Callin' It Like It Is

I’m fat. I used to wear a size 10 and now I’m a size 18. There is no reason, no excuse, other than the fact that I’ve been sitting on my arse since I retired. I do walk the dogs every day, but that’s nothing to the exercise I used to do on a daily basis. I’ve tried going to the gym, but I’m not a gym person. I don’t like the ambiance of a gym and I don’t like the disapproval that comes from the gym regulars. I actually don’t each much, but I eat a whole lot of all the wrong things, including sweets in just about any size, shape, or configuration.

A couple of weeks ago, a guest was on a talk show and talking about hidden sugars. It caught my interest when she said how many drinks have huge amounts of hidden sugars that we pay no attention to, but which could be sabotaging our diet plans. Being a person who drinks about 5 quarts of sweet iced tea a day, I wondered how much sugar is in the drink mix I use. Wish I had been sitting down when I read the label because I almost fell over: the first ingredient on the label is cane sugar, and the breakdown is 17 grams per serving (1 T.), which makes 8 ounces of drink. My glasses are all 16 ounce servings, so I was drinking 34 grams of sugar with every glass, and I drank probably 2 dozen glasses a day, which results in 408 grams of sugar a day. In one month, that’s 1264.8 grams of sugar or about 8 cups of sugar!

Well, I never do anything half-way, so I decided to replace all the iced tea mix drinks with plain water, which means instead of ingesting cups of sugar, I’m running to the bathroom every 20 minutes. My massive stomach, which I could see when I looked down on myself from above, is no longer visible unless I look in a mirror. It’s a good start, but I have a lot more pounds to go, so I’ve also made myself a 3-meals-a-day promise, rather than snacking and calling it food. Using Blue Apron for the evening meal has been a blessing, and on the days we don’t BA, we go to the store and buy fresh meat and veggies and cook ourselves dinner.

I was embarrassed when I couldn’t get into my size 18 jeans two weeks ago when we went to LA to meet with some of Y’s friends and talk about our trip to China. I finally struggled into them, but they literally popped at the seam while we were on the way to our destination, and there was nothing I could do about the bulge of fat shouting to the world that I need to lose weight. I am proud to say that this week, I can fit into my jeans, but they still are several sizes too large at size 18 for me to look good in them. By the time we leave for China, I want to be wearing my size 16 jeans – and when I return home, I’m going for the goal of size 14.

Like I already know, I take it one meal at a time, one day at a time, one week at a time -- and soon it's one month. I'm committed to losing weight and firming up the massive fat cap on my abdomen by the end of the year. And yes, I'm committed--not just saying it to sound good.