EATING HABITS

As adults we’ve all heard children say, “That’s not fair!” And our answer? “Life’s not fair.” So true. That seems the only way to describe what happened to me as far as my weight is concerned.

When I was a child, I just didn’t like to eat. I’d think I was starving, then when I sat down to the table I couldn’t eat all that much. And I was always underweight. When I was a teenager, I remember fixing myself milkshakes with a raw egg in it to help me gain weight. But I never did – I weighed 100 pounds when I married and I continued eating like a bird until about 21 months after we married. That’s when it all changed.

The genius had been sent to Fort Sill in Lawton, OK, and I flew out to join him. The flight was rough and several times I thought I would have to use the barf bag. I managed to make it until we touched down, but I still felt queasy. In a few weeks I found out the reason: I was pregnant! For the first three months it seemed like everything I ate came back up, but I still managed to gain six pounds. My stomach finally settled down, and lo and behold, all foods tasted good to me. What a novel experience! I ate anything I could get my fork on, and I couldn’t seem to get enough. Of course, the pounds began to jump on my body like magnets to steel, and I blew up in weight and size. When I was 4 ½ months along, I went to the post hospital for some medication one weekend and they took one look and brought out a wheel chair. They thought I was ready to deliver!

Because I saw a different army doctor (who usually wasn’t an ob) every time I went, I was allowed to keep putting on the weight, mainly because my blood pressure was so low that they really didn’t pay any attention to what I weighed. Eventually, I gained 50 pounds, but I was to lose that in three months. I remember our next door neighbor, Charlie, who didn’t know me until I was about four months pregnant, said to me, “Boy, you are just shrinking up to nothing.” And I was, not to “nothing” but back to my 100 pounds. And this same cycle repeated itself through two more pregnancies – big weight gain, then back to normal. (I had mononucleosis when Brenda was a year old and I weighed 96 when it was over.)

So what happened?!? All along whether pregnant or not, I had always eaten exactly what I wanted. If I wanted fried foods, I fixed it and ate them; butter, and plenty of it, was as natural to me as drinking a glass of water. I never thought twice about eating all of anything I wanted, and that included sweets. But I suppose the quantities were so small and I was active enough that it didn’t make a difference. But about the time I turned thirty, I began to notice that my clothes were snug. And gradually, the reality of eating set in --- I just could not continue to do what I had done and expect to weigh 100 pounds anymore. In addition, about this time I quit smoking, but I also took up tennis. So they somewhat balanced each other out.

To get to my point, because I spent thirty years eating what I wanted in the quantities I wanted, and not suffering any consequences, the habit was ingrained. For the two sisters, it was the opposite; they realized as children that they had to be careful and they developed the good habit of watching what they ate. So they’ve never had a lasting problem with weight. They’re both nice and slim, and here I am overweight and not doing anything about it.

The only thing I can say is “It’s just not fair!”