A new-found old body

I’m wearing an old blouse today and I’m walking with a spring in my step. I’m celebrating my new-found old body. This is going to come across as rather shallow… but my level of confidence soars with every pound I drop.

I feel good today. I started running again last night and for the first time in weeks, I was able to sleep peacefully through the night.

I have a wardrobe full of clothes that I haven’t worn all year since my weight began piling up. Not that they don’t fit me anymore, they just don’t look the same on my body. Despite a healthy diet and rigorous running regime, my weight kept creeping up. It affected my self esteem and probably my blood pressure too. It didn’t help when friends commented on how slim I looked just a year ago.

Suddenly I was buying clothes a size bigger. I swear the extra bulk was showing on my face too. I exercised harder and ate lesser, but to no avail. I felt unattractive and discouraged.

While vacationing in France, the change in diet made me bloat up even more. When my best friend offered some friendly weight-loss advice, I felt miserable and self-conscious, I even stopped posing for photographs. She was losing weight day by day as we tackled the hills and valleys on our bikes while I was packing in the pounds. I even started wondering if I had fibroids growing in my body!

When I returned, I was at my heaviest. That’s when I decided to outsmart my body by tweaking my habits. I eliminated milk, cheese, nuts and white bread from my diet, ate simple home cooked meals and snacked on wholesome food like bananas and apples. After several weeks, the extra layer of fat around my tummy started to whittle away. Clothes, even the old ones, began to fit nicely again.

It’s a real confidence boost. I don’t feel lethargic nor do I have hunger pangs or food cravings anymore. I hope to stay this way for a long time.

I read recently that in Belize, a woman’s abdomen is viewed as the central axis on which physical and emotional health turn. The solar plexus, just above the stomach, is where we store stress. To banish the bloat, the women there turn to the Mayan practice of abdominal massage. Apparently, research shows that abdominal masssage increases blood circulation and lymph flow to expedite the body's removal of excess water and fat-trapping toxins.

This is probably what I should do next, if my weight starts creeping up on me again.