Tee!Hee! My mother in law is jealous and I'm loving it!
Ok, I've mentioned my mother in law several times. She lives with us and has for the last 2.5 years. I've been married for 18.5 years and that entire time up until now, she has been very verbal about her dislike of my fatness. Her family is all naturally thin... Or better put, they lived a much more active lifestyle and never had the chance to gain and were watchful of what they ate.
My mother in law was very, very, very thin and one of those people who just can't sit still. She was also, I gathering, quite the party girl - upper middle class kind of party girl and quite the flirt. And, of course, she was quite beautiful.
Then there is me. I've been overweight all my adult life. I'm not a super active person and I'm not a party girl and definitely not a flirt. We are completely opposite in like nearly everything.
In the beginning, she was very, very verbal about my weight. Telling me I couldn't have dessert because I was fat, etc. but, after she moved to the US and started to gain weight, she went a little easier on the comments, but still. She was a little overweight. I was a lot overweight.
She is very happy that I've lost weight and is proud of me. I think it's as much for her happiness as being happy for me. She wants here only son to be with an attractive woman because "it looks better". I can now play the part.
But... She is JEALOUS. She can see I'm smaller than her now. We're the same height (she has shrunk a bit) and weighs about 175 and wears a 12-14 and she is very unfit. I weight 168 and wear a 10. And I'm getting pretty fit.
So, she made me laugh to myself today while I was prepping dinner.
First comment- I can't wear so small a size pant because I am built differently. Um... When she was her ideal weight when Sven and I married, she was wearing a size 6. That is like a today’s 2! She has a very small frame.
Second comment- old people can't lose a bunch of weight because their skin will look so horrible. Excuse maybe?
Third comment- I can lose weight easily because everyone in my family is thin. I just don't want to. I like food and like to eat good food. Um.... So why has she been talking about being too big for like 5 years and why every year she tried to lose weight or even keep off weight she lost by being sick, but can never do it?
Then there is this- after doing nothing for fitness for months and months she wants me to find a few classes for her. And she has been walking more and more.
AND, she is eating like a bird. Her way of dieting doesn't seem sound, but her way, is her way and I'm not going to tell her differently.
I think it is really bugging her that she is not the smallest any more. She has ALWAYS been the tiniest of her family and friends. She takes pride that my husband's father could encircle her entire waist with his fingers (and I believe it as my son has the same small rib cage and waist).
So... I'm getting some enjoyment out of it after all the jabs over the years. Of course, if it motivates her to get healthier, then great! I don't even care if she gets smaller than me again. She SHOULD be smaller.
Anyway... Thought I would share as I'm sure we all have people like that in our lives.
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