I Love Secretariat

Not the Disney movie, I'm afraid I won't like it so I haven't seen it.  It's the horse that I love.  Human athletes don't do much for me but, weirdly, I get inspired reading about Secretariat and watching clips of him on YouTube.  I grew up with a bit of an interest in racing only because my father liked to "play the horses," but all that's left is a fascination with a horse or two.  Ruffian's another one.  I may never have watched Secretariat in his time but I not only remember Ruffian's final race against Foolish Pleasure, I remember the day leading up to it.  I was so excited to watch her win, certain she would fly from beginning to end. That race was one of my first and most memorable heartbreaks.

But it's Secretariat, the drama of his come-from-behind finishes and the beauty and smoothness of his kick into high gear, that has me hooked.

Weight Maintenance Calculators

It was a work in progress for years but I probably got a good grip on my weight by the time I left my teens, mostly by paying attention to how normal eaters ate.  My brother, for one.  Everyone always commented on how lucky he was, he could eat whatever he wanted without gaining a pound; I had to watch much more carefully.  After a while, I couldn't buy that.  My brother did eat more at meals than I did but he didn't hit the pantry 5 minutes after dinner the way I did.  His second, even third, serving of chicken and rice did not equal my steady stream of brownies. Obvious when you say it but when you get up from a dinner table hungry and the seams of your jeans are stretched to the limit, you can feel like you're being unfairly targeted by cells from the fat side of the family tree.  I read in one of my magazines (Glamour?  What did I read then?)  that a physically active teenage boy only needed about 300 more calories a day than a physically active teenage girl.  Oversimplification, sure, but it sounded manageable to me for the long term.  And my goal was long term. I also watched a girl I worked with at Friendly's.  I don't remember her name but I remember how she ate and how she never said things like, "no ice cream for me this week" or "hit me if you see me touching a french fry!" She wasn't the only skinny waitress but she was the only one who didn't act like she starved herself to get there. She would eat a sandwich for lunch, maybe have a small sundae and would get back to work. Fascinating!

"She eats nothing," that was a huge compliment when I was in high school.  A milestone for me was when I realized that healthy people can have healthy appetites.

Which brings me to weight maintenance calculators!  Ha, that's what I sat down to write about anyway.  I just discovered them online and they pretty much confirm what I learned back in the early 80s.  Plug in your stats and a few different weights, it's amazing how small differences in calories can make such a big difference on the scale.

I'm actual size but I seem much bigger

I really don't know how I can justify writing this because for as long as I can remember I have hated talking about weight and diets, and hated hearing about them even more.  Seriously, I get twitchy.  The focus on thin has drained the interesting out of many smart people (I want to say women), maybe that's why I react the way I do.  Or maybe it just makes me feel like I need to go to the gym.

Yet here I go, even if the voice in my head is a screaming snore. The week after my daughter was born, I was down to 140 from my pregnancy high of 160.  I figured the last 7 pounds to my starting weight would happen gradually enough.  That was 28 months ago.  I've been 140ish ever since.  So at the end of every month, I'll post my weight and, hopefully, see some progress. I plan on doing nothing more ambitious than keeping my hands off my kids leftovers and sticking to only one or two glasses of wine a night (added bonus: I'd be telling the truth on patient intake forms!).  I might be capable of something more drastic (although my history is spotty there) but I'm satisfied with the way I eat and workout.  This isn't an overhaul.  My health isn't on the line. 7 pounds won't make much of a difference in my appearance to anyone but me.  I'm of average size now and 10 pounds either way, still average.  But here's to goals, no matter how small or dull!