TELL IT LIKE IT IS

Well, how has the world been treating you. I really can't complain. But I am having one heck of a time trying to loose this spare tire I have been carrying around for umpteen years. It is really kinda funny. I have been overweight for most of my adult life, and I have all of these little games I play trying to make lite of the situation. But for some reason a few weeks ago my attitude changed and I decided I was tired of looking in the mirror and seeing a person who was really a person and a half.

I always thought that some day, when the time was right,  I would take off the extra weight, and when I decided to do so it wouldn't take very long. Well, let me tell you I was wrong. It is going to take awhile. And while I am doing it I have a lot of thinking to do about why I let this happen in the first place and why I have been so reluctant to admit that there was much too much of me.

Food has always been plentiful for me. The first four years of my life my parents and  I lived in my grandmother's boarding house. Granny served three meals a day seven days a week and packed two dozen dinner buckets six days a week. I was tiny and someone was always trying to feed me something.

When I was four,my little sister was born and we moved from the boarding house to a house right next door. Shortly thereafter, my dad built a restaurant half a block away on main street and granny quit keeping boarders. I do not remember ever being hungry. Mashed potatoes and gravy and a hamburger patty was my basic meal plan with a choice of peas, corn or green beans and salad or cottage cheese on the side

I weighed 113 pounds when I got married and 126 when I became pregneant with my first child. My weight went up and down for awhile, but after my fourth child was born I weighed 128. Then I started gaining untill my all time high was 202. I finally settled in somewhere around 180.A time or two I have gotten down to 169-173. So, what made me decide that at age 71 I wanted to be a size 8?  I really can't say for sure, but part of the reason is that I really do not like the way I look either in or out of my clothes. And part of the reason is that I miss dressing up and wearing high heels. And part of the reason is because I look around me and see all of these overweight people and none of them look healthy or happy and I do not want to be like that, but I am. I want to live until I die. I do not want to spend the majority of my time thinking about what my life once was. I want to be out and about helping to make my part of the planet better. In order to do that I have to be physically and mentally fit, and it is up to me to see that I am.

So, no more excuses. Time to tell it like it is and take responsibility for what goes in my mouth and on my hips.  I'll keep you posted and when I hit 160 I will let you know. In the mean time, what ever challenge you might be facing, may you not be afraid to tell it like it is and then deal with it.

Until next time,
I bid you peace