Laura's Year-End Weight Declaration

I wrote the following e-mail to Richard on December 31, 2008:



Ok, it's over. I weigh every day anyway, so it wasn't a big deal to take your suggestion and weigh in on New Year's Eve. Ahem - at least no more a big deal than it is to weigh any other time which I hate at all times, but do because I know the quickest way to losing my path is not to know the number.

Drum Roll Please...

155.

Exactly the same weight I started the year out at. Way more flabby and terribly out of shape, but no heavier.

Ok, I guess I shouldn't be that proud of the number because before the transgressions of December 2007, I weighed 148. But I am proud. This has been a very tough year, much of it being desperately ill. I've been pumped full of all sorts of medicines that resulted in water gain. I barely exercised; too weak or feverish or whatever to even get out of bed a lot of the time. My food choices were not always great; my weakness meant that I had to rely a lot of frozen processed food or restaurant take out; relying on whatever was convenient for others to bring to me. My weight - at times - soared as high as 170 and I figured all was lost.

But the bottom line is that this morning, the number was 155. The year, from an empirical number standpoint, apparently was a wash. And if the doctors have really finally found all that ails me and my health improves in 2009, I'll better the number then.

For now, I'll take 155 and not complain. Much.

The biggest problem with this e-mail is that it is completely true, but left one important fact out. I have had diahrreah and have vomited all year as a result of my illness. Part of my weight maintenance component has been illness, and that does not exactly make me proud. On the other hand, it was not classical purging, and I don't know if the calories lost that way would have been compensated for by eating better and exercising had I been in better health. For now, I guess I'll just focus on getting better and living by the spirit of the agreement.