The Lighter Side of Weight Loss: Chapter Seven

The Lighter Side of Weight Loss
By Sandra Warholic Seeley

Chapter Seven

Our Saturday workshop today was all about building body confidence. What do we see when we look at ourselves in a mirror? I’ve decided to give myself a safety warning every time I look in a mirror that “mirrors” the warning on vehicle side views. But instead of seeing the phrase, “Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear,” in my mind’s eye, I’m going to give myself the message that my body in this mirror is smaller than it appears. Because once I remove all the negative self-talk, and begin peeling away the layers of guilt, shame, doubt, emotional eating or poor food choices, a smaller me begins to emerge from its larger shell.

I also have to heed the original warning for my own safety. Perhaps diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol and any number of food related health issues are closer than they appear. We may think we have years to worry about approaching health wreckers, but they could be right beside us, riding along in our blind spots. Then we would have to call State Farm, and our insurance rates would increase.

I think we all need to become bodybuilders. It’s up to each of us if we just want to compete with ourselves to have the healthiest body possible or if we want to be the next Mr. or Ms. Olympia. I personally don’t want to look like the Hulk, but to each his own. The idiom, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” is something I’m going to practice saying to myself when I see my image. I’m going to start finding myself attractive, and I think that will have a ripple effect. It’s already working. The other day my husband was staring at me. I thought something was wrong. When asked about it, he said, “I’m just enjoying how beautiful you are!” We’ve been married forty-one years, and I will take that as a non-scale victory.

On this 50th Anniversary of the Apollo astronauts landing and walking on the moon, you could visualize your moon weight. So if you weigh 200 pounds on Earth, you would weigh 33 pounds on the moon. A bit too far below goal. You would be banished from WW. Or you could read Stephen King’s book, Elevation, about a man who is steadily losing weight. He weighs the same with or without clothes. It’s a fun read, a bit edgy, but not one of Stephen’s usual nightmare inducing books. I’m not going to issue a spoiler alert, but let me just say the protagonist, Scott Carey, would also be banished from WW.

In conclusion, I missed Amazon Prime Day by three days, but I’m still going to purchase a Fun House Carnival mirror. I found one for $25.19 with free shipping. It got 4 out of 5 stars with excellent reviews. It will be mounted with the concave side facing out to show a skinnier me.

Until next week, be happier!

Sandra Warholic Seeley - All my life, and half of someone else's, I have lived in a humorous place called Earth. My muse is a tiny menehune from the island of Oahu in Hawaii where I lived for a year. Ernest Hemingway once sat under the exact same coconut tree where I did most of my writing. I'm also a sensitive to criticism Virgo who loves to get paid for writing and speaking funny stuff. Even though my mind is filled with volcanic ash residue and I'm still finding sand in my shorts, I will continue to write until my muse retires or I run out of pretty blue drinks, whichever comes first. Don't be bashful, email the author.