Weighty Problem

I never really worried about my weight until I was around 30 when I started gaining all kinds of weight. I was fairly active and walked everywhere and jogged when I could and when I was a kid I used to play all the sports I could play and summer days were filled with bike riding, kick ball, volley ball, baseball with cousins and just running around having fun. We were never  in the house during the daytime. Partly because our parents thought that kids should be outside having fun playing and partly because we wanted to be outside playing enjoying ourselves and not sitting in the house stuck under adults. 

When I turned 30 or a little over 30 my life changed and I moved in with an ex boyfriend for 7 years and in that neighborhood walking places was not too much of an option during that time. It was not a bad-bad neighborhood but not good either. The only time I got to walk is when I got to work downtown and then I walked to lunch and shopping. So, needless to say by the time that relationship had reached its conclusion I had gained about 35 pounds that would not leave any faster then I did when I left the ex. I moved back to my old neighborhood with my mom and I went back to school and started walking again and sometimes even jogging. I did manage to loose a few of those unwanted pounds that had found their way to my hips, thighs and bottom.  I even managed to go down a whole jean size and was thrilled with myself. Then a few years later I met my son's father and then got pregnant with my son and packed on more pounds then I care to remember. My decreasing jean size had increased quickly during those 9 months. After he was born I managed to loose some. I had him at 41 so it was not easy to loose one pound for me. They just didn't want to leave. I now walked trying to speed walk pushing a stroller, no jogging for me. I was too tired for that. I am a single mom and took care of him alone so a long speed walk was all I could manage back then. So, a few more pounds trickled off  but not as much as I would have liked. I was happy with the few pounds that did manage to leave my now body I didn't recognize. When my son was about 2 years old, being an active 2 year old as he was, we had many days of running up and down stairs and running around in the backyard and some more weight managed to come off. 

Time went by and then menopause kicked in and then loosing weight for me had become an almost loosing battle. My stomach doesn't look like my stomach anymore. My stomach is now a stranger. No longer close to flat. Ok, it wasn't too flat before but it didn't look like I was 2 months pregnant either or 3 months. Now, it looks like a shelf covering my c-section scar. My thighs I don't recognize either. I decided to try to eat better and exercise more. I even brought some weights. I was determined to loose something. With that I started cooking more healthier meals, more veggies and more fruit became a bigger part of my diet. I started googling low fat meals and found a few I thought that my family would like. I was pretty sure that my son would like them since I didn't think he was a picky eater. He hadn't been all his life. So, I was pretty sure that whatever I came up with would be great. 

Boy, was I wrong. In my quest for the perfectly imperfect body, I found a low fat pineapple chicken meal online that I said looked okay and I could easily make it for dinner one night. That night came a couple of weeks ago. I was proud of my creation, pineapple chicken with brown rice. I made a plate for my son and didn't expect the look I got. He looked at me like I had grown another head and then he asked me what was it. I proudly told him what it was and he asked why the rice was brown.  I could see already that this would not be one of his favorite meals. Then it was my mom's turn to look at me like I had four heads when she got her plate. I thought I did a pretty good job but they on the other hand thought I had lost my mind. I told both of them to just taste it. They frowned their faces and took little mini bites and then just picked at the rest of it. I just shook my head and ate my dinner not letting them bother me. I ate and drank my water. I felt good about my attempt to make something low fat and semi healthy. Even though they felt like they were in an alternate universe probably with a crazy cook in the kitchen. 

But, I have lost some weight with my crazy creations and have been doing more walking and even lift my 5lb weights every other day. Pretty soon I might even be brave enough to go to the gym. I have never been to one in my life. I only passed by them occasionally looking into the windows of all the people running in place on treadmills and wiping their foreheads with tiny towels. My grandmother even got me a treadmill but it got stolen. Another story for another day. I must admit I didn't use it much. It was old and heavy and