Belly...be gone!!!

I hate my stomach. Not my inside stomach. I’m talking about my outside stomach. My belly, my love handles, my midsection, my tummy.

The rest of my body isn’t too bad for a somewhat chunky 55 year old lady. I walk a lot, so my legs are rather shapely, as is my behind. I do quite a bit of weight lifting so my arms and shoulders are also pretty good, for my age. My boobs are falling (a result of gravity, I guess), but at least I can hold them up with a good bra.

But I hate my belly. My belly is the first place I gain weight and the last place I lose it. The weird thing is I only have one love handle, on the right side. I can pretty much gauge how heavy I am by the size of that one love handle. I don’t have anything like that on my left. Does that sound normal?

Then, when I look at myself from the side, I see my Grandma’s figure. She was from sturdy Scottish stock. Physically, I take after her in many ways, especially as I’ve gotten older. I’m not quite as overweight as she was, but I’m recognizing in myself her tendency to get quite thick in the middle. As a proper lady, she used to wear a lace up corset. I don’t know how she wore that thing, it must have been horribly uncomfortable. But she did, even if it was 100 degrees outside, as it often was in Iowa (and we didn't have air conditioning). Too bad they didn’t have Spanx in the early 60’s.

I’m definitely trending toward being an apple rather than a pear. I don’t remember which is the more unhealthy between the two body types. Whichever it is, I need to get rid of my belly. I’d love to say “Goodbye, Tummy.” 20 lbs from now, I think I’ll be able to do that.