Holidays and Health? No WAY!!!

Look at this picture (to the left) What do you see? I mean besides me sticking my hand out the window which makes my arm and hand foreshortened like some superhero such as Batman or Superman in a comic book. If you look very closely, behind me you see my wife eating potato chips.

Click on the picture to see it BIG!! Something was hanging down from the visor. I am not sure what it was.

Do you have the same problem that I do? During the end of the year holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas) I have a very hard time not over eating. This is especially true when family reunions happen during this time and every one is cooking up a storm. Who wants to not eat delicious food?

Then there are those Christmas parties. Oh yeah. I took pictures of just one Christmas program that I went to at our church school. When you get through reading this blog, head on over to http://pixcited.com/ and you can see them there under the Christmas Program directory. Well, it might be there pretty soon. From the tables heavily laden with deserts, you would think that nobody cared anything about any body's health. I mean there were brownies, divinity, cookies, pies, cakes, chocolate candies, and even a gingerbread house. I did not think anyone would eat the gingerbread house, but I was wrong. After the Christmas program all the teenagers came off the stage and they were HUNGRY. So among other things, they attacked the gingerbread house and ate it all up. It was an amazing sight to behold.

But I helped a considerable portion of all the goodies disappear. I had a big glass of hot apple cider, some brownies, a piece of chocolate with nuts in it, a slice of pumpkin pie and a few cookies. Somehow, my stomach felt a bit uneasy on the drive home and since I had eaten so much sugar laced food, we stopped and bought a couple of hamburgers.

You may not have guessed this, but... I haven't lost any weight. And I don't even wonder why that is. The only good news I can report is that I haven't gained any weight either. At least I don't think I have. But... my pants are getting awfully tight again, and I don't want to buy any more larger pants. Really. I am trying to go the other way. I am trying, but not succeeding very well.

I notice I haven't published anything new in a long time. I am just about to give up trying to get healthy and just start enjoying life. I know that is really going to disappoint my doctor as he keeps hoping I will actually lose some weight. That is a nice thought, but it looks like it isn't going to happen. Hmmm. Some people have been telling me about some amazing weight loss assistant goodies that help to control appetite. Maybe I will try some of these.

Any way, notice is hereby given that this blog is going to be about more then just health. It is going to be more of a "what I did today" sort of thing. Oh, and I might just mention some of my views on things that happen too. Hope you enjoy the change.



Sincerely,

David

Dealing with controlling people

You know what a controlling person is--it is somebody who feels that have to be in control of everything. If you are around them, then they want to be in control of you too! So how do you deal with a controlling person.

Well, if it is your boss, I guess you let them think they are in control. But for others, I just don't like other people telling me what I ought to do.

Once when I was in the mental ward, (I did not handle stress very well in those days) I decided that the medications I was being given were not helping me, and I wasn't going to talk any more of them. I had been flying pretty high in a manic phase, and the psychiatrist was trying his best to bring me down using drugs. But I enjoyed being manic. Therein was the problem.

The visiting psychiatrist on duty said, "well, if you are not going to take your medications, I cannot help you." To which I replied, "you are not helping me. You have never helped me, and you never will help me. Besides, I don't want or need your help."

Well, the psychiatrist thought he had to be in control. After all, I was the patient in the psychiatric ward, and he was the doctor in charge of said ward.

He said, "if you don't take your medications, I have no alternative but to put you in the insane asylum." I didn't care what the fool did. I still wasn't going to be pumped full of any more mind numbing drugs with what I perceived as horrible side effects. So I told him, "you do what you gotta do. I am not taking any more drugs."

Apparently he did not particularly like that answer. Within 30 minutes, 4 men in white showed up. Each of these men weighed at least 300 pounds, and was built like a line backer on a professional football team. Can you say "checkmate?" Guess what -- those men had come for me. I was given a huge shot in my buttocks that was supposed to knock down a horse, but I was so angry at this event which I saw as invading my personal space, I successfully resisted the drug. Now I was not only high, I was very angry. I never did see that particular psychiatrist again or I might have had a conversation with him in which he would have realized he was NOT in control. It was probably a good thing I never saw him again, or I might be writing this from jail.

Fortunately, a nurse found out about the power play that was going on, and routed me to a half way house instead of the insane asylum. Too bad--I was looking forward to the adventures in the insane asylum. But as my mother carefully pointed out later, it really doesn't look good on your medical records to have been housed in an insane asylum!!

From this incident, I finally figured out that it is far better not to directly challenge controlling people. Just let them THINK they are in control and then go on with your life, doing what you planned to do anyway. This works for bosses too, unless they find out later you did not "obey" them. Then they might fire you to retain control. But if they fire you, they can't control you any more!!

Good luck with controlling people, and I hope you are not trying to be one. It is a very difficult position because nobody will like you.

David