Friday

I looked at my before/now pictures quite a bit. I can see a difference, but...

I'M STILL FAT

ha ha ha ha...

Getting there.

It's amazing to me the differences I can feel. I can feel my back is smaller, I can feel my tummy is smaller. I can see veins in my hands now. I have cheekbones. I notice a lot of things. Then when I look at the pictures, I see it, but it's not as "big"or maybe I should say "little" as it feels.

I'm a daily weigher. I have not lost anything this week, in fact I go up and down. Looking at the photos, I notice how swollen my right calf, ankle and foot is. I'm wondering if the weird scale thing this week is water weight.

Since I'm always totally honest here, I'm going to admit this: I'm disappointed that the scale numbers aren't dropping more. Three months, 24 pounds--I'm thrilled, but the last time I did WW, I lost about 10 pounds a month. I had hoped to lose 8-10 a month, which I'm doing--averaging 8, but I'm not thrilled with the little losses.

Thing is, like I tell everyone else on their blogs, it's only a number, and only one way to measure success. The last time I did WW the numbers were much better, but my body didn't change as fast as it is changing now. It took a long time before my clothes fit differently, got loose and baggy. So I'm good knowing I am shrinking. I'm just in the same club: We all want it off yesterday. That scale can be instant gratification, and when we have to focus on other things when it doesn't say what we want it to.

~~~~

Ang, I'm going to have to decline on your challenge. Thank you for offering it, thank you for supporting me, I appreciate it more than you know. I have been thinking about it a lot, and I think that I would be setting myself up for failure if I tried to get 6 veggies and 4 fruits a day. I struggle now with 5 fruits and veggies a day. What I can and will do is go to the store tomorrow, get more Romaine, carrots, Iceberg lettuce...and come home, prepare it, and eat a salad with lunch and dinner. That will help. I'll poke around and the produce department and see what they've got. I think what I should do is try one new veggie a week.

I have to keep my goals small, otherwise I will get overwhelmed. I have thought about making veggie smoothies--remember that Vita-Mix gathering dust on my counter?--but I'm afraid I would waste too much money and not like what I prepare.

I'm really going to give this a lot of thought. I will say this: Before starting WW this time, I would only eat iceberg lettuce. Now I'll eat Romaine. I'm at 3/4 Romaine 1/4 Iceberg in my salad, hoping to phase the iceberg out altogether. So that's a step in the right direction. A small step, but it's a step.

~~~~~

One final thing, not weight related. We were at the doctor's office again this morning for a test. While waiting, we were sitting feet from the receptionist. She got a call. I heard say, "You're having chest pain, shortness of breath and pain down your arms? I think you need to go to the emergency room, but let me talk to a nurse." She called the nurse, I heard her say mm-hmm, and then she got back with the woman on the phone. (It was a woman, I heard her tell the nurse.) She said, "Ma'am, you need to go to the emergency room." Pause. "Ma'am, we don't have the equipment to take care of you here, you need to go to the emergency room." Click. Then she turned to the other receptionist and started talking about her son.

I almost got up out of my chair. WTH? She did not ask the lady if she had someone there with her to help her, she did not offer to call an ambulance. She didn't do a thing. 99% odds that woman was having a heart attack.

Should I mention this to my doctor? I am really appalled at how she handled it.

I'm not overly religious at all, but when that happened, I sat there praying HARD for that woman. Scared the crap out of me. Clearly she was scared enough to call the doctor, and probably too scared to go to the emergency room. What if she was alone and drove herself and passed out or died on the way to the hospital...

I just didn't like how that was handled at all. It's not what I would have done. I have been thinking of her all afternoon today. Why didn't the receptionist tell her to take baby aspirin? Why didn't she just get her address and call 911? Good grief.

When I had a ride in an ambulance to the hospital with a weird EKG (the clinic mis-read it), the first thing they did was pump me full of baby aspirin.

It just bothered me because I would have tried to help. I know they're not 911, and it was true she needed to be in the emergency room, but I think she should have taken an extra step or two in helping the poor woman out.

What do I know? I just hope she's okay.

And they say strangers don't care about others...I have no idea who this lady is, but I care.