Planes, trains and automobiles - OK, just planes

As a fat person, plane rides were always stressful.  Was I going to fit in the seat?  Would I need a seatbelt extender?  Are the people coming down the aisle hoping they don't have to sit next to the fat girl?  All planes were not created equal.  Some had longer seatbelts, wider seats.  I never knew what I was going to find. 

I used to go to a fat group for support once a month or so and when I told them of my fears, they said to just hide the seatbelt under my shirt when this happens.  There were many times I had to struggle to get the seatbelt to close, but there was only one time that the seatbelt wouldn't fit around me and it was terrible and humiliating and I did as the fat group suggested and still felt terrible.  I quit the fat group not long after that because I thought the group was perpetuating the cycle vs. actually doing something about it. 

I recall my first flight after I had lost a significant amount of weight.  Got on the plane with the usual fears and sat in my seat.  No problems fitting.  Put the seatbelt on with room to spare!  SUCCESS!  Seriously - it is the little things in this journey.

I've been on lots of planes since and started to not think about it anymore.  Until today.

Today I took a chartered flight to Orlando for work.  I make sure and tell you it was chartered because I think the upgrades airlines have made to make flights more comfortable (read, adapt to the fatty mcfatty nation we have become) had not yet been made.  So I get on the plane and sit in my seat.  An aisle.  I buckled my belt fine.  Plenty of room in the seat.  Crossed my legs and started reading my book (Primal Blueprint btw - gearing up for my hardcore training starting next week).

I looked down and saw that there was slack in the belt, but not alot.  I thought, geeze, if there isn't alot of slack for me, I bet others are having problems getting the seatbelt to close.  And I looked across the aisle and saw a very obese lady who sure enough was having difficulties.  She was sitting in the middle seat.  She had an extender.  She was struggling to get the armrest all the way down.  She couldn't bend over to get something under her seat.  I wondered how terrible she must feel.  And how awful it must have been to ask for an extender in front of an entire plane full of co-workers.  But she was laughing and talking to her neighbors.  There is NO WAY she was feeling good though right?  I couldn't stop staring because all I could think about was how GRATEFUL I was that it wasn't me.  As her neighbor got up to go to the toilet, I continued to stare and watched empathetically as she struggled with the armrest.

It is nice to have tangible things to measure your weight loss success.  These same tangible things can remind you when you have slipped or slacked off.  Week long carbapalooza before hard core training can bloat you right out of your seatbelt.  Something to think about as I make my food choices tomorrow.