Trevor

I’ve blogged about this before. I frequently donate blood products through my local Red Cross. Usually I give platelets, but sometimes they need plasma and sometimes whole blood. I’m not fussy. Whatever I can give that is most in need is what I will give.

For those of you who have never donated platelets or plasma, you lay in a recliner. They insert one or two needles (usually two) and they draw out the blood. It runs from one arm, through a machine which separates out the products that is being collected and then returns the remaining blood back to the other arm.

This can take a couple hours. I grab a DVD and a portable player and watch a movie. And I relax for a couple hours. But last Friday, as I was just getting ready to watch “Swordfish” (a good John Travolta movie) I noticed a lot of people walking around the facility. A lot of talking. But I was trying to focus on the movie so I tried to ignore it. Suddenly, I felt a hand rest on the back of my recliner and heard a voice above me say,”How are you today?”

I looked up, and after a brief pause, managed to say, “Fine, Mr. Woodson. But more important, how are YOU?”

Yup. Charles Woodson. #21, Pro-Bowl defensive back for the Green Bay Packers was standing over me. He had just delivered a cash donation to the Red Cross for the Sandy relief efforts. He went around to everyone donating and chatted a bit. We all got pictures.

Oh, and he answered my question by saying that he is getting better, and expects to be back on the field in a few weeks. Being a nurse, I of course needed to give some advise: “Work with your trainers, but rest your arm when possible. Get healthy, and be 100% when you get back!”

Moral of the story? There is no moral. But please, if you are physically able, make an appointment and give some blood. Even when there are no hurricanes and superstorms, there are always people in your hometown that need blood. And someday, unfortunately, it may be you or a loved one. Help out someone now!

You’ve PASSIONATE about your goal, are well-PLANNED and PREPARED. You ‘ve PROCEEDED and have demonstrated PERSISTENCE.

5.  PAY ATTENTION!

Sounds pretty basic, right? But it’s easy to forget, especially when a bit of success finally arrives. When you first start your life changing journey, you are excited. Motivated. Enthusiastic. Full of confidence.

And you start losing weight! Cool, right? So you keep on working. You keep logging. You get up early to walk, or lift, or do your preferred activity. And the weight drops a bit more.

You try a new recipe that you found on Twitter. You consciously (and politely) refuse that sweet roll at the office. The next day, you notice that your belt is a little loose. Sweet! A non-scale victory!

About the fourth or fifth week, the scale starts to show smaller weekly losses. But that’s okay, you know that everything is still working. Then one day you eat that sweet roll at the office. No worries, you know that you will run an extra mile when you get home. But when you get home, you find that the dog has gotten into the garbage, and by the time you get everything cleaned up, you decide to scrap the evening’s run and just get up a bit earlier tomorrow morning.

When you arise in the morning, it is a little cool and you decide to stay under the covers a little too long. When you eventually get up, you feel a bit guilty about eating yesterday’s donut and not running. You decide to not get on the scale because you don’t want to see a gain.

After work that night you decide to stop at your favorite Chinese place for a take-out of General Tso’s chicken. It’s really good and you eat most of it. (Okay, you really eat it all.) When you wake up, you notice your wedding ring is tight. You know that it was last night’s meal, full of sodium. No matter, it’s just a little water weight. However you don’t get on the scale, because even though it is only water weight, you don’t want to be demoralized by the gain.

That is the pattern that is very common. Early success leads to careless behaviors, and the problem is then compounded by lack of monitoring. You weren’t paying attention!

You aren’t alone. It is common. But it is correctable. You need to PAY ATTENTION. Contrary to what many people say, I believe daily weights are important. While I know that our bodies like to play little games on us (weight gains after a particularly good day of eating, losses after a binge) if you check your weight every day, at the same time each day, wearing the same clothes (or none), over the long term the scale will show you your valid trend. And seeing those small increases will help you keep a closer eye on what you eat. That small gain might give you the motivation to run when you say you are going to run and to decline that sweet roll at the office. And the losses you see will reward and reinforce your good behaviors.

But that only happens when you pay attention. Everyday.

By the way: Paying attention also applies to cooking. I recently made some chicken enchiladas under the broiler. I put then in the oven and got busy doing stuff around the house. They should have come out at 8 minutes. At 12 minutes, I smelled something burning.