Fattitude

My sister has started writing a blog about her battle(s) with her weight and how she is winning the battle.  It's most interesting to me because I followed her into a lot of those battles!  When I was in High School, I felt I was WAAaaaay overweight - and looking back, I realize that I was NOT overweight, I was just athletic and had big boobs!   Probably the fact that my brother decided to "protect" me from all of his guy friends by hanging the nickname "Ugly" on me didn't help much either, but that's a story for another time.  The thing is, my senior year, I decided to stop "dieting" and working out (I did shot put, track, and swim team)... and I lost 25 lbs in about two weeks. 

As I said in the comments on my sister's blog: For me, my weight battle is not so much about winning, it's more about being happy with who I am.  So, I am beginning to embrace my "fattitude" and realize that my weight and my general appearance really DO have a lot to do with my attitude and how I'm feeling.  Heck, if I don't love me, why should anyone else?  Right?   (Thank Phred for therapy! hahaha)

I learned a loooooong time ago that if I ever try to ban something from my diet, I crave it almost obsessively.  No more chocolate!  I WANT HERSHEY'S!!!  No more red meat!  ARE YOU FRICKING KIDDING ME???  No more broccoli!  Hey, that stuff is good for you!  I'll eat as much as I want, so there...   No more sex!  *sigh*

Instead of eliminating the "bad" stuff from my diet, I've been able to reduce the amount of it I eat.  For example:  I would be a great vegetarian...  except for that burger thing.  I loooooooove burgers!  Cheeseburgers!  My favorite is with crispy bacon and blue cheese crumbles... oh YUM!  My doctor would probably call that "heart attack on a plate" and she'd be right.  I used to eat burgers a couple of times a week, because Nanny's makes AWESOME burgers - and burgers have made a sort of culinary renaissance lately so there are numerous "fancy" burger joints around.  I started out telling myself I could only have one burger a week, and then eventually switched to one a month.  The thing is, I realized recently that there have been months when I have more than one burger (such as this one), but then... there are also several months when I don't have a burger at all.  All it has really done is help me be more aware of what I am eating.  Instead of ALWAYS getting the burger, I'll think about how many I've had in the last few weeks.  I've also started getting a salad with my burger instead of fries.  Not really a big thing because I'm not really a big French Fries fan.  They're all right, but give me a good salad with black olives and ranch dressing and I'm a goner!  (Yeah, "healthy" salad... but better than fries!)  The good thing?  My cholesterol has gone down from "just over the border" to "just under the border".  And I feel better.

The other thing I've done is start exercising again.  DC recently opened a gorgeous, FREE 50-meter pool near my house, and I've got a gym in the basement of my building.  With the weather (hopefully) turning nice, I hope to start running again... especially since I'm signed up to do the Army Ten Miler again in October!  Swimming is still my favorite exercise, even though you have to wear a bathing suit.  It just feels so good!  I told a friend once that swimming just makes me feel long and lean.  I'm 5'2" and well, not lean, but swimming makes me feel um... long and lean! What's not to like? :-)

Hmmmmm- I think I've been babbling.  But that's a good thing, right?  At least I'm writing, and I'm thinking, and I'm alive.  Life is good.  Sure beats the alternative!


OK - one last thing, name the movie:

Just remember:  No matter where you go, there you are!