Work it!

I love and live to eat. Food always gives me an all-time high. Other than writing, food magnifies my happiness and triumphs, soothes my anger and comforts me in my fleeting bouts of sadness or depression. And when it comes to ‘good’ food, there is just no stopping me.

You see, I was fat from high school until I finished college, but I didn’t care. Well-meaning people would often tell me to go easy on my food intake, but I paid them no mind. I would keep telling myself never to deprive myself of the things that make life worth living – fast food, chocolates, ice cream, you name it. It wasn’t until I realized most of my clothes no longer fit me and became the butt of jokes among my friends because I was fat in all the wrong places. I knew I had to lose weight.


So I skipped meals. It was, to me, the only way to shed off the pounds. Exercise was never an option. I went to work without eating breakfast, stayed in front of my office computer while my workmates were having lunch and hit the sack very early so that I didn’t have to eat dinner. The only thing I ate throughout those days were crackers to assuage my churning tummy. Also, it must have been a hidden blessing to find out that my then-boyfriend had been playing around as it made me lose the slightest appetite I had left of me. In as early as two months, I went from plump to svelte.


It was overwhelming, a dramatic boost to my self-esteem. I became more confident about myself and around other people. I was finally able to wear those clothes I only dreamt of wearing back then. My long-time crush, who never noticed me in high school because I was fat, was suddenly all over me and I kept him drooling like a mad dog. My friends could only marvel at my transformation, and often ask me how I did it. But I never told them. Of course, even someone with half the brain would know I lost weight the wrong way. My triumph didn’t last long though. On one ordinary day, I complained about stomach pain. And when I could no longer help it, I got so sick that I had to be rushed to the hospital. The doctor told me I had ulcer.


“You’ve been dieting too much”, I was told. My life would never be the same anymore and it was harder than I thought. But I knew I had to bear with the consequences. My lifestyle had to turn 360 degrees around.


Thankfully now, I no longer rely on medicines nor religiously stick to my meal schedules as I used to just to keep myself from going through those pain episodes. I can now go back to eating food my doctor has told me to steer clear from (in moderate proportions, of course). I never want to be fat again but I will never go back to how I lost weight the unhealthy way. I still hate to exercise though, my lifestyle being sedentary at the best right now. But I have been really trying to get my body working up a sweat, slowly yet steadily. Little by little I’m becoming smarter about the decisions I make not just in keeping the pounds off but in my health, in general.

The Xlibris book “The Diet Docs and the Amazing Metabolic Transformation” by Joe Klemczewski, Ph.D and J. Scott Uloth, M.D. can give you a leg up on what you need to know about shedding it off and keeping it off. With the right blend of straight, factual information and light, no-nonsense humor, this book can help you achieve a diet plan that you can easily attain and sustain.

I still love and live to eat. And when it comes to food, I will never deprive myself of what I believe really makes life worth living – in moderation of course. And while some remain that they’d rather be “fat and happy”, I’d be happier with the healthy route.

Image source: Xlibris.com