Day 23,667: Heavy Weight Class

For most of my life, I’ve been a bit overweight. Not heavily overweight, but fighting the scale nevertheless. I was part of the original Metrocal/Tab generation and may have ruined my metabolism at a fairly early age. Still, for all the attention and effort I’ve put on watching what I eat, it seems unfair that I’m not thinner than I am, and according to the BMI calculations at my MD’s office, just a point or two away from being considered obese. That’s really annoying.

I’ve always been a bit chubby, but no one would call me obese, except the American Medical Association. My newest gynecologist even took up my cause saying if I was obese she was grossly obese, and she wasn’t.

Finally, I gave in and referred myself to an endocrinologist. The MDs wouldn’t because on their scale of things I’m also within normal enough ranges of everything not to warrant a referral. Still, I wanted a consult on why my weight doesn’t more easily move. A beautiful, thin, relatively young woman, my now newest doctor shook her head and noted it’s cultural.

I’d agree with her, but I’m conscious of our culture.  I don’t eat prepared or canned foods. We cook at home most nights, and an indulgence for me is pistachio nuts or a few squares of dark chocolate.

The formula remains simple – eat less and move more, but really how much less and more can one do?  Ok, I’m not perfect and it seems perfection is needed at my stage of life with my metabolism. Given that, you’d think I could come to terms with just being the way I am, but I’m not yet giving in. I’d like to leave this world – hopefully many years from now – the way I came into it – with a right sized body and a low BMI.  According to my Endocrinologist that means about 17 pounds, and even she admits it won’t be an easy 17. And so, I’m on yet a new eating plan — never a diet, mind you.  In today’s world where diet really is a 4-letter word, I’m adopting a new lifestyle way of eating. Sure, it’s not a diet (wink/wink), but let’s face it — it’s a diet.

So I’m now buying liter bottles of water in attempt to drink more; sipping on my turmeric ginger tea to warm up after a long day rather than yet more coffee; and, yes, decreasing what I’m eating and measuring portions with my digital scale. What that scale shows is that I have been over–proportioning on everything except vegetables, so it’s time to pare down the plate.

Maybe eating in older age is no different than everything else – you need less of everything. It’s the time of life to to Swedish clean closets, downsize drawer contents,  and fight fat stores of everything that is weighing you down. In that spirit, I’m dedicating myself to discarding excess closet clothes. If I’m lucky, it will somehow magically also translate to inches off my hips.