Peplum Power

My back swelling does not seem to be getting any better and it is severely limiting my ability to dress well. I had a horror shopping experience while trying to find a dress for a party a few weeks ago. I tried on almost every dress in the shopping centre and I couldn't get anything to fit me. Then, literally 2 minutes before the shops were closing, I tried on one more dress at Portman's and finally found something that zipped up and also covered my back swelling. Thank god for the peplum! The little frill at the back managed to mostly mask the little humpback I am sporting from my body lift surgery in November.

Who knew it was possible to have clothes that fit properly in all the right places??? There is not a single day where I am not so thankful to have had body lift surgery. I will happily take back swelling to finally have a flat tummy, a waistline and breasts that stick out further than my stomach.

Now I just need to hope that this peplum trend sticks around for as long as my back swelling does!

Almost Famous

I am sure you all know by now that I am kind of a famous. I presume you all saw me staring on Masterchef last night? Here is a reminder in case you missed it...

I am the little head behind Matt Preston's shoulder

There is me in the white with my sister-in-law

OK, so you may have just missed me... my fifteen minutes of fame hasn't arrived yet.

In mid-December I was invited to participate in the Masterchef audience for one of their restaurant challenges at their new location in Melbourne. Can you imagine how excited I was??? Not only do I love Mastchef, but I got to watch the challenge, eat the food and ogle Marco Pierre White-- it was my perfect day!

The only stressful part was when the waiter would put the plate of food in front of you and a massive camera would be shoved in your face to film you eating. I am not graceful enough to manage that sort of pressure. I pretty much just pushed food around on my plate until those nasty cameras moved away. I have way too many fat girl phobias left to be filmed shovelling food in my mouth on national TV.

It was a very long and hot day, but I loved every second of it. The food was (mostly) amazing and we were given vast amounts of delicious wine as well. Maybe too much wine because I was sporting a bit of a hangover at work the next day, but it was worth it.

Pssst... here are some photos that I very sneakily took on the day (no cameras were allowed)...

The Masterchef kitchen/set

Me outside the Masterchef building

The famous red vespa!

Bits and Pieces

I am too tired to form sentences or paragraphs today so here is what is going through my head this morning...

• God damn it, my plantar fasciitis has returned with a vengeance and I am in a world of pain. I am going to have to go back for another cortisone injection through my heel, but just typing that nearly made me vomit. Sob.

• Here are some pictures of me on Cinder's blog with some fellow bloggers and awesome ladies from last week. Love those girls!

• My friend had a party at a croquet club a few weeks ago and the poor old gentleman who was teaching us to play could not work out why I couldn't get my technique right. He was most embarrassed when he realised it was be cause my huge boobies were in the way and I had to play 'side saddle' for the rest of the game.

Before I changed my technique

• In less than 4 weeks I will be holidaying in Thailand. Yayyyyyyyyyyyy!

• In preparation for my trip to Thailand I had a Brazilian laser hair removal treatment. I normally get my face, legs and underarms done (which I highly recommend) and I haven't had too much of a problem with pain or discomfort. Doing the Brazilian I had to get quite cosy with my laser technician as she got all up in my business. When she got to the most intimate bit of my lady parts I had to ask her to stop for a minute because the pain was too much. Oh wow. That is a sensitive area! It was all worth it though and I will be back for a follow up session.

• I found this old photo of myself when I was at home over Christmas, I think I must have been about 12 maybe??? Oh my god, I was not an attractive kid, I like to think of myself as a late bloomer...

• My current food obsession is Tasti D-Lite. As if I didn't love ice cream enough and now I can get all sorts of amazing flavours for 70-90 calories. Oreos n' Peanut Butter I will be seeing you on Friday night!

• Speaking of peanut butter, I have had to keep mine in the freezer because I cannot stop dipping into the jar at all hours of the day and night. Unfortunately, I now know from experience that there is nothing sadder than a desperate woman hacking away at a frozen jar of peanut butter with a massive knife. I also know that frozen peanut butter is even better than normal peanut butter. I need an intervention!

• I made this bacon and vegetable slice the other day and it was delicious! My changes were to omit the 1/2 cup of oil and parmesan and exchange the white flour for wholemeal flour. Great meal for easy work lunches.

• We had a fire drill at work today and look who is the floor fire warden. I am not at all happy about this responsibility or the headgear!

Not impressed!

That is about all I have today, now I am going to go outside to the park and enjoy the sunshine.

3 Months Post Body Lift

I can't believe it's been 3 months since I had my body lift surgery! It feels like a lifetime ago and my life is pretty much back to normal after the major surgery. The worst is definitely over, but I do still have a long way to go before I will see my final results. Sometimes I get impatient because I just want my body to feel and look normal now, but I know it will be worth the wait.

So here is where I stand at the 3 month mark:

Pain
I can move around pain free 90% of the time now and the pain I do experience is just tenderness, almost like a bruising feeling. The pain mostly only comes from the areas I had lipo: my hips, back and outer thighs. My scar area is still quite numb and it only hurts if I stretch too far or itch it by accident.

Exercise
I started exercising again around about 2 months after surgery and have been exercising steadily since then. I can still only do gentle exercise like walking, toning, stretching and weights. Any time I try to jog my hips, back and thighs hurt a lot. It doesn't matter because it's not like I was into running before I had the surgery, it is just tough when I try to run for the tram or after my brother's dog because it feels like someone is beating me up. The one thing I am looking forward to is when I feel well enough to do Pilates again, it is going to be awesome to do it without my stomach falling in my face!

Swelling
I still have a significant amount of swelling on my lower back. I carried a lot of weight there and the surgeon had to do a lot of lipo in that area so I am hoping that in time the swelling will go down. I had hoped that the swelling would have gone down more by now and I do get a little frustrated, but I know I have to be patient. I guess my fear is that the the area isn't swollen and that maybe it is just still fat. I have a follow-up appointment with my surgeon in a month so I will be able to find out whether it is swelling, fluid or fat. I think my hips and outer thighs are also still swollen because they feel soft, spongy and sore. I know it sounds weird that I say 'think' but it is quite hard to tell what is swelling and what is wobbly bits!

Scars
I am really happy with my scars, they are thinner than I thought they would be and have exceeded my expectations. Given that I am covered in stretch marks, scaring was really not a concern for me! I am just thrilled that I have had no trouble with the wounds splitting or hurting so I count myself lucky. I am still wearing silicone tape on my scars that my surgeon recommended I wear for as long as I can as apparently it helps with scarring.

Mentals
As usual, the hardest part of any process is getting the mental side together. I felt I was 100% ready for the surgery because I have wanted to have it for a very long time. Regardless, it was still hard to know what to expect because there isn't a lot of information out there on the body lift surgery. I am exceedingly happy with how my surgery went and my results, but sometimes the evil voice creeps into my head and says horrible things. It tells me that I should be embarrassed I spent so much money on surgery because I am still fat and saggy. I am slowly learning to shut down that evil voice and love my body and treat it right. Finally knowing that my body deserves to be loved is the first step.

Here are some photos taken just a couple of minutes ago, after walking the dog on this hot and sweaty night... no glam shots here!

My poor swollen back... and arse crack for your pleasure...

From the side

Front on-- I am not sure why I look so depressed!

And fully clothed, just so I look normal in one photo!

A reminder of my before photo to put these in perspective

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For more information on my body lift surgery see here. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email if you have any questions!