Reduction

Those of us not blessed with a hyperactive metabolism are always in a continual battle – we love to eat so we gain weight – we hate getting fat so we are always fighting that love to eat. Sometimes it is hard to take on that battle because food is instantly rewarding and comforting. If there are upsets or challenges, food becomes even a greater solace. And, if you are like me, you can pretty much deny anything is happening with elastic waistbands and throwing out the scale. It’s easy to tuck away the too tight clothes into the back of the drawer. Eventually they get moved down to the basement or the guest room closet for permanent storage.

Nev has Photoshop and can retouch - this is called the pinch - it knocked off 20 pounds in seconds. 

It’s funny how often we use an event as an excuse to overeat. Nev went on a fire call this am with the volunteer firemen. After the fire, everyone went to the firehouse for bacon and eggs and sweet rolls. A slimmer fireman declined saying he didn't need caffeine and grease. Vacations, nights out, holidays, even fires – calories don’t count on those special occasions. One vacation with Sally, we ate our way through Sicily – cannoli, gelato, mmmmm. It was easier when two of us were doing it.

Lisa tells me that our grandmothers and great grandmothers were nice to themselves and accepted being overweight. They wore sensible shoes and dresses and looked like every other grandmother in the village, portly. Times have changed, and we don’t want to look like our grandmothers. So I was surprised when an old friend handed me a letter that was addressed to my great grandmother in the early 1900s. It was a weight loss and exercise program by mail. She was a forbidding woman, head of a private school. People quaked around her. But here is this letter, rather patronizing, congratulating her on losing nine pounds and urging her to continue. She must not have been happy at all with her weight. I don’t think that she succeeded in keeping the weight off. This is one of my favorite pictures of her with my aunt when she was a baby. It was around 1905, and Great Grandmother Sanford was in her 50s.