Shocker

I'm starting to pull together things to hang on the wall of my office, including my diplomas, which I have never had framed. My boss and secretary have been getting on my case about the lack of decoration and saying things like I must not be planning to stay long. So I'm trying to establish myself here as a fixture to say, yes, I do want you to hire me full-time. See how cool I am with my higher education and neat-o pictures and plants?

A couple of days ago I dug out my diplomas to put them in my work bag. I opened up the box holding my Masters diploma and out fell a print out of a picture my dad took of me when I received the diploma in the mail (I didn't walk at graduation).

Oh. My. Gosh.

I showed it to Jason and he said, "That doesn't even look like you."

I think I weighed about 40 pounds more than I do now and my face in the picture is just as round as can be. I had forgotten completely about that picture and it was kind of a shock.

Even when I weighed a lot more, I don't think I really felt like I weighed that much. I knew I needed to lose weight and that I wasn't really happy with my body, but I don't think I realized how large I really was. When I went to the doctor for migraines and he told me how much I weighed and expressed concern, I was shocked. Well, I was wearing a size 20, so I was kind of large.

It's weird how my mind seemed to trick me into thinking I really hadn't gained THAT much weight. In the 3 years I lived in Chicago, I put on 35-45 pounds, but I really didn't feel that much bigger than when I graduated from college. One day I noticed this giant pink stretch mark across my lower stomach. Now, my bum and thighs had always been large, but I generally had a pretty flat stomach. Seeing that stretch mark was kind of a shock, but still I didn't really think I was THAT heavy.

I had sort of a reverse negative body image. I didn't feel good about myself, but all in all I didn't think I was doing too bad. Turns out, as that visit to the doctor's office showed me, the weight was getting out of control.

*******

I've been wanting to try Almond Breeze for awhile because it just sounded yummy to me. It's a fairly low-calorie milk substitute made of almonds. I'm a big almond fan, but I was a little concerned that it might have the same texture as soy milk, which feels like Maalox to me and makes me gag a little.

I bought some Almond Breeze yesterday and yum! I had it on some cereal and loved it. Sweet and nutty. I just bought the plain original, but I want to try the vanilla and chocolate now. I bet the chocolate would go great in a chocolate shake. Or a mocha shake with some coffee ice cream/frozen yogurt. Mmmm, I'm getting hungry...