How Different is Post-op Travel? Travel series part 2

My recent trip to London was quite different from all of my previous holidays in many ways. Losing 70 kilos through weight loss surgery has helped me be able to live life to the full, how I want to and this made my holiday experience different, so much so for the better. Here’s the second part of my post-op travel series.

I walked lots! We walked so much in London and when we spent a week up in Yorkshire. We walked to the train, generally around sightseeing, for hours while shopping, to go and see awesome new things and I didn’t complain about the walking to my husband once. You guys have no idea how big of a deal this is because if I had to walk anywhere that was too far in my mind before I would bitch and moan like nothing else. This time I was the one walking fast and at the front and not minding going further and sometimes even suggesting it!

This came in handy on shopping days because there was literally so much to see I could walk around shopping for five or six hours. Prior to my gastric bypass that just would nat have happened without me needing to take breaks and have a good sit down at times. On our walks through the countryside in Yorkshire I easily traversed the farmland we walked over and I easily fit through the stiles and kissing gates. The photo at the top is me super pleased I could easily walk through this little stile and still have room left on either side of me.

The travel was so much easier. On the plane I didn’t feel squished in and actually felt like I had a bit of room to move around in and even better, I had tons of seatbelt left over after fastening it and tightening it up. The last time I travelled by plane the seatbelt almost didn’t fit me. On trains and the tubes I fit into the seats quite nicely and didn’t feel like I was an imposition taking up too much space on the packed tubes. Even just on the days we did big car trips I was much more comfortable than I would have been before. I could comfortably sit in the car for long periods of time and it was nice.

Also just being more confident and not self conscious about my size gave me one less thing to worry about when we were meeting new people (so much family!) and generally when I was out in public. I was more than happy to approach shop assistants for help and found everyone was really nice. Another thing I found interesting is I didn’t find strange beds anywhere near as uncomfortable as I would have before. Usually when we go away I would struggle for the first few nights to get comfortable in a strange bed but this time it didn’t bother me one bit.

The clothes shopping! There is far much more range in the UK for plus sizes than there is in New Zealand which is seriously under catered for but I could go into all of the shops I have heard about and try on whatever I wanted. While this was seriously awesome I also did find it a bit overwhelming because some of the stores were so large and had so much choice I just got a bit confused (I’m really wondering if I’ll ever feel like I know what to do in a clothes shop.)

It was so nice to be able to fully participate in our family holiday and do everything I wanted to and not have to make stupid excuses for why we couldn’t do stuff because of my weight. This has really confirmed for me that while this hasn’t been an easy ride by any means, the payoff in terms of getting my life back has been so worth it for me. I’m so happy we made the most of it and got to do and see so much that for this reason alone I would do it all again in a heartbeat!

Have you gone on holiday or are you planning post-op travel? What were you able to do that you know you wouldn’t have done before tell me in the comments below I’d love to hear from you!