So ... THIS is why I'm fat!

As I ponder my weight and health, my ego (which has a mind of its own) looks quite instinctively for someone, anyone, to blame. After giving my ego a moment to vent, I think I've found the culprit! GENETICS! And now to rationalize my claim.

Let's start with My great-grandmother, Grace, who is Thelma's mother, and second from the right. The others are her sisters, Pansy, Buelah and Maude. Although living in depression era America, these women are "thick" and would fill out their spanx with no effort. You can't tell me they got this way living on a diet of collard greens and the family goat.

This is my grandmother, Thelma, back in the mid-80's. She visited Leslie and I in San Francisco, and we caught this moment of repose in our livingroom. Granted, Thelma wasn't fat before my brothers and I moved in, BUT still, as rationalization goes, it works.

So, I console myself knowing my weight is genetics ... and not too much bread,butter, or "too much tartar sauce on my fishsticks, or too much roast beef on my kaiser roll". Ring a bell? Yes, I thought it might.

This picture was taken in 1997, about four months after Elizabeth was born. I was almost 300 pounds in my 9th month. My mother came across country to stay with us for a while and visit with her granddaughter. It was a tense visit, to say the least, but this isn't the time to go into it. I've included this picture because it so effectively illustrates how alike we are "from the rear", proving once again that "hind-sight" is the great revealer!

In a perfect world, aka a delluded world, I might skip away from this topic blaming genetics, stress, and life in general. Gosh, wouldn't that be easy? If I were to give my ego (that which will be forever known as "Trixie")it's way, the list would go on and on. But then, it isn't genetics, stress or life that keeps walking to the cubbard for snacks at 9:00 p.m. at night, is it.

Ah, old habits die hard, don't they?

As I move toward making a commitment to my body and my health as a worthy temple for the Goddess, a vessel for the Divine Mother residing within, I can't help but look back at this silly stuff.