A Letter to My Body

Dear Body:
You and I have not always gotten along. In fact, I'm sure sometimes we've been on entirely different pages. For example, I'm not known for my grace and that's partly because of my lack of balance. And do you remember when puberty hit and you made my boobs grow from an A cup to a DD cup in the eighth grade? Or how about the psoriasis that leaves me looking like it's snowing in July when I don't use my medicine (okay, I'll take some of the blame there). There was that lovely bout of adult acne you surprised me with a few months ago, and the poor eyesight you blessed me with.

I was pretty sure you were being an asshole once again, Body, these last few weeks. I was ready to blame you and Weight Watchers for my mental anguish, but I think you could sense my frustration. I have been on Weight Watchers for a little more than 8 weeks now.

While I hadn't been perfect in my eating habits, I had been under my points goal each week (meaning I had not completely depleted my "weekly bonus points" and my banked activity points--and if you haven't done Weight Watchers, just take that to mean that I had done what I was supposed to to lose weight). I had lost a few pounds (a little over 3 to be exact) and while Chef was doing a good job of talking me off the ledge, my inner monologue was less forgiving. How the hell could I NOT be losing weight when I had cut out multiple indulgences in bad fast food decisions and baked good runs? But I didn't lose every week. In fact, I had gained more than a pound and half when I was at wit's end.

"I lost more weight when I just counted calories FOR FREE," I thought to myself and said aloud. A few naive but well-meaning people tried to talk me through the weight loss process. I tried not to bite back with a "I'm familiar. I did lose 90 lbs in one chunk before, so I know how this goes."  But since they didn't really know that and I wanted to keep friends and encouraging people in my life, I bit my tongue.

But Body, this week it's like you knew. You knew I was at wit's end and decided that now was the time to kick it in gear. You motivated me with extra energy and rewarded me this week with a 3 lb weight loss on weigh-in day (and then shed another 1.4 lbs the day after because you know that I'm obsessive and weigh in every day). So now I'm more motivated than ever. I have lost just over 8 lbs and am almost at 1 lb per week, which seems so much better than just under half a pound per week.

And because you knew that I needed it, you shed some lbs where people would notice so that I got not one but three comments on my weight loss by different, random people.

To show there's no hard feelings, I'll keep up the exercise and healthy living. But in return if you could turn some of this flab into muscle and just get rid of some of the fat, I'd appreciate it.

Thank you!