I will be adding pictures to this blog next week as I update it. I need to take some pictures to Target and get a disc made.
I went through my pictures last week looking for snapshots of my son when he was little. His wife wants them to compare with their son who is just 10 months old. She’s been told he looks a lot like Gary at that age. I found a lot more than I thought I would – loads of memories, which are mostly good but not all. (Always best to let those go back into the box and out of the memory bank, I think.)
Yet another "before" dieting picture - 09/01/09
I also found a lot of “before” pictures. You know the ones; the pictures we all take at the start of the “diet” which is going to be our last diet ever. Unfortunately, I didn’t find very many “after” pictures and that’s really a shame. I’m going to keep looking though because I know I have some.
In 2001 through most of 2003, I went from 311 pounds to 160 by sticking to the Weight Watchers diet and viral exercising. I started dating and almost immediately went from 160 to 180. I think I hovered around the 180 mark for a few months. When MinuteMan and I started dating in December 2003, I shot up to over 200 pounds again in such a short period of time, it was frightening. I eventually peaked out at 244 pounds and drew the line in the sand. I think the lowest I’ve been in the last two years is 215 and the highest was at 245 pounds yet again.
MinuteMan's "before" picture - 09/01/09
I’m 5′2 so the pounds are immediately visual on my short body and I do put on most of the weight around the middle. In spite of what all the medical authorities say, I think it has its advantages. I like having a smaller butt. I can definitely do stuff to make myself look slimmer than I am, which my friends blessed with humongous backsides cannot easily do. Still fat is fat and after a certain weight, everybody is just plain huge. I’m huge. My aim is to be fit and healthy. If that includes being slim, I’ll take that as the cherry on the cake.
I may have mentioned before that I’ve had a love/hate relationship with my body since about the age of thirteen when I definitely started noticing boys and boys started noticing I was fat. Actually, my first memories are of being teased for being fat. My cousin who was 9 at the time and his friend teased my three-year-old self until I sat on down on a large handy stone and cried. I don’t remember all the circumstances but my mother managed to get a picture of my sad little self sitting on that stone immediately the teasing incident.
(In defense of the cousin: He has just recently passed away from leukemia he got from Agent Orange. He was in Vietnam during the late 60’s when they were liberally spewing that stuff into the air, and my cousin was in the wrong place at the very worst time. He wasn’t alone. Many veterans have passed away from Agent Orange leukemia.
My dear cousin was a very lonely child with a mother who was, at times, completely insane. (My mother’s half sister; yes, it ran in the family – not me, of course but everyone else for sure (smile).) He had a very, very difficult childhood. I came to be very fond of him and I think he probably was sorry he gave me such a difficult time especially when he got older and started on the middle-age spread himself. I think he came to understand that controlling one’s weight can be a challenge. I came to love my cousin very much and will miss him dearly.)
In addition to being healthy and fit, I want to like my body. After all, it has successfully housed my soul for 62 years. I hope I can persuade it to continue for many years to come. In the time left to me, I need to learn to treat it with more respect that I ever have in the past.