The residential elevator at The Grove Hotel, which I live above, is being replaced (at the time of this post).

That means, for several weeks now, me and the other condo owners have had to use a guest elevator to get to the ground floor.

A few days ago, Hazel (my dog) and I were riding a guest elevator down, and it stopped at practically every floor.

Pretty soon we were all packed in there like sardines in a can…

Especially after a VERY elderly couple – I’d say in their upper 90s – including a woman in a wheelchair, got on the elevator.

The woman ended up parked right beside me and Hazel, her hand about 3 inches from Hazel’s head.

Hazel was wearing her “in training – do not pet” vest as she lay there between my feet with her tail tucked…

When the lady suddenly reached out and petted her.

“Mildred!” exclaimed the elderly man. “It says do not pet! You’re not supposed to touch her!”

Everyone in the elevator turned to look at us.

“It’s okay,” I said, because I could see that the lady was being gentle with Hazel, and vice versa.

The reason I don’t want people petting Hazel isn’t because she’s aggressive. She’s not. She’s people neutral and dog neutral.

But in my experience, most people don’t really understand dogs, and think walking up to a dog they don’t know and petting it is “safe.”

Heaven forbid someone does that and Hazel gets a bad feeling, or the person is loud, or pulls on her fur or something, and she gets scared and reacts.

I won’t risk something happening to her, so I make it a general rule that other people don’t touch her, and vice versa.

All that being said, if I thought Hazel was a danger to this lady, I’d have stood between them.

After we finally got off that elevator, I realized the whole situation reminded me that sometimes well-meaning people just don’t pay attention.

Maybe the lady couldn’t see the vest because her eyesight was bad. Maybe my legs were blocking the vest.

Either way, I know she didn’t mean any harm. 

When you’re a Code Red Rebel, and other people in your life do stuff that makes it harder to stay on track, it can be hard to accept that most of them don’t mean any harm.

They don’t mean to offend you, or throw you off by offering you pie and ice cream, or by making you a margarita.

If you’re at a 4th of July celebration, they don’t mean to make your life harder by offering you potato chips with your hamburger patty.

They’re probably just trying to be thoughtful and make sure you feel included.

Occasionally, yes, somebody’s deliberately out to sabotage you because they’re jealous, scared, or threatened.

But most people don’t mean any harm.

Still, it doesn’t make what they do – even with the best of intentions – any less distracting when you’re working hard to stay on plan and take your life back.

That’s why being around other Rebels is so key. It’s TOUGH to lose weight and get healthy “all on your own.” Most people REALLY struggle to stay successful when they aren’t around like-minded people.

Fortunately, you don’t need to do it “all on your own.”

We’re here to walk beside you so you can lose weight, feel better, and especially, do things like feel good in your own skin, play on the floor with your grandkids, and finally feel comfortable in a bathing suit this summer.