My Next 38 years

Waiting to be seated for dinner on the night of my birthday Weight Loss -96lbs
Picture of us after filling our bellies.. Left side front to back ..
My cousins Ashleigh, Bonnie, ME, and my sister Rena'
Right side front to back - my cousin Lani, in her arms Jakkoby, Cousin Zac, Aunt Iris and cousin Dawn.

It was a very nice dinner and I had a good time. I rec'd from my cousins and Aunt, the Ice Cream maker I wanted as a birthday present and I have already made and ate my first batch of Protein Ice cream.. It was not too bad. I made my favorite Choco chip mint. I think since it was my first batch that it will get better as I go along and get the bugs out. I am not much of a cook or experimenter so it will take me a bit to get it down pat but for the first batch it was still pretty darn good and I ate it all. It is amazing, if you actually look in the stores you will see how much stuff is actually made sugar free and still taste good.. Of course, regardless of whether it is SF or not you have to use in moderation. To make the CHOCO mint Ice cream I found the SF Andes Mint patties as well as SF Peanut Butter cups that I can use on another batch of ice cream.

Now to my next 38 years.. I certainly can't begin to speculate just exactly what these years will bring but I am certainly hoping for a dramatic change at least in the near future. My weight is coming off and that is allowing for more confidence and of course better health.. It really is life altering, people who are not overweight do not realize what we go through, mentally/physically as well as what we endure from other people. Yesterday I decided that I was gonna go out and about, I needed some water and such from Sam's club as well as I decided I would do visit and start getting back involved with a Animal charity called adopt - a - pet. I was very active with them before surgery in fostering unwanted animals as well as helping in other events. Anyways, when I walked into the animal shelter no one knew who I was right away. I waited for a bit and finally one of the volunteers said "OH MY GOD..Look at you" She was simply floored with the transformation so far. After that other volunteers finally recognized me as the same person from 4 months ago and were simply amazed at the difference. Boy did that make me feel good.

The other thing that I noticed yesterday was that people really do treat you different when they see you as disgustingly fat compared to just overweight. After a while I kinda made it a game to see and observe other people and what they did or said to me compared to before. For instance.. While I was out I stopped at a farmers market/craft show and there was a booth that was selling baked goods. I stopped and bought some fresh baked dog treats. There was an older lady and husband running it with the help of what I will assume was there son. ( mid 30 or so I would say and very good looking) Anyways, I bought the dog treats and the good looking guy went out of his way, grabbed a bag of over sized sugar cookies handed them to me and said that he wanted me to have them as an extra gift. While of course I did not really want them as I can't eat them, I was certainly not about to say no...lol.. anyways while nothing came of it I took it as a hint of flirtation as he made direct eye contact with me on several occasions. That is something that when I was heavier did not happen, most strangers whether they were men or women would not make direct eye contact. After this I went to Sam's club and found the same thing, people were more receptive in speaking with you, they made direct eye contact and they did NOT hug the walls as you walked by them in the isle. I am sure the fact that I am displaying more confidence in myself helps allot but I have never been a shy person by any means so talking to strangers or whatever was never a problem on my part, so I guess basically what I am trying to get across to everyone is that even though you probably don't think you are treating some one differently you might subconsciously be doing just that. Being that I am experienced at the receiving end of both kind of behavior I am really gonna make a conscience effort to treat everyone the same.. I will be mean to everyone....lol... just kidding.. I really am gonna make the effort to make sure that I do not intentionally treat anyone differently based on appearances and I hope you all try and do the same.

This week is gonna be a busy one, lots to do and get accomplished. I am hoping that it will be a very productive week and have plenty of good intentions, too many to list..lol..

I hope everyone has a good week and Happy Monday !