Flying after Weight Loss

My Morning

Today I am flying to visit my best friend Alex! She lives in Oregon where we both went to college. I am sooo excited to see her!

Throwback to the college days! Oh Yeah!

Well anyway despite my excitement, I should not be allowed to do math when I am tired. My flight left Phoenix at 8:45am and apparently I knew this meant that I needed to be there at 7am. When I set my alarm I told myself we were leaving the apartment at 7am rather than arriving at the airport at 7. Oops! This did not occur to me until I was breezing out of my apartment at 7:17am and thinking about Phoenix traffic....

Needless to say, I turned into a pretty terrible backseat driver and kept telling Marty he should drive "aggressively". I was seriously concerned I wasn't going to make it. 

Fortunately, I not only arrived on time but with enough time to spare to find a healthy and balanced breakfast.

The calories were a little high on this baby but I ate half, drank some water and swore I would get some fruit or a vegetable in San Francisco. The cookie trend has continued:

But I did buy an orange, I promise.

I also managed to spend a few minutes taking pictures of myself in the bathroom without anyone noticing.

Heyyyy!

Flying after Weight loss:

So, as I was sitting on the plane this morning I started to reflect a little bit about the flying experience before and after losing a significant amount of weight.

I used to dread flying. I would do it a couple times a year, but it caused me a lot of anxiety. All I could think about was the person sitting next to me... What were they thinking? Were they judging me? Did they hate sitting next to me because I was fat? Sometimes when I would get to my seat first I would just sit there dreading to see the persons face next to me...just waiting for that grimace of resignation that the flight might be uncomfortable for both of us.

Source

At my heaviest I was wearing a size 24 pants. It was really uncomfortable to fly. I could fit in the seat, but just barely. I would always request the window seat, put the armrest down and spend the majority of the flight concentrating on trying not to touch the other person by pushing myself against the window. Since the armrest couldn't quite go down all the way, it would start to creep up my side and I would push it down. After a flight, I would usually feel stressed, embarrassed, tired and have bruises on my hips.

Even though I am not at my goal weight flying is a lot easier. There is room in the seat, my hips don't even touch the armrests.

There is plenty of extra room in the seat belt. This seems like something really silly to care about, but when I had first started to lose weight and would fly, each added inch of the seat belt felt like I could finally claim I was some kind of normal. 

Flying is less stressful, but I put hearts on my now and then pictures for a very specific reason. I don't hate who I was, I hate how I felt but I don't hate myself. It's so important to love yourself and work on it every day. Try to make yourself feel good no matter what your size. The stress of flying would often overshadow the joy I felt going somewhere. 

Be who you are, love that person and through that love continue to better yourself!

Questions of the Day!

Are you going on the special trip anytime soon?

Do you have a best friend?

Do you feel a significant difference in flying if you have lost or gained weight?

If you could go on a dream trip, where would you go?