My Day So Far

This morning 65MD and I got to go to church as is our usual routine on Sunday mornings.  When I selected my outfit, I chose a dress with a jacket because even though it is 110 in the shade here, I'm not hot.  In fact, I don't think I've been hot this summer, only not cold.  The church building is kept cool for the normal human beings.  The dress was from the consignment place I frequent.  It is a high end designer label that I would never, ever purchase at full price.  The dress is a gorgeous shade of red.  It is a classic, simple sleeveless dress and matching jacket.  It looks good on me.


As the morning progressed however, I developed a headache.  At times I felt myself scowling or gritting my teeth with the pain.  I feared that a full on migraine was coming and considered asking 65MD to take me home.  I didn't.  I say that to say that even though the dress was fabulous and looked good on me, I knew I was not at my best.  So, I was quite surprised when I got compliments on how nice I looked all morning.  One was doubly surprising.


There is a gentleman at our church that has extreme shyness, boarding on social phobia.  The poor man scurries around the hallways avoiding all human contact.  He selects paths so that he encounters the fewest number of people possible and sits as far away from the group as possible.  He is an incredibly intelligent man; he just has this shyness problem.  Imagine my surprise when he approached me in the hallway this morning.  He was at least 5 feet away from me as he told me that I looked very nice.  He said he had noticed that I had changed my hair and he really liked the way it looked.  (I'm letting it grow.)  He said that it was "attractive, very attractive."  Of course I thanked him.  That profuse type of compliment would have been welcome from anyone, but knowing the courage that it took him to actually say that magnified it greatly.


After church, my mother wanted to go eat, and I felt like a cool salad would be refreshing.  So, we selected a place where the three of us could get what we wanted.  As we walked in, there was a lady seated inside the doorway, dressed as though she'd probably come from church as well.  As I walked by she called out to me and told me how much she liked my dress and how pretty I was.  I was stunned.  A genuine compliment from a complete stranger is the highest form of flattery IMO.  She had absolutely no reason to say anything to me.  It really made me feel good about myself.  I also wondered what I would have looked like, if I'd not had that screaming headache and had a more pleasant expression on my face!


I ordered the salad as I had planned and drank several glasses of unsweetened tea with lemon.  That really perked me up so I began to wonder if I was slightly dehydrated.  I only drank 64 ounces of water yesterday rather than close to 100.

As I enjoyed my meal and my mother and husband enjoyed theirs, I thought about how much better I felt when I made healthy selections, especially when dining out.  The food tasted fine, and I had no guilt about eating 'bad' food.  My hunger was satisfied and I had no mental gymnastics later about eating up now, since I'd already blown it.  I actually feel like I want the good stuff.  Although the pictures of onion rings look good, I don't really want them, not when I think about how greasy the onion rings will be.  Not when I think about the stomach upset that grease will cause, not when I think about the bounce they'll create on the scales.  They simply aren't worth it. 

I'm trying hard to capitalize on those feeling.  I want to focus on enjoying the healthy food selections, knowing that they are what my body needs for nourishment.  That is what is important, a strong healthy body.  The only way to get that is by giving it the best fuel possible.  The number on the scale is just that, a number.  It is only a small measure of health.  The tag in my clothes denoting the size is utterly meaningless! I need to focus on the whole.  It is a shift in thinking, but it happening.  Slowly, slowly, but it is happening.