A New (Blog) Day.

Where to start? I guess I should begin with a quirky note about the title. After reading numerous titles by other lap-banded bloggers I felt that I, too, needed a catchy moniker. I tried to think of personal puns, fun synonyms, or trendy takes on popular notions, but they all came out very cheesy. The best I could do was to link the title name to how I felt as an overweight person living in America today. People ogle, jest, jibe, and proselytize those who don’t conform to popular standards of thinness. It is almost as if fat people are a big circus act inviting others to stare and prod at the freak show before them. I empathize with the bearded lady trying to live life while stroking her abnormal facial hair. As I recently underwent the Lap-Band procedure, I felt that the “Banded Lady” was appropriate. This pulls from my feeling of solidarity to a circus performer but also my disgust at the conceptions of the overweight that abound today.

The Banded Lady is a multipurpose blog. My intention is to share my journey as a lap band patient, but to also document my feelings on weight and society. This is to be a sort of personal journal for me to share my rants about the world, my personal frustrations, and my successes (or failures) with weight. I hope that it helps others as they take similar paths but also opens doors and allows me to share with people who go through the same issues as I deal with. While an extroverted person in most of my life, I am very shy and reluctant to share my issues with weight with most of my friends and family. This might be because, as luck would have it, I am cursed with wonderful people that happen to look like JCrew models. I yearn for people who share the same experiences and understandings that I do – those that struggle with weight and want to be seen as more than their poundage. I invite you to read, comment, and question my blog as I think it will help me better understand weight in my life and where it fits in the larger picture.