Not since I was sixteen...

Yesterday, K and I went shopping for one pair of jeans each so that we have a nice new pair - me for school and him for work.

Well, I chose a random pair from the clearance rack at Banana that looked like nice jeans and weren't faded or pretorn, since those are the only kinds I can wear in a public school. I was skeptical, but K told me to just try them because at some point soon I will be able to wear eights again and I may as well see what they're like. Besides, he thought they would fit. Upset and prepared for a massive disappointment, I dragged them into the fitting room with me. But, to my amazement, they slipped on with no problem! They didn't gape in the back and they hugged without suffocating!

I haven't worn a size eight since I was sixteen. Lately, though, we've become so heavily involved with bettering our health and bettering our bodies that, like I said, we've trimmed and toned all over. We don't eat a lot of sugar, we never just sit and watch television, we work out every day, we use our bikes for transportation whenever humanly possible, we limit our drinking, we lift weights and we encourage each other daily to practice healthy lifestyle behaviors. It has been fabulous and it is just getting better.

This isn't so much about getting skinny as it is being healthy - so I don't want to hear from anyone that I didn't need to lose weight in the first place. True, I was and still am right about at a healthy weight. The problem that got me started paying attention was that my body fat percentage was a little too high, I didn't watch my sugar and fat intake like I should, and I was inconsistent about working out and lifting weights.

I look at my parents and I see two fat people, even though neither one of them is particularly over weight - especially my mother. I look at my whole family and I see a bunch of people who are incredibly out of shape and I know that as they age, their bodies will get sicker and less able to perform normal tasks. I don't want this for myself. I am still young enough that I can change my entire life by starting with my current lifestyle. I can make sure that I am healthy and prepared and I can get my body into a condition where it feels good all the time, not sluggish or out of sync with reality. I can tone up and lose unnecessary body fat that just gets in the way when I try on jeans and overall makes me feel down about myself. I can train myself to run faster and longer. I can build myself up to be able to lift my own suitcase into the overhead compartment on the airplane without heaving and without assistance. And I can still not understand all those people who tell me they can't live without soda pop, Easter candy and hamburger helper.

Plus, in a few years I would like to start having children and I know that being pregnant takes a definite toll on a woman's body. The weight of the baby and the physical strain on every aspect of a woman's health makes it difficult for many women to make it through pregnancy (and delivery) without too much pain, increasing irritability in both mother and father. Plus, as I get older before getting pregnant, it will be harder to lose the baby fat and regain my pre-pregnant figure. I refuse to be that woman who carries baby weight for the rest of her life, along with the flabby skin and stretch marks that won't ever go away. I refuse to give up on myself and instead donate every part of my personal humanity to my newborn child. What good is that baby's life if its mother is no longer a person, but instead a parasitic host?

I can think of no better way to be healthy and in shape later and for the rest of my life than to be healthy and in shape now. So here's to my all those people who say that it's too hard to "stick to a diet" whily they have a silver spoonful of triple ripple fudge sickle ice cream in their drooling mouths. You're all motivation to me.