Observations

I found out this week that St. Patrick's Day is a great night to go to the gym.  All those fitness-seeking people are  out dining on corned beef and cabbage or drinking beer.  I also went to the gym at 5:30 on Saturday night.  They are only open 7am-7pm on weekends.  There is a lot of vacant equipment so no waiting!  PF is open 24 hours the rest of the week.  I've never tried going after midnight.  If I worked the swing shift I would appreciate having that option available.

Tonight was the largest and brightest full moon in 18 years.  A SUPER Moon occurs when the orbit is in close during the vernal equinox.  (I'm not really sure if I got that exactly right but it was really beautiful.)  I'm glad it was a clear night so I was able to see it.

I had my three month check up with Dr. Jarrett, my Primary Care Physician/Cardiologist this week.  He was very pleased with my progress.  I don't remember hearing this before but he told me I had had some left ventricular hypertrophy prior to my surgery.  I'd known before that my heart was enlarged (cardiomegaly) but the hypertrophy is a direct result of having to work so hard to pump blood around.  This, of course, made the efficiency of the heart decrease which caused the chronic congestive heart failure.  On my next visit in June I'm scheduled for an echocardiogram and hopefully my heart will look much better.

This is the first year in many years that I haven't bought any Girl Scout Cookies.  Sorry girls.  I'm not doing cookies.  I'm also not buying Entenmenn's Hot Cross Buns, another of my seasonal favorites.  Coming next month is one of the biggest Chocolate Holidays of the year.  I know those Cadbury Eggs and Russell Stover Bunnies are out there.  But I'm not giving in to those either.  This paragraph is beginning to sound like FOOD PORN!!!

I thought of a little parable I'd heard long ago.  If you try to put a frog in boiling water it will jump right out.  However, if you put the frog in cool water and heat it up slowly it will not notice the heat increasing and before he knows it he's frog soup.  Now I have never tried to do this.  (OK I have cooked live lobsters but lets not go there.)

The point of all this is that I did not get fat overnight.  It took years and years of overeating, snacking, indulging, noshing, feasting, munching, consuming, nibbling, polishing off, scarfing up, bingeing, chug-a-lugging, feeding my face,  drowning my sorrows in chocolate, savoring, sampling, driving up, taking out, dining in, hitting the buffet, haute cuisine, daily special, soup of the day and comfort food.  You get the idea.

I've lost 130 pounds in 9 months. I used to get exhausted taking a shower.  Now after five miles on the exercise bike I'm not even winded.  I am so grateful that I was able to have my surgery.  Thanks Dr. Choi for giving me my life back.

Love to all, Marlena of Mohegan