June Jubilee

You nurses out there should especially enjoy this post. Our company holds a mini-health fair each year through our health insurance, Blue Cross Blue Shield Kansas City. They send out some nice ladies from Kansas City, let them weigh us, prick our fingers, and help us fill out a health risk appraisal. Last year, we received a $25 Visa gift card + $10 per month off of our insurance premiums. Not a bad deal. Last year was the first year, so I didn't have much to compare my results to. I was average, with my blood pressure, total cholesterol, and HDL levels hovering in the normal range. Like I said, I had nothing to compare myself to, so I had no idea I could do better.

On Friday, those sweet little nurses came back, weighed me, pricked my finger, and actually gave me some inspiring and motivational news! All my results are compared to results from July 2006. My weight is down 5 lbs (it's actually down 5 lbs from the beginning of May too!) and my cholesterol is down 23 points! All the while, I virtually maintained my HDL level, which the nurse said is difficult to do. I'd say I've really only slightly modified some of my lifestyle habits, so the results are overwhelming to me. I keep seeing myself in one of those commercials with a sign strapped to the front of me with my cholesterol score in bright green. Oh, and we got a $30 Dick's Sporting Goods gift certificate + $10 per month off our insurance premiums.

To top it off, I had a guy I work with, but don't see often (he's in our Colorado Springs office) seek me out after a meeting on Friday to tell me that I'm looking "fit". Bless his heart, what guy do any of you know that would actually have the nerve to say something about your weight and use such a nice term? It really made my day on Friday, and I think I'm going to send him a thank you note to tell him how much his comment meant to me.

It's hard being this girl; the girl who struggles with her weight. I've always been the skinny girl, and I guess I don't feel any different inside, so it's hard to swallow that I need to change my lifestyle to get back to being the skinny girl. I don't know if I'll ever get there, but I feel like I'm more on my way now than I have been in the past few years. Yeah, I'd love to be a size 8 again, but really, who am I kidding. It would require too much work and sacrifice to get there, and honestly I'm happy with my life as it is. I recognize the couple of things I need to pay attention to, and slowly it's becoming habit, rather than trying to remember to do them.

I've grown to love and appreciate cooking and fine cuisine over the six years we've been married, and it seems such a waste to go through every day, almost every meal, eating something bland just to fit into a pair of jeans that don't hug my thighs. On the other hand, I see so many girls out there that look great, and it makes me long to be that girl again. I'll have to find a happy medium.