Chubby, chunky, corn-fed, corpulent, as was “Obesus,” a character in Greek comedy, oft given to hearing the catcalls from audience members. Obesus was round, firm and fully packed, like I was shortly before a friend of fifty years, a retired general practitioner, and my Health Coach sold me on “wellness.” He told me in no uncertain terms to slim down and he had the plan to help me, though Lord knows I’ve yo-yo dieted, and yes, once shed thirty on the Oprah diet. But that was then and Oprah has been up and down multiple times. I kept it off for years, but it came creeping back, stuck to my 5 ft. 3” frame. My dad told me I’d never make the basketball team because my legs were too short. In the Way Back I tried prayer to snare a Prom Date. I don’t recall if it worked. Age does have certain benefits….
The lbs. piled on, particularly after I quit smoking. Stop making excuses Judith.
It boils down to this: cease stuffing and get moving. So I did and shed 25 lbs., the starting point to shed 25 more. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen my toes, but my Health Coach friend continues to prod me along the route to wellness because he encourages the joining of body, mind and spirit. Yes, spirit. I even bought a slick looking bathroom scale. It tells the truth.
Where once there was pizza with x-tra cheese, cartons of ice cream, etc., now there are several soy based Medifast “meals,” per day, blended to a frothy froth in my blender. My one “real” meal consists of fish (I recommend tasty tilapia), or skinless chicken, and believe me, a 2 oz. portion is barely there on my plate, which reminds me, these days I eat only from small plates. Odd, but I don’t feel deprived and broccoli is my new best friend, followed by hard-boiled eggs, apples nuked with cinnamon, spinach and fresh fruits. I read labels and keep a hawk’s eye on salt content, sugars and such.
Medifast is not a miracle powder, though like many other diet powders it does have the marketing word “fast” attached. It’s pretty similar to all the other diet powders on the market, but in a few weeks it did the job in breaking my food addiction. I order it monthly and it’s delivered to my door. So far I haven’t burned out on the French Vanilla flavor. If I feel like stuffing, I visit the Take Shape for Life web site. I mean, I’m not the only round person in the universe. Give me a break. But well, I did spend years indulging my taste buds. Drunk on calories, I hit bottom when I started buying slacks with elastic waistbands. They’re everywhere.
Today I visited my Health Coach’s new space (it’s being refurbished) on Forest Home Avenue, way down in the land known as Hales Corners. He toured me through the various rooms which he’ll be sharing with other physicians focused on health. It’s great to be working with a physician who weighs the same as he did in high school. He practices what he preaches, so to speak. That alone is encouraging. And too, it’s good to know that President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are leading the charge to get school lunch programs to pay attention to what they’re serving our young citizens.
In working my way through to health, I learned that the word “Globesity” has entered our lexicon. In China (echoes of “clean your plate Judith, kids are starving in China”) things are grim since the moving in of fast food venues. Between 1959 and 1961, twenty million Chinese died from famine, but now one out of seventy are obese and the obesity rate is growing at 30 to 50% per year. History has a way of hitting back.
I don’t mean to bore you with my dieting life, but perhaps some reader out there will take heart and help their heart. It’s true that without my old friend, Food, I now must face myself and the ugly truth. Gone is the buttery landscape. Enter, the slim me who trod it for so long.
Yesterday I had a chat with a resident who has shed 100 lbs. I didn’t recognize her. Portion control and good choices did the trick and she did mention that she relies heavily on the spiritual aspects of taking it off and keeping it off.
