Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts
By Alyce Wilson
When you lose weight, I wish you got to choose where to lose it from. One of the first places it decides to trim is where you have the largest fat reserves. If you're a woman, there's one body part that's entirely made up of fat: your breasts.
Now, when I try on shirts I haven't worn in a long time, they are huge on me up top but might still be a little snug at the hips.
And of course, I seem to have inherited my hips from the Polish side of my family, and there's only so much flab I can realistically lose before I hit bone. Unless I pull a Cher and get some creative surgery.
Of course, in addition to your breasts, the other places you lose weight first are in the extremities. So gradually, you have really toned lower legs and lower arms, giving way to fleshy thighs and biceps. Kind of like a reverse Popeye.
If I got to choose where the weight comes off, I would have chosen my hips, belly and back. But you don't get this kind of choice, unless it involves an in-office procedure.
Lately, I've been judging my progress mostly by careful studies of myself in the mirror and by how my clothes fit, especially now that I'm pulling out warm weather clothing that's been tucked away for a year. I don't trust the scale at the gym because of all the huge muscle guys who get on it, who I believe throw it out of whack. This is a convenient excuse for those days when I've backtracked a pound. "Oh, it's just the huge muscle guys ruining the scale," I tell myself.
I've been losing weight gradually by monitoring my intake and increasing my exercise and have been doing this for about two years now. In that time, I've gone down two dress sizes and am nearly at a third. But because of the gradual decrease, a lot of people don't seem to notice it. This includes myself.
Of course, eventually, even gradual change becomes noticeable and people see me and remark, "Have you lost weight?"
I really began to notice the difference when I was looking through old pictures and I found one from 2000, taken at my sister's graduation.
Here's a comparison between then and now:
At that time, three years ago, when I saw pictures of myself or looked in the mirror, I felt like I was looking at a stranger.
Rosie O'Donnell was on The Tonight Show this week and was talking about how, no matter what you look like at the time, you think you look fat. And then you look back on it later and think, "Look how good I looked!" I can identify with that. Of course, now that I'm losing weight, I've started to grow critical again of the old photos that just a short while ago I thought looked great!
One of the other frustrations about losing weight gradually, which is, after all, the recommended way to do it, is when somebody else gets into a quick weight-loss program and everyone "oohs" and "aahs" over her success. Yet, nobody notices the slowly shrinking woman right in front of them. A woman I know lost 30 pounds in two months on some program or another. Already, she's gaining a little back. I, on the other hand, lost about 35 pounds over two years and plan to keep it off from here on out.
I'm kind of on the Al Roker diet, without the stomach stapling. He's primarily lost weight from reducing his calories and increasing his exercise. Of course, in his case the amount of reduction is more severe — and he's got the additional factor of his digestive system being permanently altered — and hence he's lost more quickly. I find I naturally don't eat as much any more, preferring several small meals throughout the day, or just grabbing an orange or a banana. On weekends, I do whatever I want. But now that I'm used to eating less, that usually just means going out to dinner with a friend or grabbing a single serving of ice cream.
It seems an incredible waste of time, money and calories to sit down and consume a huge meal in the middle of the day. Even my evening meal is light, or I get that uncomfortable bloated feel that one usually associates with Thanksgiving. I guess it's true that your stomach shrinks when it's no longer being stretched with all sorts of extra food.
Okay, I might not be a prime candidate for a Slimfast commercial (at least not yet), but I'm cool with that. As long as I can recognize my face in a mirror, that's enough for me. I'll take it easy, and keep on keepin' on.
Other weight loss milestones:
December 6, 2004 - Sixty Down!
Gradual is good.
Copyright
2003 by Alyce Wilson
What
do you think? Share your thoughts
at Alyce's message board (left button):
