Really? Oprah?

I have never been a fan of Oprah Winfrey. She's annoyed me...a lot. But occasionally, I'll see a commercial for an upcoming episode with an interesting topic, and I'll TiVo it.

Today was one of those topics.

I had seen the commercial last night that today's episod was going to be "the biggest weight loss episode EVER!!", so I thought "Meh, I'll DVR it - it should be interesting".

I just finished watching it - it was awesome. Kind of a retrospective, but some really good stories - including a 9 year old girl who has lost 50lbs, who reminded me so much of myself as a little girl. A woman who has lost almost 400lbs, and 100 audience members who each lost over 100lbs. Amazing.

Now, other than the off chance that I liked an Oprah episode, today was also a big eye opener in another way.

I live in NW Indiana, about 5-10 miles from Lake Michigan. Our weather changes as often as most people change their underwear. Monday morning, I woke up freezing...today it was 93. Insanity.

Because it was so hot today, it was also humid (thank you, Lake Michigan). I retain water like no other in the humidity. Today was the worst of the worst. Thank God I had taken my wedding ring and engagement ring off before bed on Monday night - if I had left them on today, the would have cut the circulation off my ring finger...I'm sure of it. My feet looked like cartoon feet - huge oval blobs with smaller blobs for toes. My ankles disappeared, and my kness feel like I'm 70 - not 32.

I didn't start retaining water until I became hypertensive. I'm hypertensive because of my weight.

I am in pain constantly...my legs, hips, and especially knees aren't going to be able to take much more. If my bones and ankles hurt this bad - I can't even IMAGINE what must be happening to my organs. If that isn't a good enough reason to get this damn weight off...then I don't know what is.