R.A.D.I.C.A.L. Thoughts for R.A.D.I.C.A.L. Women

“The way you feel about your body affects your entire life. It affects your health, wealth, family, relationships and career.” Jessica Weiner in her book, Do I Look Fat in This?

For a lot of us, our weight has been a problem through our midlife divorce. Most of us lost (or are still losing weight). But I’m past that. The pendelum has swung the other way, and all of a sudden, I feel fat. And often, we not only feel fat, we feel like a blob. I’ve been feeling both those things lately. The truth is, I have gained weight. My excuses: it’s because: (1) our room in the basement with the workout equipment in it flooded after a huge rain in the spring and it was unusable for several months; (2) my mom got sick and died on July 14th (and I was trying to comfort not only other people, but my Dad and myself especially with comfort food that made us both feel better for a minute) and (3) now, I’ve been sort of on overload trying to spend at least a couple of days or so each week in Wichita to help sort through 66 years of memories and letting my brother and sister-in-law feed me while I’m there and not walking even though my sister-in-law asked me every morning if I wanted to go with her to walk the dogs. So, not only do I feel fat, but I stepped on the scales the other day and I’m 10 pounds over what has been my normal weight for 30 years (except for the 15 pound weight loss during the divorce). Ugh! I don’t like the feeling I have. I don’t like the way my clothes fit. And I especially don’t like feeling out of control. The thing is, I really eat very healthy most of the time, but now I just keep visualizing carrying around a ten-pound turkey and thinking that’s how much extra weight I’m carrying around every day. For me, more than anything, I know it’s because I haven’t been working out like I usually do, and those pounds just creep up. My mom always prayed I’d be short with curly hair. I wouldn’t tell her this (even though she’s probably reading this over my shoulder at this very moment!), but really if I were just a few inches taller, I’d be fine! That’s it, I’m not too fat, I’m just too short!” But short I can’t do anything about. Fat, I can. I think my diet is fine. I just need to get back to my normal workouts. Six days a week. In the past, I’ve religiously walked or biked (as fast as I can) three days a week (or more) and have done weight training three days a week. I’ve started doing the walking part again the last couple of weeks. And the workout room is set up again. I always, always feel better after I’ve worked out and it’s still true now. It’s just that it will take some discipline and some time to get back down to my “fighting” weight. And patience is not my strong suit. Feeling strong and healthy is a big part of feeling like you can handle anything that comes your way. So make sure you’re eating right and getting your heart-rate up every day … (by exercise, not by communicating with your wasband!) In fact, if you are healthy, you are better able to control those emotional typhoons. So join me. Get moving … or maybe, get moving, again!