Over the winter I put on some weight. I truly did not notice this was occurring. Probably because I was too busy shoveling.
I discovered this most inconvenient truth sometime in late May, as I was digging out my summer clothes. Back in October, I had bought a very cute skirt with the little shorts underneath, a most convenient garment for the mother-of-small-people. Loved this thing. Very excited to wear it. Fir back in October, so assumed it would fit in May.
But it was tight. Way tight. Thanks to the Lycra contained therein, I could get it on, but it looked.... Not good. And it felt even worse. So I got on the scale and whoa.... Nearly 15lbs.
Oh dear. I try not to freak about weight. As I've mentioned before, I don't think it is the most important thing. It's a thing, but not the most important one. But the fact that all my summer clothes were tight was a most depressing development.
I started doing some detective work and discovered that part of my problem was the anti-inflammatory I was taking for my torn rotator cuff. I am not sorry I took it, but meds can absolutely affect these sorts of things. I gradually went off and and boom! Nearly 5lbs. Gone. That still leaves with 10 extra, but hey, every little bit helps.
You know what else I did?
I bought some new clothes. Not a whole wardrobe, just a couple of skirts and two capris. I honestly cannot account for those 10lbs. I eat a healthy diet and move around a lot. I'm going to explore some other things that might be contributing, but I'm not going to starve myself or engage in punishing exercise, both of which I suspect would be counter-productive anyway, but I'm also not going to walk around in too-tight clothes feeling lousy about myself.
Which leads me to my point. (I always get ther!) you know why people have muffin tops? Because their clothes don't fit. Maybe they need to cultivate some different habits, but first stop is a new pair of jeans. Because life is too short to walk around feeling like. A polish sausage in a hot dogs dress.*
*thats a good one! Hugh? Credit goes to my old roommate Amy.
Great advice, as usual. I haven't been on the scale in months. I threw ours away when I caught the boys weighing themselves and comparing their weights. Not good unless you are comparing dumbbell finishings or whatever. Who said only girls worry about their weight?
ReplyDeleteBut, back to the topic at hand, I am very grateful for a pair of jeans and a few skirts and dresses that my sister-in-law gave me when she cleared out her closet. We have a similar body shape and she was a little bit heavier, so her "fat" clothes flatter my rounder shape. I'm sad about my cellulite-y legs, though... I'm making some drastic changes to my diet and sleep habits, and have to schedule an appointment with a doctor (haven't seen one in .... 4 years????) to see if there's anything weird going on with my metabolism (blood sugar? adrenals? thyroid?)
I love your roommate Amy's saying!
Yeah, I rarely weigh myself. Before it always seemed to fluctuate within 5lbs. anyway, but this was 15 over that! Interesting about your sons. My 7-year-old has taken to reading the calorie counts on foods. Apparently he learned from some girl in his class that calories are bad and make you fat. Argh! Calories are energy! Hate that kids are worrying about that kind of thing. I might need to blog rant about this!
DeleteRant and rave away. I'll read it! I hate this fear of calories! Of course they count, but our focus should be on nutrition.
DeleteI'd much rather have my kids read and understand the list of ingredients and the nutritional value of any packaged foods they are getting ready to eat. Sometimes they tell me that some packaged food is "healthy", but a closer look at the ingredients will reveal that it's a lot less healthy than they thought. That's what I want them to be able to discern.