However shallow this might sound, women consider an expanding waistline a death sentence (metaphorically, yes, but for women of a certain age, literally!). I weighed an average of 180 lbs the two occasions I was pregnant, morbidly overweight for someone who barely clears 5 ft.
In 2005, I had made up my mind to become a ‘loser’: I ran 4k every other morning, lifted weights the rest of the day, watched what I ate, and basically just went about sensibly losing weight, sans liposuction, laxatives or a life coach. I had radio frequency in the last leg of losing weight for sculpting and definition, something I could indulge in, being a stay-at home mom, and at the time flushed with a lot of moolah. ^_^ One happy day, I tipped the scales at 104 lbs (47kg), ideal for my height and age. I strutted my stuff years after that, so svelte I was often mistaken for single.
Ugly weight started creeping steadily back in when, in 2008, I had traded my running shoes for wedges of office. As Chair of a department in my university, (whose job description actually involved a lot of sitting), I easily piled on 20 lbs. Without regular exercise and in a workplace where eating is taken as seriously as though one’s tenure depended on it, I fell off the fit wagon. There had been days when checking my weight was as seriously aggravating as dealing with self-aggrandizing people in the university!
So, it’s 2013. While I am not exactly back where I had been before 2005, I am not in tip-top shape, either. More than vanity now, it’s health issues I pay more attention to. Blood sugar shooting for the stars and blood pressure reading looking a lot like my odometer are not my idea of pretty. And just last night, when I was negotiating the stairs at a mall, I yelped an indecent stream of expletives–in both Filipino and English–because of the searing pain I felt in my knees, faintly reminiscent of pregnancy-related aches and pains. Alas! My wimpy knees couldn’t support all that hard lard.
I’m also hating the orange peel-like consistency of the skin on my legs. I also hate that I do not fit in my favorite jeans anymore, and even if they are forcibly coaxed to fit after a lot of tugging and straining, at night, I find these ugly, red welts around my waist from the jeans gripping all that fat. Ugh.
But all is not lost yet; in fact, I think it is good that I am sitting up and taking notice because I will want to do something about my weight. I will be encouraged to run again (despite a vocal opposition in the knees?!) And while I am not entirely a fan of new year’s resolutions, here I am making one, anyway: I will lose all this excess weight! Without, of course, succumbing to expensive faddish diets: “The fool and her money are soon parted” is an aphorism I know very well.
Oh, to be a Loser again!
Cartoon credit:
Good luck and keep at it! Also, I know folks who find updating friends via the internet on progress — I’m not necessarily recommending the entire world, via your blog — keeps them focused and motivated. Like having standing appointments to meet a friend at the gym. You may not want to go, but you don’t want to stand them up far worse.
Hi, Peter! Nice to hear from you. Happy new year, btw
Happy New Year, Jen! We’re on the same boat. Haha! I hope to be a lot healthier this year, too.
Hey, Lori! You look fab! C’mon, what “same boat” are you talking about??? ^_^
Let’s have a happy, “always writing” year!
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Happy New Year!
Cheers! ^_^
its okay ♥ you are living life !!!! thanks for stopping by … look forward to new postings