They say I’ve lost too much weight.

I know what I want for myself and am working very hard to get there.

I have been doing Atkins for one year now, lost 50 pounds, am below my original goal, and am so happy and proud of myself. I have had a weight problem my whole life but carried the weight well. Not one of my friends would have called me fat, even though by the “books” I was in the obese category. Now I am just at the upper edge of the “normal” category for my height and with my build, I look pretty good, especially for a young 56. I work out and am reshaping my body and working on just the right mix of muscle mass and weight to fit a standard clothing size comfortably and establish a regimen that I can maintain for life.

Life is good, so what’s my bitch?

About a month ago, friends and family members started asking me if I was done loosing weight as they thought I looked good and should not loose anymore. When I say I am still working on another 5 or six pounds I am met with horrified looks and comments. These include thinking that I will look emaciated and unhealthy and that I don’t know what I am doing and have lost sight of what I really look like. My wonderful bride supports me 100%, is the only one who sees me naked, and even though she thought I looked fine a year ago, can not stop telling me how great I look now, and is excited to see what the last finishing touches in the next 6 months will do.

This last weekend was particularly unbearable as I visited my 93 year old mother who I see only about every 2 months. Yes, I know about all of the issues sons have with moms and that one has to cut some slack in situations. But… It was three days of incessant offerings of cake, pie, cookies, crackers, fruit juices and the like. Mom is obese and has no LC foods in the house at all, so I travel with my own food as I have for the last year. I suffer no cravings or temptations for “the other stuff”. This creates quite a problem, as you might imagine. I don’t give in or eat anything to satisfy her and simply prepare my own meals. She also made a public announcement at a gathering that she could not support my further weight loss and wanted me to stop it. WOW! Anyway, I got thought it with the help of a drink or two in the evening, kept my cool, and gave thanks to my deity that I have my own life and am in control of it. I have made discussions or even the mention of my lifestyle a “non topic” in future contact with Mom.

My bride’s mother hit me similar comments three weeks ago when we were out to supper. Of course what I was eating became the topic, initiated by her, and then wanting to know just how long I was going to do “this”. I explained that “this” was my new lifestyle and was most likely what I would do until death. She indicated that that could be sooner than I expected based on how “thin” I have become.
Mom-in-law is obese.

I know that a lot of this stuff falls into the category of misplaced compliments, intentional or unintentional sabotage, or just plain stupidity, and don’t pay it much mind.
It is however so very interesting that I am having such reactions to being thinner and that I never heard a comment when I was fat.

I welcome all of this now and will enjoy the show, knowing that soon folks will accept my new image as what will be normal for me, forgetting that I was fat and out of shape once. At some time down the road, they will even stop waiting for me to “gain it all back” and perhaps turn their attention to their own poor physical condition.

I hope you find this rant interesting. I suspect it is all quite “normal” in this arena.

Wishing you all the best and success!

T.