The Things

A dear friend once said that she can "resist the sugar things but has a hard time resisting the cheese things."  I am the opposite. I love cheese but I rarely go Homer Simpson on some Brie.  Sweets are my control issue.  What are your hard to resist foods?

The Weeks Ahead

Current Weight:  238 lbs.  Weight left to lose:  98 lbs.

Today was week 2 of a 12 week session of Weight-Watchers.  In general I am vehemently anti-diet plan, anti-fad diet but I do like Weight-Watchers. (even though I think they do too much promotion of their processed food products.)  It is realistic and focuses on education  about the basics:  eating a healthy diet, paying attention to to your bodies needs (e.g. stopping eating when you have had enough rather than putting on fat pants and forging ahead), getting enough exercise and viewing unhealthy foods as treats rather than a way of life.  Yeah, I can live with that.

The scale wasn't as kind as I had hoped today but every little bit helps.  I have many more weeks of hard work ahead.  Thank you for sticking with me thus far, readers.

Sing it Michael

A few of my favorite quotes from food guru Michael Pollan:


“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
 In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto



“He showed the words “chocolate cake” to a group of Americans and recorded their word associations. “Guilt” was the top response. If that strikes you as unexceptional, consider the response of French eaters to the same prompt: “celebration.”



“Very simply, we subsidize high-fructose corn syrup in this country, but not carrots. While the surgeon general is raising alarms over the epidemic of obesity, the president is signing farm bills designed to keep the river of cheap corn flowing, guaranteeing that the cheapest calories in the supermarket will continue to be the unhealthiest.” 
 The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

"The Perfect Body"

I just got this junk email adverting a free work-out DVD with a magazine subscription. 
"Get your perfect body with this FREE workout DVD from Women's Health‏!"

The media does so much to contribute to the culture of shame.  I find this particularly poignant because having parents who largely resemble/ed  hobbits, my efforts to obtain a "perfect" body would involve copious amounts of plastic surgery or other unhealthy behaviors. And my legs would still be too short to hold up to that standard.  My genetics will not allow the "perfect body" that our society promotes. But you know what?

I  DO NOT CARE!   I want to be healthy. I want to be strong.  I want to feel good.  And I can do this and still have a nice ba-donk-a-donk.

Why don't we strive for what our nature dictates rather than something artificially constructed by society?  Is it because we are social animals and therefore always looking for outside validation?  Are we just "sheeple?"    I know and admire many beautiful naturally skinny and beautiful naturally zaftig women.
The key word here is "naturally." 

Natural and healthy.

Letting Go

Current weight: 239 pounds.  Weight to lose: 99 pounds. 

The title of this post symbolizes many things.  Not just the weight but also shame, frustration, and guilt; things that have plagued me for as long as I can remember. It was extremely hard to post my current weight on a forum where pretty much anyone can see it. Extremely.  But letting go of shame means being brave. (My husband still isn't allowed to read this blog though. It's still a process after all.) Behind all this...

Tomorrow marks the 2 year anniversary of the death of my father.  Letting go of him has been hardest of all.  But it gets a little easier every day. Every day is a new reserve of strength.  

I took a nice long walk tonight.  The time has come. Are you watching?  Here I go!