Saturday, March 19, 2016

We Know FWP, but WHAT is SPP?

You know when you're complaining about traffic exiting the amusement park, or when you can't decide which of your many pairs of shoes to wear with a particular outfit?

How about when we sit at the coffee shop with a $7 mocha somethingorother and whine about the WiFi being SOOOO slow?

Have you ever caught yourself unhappy with the service at a ritzy restaurant or at the clubhouse?

Or what about disparaging your 5-year-old, perfectly fine truck and drooling over the latest model?

These, my friends, are FWP : First World Problems.

We know deep down and logically that there are so many people less fortunate than us when we bring up our dissatisfaction with the luxuries of this life we live. There are even people that we know who would trade spots with us in a heartbeat. Many who wish they had our soft, cushiony problems.

Your clothes washer is acting up again? Cry me a river, which is where many third-world folks do their laundry... in a river!

The fumes from your pedicure were really strong this morning? Poor thing! Many people are drinking filthy water every day, or none at all. And then dying.

Sorry, that's a little harsh.

But it's true.

Many of you who have known me for any length of time are aware that my weight has seen some highs and some lows. Um, not that many lows, truthfully.

If you have known me since high school, or even since birth, or since I lived in Wyoming at the turn of the century (wow, doesn't that make me sound elderly?), you have seen me chubby and you have seen me kinda normal and healthy. Many of you have even seen me obese.

Today, I submit to you that I am skinny. I weigh less now than I did when I got my first driver's  license.

Thus, SPP: Skinny People's Problems!

I read a neat article a few years ago that I could relate to very well, and I never thought I would. In fact I was surprised at how relevant it was. The woman who wrote it pointed out several new developments she'd noticed about her body and how it relates to her world, now that she had lost all her weight. She had some concerns, some issues that she hadn't really experienced while she was obese. She titled her post, "Things I Miss About Being Fat". (paraphrased)

I get it!

Things like not being strong, naturally. When you are daily hefting around the bulk of your own body, you are strong from doing it. Your body is able to lift other things, and move furniture and boxes and doghouses, and whatever else needs to be moved or lifted. Now? Not so much. I can't do anything anymore. Some of that is from the cancer, but a lot of it is from simply getting too skinny to do much.


My inability to find a comfy way to sleep is my most major challenge. Now that I've slimmed down my knee bones grind together in a way that my chubby self never experienced. Solution? Pillows! Lots of pillows!! It's a complicated ritual of finding the right pillow for the right application.

But the thing I find myself most upset with is my now-inability to simply lean my elbows on my knees, while I am cradling my head with my hands. Seated position, knees bent, leaning on my legs, my elbows slip off all the time! It is annoying and definitely a major SPP! :)

Description Paris 2010 - Le Penseur.jpg
If I was made of bronze, this probably wouldn't happen.
It's hard to sit normally anywhere these days because of  nerve pain in my back, so I tend to have to support my weight pretty much constantly with my arms or the walker, or by lying down.

When my elbows slip off my knees, it causes a jolt of pain that well, I just don't like. I then giggle at myself because my thinness, something I have bemoaned not having for many moons, have put countless dollars and years toward trying to achieve, is to blame for this predicament.

Definitely a SPP.

And Greg and I have an expression that we use in these situations....

"That's what you git!"

Here's a link to the story: http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-13018/5-things-i-miss-about-weighing-more-than-300-pounds.html

I may see if I can find a before and after so you get the idea. Got any problems that you laugh at yourself about? Something you worked hard to achieve and when you did, it got more complicated than you realized it would? Let me know in the comments. And let me know if you'd rather now have it published here. No worries.

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