Big D's Journal - Facing the Giants

Alta818 said:
..One question: You said at the end...cut 1/4 cubes cheese and add to tomatoes....Does that mean that you roast the cheese in the tomato juice on the stove..or you add the mozarella cubes cold to the warm sauce and cold salad, and don't cook them? I'm presuming if you cook them with the red sauce, you'll get a really melted cheesy sauce...so you probably mean add them cold right? :) haha...Thanks!!!
Click to expand...

actually, you cut the cheese into 1/4 inch cubes and add it to the cold tomatoes. the (cooled) sauce just gets poured over it all as a dressing.
 
Management

I was looking at a few things last night while reflecting on this whole weightloss ordeal ahead, and realized that there is one perception changer I seem to have adopted since I've gotten here. The one month at a time thought process.

It seems strange, but also makes things less intimidating looking. Sure, I can make an annual plan, quarterly plan and so on, but that should be broad general things.. it seems to come down to the 30 day plan where things really are getting done. When you're really looking ot make changes, focus on 30 days and put your efforts into that.

Why you ask?

It takes roughly 30 days to form a habit, and for breaking a habit, it takes longer, but the stages of it are in roughly 30 day increments. We can manage a month, it gets insane to try to manage a year as anyone who's had to manage a tight annual budget knows.

Let's break it down and say you're exercising every day.

Thats:
30 Breakfasts
30 Lunches
30 Dinners
30 Snacks (which will often consist of only 3-4 things)
30 Workout Sessions

when you look at it in that light, that's not a lot, especially if you're going to repeat a lot of things.

If you look at each meal you will make, you likely have around 10 recipes for each meal that you like and can do well. Even if you like to experiment and have an occasional special thing, most people seem to hover around 10 in their usual bag of tricks.

The concept of self management is to take the enormous pile of things and find out how to fit them all in each day, and making a plan and looking at it rationally is part art and part science. The art comes to looking at things in a way that what you're managing begins to look simple.

What I plan on doing is taking my various recipes and making index cards with 'meals' on them. One whole meal from the various recipes I have, then shuffle them out like cards for the week. I like variety, but I don't always like to have to think what I'm going to make every day. If you're the same way, try it and see if that makes it work better for you.

It'd seem that one of the harder things to do is change your routine, and this might help take some of the overloading amount of thought out of it. It's said that Einstein had 15 or so of the same outfit in his closet, so then he could just grab a suit and go, and not waste thought daily on something as small as what he was going to wear.

as humans, we tend to think that the more complex something is, the more effective or 'better' it has to be, which explains why people fall for all these fad diets and workout gadgets. This is something that worked for me when I started out my career, and I can owe it to one phenominal educator at my school. He said on day one. "I can teach you every command and sequence in this computer language, and you'll at best make only a low level programmer. I'm going to teach you the basic commands but also how to THINK like a programmer."

It _worked_

How do you view your weight loss? Do you view it as a fat person trying to become skinny, or a skinny person trying to trim down? I'm trying for the latter, since a skinny person already knows how to be skinny, and they're trying to get back to that. At the same time, who am I going to listen to more when it comes to permanent change, someone who was skinny most of their life? Quite likely. They obviously have been doing something right. Look at their habits and their methods and see if there's a reason or point to it.

My closing thought on this: I watch and observe others who are in the places I want to be in life, because I realize that I do not know everything. If I knew what I was doing in that area that they are in, I would be there next to them, not on the outside looking in.

2010 is in the house, and it's time to start _my_ diet. Its not enough to persue your goals, since that's implying you never intend to reach them. This is the year we all chase our goals down, grab them by the throat, and make them our bitches, otherwise they will make us theirs.
 
workout went well today, but man was that rough. Of course, that means I might step it up to twice a day soon.

Workout (nabbed from iVillage w/modifications):

Warm up (6 minutes)
Alternate one minute of step touches with 30 seconds of jumping jacks for a total of 4 times each.

Step touches: Tap your right toe lightly in front of your left, then your left toe in front of your right. Swing your arms as you continue alternating left and right taps. Move at a comfortable pace that elevates your heart rate and quickens your breathing.

Punch on the heavy bag (6 minutes)

Move continuously from drill to drill without any break in between.

Drill 1: Alternate left and right punches 4 times, then alternate lefts and rights as fast as you can 8 times. (2 minutes)

Drill 2: Alternate right and left punches 4 times, then alternate rights and lefts as fast as you can 8 times. (2 minutes)

Drill 3: Alternate left and right punches in sets of 8 with a slight hesitation between sets. (2 minutes)


Jump (3 minutes)

Jump rope.... like hell.. I doubt the foundation of the house can take it. besides, I have low ceilings. I'll save that part for spring when I can do this stuff outside. I jogged in place for 3 minutes as a substitute.


Pump (6 minutes) 15 sec break between exercises
Twist: Place a broomstick across your shoulders. Stand tall with your arms draped over the stick. Keeping your abs tight, do tight, small twists left and right. Exhale each time you twist to the side and inhale as you move back toward the middle. Twist for 30 seconds, then rest briefly and repeat.

Squats: Stand tall with your feet slightly wider than hip-width apart, hands on hips. Bend your knees until your thighs are parallel to the floor, then stand back up, taking care not to lock your knees. Do 32 reps and hold the last rep in the squat position for 20 seconds.

Push-Ups: Do 8 reps, and on the last one, lower slowly, taking 20 seconds to complete the rep. (Last one is BRUTAL!)

Dips: Sit on the floor with your legs straight out, arms at your sides, palms pressing into the floor and fingertips either pointing out to the side or behind you, whichever is more comfortable. Lift your butt and legs up so you're balanced on your palms and heels and your weight is supported by your arms. Bend your elbows a few inches, and then straighten back up. Do 8 reps, and on the last one, lower slowly, taking 20 seconds to complete the rep. (With the size of my butt, I put a few thick books under my hands to make up the height. Maybe I just have stubby arms?)

Crunches (10): with feet ~3 inches off ground, arms straight up with 10 lb medicine ball in hands.


Cool Down (3 minutes):
Arm, back and thigh stretches 1 min each


Today's willpower exercise: while shopping, walk through candy and sweets aisle, look around at all the stuff, and then walk away. Realize when leaving teh store that Yes, I can walk past sweets, candy, treats, etc and not put them in my mouth or buy them for later.
 
Arms are a bit sore today. I'm working in small activities when I'm at idle. yesterday, was listening to music, so was laying on teh floor on my exercise mat and tossing the 10lb medicine ball up and down. Really seemed to work my triceps, which is good since when I was doing chest presses in the past, those would poop out before my chest would.
 
Today was a rough start. No real sleep last night, kept having the strangest dreams and kept waking up because of it. Now, I don't remember my dreams usually, but these kept coming in loud and clear. While slightly surreal, they were also kind of boring. Just talking, interacting and hanging out with various people from my past. People I wrote off a long time ago too, which disturbs me.

So, as many can imagine, working out this morning was a disaster. Warmed up with some TV show aerobics (helps me keep a steady pace actually) and got in 5 minutes on the bag before pooping out, so went back and did the boxing warm-ups again to see if I was just slow gaining energy. No soap there. I'll exercise more when I get home tonight after dinner.

left lunch at home in my rush, so I got a chefs salad off the food truck. its pretty much what i made as it is, looks about the same size and mostly the same ingredients. Ok, it had cherry tomatoes in it, and I didn't put any of those in. Ate that, and had 2 1.5oz turkey jerky sticks as snacks while here at work.

Maybe my cardio is a little ambitious for my fitness level, so What I'll do is Go as far as I can with it until I poop out or make the full allotment. I'll make the rest of the time starting from the beginning with the warm-up. Lower intensity, but I'm at least moving. It'll come. it's a process. maybe I should eat breakfast first and wait half an hour like my old PT had me do for workouts?

Vitamins make my pee bright bright yellow. I looked down and thought. hmm, big bird.

Dinner tonight is some chicken and brown rice with salsa, and an apple for a snack later.

Breakfast was an egg beaters southwestern with some chicken and turkey bacon mixed in, of course, with hot sauce. can't have eggs without hot sauce, that's just unAmerican.

So far, I'm showing I'm a little behind in my calories. Given I'm also adding in 5% padding for calories I didn't know I was eating, I should be right where I need to be.

Was reading some guys fitness blog, and had an interesting challenge that worked for some people. The 'One Big Meal' challenge. Which would work great for me on weekends since I tend to either nibble or have only 1-2 big meals. Basically, you're making a casserole with your whole day's allotment of calories. One big meal. All has to be cooked at once, but it's up to me how I break up eating it, and that's all I can eat for the day. Sounds almost like a lot of my weekends. order a large pizza, and eat on it throughout the day. I might keep it in the toolbox if I feel like I'm going to have one of those low self control weekends.
 
mmmm Beefy!

So I've been changing things around a little bit to find things that fit me better. I've stepped back the cardio a bit and I'm pushing weights instead. I tend to use the cardio right now to warm up, and then start lifting things. I'll start reintroducing it in time, as my body starts to get more used to the calorie restriction and starts burning fat for fuel.

yes yes, I know the whole fuel substrate thing, but at the same time, I'm obviously got a body that's used to having an overabundance of calories, cutting down to a more minimal level pisses the body off and it doesn't want to let go of the fat of it doesn't have to, so yeah, cranky, tired, about drooling as I pass the snack machine, etc. Oh yeah, and egg farts, oh lord, I could clear a gymnasium with some of these things.

So anyways.. lifting. Must have done something right this morning since its 11am and I'm still feeling.. beefy. I'm sure it'll fade by 1pm, but its still pretty interesting. Today was arms, shoulders and chest, tomorrow back and core, friday is legs. then repeat.

Supposed to snow heavily tomorrow and friday. we'll see if I get snowed in or not.
 
So its closing in on my first week and I feel I'm doing pretty decent all around.

So far, I've kept to my water and I've been eating breakfast all week. I'm actually feeling pretty decent. I notice I have a bit better energy and my sleep is evening out a bit. I have to manage that better but it's not in my schedule yet, so it'll either work itself out, or I'll deal with that as the time comes.

I'm not really getting those sleepy fits like I have before in the past.

I'm not tracking calories exactly per se. What I've done and if it works, what I'll continue to do in some fashion was this: when I was cooking up my chicken for the week ( I did this all in batches Saturday), I took a standard 'serving' as 4oz. so I looked at the package weight, and divided it down into roughly 4oz portions. I'm not stressing over exactness, since if I know I'll be eating 1 pieces a week, and the package weight is right (I figure those pirates at the food place weigh slightly over for cost, bastards), then the calories are known. if one piece is over a bit, then one piece will be under a bit. Same with the vegetables and other things I'm using. I container it for a week's worth, and draw from there. it should also help with estimating and budgeting my food, since if I decide to pig out on monday and tuesday, then friday and saturday are going to be pretty lean, calorie wise.

motivation thoughts today: I don't look at exercise as 'work' or even exercise anymore. I look at it as practice. Throughout my life, despite my size, I've always had a certain grace, lightness in the feet and control of movement. Grace comes from strength, power and control. I've lost a good bit of that with all this added weight, so while burning calories, I'm working on getting back that power, strength and control over my muscles to regain that control and ability I had before, and practicing in its use. That is my impetus to push further, not just blindly trying at accumulate numbers on how much I've lifted how many times.
 
I'm a horrible journal person. :D

So, this past week:

A few minor slips here and there, but since loosening my eating regimen it's a lot more manageable (details later in this entry). I skipped breakfast a few times, so grabbed an apple on the way out the door and ate that. not optimal, but better than no breakfast. Its rough at times with my work schedule, so I'm letting the eating plan settle in and see what happens. I notice that I tend to have higher protein at breakfast and dinner, and more carb heavy throughout the day while staying within my calorie allotment.

Exercise has been sketchy, but it looks like a break in the weather so I'll be walking a bit this weekend.

I can see a small bit of difference in my body. scale says I've dropped 8 lbs since I started. Parents, whom I see 1-2x a week say they can see a bit of a difference in my belly, that top ridge of fat isn't near as prominent.

so, how I've loosened up my eating plan is this: saturday or sunday night, I tend to have my main cook off for the week. I take a few packages of meat and cook them in a way best for me (steam chicken breasts, fry ham, etc) and keep note of the weight on the package. Then I pull out the handy calculator and figure out what (for meat) is a 4oz portion and cut the meat to approx that size. Then I let the meat cool and package it up for the fridge. veggies tend to stay in their bag sin the fridge, but many times, I'll make up a batch of brown rice and prepare that for later in the week too.

How it works for me in then, I'm mostly reheating leftovers, or at the least, my meat is cooked and it just has to be reheated. Everything is in roughly the right proportion, and if its not, a piece somewhere else benefits or suffers the same amount, so weekly calorie average stays the same. Same goes with the cheese and other things that its not really worth measuring out beforehand. I measure out a weeks allotment into a container (or 2 bags worth typically, so they just stay in the drawer. Same deal, if I have too much at the beginning, I'll be short of it at the end.

Since I can make a general meal plan for the week, portioning everything out in one sitting makes the rest of the week *much* easier.

I'm still sticking with my general meal improvement plan I outlined a few weeks ago, at the same time, I'm doing a working meal plan for the long term, so this makes it easier to form a habit instead of stressing over each meal, and measuring and adding and so on.

Other than that, good news on the horizon... a few months ago, my old band broke up. Amicable breakup, we just realized we weren't into it much anymore. the music we were playing at the time that is. All the other guys had other musical prospects, I didn't so I've been taking a break, so earlier this week I was talking to a long time internet buddy who lives in my area and his band is looking for a second guitarist. He knows me, he knows my skill and he's seen me play (my old drummer also was playing in his band as well). He mentioned bringing in a 2nd guitarist to the band, and the drummer said I'm the only one they need to talk to. So, I might have a new band soon. Its also good to hear that kind of recommendation from people. Guitarists are a dime a dozen, so actually getting recommendations is a real nice thing.

Yep, Big D's gonna be playing Horror Punk/Metal.. it's a grave new world. muhahahaha
 
I do something very similar to you ... cook up a bunch of meats on the weekend and keep them in single-serving baggies ... then I just grab one and some other ingredients for lunch at work. Most often I do chicken, and if it's tasting find of boring sometimes I'll throw a little hot sauce in it, or lemon juice and pepper just for something a little different. Then all I have to do is full up a tupperware bowl with lettuce and grab a wheat wrap (or forget the wrap and just have a salad).

One of the most appealing things about eating junky food is that it is almost always more convenient than eating something healthy, but if you take a little bit of time to make sure that the healthy food is just as if not more convenient than junk, it makes the whole process a LOT easier. (Especially if you're lazy, like me.) :)

Great news about the new band prospect. Is punk/metal your preferred genre to play?
 
Yeah, the junky food is one of the next things on the list. I'm a nibbler, so mostly it means that having a container of celery sticks close at hand vs the cookies, etc.

Punk/metal is a close 2nd or 3rd choice for me, but it's all good. My preference is 'good music', but lately for me that's been the heavier stuff, like speed, thrash, prog & death metal. In the past, I've played blues, big band jazz, classical and the like.
 
Time for my weekly update.

Have to improve my eating habits, I slipped a bit this week. Breakfast gets rough to do sometimes.

Exercised 3 times this week. I'm starting to battle an old issue I've come across before. When I start eating better and exercising, my creativity tends to reignite and I get distracted making things. Music, programs, etc and it eats into my exercise time. If it's not that, I tend to get insomnia and just simply don't feel a need to sleep, but am low energy. Have to balance the two.

I wrote it in reply in another message, about realistically what is my motivation, what keeps me going, and for the most part, its all the internalized anger and frustration I have. I start looking at all these various diet and fitness books and they're all saying the same basic thing, and most all of them are written by someone who's never been heavy in their life, and it lights off a rage inside with how many of them pass some things off like they're easy to do. When you're this size, you at times quickly learn that they're not as easy to do as some make it out to be. I get times when with every lift I do, with every bounce in cardio with every good diet choice, I'm increasingly muttering in the back of my head things like "Take that you skinny ass musclebound prick. You're concerned about that 10 lbs you put on, let see you tackle 10 times that much, you pussy."

Sometimes I surprise myself with how much I can, do and will lift when I have a good raging hate on going, even if it was only 2-3 times a week. At the same time, those are thoughts that have been there for a while, so for now at least, I'm slowly releasing them from my system. I've found that the so called 'letting it go' as far as emotions and frustrations doesn't work. That's just reburying them. Sometimes, you just have to 'feel it out', as my old friend Mel used to say. Sometimes you just have to let yourself be angry about something so you can burn it out of your system. I check myself though to make sure its not building more anger. Do I walk away with more anger? no, do my feelings about the person increase? no. and so on.

another week plus until I officially weigh in. I admit, I snuck on the scale and I am down a few pounds overall. Its taking a while for my old ass to get used to working and lifting and walking a lot, but its a process like anything, its starting to ramp up a bit. I just have to stay mindful to keep pushing, even if only slightly, so that I can increase my ability to work.
 
:) Great post! Being aware and mindful of your patterns is exactly the way to change your subconscious behaviors which derail you...when the going gets good!

...It's funny how the release of positivity through exercise and good eating and focusing on oneself allows us to increase our ednorphin release level. Then, once we are now more interested in extra activities because of how great we feel and the juices of creativity start flowing like you said,.. whala...we seem to think we can slow down on what made us get there. That awareness is what is going to keep you getting back on track. That's a great pattern to begin. That's what is also great about journaling, that it as well allows you to focus. You sound very grounded to your thoughts when you release them on the page.

Great Observations! :iagree:!!!

Anger, is greatly exhibitted in the form which you are using it. I think you should continue to feel it out, if it propels you to such levels of strength! :)

Congrats on being down a couple lbs! Can't wait to see how your real weigh in goes! :D!
 
I love my shoulder sometimes. It has to be one of the most inconsistent things in my body outside of my brain. I get times when I'm feeling good, and I go to lift some weight and the shoulder screams bloody murder after a few reps. Other days, I swear it looks at the weights, yawns and says 'Bitch, make me a sammich'. I think it just doesn't like weights. If I'm moving things around the house, jerking around boxes of books and so on.. no problems at all. but if I do the same movement with a dumbell.. nope, it just doesn't want to do it.

Visited my parents last night, and they even mentioned that I'm looking a little trimmer. At the least, not as puffy, so hell, I'll take that. Its getting easier with some of this all. I find that the more I study and stop listening to what other people say, they better I do. I mention I'm dieting and working to lose weight, like clockwork, out comes the 'oh you should do ...' no, before they speak any further, just stop.. what you should do is shut your damn mouth for once and let me do this. Its amazing how people give advice and after it not working 20 times, they still give it.

End if the week should be fun. There's a molecular biologist I met that it might be good to get out of the house with. At the least, some intelligent or at least different conversation should be welcome. I'm sorry, but I just find the whole prospect of discussing sitcoms, sports, politics and the other day to day crap to be just so... boring. Sure, events at times are fun to discuss, but it's been so long since I had people around me that we could discuss ideas. Take them, roll around in them, tear them apart and put them back together many times over and so on.

Couple good movies this weekend too:
The Blind Side - Just a good movie. Had me cracking up at times.
The Devil's Chair - Some real good horror and terror there.
Meet Dave - Older flick, but just saw it. Not spectacular, but it has its moments.
The Killing Room - Based on some of the whacked out stuff done during the MKUltra project in past history. Just kept me saying 'daaaaaaamn' over and over.
 
Big D said:
I find that the more I study and stop listening to what other people say, they better I do. I mention I'm dieting and working to lose weight, like clockwork, out comes the 'oh you should do ...' no, before they speak any further, just stop.. what you should do is shut your damn mouth for once and let me do this. Its amazing how people give advice and after it not working 20 times, they still give it.
Click to expand...

So true! I totally agree. I post my successes on Facebook so that my close friends can join me on my journey, but people keep asking "How are you doing that?" Like I have some magical cure-all answer. Usually my answer consists of, "I do some math."

Other than that, when I'm out in the "real world" I avoid telling anyone that I'm losing weight and don't generally talk about it unless they bring it up first. It's not magic ... I really think the most important thing that triggers successful weight loss is the right frame of mind ... and you can't force that. I've been fat all my life and I've had a million and a half reasons to get healthy, but until I got my mind in the right place, it wasn't going to happen.

I take the same stance with my fiance's smoking. When we first met, I tried every single trick in the book to get him to quit. And now I know, that even though it bothers me to no end, that ultimately it has to be his choice ... I can't invest myself into changing a part of him that I cannot be in control of, because it will only make me crazy and him resentful.

lol ... sorry for the tangent!
 
Yeah, I don't put a huge thing on my dieting either. I mean, I've planned things out, gone over them, rewrote things and found things that work and eliminated the things that don't, but its not my identity like some make it theirs. Hey, if it works for them, good on 'em, but its not my bag.

Lol, it just comes out when someone makes a comment, like they notice I've had more energy lately, etc and so on, so its either that, or I feed the rumor mill that somehow I'm slipping the bologna to about half the women in the office. Oh that's a fun one. You say 'nothing' and apparently, it screams 'any smirk, laugh, giggle or good mood that half of the office is in is apparently becuase of my dong'. I love office gossip.

lol, even the ones I did get it on with find it hilarious.
 
Controlling appetite and the art of spoiling your dinner:

There's some things I've read and been experimenting with. Oddly, some parts of the water diet do help. It gets rough to be drinking the amount of water I should be, but it eases up after a month so far it seems.

Water helps.. I start getting hungry when I don't need to be which is usually out of habit, boredom or other various circumstances, I take a couple slugs of water and wait 5 minutes. Typically, the hunger goes away.

Somewhat the same goes for meals. You know that old phrase we've heard 'don't eat that, you'll spoil your dinner!'. Well, that's my exact goal. Its been suggested in some books and it works. about 30-45 minutes before I'm going to eat a meal, I have an apple, yogurt or something low cal but with substance. So let's say an apple.. about 60 calories. For that 60 calories, I'll find I eat about 90-100 calories less. So I save 30-40 calories each time I do that, which gives me more to play with later, or to just make it easier to control my intake as a whole.

On a mass level, it adds up.
If I do it once a day, that's ~210-280 calories less I took in per week.
If I do it once a day, that's ~900-1200 calories less I took in per month.

Now, that doesn't seem like much. hell, if 1lb of fat takes a 3000 cal burn to remove it, that's 2.5-3.5 months. Well, yes, but.. it gives me some leeway in my diet and exercise plan. Its a cheat bank of sorts, or at the least, its a reserve deficit I can have around for and math errors in my calorie counting.

What does it add up to? Less stress, basically. if I understand it correctly, a lot of having diet plans and exercise regimens fail is lack of stress management, at its core. All at once vast diet change can be stressful, and same with exercise, esp if you have an already stressful life. Its easy to drop new stresses we voluntarily inflict on ourselves.
 
ah, Friday already. Monday is my first weigh in. I'm pretty sure I've lost weights, certain landmarks have gone down. I don't think I've dropped any fantastic amount as I'm still adjusting my diet, but I know I've lost weight.

Thought this week: Losing weight is a personal success. Losing your goal weight for the time span is another separate personal success. When you break that down, as rough as losing weight can be, it's not that bad. even if I didn't lose that coveted 10 lbs a month, if I still lost weight, I have still gotten just that much closer to my goal. In the end, _that_ is what matters.
 
Sometimes, my inner monologue just sounds like one long throat shredding scream.

Sometimes, my inner monologue just sounds like one long throat shredding scream.

I ran into this again last night. One of those things that gets me on just a good old fashioned rant.

I was walking into my local Walgreens and there's a bit of a bottleneck at the door. Now, this is something I've never seen, so I get there and I find the reason why. apparently some older gent tripped on something, maybe the flat cart by the door, fell and whacked his head on the theft sensors. suffice it to say, he was out cold. There's one younger girl there trying to staunch the small but profusely bleeding cut on his head with a few McDonalds napkins. So of course, this means there's a half circle of people gawking and looking stunned, but otherwise, not doing anything. Others were too busy with their cell phones to do anything but just step over the person blocking the doorway so they could continue on without even breaking their conversation.

You know, you'd think someone would bother to even try and help. Thank goodness for their 5 for 10 tshirt sale rack by the doors. I didn't even think, I just scooped up about $20 worth, checked the guys neck, tucked one under it, then took two and applied them to his cut. That paper napkin wasn't doing much good at all.

The cattle were still silently cowed save for the manager who got about half of "You can't do that" before coming to her senses. One other *bleep* asks completely oblivious "Is that guy ok?".

So I look at the girl, still shaking and freaked out and just ask "He a relative?" *nods* "He look ok, just out cold. You call 911 yet? *shakes head* So I hand her my cell phone(mind you, it had flaming skulls for the background and a Baphomet/Pentagram symbol on the cover) and told her to call, tell them the situation and then give it to me. I read off his basics and they had a unit on the way.

About the time I hung up, he started to move around and was disoriented and trying to get up. I tried to get his attention but couldn't make out what he was saying but all I know was, he was injured, and confused. He was coming to a bit more and I asked him his name and if he knew where is was. Said his name was Joe and after a quick glance, said 'On the floor'. I looked at the girl and just said 'He'll be fine, and she relaxed visibly and with a sigh.

Mind you, the peanut gallery hadn't moved at all yet.

So the paramedics came in, did their thing and took him out. The officer taking the report down even shook his head saying they about fall over themselves getting out to these calls because you'd be amazed how long people have left them laying there before calling it in, and everyone being afraid to help. I told him this happened to me a few years ago a few towns over, same deal.

So I was free to go and even got a thank you from the cop.

You know, it feels good to be able to help a person out when they need it. At the same time. it saddens me when people seem to completely fail to act, and disgusts me when they can't be bothered to. Yeah, through it all, I heard the stupid bitch with her cell phone complaining to her friend that she couldn't get he cigarettes because there was something at the store holding up the line.

We've gone too soft as a society.
 
That whole story is pretty disgusting. It's one thing to not really know what to do in that sort of situation, but you'd think that CALLING 911 would be the obvious choice if you can't figure out how to help otherwise.

Personally, I can't say I wouldn't freeze up in a situation like that and not know what to do with myself, but I'd at least have the sense to call emergency response.

That guy is lucky you were there to step up, and that girl complaining about her cigarettes ... That's just incredibly disgusting. Of course, if she keeps up that habit I suppose she'll eventually get what's coming to her.
 
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