Hey horsey,
I'm glad to hear that you are taking a positive approach. So many folks, especially women I think, seem to have unrealistic ideas about what they can do with weight loss--they want to be a size 0 or not more than a 2, they want to wear a bikini, they want to look like some hot star. When in reality, they may not have the genetic makeup, and never did, to be that way. To a large extent, the kind of body we have (not necessarily our size) comes from our genes.
For example, at my lowest adult weight I still had fat on my lower belly. That fat pad is just never going away on its own, and is the reason why real bikinis don't work on me. Didn't then, and won't now. I'm glad I know that, because it means I don't get disappointed.
Or, people want all those things and don't realize that looking like someone who is 20 isn't likely once one is closer to 40 and has become overweight/obese. That train left the station awhile ago. So then disappointment sets in because they won't look young.
Well, no matter whether someone is thin all their life or not, they will age. Things will sag. Skin becomes less elastic. Stretch marks just ARE.
All these things can become a disappointment to those who expect weight loss to solve problems it can't. This may be part of the reason that it's so hard for people to get to their goal weight and maintain it.
That's why for me, it's about health and fitness--improved appearance
is important to me, but it's not the only thing.
Some people really are naturally thinner--they don't gain a lot of weight. I know because I live with one. Like your mother, my friend just naturally tends to eat in a healthy, non-weight-gaining way--for
her. If I try to eat like her, I gain! So there's that genetic component again.
Let's be successful no matter what the statistics say.
Cheers!
Jay