1/3 of my body is unnecessary

You are reading http://livinginthehood.blogspot.com

Offer your feedback and comments at Rogi's Kitchen Table.

Well, not quite 1/3. According to a chart on the clinic wall, at the height of 5'4", I should weigh 140 lbs. I weigh 207 lbs.

Sigh.

This mostly happened after I lost my baby. I seem to have gained about 40 lbs. They tore holes in my gut that never stopped hurting. I went from walking about four miles per day to nearly nothing, almost over night. And I've struggled, ever since, to get back.

And, for you people living in the real world and not the USA, I have no idea how to convert all this, metrically.

Basically, I'm carrying around 3 average-sized bags of dog food.

My body's gotten very efficient, as well, at storing fat. I don't blame her. We never have a regular diet. We eat what we can get.

I know I don't eat many calories in a day. But I do drink sugary soda pops. I do it for several reasons: sugar is immediate energy; I'm dependent on the caffeine; the water here is nasty, even though I use a filtered container; I'm habituated to pop, rather than water.

So, that has to change. Immediately. Sodas cost and they're heavy to drag home. I can drink a little soda every day, but not all day, every day! I can get caffeine from tea, which is cheaper. So is coffee. I can get sugar from fruit. Even my home-baked pastries are more nutritious than sodas!

I don't have to radically change everything, right away. I can do it in bits, like I've done with cigarettes. It's very satisfying to watch my leftover cigarettes, from unfinished packs, fill an old packet to go into the freezer. It's like getting "free" cigarettes. Whatever's left over from a pack, at the end of the day, gets frozen for later. Out of 2 cartons of cigs., bought at the beginning of the month, I still have 4 unopened packs, plus two refilled packs in the freezer, plus the freshly-opened pack for today. Normally, I'd have finished both cartons by now, and would be scrounging for cigarette money to last me 'til the end of the month.

Surely, I can apply some of this to food and exercise.

I seldom walk unless I absolutely have to, because of the pain. But, now that I know how far away the duck pond at the university is from my house, I believe Porky and I could walk it every day. It'll hurt, don't get me wrong. But it's only pain.

Basically, my body has carefully stored almost 70 lbs. of unnecessary mass. That's half again my ideal weight.

I know: those "ideal" weight charts are pretty bogus. And this one was on a wall next to other medical propoganda from drug companies. So it's probably not very accurate. It doesn't take into account gender, age or ethnicity, for instance: always a red flag. I'm not an able-bodied, young white man.

Still, I know I can drop this weight. I know it'll be less stress on my poor, bedraggled feet, legs and back.

I just need to pay attention to what I ingest, and ask myself, "do you really want to eat that right now?"

I also need to drink LOTS more water! I should have gotten the clue when my pee started perpetually smelling funny and looking like organic apple juice! LOL

And I can eat 5 servings of fruits/vegetables a day. Especially stuff like onions, carrots, potatoes and other stuff that stores for long periods.

My poor body has been through hell the last, twenty years: stress, over work, pain, malnutrition... She needs my love and support.

I've treated her, too often, as an adversary, a hindrence, an obstacle. I haven't paid much attention to her. She has done the best she could, under neglect, to keep us going and keep us strong.

She's tired now. She's getting old and running out of renewable resources. I need to conserve and protect her.

I need to thank her.

She has worked so hard. She barely complains about what she's been put through.

She certainly deserves better treatment.

So, nearly 70 lbs. must go.

But I'll do it in such a way that I not only don't feel deprived, but feel satisfied, happy and enthusiastic. Like I'm doing with the evil cigarettes.

She's been through so much trauma, abuse and neglect, I couldn't bear to make her feel worse now.

It'll be so nice to walk without dragging 3 extra sacks of dog food around!

It'll be nice to wear the smaller sized clothing I find in the trash, which I now pass by with a wistful sigh.

And maybe, although I'm not counting on this, but maybe people won't be so NASTY to me, based on my appearance, if I drop the extra weight.

I've tried looking up nutrition on the 'net. But there's so much propoganda for silly diet programs. So, I've abandoned that idea.

I'll just try to eat like our primitive ancestors did, when they first came down from the trees to prowl the African savana.

That should be the proper proportions: lots of vegetation and root material, scant sugar, rare meat, etc.

Except for the sugar, that's pretty much my diet now.

But I need to lose the sugar, anyway. Both mom and grandma developed type 2 diabetes.

No "plastic foods," like sugar substitutes and fake fats; that's just sick and unnatural.