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Life-long battle has become a war by now
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Location: Blogs Sly Comments |
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| Posted by: Emory Schley |
5/8/2007 5:55 AM |
Seems like we all have our personal battles to conduct. Some of us battle our level of literacy, some of us battle our income level, and still others – like me – wage a relentless Battle of the Bulge, the “bulge” being in the belly, of course, and not the World War II battle of the same name.
When I was a teenager, I was about 145 pounds, and I always thought I was just a bit too small. I longed to weigh about 160 pounds. This was because I had a friend about my size, height-wise, and he weighed 160. His weight looked to me like a good balance between too skinny and too chubby, so I considered 160 to be the ideal weight for me, too.
But no matter what I did, I wasn’t able to put on any weight. It just wouldn’t happen, not even when I started drinking more milkshakes and adding more fattening items to my daily menu. It seemed like no matter what I did or what I did not, made any difference at all in my weight. Each time I stepped on a scale and deposited my penny (yes, boys and girls, there was a time long, long ago, when you could actually buy something for a penny – your weight indication and gumballs both come to mind), the dial always read the same – 145. It seemed like I was perpetually stuck at that weight.
But when I was 19, I joined the Army and went through basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C. during August and September, the two hottest months of the year. The Army loaded us down with backpacks, rifles, entrenching tools, gas masks, heavy steel helmets and lots of other stuff and made us march miles through the stifling heat. We charged uphill and down, crawled through simulated minefields, and exercised each day until we thought we were going to drop. Sometimes in the evening when returning from a day’s training, our green fatigues would be streaked with broad swaths of white – salt, we had lost through perspiration.
We expended so much energy that we were constantly hungry. We all ate everything in sight, and despite all the strenuous exertion, and the exercising, and the heat, I gained 10 whole pounds during basic. I couldn’t believe I had actually gained weight, but the scales apparently did not lie, because when I tried other scales, they all more-or-less agreed. I was flabbergasted.
And proud, too. Proud that I had actually put on some weight. Only problem was, even after basic was but a distant memory, the weight still kept increasing – a pound here, a pound there, a couple more someplace else. By the time I got out of the Army six years later, I had gained 50 pounds.
Once I got out, I dropped about 10 pounds and there I stayed for many years. Then I quit smoking and the poundage started trickling on once again – a pound here, a pound there, a couple more someplace else. And that’s been the story of my life ever since.
A few times, I’ve actually managed to lose some weight – 20 pounds one time, and about 30 on another occasion. Trouble is, it always manages to come back, and generally adds another five or 10 pounds to boot just as a little extra bonus, I guess.
Now, I’m getting too old to do much exercise. The energy level just isn’t there anymore. Guess the only thing left to do is to cut back on my eating, but that doesn’t sound like much fun, either...
Maybe what I really need to do is to get a real job, so that I get more exercise than just wiggling my fingers over a keyboard. That might work, y’think? |
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Re: Life-long battle has become a war by now |
By Tommy F Thompson on
5/7/2007 9:58 PM |
The problem with dieting is that 'Going without food for 7 days makes one 'week.''
I don't a real job is the answer either. Real work makes you hungry. |
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