Most people have at least a rudimentary understanding of finance and banking. They understand the idea of credits and debits. People understand that you cannot spend what you do not have. To maintain the status quo the credits must equal the debits---they must zero out. Even I understand this and I am not financially astute.
When I was a child I was borderline heavy. My grandmother was heavy and both my parents struggled with weight gain. And whether it was articulated or not, what I understood was that being fat or not being fat was an inherited thing. The understood concept was that our family had a tendency for weight gain. We were biologically different from thin people.
And both my parents gained and lost entire people in their lifetimes. Several times of year they both went on diets. And they yo-yo-ed up and down the scale. I stood on the sidelines and watched. And I was always conscious of my body and cursed my genes—I cursed my DNA for my tendency to be on the heavier side of normal--because I too had fluctuations in my weight.
And only when I reached my early twenties did the bell go off. The reason for the number on my scale had to do with the type and volume of food I thought I deserved to eat. My body only needed 4 raviolis for sustainance—but because Suzy May ate 12 raviolis I thought I deserved to eat 12 too—it doesn’t work that way. My food choices were out of wack. I was borderline overweight because I simply ate too much. My caloric debits and credits did not zero out.
My weight was not controlled by my DNA it was controlled by my hand to mouth action. I was not genetically predisposed to gaining weight-- I was socially predisposed to overeating. My brain was in charge. The secret was revealed.
And later, when my mother joined Weight Watchers in 1984, did I finally understand nutritional balance. The diet proposed that there were healthy amounts of protein, breads, milks, fruit, fat and vegetables that one should consume daily. And the formula was simple—if you ate less than what your body burned , you lost weight. If you ate the same amount as your body burned, you maintained your weight. And if you ate more than your body burned, you gained weight. Period. There was no magic involved. It was a credit and debit system. The only thing I had to get over was that my body may have had a different caloric rate of burn than someone else’s . Every “body” was different. And as one ages, the zero point adjusts.
This past February my mother wanted to go back to Weight Watchers. She wanted to learn about the new program. And I said Why? You know what to do by now. And she said I just want to see what they have to say. And I rolled my eyeballs up into my head. I think after all these years my mother is still hoping the mathematical formula will change--she wants to eat anything she wants without worrying about a caloric financial report. She holds out hope that the next incarnation of Weight Watchers will make all foods free—not just the vegetables. She wants to eat a box of Mallomars and not be required to count the points. It’s never going to happen. It’s always going to be calories in, and calories out—credits and debits. The formula never changes.
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