliment.  Crazy right?

My point here is that we all have our self-image issues.  Luckily, mine faded with time.  I don’t own a scale and I know I eat a healthy diet so I figure there isn’t all that much to worry about.  In celebration of Fat Talk Free Week perhaps we should all consider holding our tongue when giving a compliment, complaining about our weight or simply comparing ourselves to others.  Instead of talking diets with your girlfriends consider talking about exercise, or the upcoming election or the amazing book you just finished reading.

Take a moment to check out the “Fat Talk Free Week” website sponsored by Delta Delta Delta, Seventeen Magazine, NOW, NEDA, and AED and be sure to watch their video which drives the point home.

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Liz, over at A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy tagged me to participate in this one - and I panicked a little because I wasn't sure that I read five non KidsLit blogs, but here goes (in strictly alphabetical order):

1 - I'm cheating already - I simply have no shame ! BBC Cult Doctor Who News isn't strictly speaking a Blog, just a News Feed, but I'm totally hooked on it as the start of Season 3 rushes towards me !

2 - Juliet E McKenna's Live Journal - Juliet writes fantasy for adults set in a secondary world called Einarinn. Her novels are intelligent, feature feisty female protagonists and utterly grip me. She also writes about the writing life (including her experiences of Conventions and leading creative writing courses), and she happens to be a good friend (lucky me!)

3 - Lowebrow Blog - L Lee Lowe contacted me and invited me to read her YA short stories (at Into the Lowelands) and we became friends. The Lowebrow Blog is about writing, reading and the Lowelife!

4 - Petrona - Maxine's totally prolific, I've lost count of the number of Blogs she owns. "Petrona" is "Thinking and linking about books, reading, writing, publishing, the web and more".

5 - The Write Fantastic Live Journal - The Write Fantastic is a "collective" of fantasy authors who work together to promote fantasy books to new or lapsed readers of fantasy fiction. They do conventions, library talks, book signing events, all sorts. And Blog about it on their Live Journal.

I hope Liz won't disown me now for such blatant cheating...

Here is a great video that goes nicely with the texts and incidents shared in CLIP 17 as well as in the comments. Thanks Carol, for sharing this with me. Check it out! http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/ Catch you next week. vivian

In This Show: A listener inspired episode. Re-thinking Paris Hilton and Barbie Fandom Children’s books with strong female characters Deirdre Flint’s Boob Fairy Podcasts Mentioned: Just One More Book, Mostly News, Desperate Husbands Books Mentioned: The Bobbin Girl by Emily Arnold McCully Mirette and Bellini Cross Niagara Falls by Emily Arnold McCully America Is her Name by Luis J. Rodriguez Getting in the Game by Dawn Fitzgerald From [...]