Yeesh.

Still 237.5

DC is in the midst of preparing itself for a Snowmageddon, so last night I went to the grocery store after work to stock up on a few essentials to carry me through the storm.

A reasonably common sight on street corners in DC is vendors hawking "Street Sense" which is a non-profit newspaper that deals with homelessness and is sold by the homeless as a source of income. While sometimes it can be a little "I'm just trying to walk don't shout at me," in general I've always thought it's a perfectly decent non-profit and respected their work. The vendors generally aren't rude or obstructive, and won't put pressure on you or bother you if you're waiting for a light at the same corner and have indicated you're not interested.

I say generally. There's one guy who hawks the paper on P street between 14th and 15th, right outside of CVS and next to the Whole Foods I go to. He's always been very aggressive, rude, not like the other vendors. So, you know, not a good guy, but whatever, I have my headphones in and can just zip right by. Last night, as I did so, he shouted out something along the lines of "Hey [Lady? Blondie? I couldn't tell] you know I looooooooooove big beautiful women."

Fuck you. (Not you guys!) Seriously. I do not need to be called fat on my way to Whole Foods. What a douche. I half wanted to give him a New York Salute, but instead just walked on by because, you know, I'm not an asshole like he is. I am officially NEVER buying Street Sense again. And I'm going to tell my friends never to buy Street Sense again either. Fuck him.

Needless to say, this made me a little mad. And you know, whatever, I am fat. I get it. I lost 40 pounds. I'm working on losing more. But someone essentially shouting at me on the street "Hey Fattie"? Not helpful.

Brushing it off as best I can, I go into Whole Foods. It's chaotic, at best. I manage to get fruits and veggies, milk, and get myself in one of the enormous lines. (They were actually wrapped around the aisles, it was crazy.) Right in front of me was a mother with two small children, one in a large stroller, and the other a girl of about 5 or so. Although the mother and I briefly commiserated about the length of the lines at the beginning, DC's a city, people don't really talk in the lines, and she wasn't all that comfortable in English. (It seemed like she was speaking Chinese to her children, but if you told me it was another Asian language I'd believe you.)

As I stand around waiting, I sometimes like to stand on my tip toes just to see how long I can hold it. The five year old, it seemed, was amazed by this and asked me how I did it. I showed her. This was about a 30-45 minute line, so we had plenty of time to kill. She and I ended up going through my basket food by food, with me saying "do you like bananas?" and her replying "I like bananas." After we'd been through the 12 or so items, I went into "do you like cheese more than strawberries?" and whatnot. Then I did the only economist trick that's vaguely cool to young children, by proclaiming that I knew she liked cheese more than bananas, even though she hadn't told me, because she liked cheese more than strawberries and strawberries more than bananas. Ah, to be 5 and still impressed by transitive properties and revealed preferences.

And we waited and waited.

She started asking me the same questions I asked her: "Do you like green beans?" "Do you like tomatoes?" and on and on.

And then, as we waited more, she pointed at my tummy and said "Do you have a baby in there?"

Yeesh.

I don't blame the (adorable) little kid. She obviously didn't know any better. And she certainly didn't know I'd just got called fat by the homeless guy outside.

But still, yeesh.

Still, I suppose it's all for the better. I'd hate to lose all the weight before I at least once endured an erroneous question about pregnancy.

Whole Foods

Weight: 257.1
BMI: 44.13

It's nice to see the scale going back down. I'm now only .4 pounds above my low. I'm hoping pretty soon I'll be able to stop treading water and start making progress.

Yesterday Jo at 282.5 gave me the Lovely Blog Award. Thanks Jo! I promise to soon write a list of all the wonderful blogs I read so I can tell you guys how very lovely you all are too.

So, I don't know how much you guys are following the health care debate, but right now, there's been a bit of a kerfuffle over an op-ed that Whole Foods CEO John Mackey wrote in the Wall Street Journal. (Side note: about 90% of the work I'm doing these days is related to health policy, so I know more than one would ever want to about the debate. I've even read the 1018 page House bill, and no, Virginia, there aren't any death panels.)

The op-ed contains 8 policy suggestions and some commentary advising people to eat healthfully. Some of the suggestions are ones where reasonable people can disagree, like legalizing interstate purchase of insurance. Personally, I think it's a great idea because it would mean people can buy cheaper policies. Let's just look at an individual who works in Philadelphia and lives in the surrounding region. If they live in Pennsylvania, an average policy on the individual market would cost $167 a month. If they live across the border in New Jersey, it would cost them $288 a month. (Source, on page 18.) That's over $100 a month more! To me, this is just silly. I don't think it should be illegal to buy out of state health insurance any more than it should be illegal to buy out of state apples.

But, okay, I understand that some people think that it's really important to cartelize insurance so that community rating laws and other mandates are more effective, and while I think they're wrong and that people should get to pick if they'd rather have more regulations and higher prices or lower prices and fewer regulations, I understand their point. It's the sort of issue where reasonable people can have reasonable disagreements.

Other suggestions in the op-ed are honestly no brainers, though. Equalizing tax laws so individuals as well as businesses can buy insurance tax free: I know no one who opposes that. And I know a lot, a lot of health policy wonks from across the political spectrum. Making it easier for people to donate money to help people who don't have insurance? Seriously, who could oppose that? Do you oppose puppies and babies as well?

But some people on the left are mad because, you know, it's not an exact copy of what the Democrats want, it's something else. (For the record, I did vote for Obama but consider myself an independent. I'm left on some issues and right on others.) So they're starting a boycott and throwing hissy fits on blogs and I just can't for the life of me understand it. Radley Balko wrote a wonderful post detailing how well Whole Foods treats its workers, the environment, etc, and said that, because of the dust up, he was going to shop more at Whole Foods.

Which, I suppose, brings us to the point of this whole post. Yesterday, I went to Whole Foods. I bought a demi baguette and ate it for dinner. It was caloric and amazing. I also got some of the best tomatoes I've had in a while. Needless to say, last night I ate deliciously. It was a nice break from my regularly scheduled meals. It was great to eat something special while still staying within my calorie range. And I got a side of "Ha! take that militant people who are militant about anything!" to go with it. And that is calorie free and oh so satisfying.

Apologies for today's random policy rantings. I promise a return to your regular food and diet blogging tomorrow.