Health vs. weight

[Aquajock]

Jacque, your experience was so similar to my own that your description gave me the chills. My Biggest-Loser epoch began when I quit drinking alcohol in 1987 (way too long a subject to go into here), but to this day I absolutely hate clothes-shopping because of the 3-way mirrors underneath the fluorescent lights. Despite the fact that I'm one of those fabled Size-Zeroes, I am here to tell you that some internal tapes never die. They may get softer over time, as adult life skills take over and enable one to cope and move forward, but they never go away entirely.

Nance, I think you should have a nice, juicy, ice-cold wedge of watermelon tonight with your dinner. Screw the calorie /carb / glycemic-index / glycemic-load / fat-gram / sodium-milligram mishegoss. Just enjoy yourself for a second. It ain't gonna kill ya.

A-Jock

 

[eminenz2]

Hey, Curly Girl!

Just popping into give my $.02.

I am 40, 5'3', 156 lbs, fit, and cancer free.

My whole life I've been on the puffy side, and I HATED HATED HATED my belly. I had the same struggles many of us had with food/body image/self-esteem/ self-confidence, etc.

As you already know, in 2005 at age 37 I was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer. I won the trifecta of treatment - chemo, mastectomy, and radiation.

After awhile, I had a breast reconstruction - a DIEP flap reconstruction, specifically. That is where they remove your belly (Yes! A tummytuck!) and make a new breast out of it. So the belly I hated so much my whole life is now my new breast. I know I would never had done the implant thing, so it was wonderful that another option was available - one that would save me from putting foreign objects in my body.

How did my belly know?

Now I don't consider myself one of those "woowoo" new age people, but there must be something symbolic in the fact that I now wear my belly where my left breast used to be. My belly is over my heart.

I can only hope our bodies have a wisdom that we cannot even begin to understand, and that our bodies must in some way be a manifestation of our real wishes, desires, and fears and our imagined ones.

I think in a way, when we can arrive at peace with our bodies we can be at peace with ourselves. And vice versa.

I am learning to be gentler with myself and my foibles. I guess that's the point.

And now when I get up in the morning I have two healthy breasts that look up at the sun and not droop sadly towards the ground. And they say, "Thank you for another day without cancer!"

I guess I haven't answered your question, though, have I?

FWIW. That's all I know.

XOXO,
Susan L.G.

 

[nancy324]

Susan!! Talk about getting things into perspective! How ironic and amazing and awesome that the tummy you hated was your saving grace! I did not know that. Wow and double wow!!

 

[nancy324]

>Nance, I think you should have a nice, juicy, ice-cold wedge
>of watermelon tonight with your dinner. Screw the calorie
>/carb / glycemic-index / glycemic-load / fat-gram /
>sodium-milligram mishegoss. Just enjoy yourself for a second.
> It ain't gonna kill ya.
>
>A-Jock

A-jock, after Ame's post, I plan to carry home an entire watermelon on my way back from the gym today. (I'll count it as part of my UB strength WO) :7 :9 :7 :9

 

[eminenz2]

I think it must be a generational thing that so many women our age have been inundated from a very young age with impossible images of beauty. It grew more insidious and pervavsive as we went into out teen years and impossible to ignore in our 20s and 30s.

At the risk of sounding like a victim - we couldn't escape it even if we tried. We were indoctrinated! Who could stave off the hundreds of pictures/messages we were subjected to each day? There's not enough affirmations in the world to undo the damage!

It seems impossible to undo everything the media has taught us about our bodies - how inadequate they are, etc. Sometimes it seems that I am constantly second-guessing myself about whether or not I should be eating this ot that.

That's the point of my last post I guess; I need to keep reminding myself to keep it all in perspective.

Of course that doesn't mean I let myself eat whatever, etc. I just keep telling myself to "ease up, ease up", when I feel particularly frustrated with myself and my mistakes in my 'fitness journey'.

 

[amyg]

I'm glad you are going to enjoy some watermelon, Nance! That means I've done *something* useful today. Yay!

I'm very surprised at the report of raisins and bananas being with watermelon high on the ole glycemic index. I personally think that the glycemic index rates how quickly your blood glucose levels rise as a result of the food- the faster they go, the more insulin you need to combat the rise. The more insulin you produce, the more fat you hang onto. (See: Atkins, which eliminates most carbs which in turns lowers insulin requirements) So, white sugar is high on the index since that's a massive spike and low carb high fiber is low on the index, and "better" accordingly.

For me, a rasin is one of the last things I'd reach for if my blood sugar is low, since it's high in fiber and low in moisture so it takes longer for the sugar to reach my bloodstream. The opposite is true of watermelon, which has a high moisture content. It tends to be rather low in carb, according to me; orange juice or apple juice will be faster to raise my blood glucose than anything fibrous.

ANYWAY not to go off on yet another rant, I just wanted to say YAY FOR WATERMELON!! (and in case you see "watermelon juice" at your local trader joe's just pass it up; I tried it yesterday and it was disgusting.)