Catching Up on Success Stories is Fun

Unbelievably, it is after midnight, and I have spent hours catching up on my blog reading. Since I am not at home, I have very unreliable Internet access. This week we are moving back and forth between family and a friend's house, and there is no Internet access at our friend's house. He does not own a computer -- won't even consider it -- so I am SOL when we are at his house. Since my husband spends all his nights there, I need to give up computers periodically in order to spend time with him.

My husband will return to Arizona this weekend, but I will stay here for all of January. I am in my son's apartment and alone tonight since he is working his shift at the fire department, where he is an EMT. He spent last night at home so we could have dinner together and catch up on each other's lives. Since he is national chair or something of the American Heart Association as well as an EMT, we frequently have lots of conversations about health and fitness. He is really glad to see that I am what he calls "taking care of myself" and getting healthy. He will leave Thursday morning for Dallas, where he is filming a training program for the Heart Association. He won't get home until very late Sunday night.

It is very nice to be near my boys after a six month absence, for I miss them so when I cannot be near them. Even though it is after midnight, I just got a text message from my other son, reminding me I can stay at his place anytime I want. Nice to be wanted.

I have now finished my water for the day, the last of it in the form of hot water, and that tasted really good in the cold weather. No fireplace in this apartment, and the insulation is not the best from the feel of things. The heating system is kind of strange in this apartment based on my limited experience, but, hey, it works, so no real complaints. Just seems strange that the only heating element for the kitchen, dining area, and living room is a single little unit in the dining room.

Right now I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with gratitude for the wonderful support group I have stumbled into. So great to know that others are also walking the same path I am on toward fitness and good health. Such an exciting time for so many of the bloggers I follow, so many success stories. What an impressive group of people, and I am so encouraged by the examples they set by their actions. If someone had told me that I could lose steadily (albeit slowly) like I have been doing since I joined this group, I would not have believed it.

For reasons unknown to me, the people I know are either very thin, very tiny people for the most part. I also have a friend who has had gastric bypass surgery, hated what it did to her life, and has gained a lot of weight back. She constantly tells me I look great and don't need to worry about my weight. Sweet, but not true. My other friends, in an effort to be kind, tell me I look fine. People sometimes think they are helping you when in fact they are not doing you any favor by indirectly discouraging efforts to lose weight.

I guess everything in life can be perceived as relative, but as an unhealthy, obese person, I do not gain anything at all by being told I look good when I am 40 pounds overweight, and I have the high cholesterol and high blood pressure to prove it. Additionally, I am borderline Type 2 diabetic due to my poor food choices as well as the quantity of food I used to consume. What I need to hear are comments like, "I am excited for you that you are making your health a priority" or something to that effect when I say, "no, I am watching what I eat" to an offer of a piece of cake or a second helping.

It will be so cool to see what my glucose reading is when I have my next blood test. That will be with my new doc, of course, since my ex-doc (the incompetent one) has no recollection of even discussing diabetes with me. She suggested I go to diabetes food classes to learn how to reduce the sugar levels in my blood, but now she has no recollection of ever talking to me about diabetes. Hello!! Doctors can be very scary....as in, what do older people who become forgetful do when they have a doctor like that? Sounds downright dangerous to me.

But I digress. My glucose level was 121, and I expect a SIGNIFICANT improvement with my new way of eating. I am totally excited about taking better care of my body and getting healthy. Yes, the weight loss is nothing short of wonderful, and the improvement to my health is awesome as well. I'm dreaming of a healthy body....just like the one I used to have.

Thank you, God. I know I am richly blessed.