Being middle aged and fat aint no fun!

Jabberwockey

Well-Known Member
In the spirit of my post this morning I walked during my lunch break. Four laps around the upper lawn at work, a tad larger than a high school track around a football field, which is roughly a quarter mile per lap so around a mile walked. My legs hurt, damnit! This is going to take a while but I have to get back into shape! Well, a shape other than the Michalen Man anyway!!
 

Jabberwockey

Well-Known Member
No, it didn't rub off so much as it snuck up on me at work and smacked me! I felt pretty good this morning but after that talk it just hit me that we need to quit whining about how things are and change them.

Like the song says..."If you don't like what you got, why don't you change it. If your world is all screwed up, rearrange it." Head East "Raise a Little Hell"

Of course, as I'm typing this the microwave dings informing me that my massive lunch is ready!
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
Okay...I have the same lunch and it isn't that massive. Two small pieces of chicken, some noodles and some broccoli. Not the healthiest, but not massive.
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
You two crack me up. Using a private forum to chat at lunch with your "sneak date"... :D

Hmmm... what kind of chicken? baked or fried? white or dark?
Proportion of broccoli to chicken?

Lol. Just comparing notes. I don't know what I'm having yet... will wait to see what is left after hubby makes his lunch and leaves for work... but that's another hour and a half, so you're making my tummy growl
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
You two crack me up. Using a private forum to chat at lunch with your "sneak date"... :D

We both work for the government so phones and emails could be noticed. But unless they do a pretty thorough audit of a computer, they'll never know about this. LOL

Hmmm... what kind of chicken? baked or fried? white or dark?
Proportion of broccoli to chicken?

Both...browned, then roasted with brown sugar and garlic....and butter. Not exactly the healthiest, but it was left over from the church carry-in. Church food has no calories, right? Not enough broccoli. The container wasn't big enough to put more than about 1/2 a cup.

:)
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
Okay....he's complaining? I went to attempt to find a pair of jeans today - like I wasn't having a bad enough day!

What kind of sadists work for the plus-size fashion industry anyway? Just because we want attractive clothing like skinny girls, does NOT mean we want the exact same style as skinny girls. Honestly, what complete moron thought it was a good idea to make size 18 to 28 in skinny jeans? Even the ones that said they were "ankle length" or "straight leg" instead of skinny! Because there's nothing more attractive than a 50 year old woman with 48" hips in jeans that have legs so narrow you can barely get your feet thru! I looked like a freaking waffle cone!

We're having salad for dinner.

big_butt_girl.jpg


(Not actually me!)
 

mom_to_3

Active Member
That was funny Lil! I am a plus size gal myself, so I can laugh! Although I have lost 20lbs since January, thank G*D and I am moving out of those sizes!

I have to share a funny (to me anyway) with you. You do have to laugh at yourself sometimes, right? This wasn't me though, it was my youngest adult daughter...

She has gained weight recently because of depression medications. She works in the healthcare field and was doing some side work as a caregiver for a young lady she went to school with who has cerebral palsy. Jessica is her friend. Because of Jessica's many health problems, she is VERY thin and always has been, but she is sharp as a tack! My daughter had taken Jessica out to shop and they were in Dress Barn and my daughter was looking for a dress because she is graduating college this year! woohooo! One of the dresses she was looking at was a size 16W. Jessica pipes up and says "what size is this? 16 WIDE??????? lol,lol,lol Jessica said it innocently enough as she is a size 2 and truly didn't know better. My daughter and I have laughed and laughed over that comment so many times. It does seems fitting though, right? :)


Okay....he's complaining? I went to attempt to find a pair of jeans today - like I wasn't having a bad enough day!

What kind of sadists work for the plus-size fashion industry anyway? Just because we want attractive clothing like skinny girls, does NOT mean we want the exact same style as skinny girls. Honestly, what complete moron thought it was a good idea to make size 18 to 28 in skinny jeans? Even the ones that said they were "ankle length" or "straight leg" instead of skinny! Because there's nothing more attractive than a 50 year old woman with 48" hips in jeans that have legs so narrow you can barely get your feet thru! I looked like a freaking waffle cone!

We're having salad for dinner.

big_butt_girl.jpg


(Not actually me!)
 

Scent of Cedar *

Well-Known Member
How does that old saying we are always saying here go?

Something about insanity being repeating the same solutions that did not work the first time?

So, what if, rather than concentrating on how heavy, or how unfit...what if you were to post pictures of yourselves, already beautiful, already strong, already traveling that different path you see so clearly in your mind's eye?

Find and post those things, those images that will resonate for you, using that part of yourselves not content with the current manifestation of self to find exactly the right imagery.

We really do have a certain freedom, a certain ability to determine how we are going to do this ~ how we are going to challenge ourselves, or pleasure ourselves, or think about and create or recreate ourselves.

I think this is true.

If you could think about it like following the joy of transformation, if you could see it like that, you could make it happen.

Images of strength, of breath, of agility and freedom. It isn't about what it looks like, it is about what it feels like.

Do you think this could be true?

Cedar
 

Scent of Cedar *

Well-Known Member
My most powerful imagery has to do with ballet. With the strength of it, with the changed mindset necessary to believe the air itself holds you up, infuses you with grace and strength.

None of that is real, of course.

Except it is.

Cedar
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
So, what if, rather than concentrating on how heavy, or how unfit...what if you were to post pictures of yourselves, already beautiful, already strong, already traveling that different path you see so clearly in your mind's eye?

That's a lovely though Cedar...but it really doesn't work. I'm not a person who ever wanted to be thin. I'd be perfectly happy to be "fat but fit" as they say. I was big when Jabber and I met. I was big my whole life actually, though a good portion of that I was on the low-end of "plus-sized". I'd LOVE to have the body I had at 25...which was still pretty big - an 18/20. But the fact is, I never had trouble getting guys as a big girl. Found myself TWO husbands (sorry Jabber dear :) ). I would occasionally do Weight Watchers or something and try to lose a few pounds, but my heart wasn't in it because I felt I was already good the way I was. Other big women talked about people looking at them or whispering about them or calling them names because of their size and I thought, "Really? That happens? Never happens to me!" Either I was oblivious, or maybe it was all about the confidence and how you present yourself...because I considered myself pretty darned attractive in those days and I was pretty healthy, smoking and drinking notwithstanding.

Then I met husband 2 (That's you Baby! ;)) and he's very non-discriminatory about weight. In fact, he prefers larger women over tiny ones. He loved me and I loved him and we happily ate our way up the scale for years until one day we freaked out at the weight we'd hit without realizing it! So we started following WW and lost...but it didn't stay gone.

I'm all for the power of positive thinking...but it's kind of like ... if I don't really focus on that one thing ... losing weight ... it won't happen.

And right now I'm very unfocused.
 

Scent of Cedar *

Well-Known Member
browned, then roasted with brown sugar and garlic....and butter.

Yum.

I'm not a person who ever wanted to be thin. I'd be perfectly happy to be "fat but fit" as they say

There is a majesty and a kind of unabashed feminine power in women who relish being themselves. I have always thought heavier women were more sensually oriented, were more undeniably female. Here is a story: So, we were having dinner with a number of other couples, three of whom we were meeting for the first time. One of the wives is an Italian woman, full bodied, filled with laughter and with that way Italian people seem to see everything. As the evening progressed, she came right up close to my face at one point (also something Italian people seem comfortable doing) and said: "But you don't LOVE food, do you."

She was saying, without saying it in so many words, that though I look the way I look (which is a pretty good way to look), her larger body indicated a sensuality I probably knew nothing about.

It took me such a long time to figure that out.

She is an excellent cook. Their lives (the husband is Jewish) revolve around delicious food and friends and comfort. For instance, last Easter, she happily made a lovely dinner for forty, finishing it off with carrot cake and lemon cheesecake.

There are all kinds of ways to be, in the world.

Here is another story I found interesting that addresses that same way of seeing ourselves or our value through standards that mean nothing at all. So, what our I.Q. tests actually measure is what it is that makes a good worker.

There was a TED talk on it.

It was an amazing concept that I suspect we are already aware of. Great social skills, the capacity to form loyal relationship, the ability to proceed with confidence ~ these are not skills or talents measured by I.Q. tests. Yet, think of the horrible misery in those tests and in similar kinds of things for us all, over the millennia. Why we think it is okay to enslave, or to believe ourselves kings by Divine Right, or to think we are very much better than the next guy because we have a piece of paper said to measure what matters.

The singer Estelle is a big woman. Initially, she was dressed in a way that did not flatter her. Now, she dresses in a way appropriate to her shape. She is more beautiful today than she was in the beginning. What you see when you see her now is a big, beautiful woman who accepts herself.

Orson Welles was a big man with a beautiful voice and a commanding presence.

Cedar
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
One of the wives is an Italian woman, full bodied, filled with laughter and with that way Italian people seem to see everything. As the evening progressed, she came right up close to my face at one point (also something Italian people seem comfortable doing) and said: "But you don't LOVE food, do you."

Ah Italians. I loved Italy and love Italians. There is a story I love to tell about Jabber and my trip to Italy about when we were kidnapped by a little Italian lady who wouldn't stop feeding us. :)

We got stuck it Italy in 2010 when the volcano in Iceland grounded air traffic. We ended up taking a trip to the Imalfi coast and went looking for dinner. It was still early, most places don't open for dinner until 7 or later, but we saw a sign for a place called La Taverna with arrows pointing up the mountain. We walked and walked and stopped to rest next to a sign and a little lady came out of her home (next to what appeared to be a night-spot), and I asked her in my very poor Italian if La Taverna was open, pointing to the sign. She spoke no English, but made it clear she wanted us to get in her car and she took us there. It was beautiful. It's a long story and there's lots of funny bits about that evening, but the part that's relevant was that the owner was her son, Raphaelo, who did speak English. He explained that in Italy meals could take hours, because work is important, family is important, but FOOD is the MOST important!

We were the only customers the WHOLE night! They fed us and fed us and fed us. While eating the fourth course (having actually taken a walk after the pasta course to make room!) we heard the mixer going and I leaned over to Jabber and said, "You do realize, they're cooking MORE." LOL We were SO stuffed! It was a wonderful night and an awesome memory. :)

The truth is, I do LOVE food. I seldom take the time I'd like to cook and eat. I should. It's more fattening to gobble up your food without thinking about it. I've always wanted to host a big dinner, like Thanksgiving. I like baking bread. I like making little appetizers. I like making pies and desserts and comfort foods. I love to cook. I love to bake. I love to eat. What I don't love to do is exercise, unfortunately.

Jabber and I both come from a long line of chubby women. Jabber's mom is slim, but his sisters are big. My mother was a very large woman...who died of a heart attack following bypass surgery at 60. I don't want to be her in 9 years. So I have very little time to change my ways.
 

Jabberwockey

Well-Known Member
Jabber and I both come from a long line of chubby women. Jabber's mom is slim, but his sisters are big.

My mom is slim now. Not as much before we met. Still not as big as some of my sisters but mom lost the weight before dad was diagnosed with diabetes so she coached him.
 

Scent of Cedar *

Well-Known Member
I love that story.

:O)

Cedar

I've done dinners for family, but the difference is that the satisfaction I take from it is the way everything sparkles, the way the candles change all our faces, the time when everyone is together and laughing.

I could actually care less about the food, as long as it looks pretty.

True.

D H is Italian, right? And though we have been married forever, I am still taken aback at the way he thinks about happiness and food and regular dinner time and grocery shopping. (Which he took over the second he retired and which he does every single day.) In Italy, there is a phrase for the visiting we do on our daily shopping rounds. I cannot spell it correctly, but it sounds like "commin non".

That is what D H does since his retirement.

"Commin non".

If you ask his mom what she has been up to, today?

"Oh, commin non."

Remember the scene in The Godfather when the grandfather is examining fruit? Or when he is working in his tomatoes with his grandson?

That is just how my D H and his family are.

One of his sisters even has a mustache.

:O)

Cedar
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
Would you believe I've never seen the Godfather? :) But I love Moonstruck...much more my kind of Italian movie. lol

So, had a physical today and the results of my blood work. High cholesterol, very high borderline - but NOT quite yet - diabetes. So...more vegetables and fruits. Fewer sweets. More exercise. Check again in 3 months and see if anything has changed. :(

Guess I need to love food a little less.
 
Top