Weighted Smiles

Awhile ago I published a "before" and "after" picture of myself.  The before picture was a woman with dead eyes and unwashed hair and MANY too MANY pounds on her.  The after picture was quite a contrast: 70 lbs less, styled hair and a smile.  Well, I still have the smile and the hair...but unfortunately I also have back that 70 pounds. (or most of it).  My weight had snuck up...to about 170...Not horrific, but still too much.  Then came three months on steroids and two of those weeks were inpatient with massive doses of IV steroids.  I had never been so hungry in all my life.  I was ravenous....I ate everything that didn't try to run away.... That's what steroids do to me...while there I gained 30 pounds...and once home, (still on steroids) I gained ten more.  Yes, Huge.  Above is a pic of me taken a couple of weeks ago.

The good news is that I'm back on the Spark "diet" (It's not really a diet but a healthy way of living).  I'm back to tracking food and watching calories.  I wish I could say that I'm back to exercising. Asthma originally put a lid on that, then the torn hamstring and the dislocated hip finished me off.  Once I get clearance from my Otho Surgeon, I will be back to my recumbent bike. I can't do much at all in the way of strength training because my shoulders are both imminently to be replaced. (the first one on June 12th)

I just thought of something that happened to me recently.  I was walking outside some stores in NY about an hour from my home...feeling extremely fat and self conscious.  I was wearing the Tshirt you see in the above pic.  I approached a young woman outside smoking a cigarette.  I assumed from her clothing that she was an employee of one of the stores having a smoke break.  I immediately pulled my head into my turtle shell and walked by hastily praying she wouldn't look at me.  She smiled at me and said very sincerely, "That is such a beautiful shirt you are wearing.  I really like it."  I almost fell on the ground.  The girl was probably in her late teens or early twenties and well, kids that age usually don't pay any attention to people like me, except maybe to laugh  at me.  That afternoon though, although I just smiled and said thank you and kept walking, I kept replaying the girl's smile and her compliment to me.  It made my day.

It brought to my mind myself, on my way to and from my Middle School in Hackensack NJ in my 7th and 8th grade years.  I used to have a game.  I would smile a bright smile at every person I passed sometimes throwing in a  "hi" and then I would keep a tally of how many of the pinched pickle pusses who passed me actually brightened and smiled back.  It made me happy then to know that I was surprising them into a smile and I hoped I made their day....

And now here I am...er 35 years later...and it's ME with pickle puss and that young girl brightened my day...While it is more surprising when a young person does this...there is no law that says we adults cannot do the same.  Say a kind word.  Throw in a bright smile.
You'll make someone's day.