Have you seen last week’s People magazine? Twenty-nine-year old Tess Holliday is on the cover — “The world’s first size 22 Supermodel!” — like it’s a good thing.
I’m all for accepting yourself and seeing beauty in every size and color, but the 5’5″ 280-pound Holliday is cruising toward diabetes at warp speed. She may feel great now, but when she’s 69 instead of 29, her joints will give out at this weight. I guess she’s getting paid enough to shill clothes to the 67 percent of American women who wear size 14 (which I don’t consider plus size, just normal) and up so that she can afford the expensive medical care in her future if she stays at this weight.
Her social media campaign, which she launched “to support her message of self-acceptance,” is not-so-subtly called “#effyourbeautystandards.” OK, you’re beautiful, but I don’t much want to pay for the health care you’re going to need in the future. (Don’t forget: There’s a fairly well-established link at this point between excess sugar and dementia.)
Check out Stephanie Soechtig’s documentary “Fed Up” (on NetFlix) about the damage extra weights inflicts on the inside. Most high school athletes don’t go to the pros, and most fat kids aren’t going to model. They’re just going to be miserable.
I’ve got rid of 24 pounds since Christmas, which I’m especially proud of considering my advanced age (I’ll be 70 in 2 months). I’m doing that by eating around 1,700 calories a day, keeping food and exercise logs, hitting the Y several days a week and exercising hard — in the yard or the pool if not the Y — for 6 days weekly. Sundays, I rest, along with God.
I’m trying to “eat clean” all the time, but I have a glass of red wine every night. After 5 months the cravings for something sweet are much reduced but now I’m hooked on 1/2 cup pistachios in the shell (150 calories).
After 5 months, when I’m going to put food in my mouth, I want it to be food that will do something for me besides lift me onto a sugar high and then drop me kersplat! back into my life with all the usual challenges.
Twice in recent evenings I’ve had 1 tablespoon dark chocolate chips and stopped! These days if the thought crosses my brain that I should “tidy up” the entire bag of “chips,” I think, more or less automatically, “Why would I do that to me?”
This is a very important question that you cannot ask yourself enough (and not just about food). I’ve needed almost seven decades to appreciate it.
Lunch today was a good thing to do to me: A 320-calorie yummy sandwich and 70 calories worth of V-8. Three servings of vegetables in one meal, along with protein, whole grains, and a little dried fruit. I pulled the construction directions from the May issue of shape magazine while on the treadmill. Or the elliptical. Or the stationary bike.
Chicken or turkey sandwich with goat cheese, arugula and dried fig
4 slices deli poultry meat (80 calories)
1 whole-grain hamburger bun (130)
1 ounces soft goat cheese (76)
1/2 cup baby arugula leaves (5)
1 dried fig, stem removed and chopped (30)
Assemble and enjoy.
youcanteaticecreamintheshower 
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