It’s no surprise to most people that know me that I love food. In fact, I can think of only two foods that I’ve ever eaten that I probably would never eat again. Liver and tongue. I’ve never had the opportunity to eat any bugs, but I’m fairly certain they would not be high on my list either.
This love for almost all things food has caused some growth on my 5’2″ frame, none of it vertical. I have often prided myself on the fact that I can carry quite a bit of extra weight in spite of my somewhat diminutive height. Most people would never guess that, at my heaviest, I was weighing in at a fairly chunky 146 lbs. It sounds weird, but this made me feel pretty good. Of course, when I tried to boast to my always honest, sometimes painfully so husband, he told me the reason they didn’t guess me to be that heavy was because they’d never seen me naked. I like to think he meant that as a compliment.
I can’t tell you “when” my love affair with food started. Although I do think it had something to do with giving birth. In fact, I think I can blame the labor and delivery nurses. Here’s why…
I would always stop eating when I was in labor because I was told in my birthing classes that if I ate anything while in the beginning stages of labor, there was a good chance that I would throw up during delivery or, even worse, involuntarily you-know-what on the delivery table. Since I could think of nothing worse, I made the monumental and very difficult decision not to eat. This meant that by the time I got to the hospital I was very hungry and I made sure the labor and delivery nurses knew it; so much so, that when I got to that lovely part of labor that doctors and nurses refer to as transition, they always encouraged me through it by telling me that when I was done they would give me something to eat.
I had three children, all three natural deliveries. After the first two, who were both born at 8:01pm, I was rewarded for my labor with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of grape juice. It was, at that moment, the best food I’d ever tasted.
My third baby was born at 2:40am. I had a midwife in the hospital. It was a very quick delivery, but I hadn’t really eaten all day and I was really looking forward to my peanut butter and jelly sandwich and glass of grape juice. While my husband took our daughter to be weighed, I asked my midwife for my sandwich and grape juice. Since she was not a labor and delivery nurse, she had no idea what I was talking about. She told me the kitchen was probably closed and I’d probably have to wait until later that morning. I know this sounds pathetic, but I looked at her and cried. Hard. My midwife, Karen, was a big, tough lady, but I was so pathetic that she went to the nurse’s lounge and found me something to eat.
Fast forward 35 years and about 26 lbs. On April 9th, my poor husband had surgery for diverticulitis. It was a very serious surgery and my Cliff, who normally weighs in at about 135 lbs., lost about 10 more. I found it humorous that I outweighed the man by 20 lbs! I was telling friends. I was laughing. I don’t know what I was thinking. Until…
Cliff and I were talking to good friends of ours in New Jersey. We were on speaker phone and Cliff was talking to the husband and explaining to him all he’d gone through telling him he’s having a hard time putting weight back on. When our friend asked what he weighed, Cliff told him 124 lbs. Our friend was surprised and answered with, “You weigh as much as my wife!”
You know that feeling when, all of a sudden, you come to a major realization in your life, that “aha” moment when reality hits you like a brick and you finally really THINK? This was one of those moments for me. You see, I know this friend’s wife. She is a very dear friend of mine. She is also a little bit bigger person than I am, which made me realize that I am probably about 20 lbs. overweight. That and the fact that my blood pressure is more than a little bit high, hereditary, but still; made me think that I should probably do something. Enter NOOM. Yup, I am NOOMing, guys! And, you know what? I like it! It’s a slow process, a psychology based process, that tells you what kind of “eater” you are and why. I am a forager. I eat anything and everything just because it’s there. I don’t have to be hungry, I just have to be around food. It’s not a good thing, but there it is. It’s been about a month and I’ve lost 7 lbs. I like to lose weight quickly, but that’s not how NOOM does it. Slow and steady wins the race with NOOM. I’m aiming for 125 lbs. Not sure I can get there, but I’m sure gonna try. If not, well, in light of all eternity, it’s really not that big a deal!