Daily Newsie

I have a love/hate relationship with my weight. It’s been this way ever since an ex-boyfriend informed me I was “letting myself go” five years and probably 30 pounds ago. Every now and then I get a bee in my bonnet about my jiggly bits and stomp around for a while vowing never to eat chocolate again, but everyone can rest assured that it’s a lot of sound and fury signifying absolutely nothing because I always come crawling back to Ben & Jerry.

The latest episode was quite recent, after I was informed by my insurance agent that my life insurance premiums would be $6 higher than anticipated because there was something in my bloodwork that State Farm didn’t like. According to my agent, this is no big deal — practically no one gets the lowest rate — but it spawned a mini-panic. I haven’t gotten the lab results back yet, so I’m left to wonder what exactly is not-so-great about my health … and naturally I came to the conclusion that I must be too big to be healthy. It didn’t help that I looked up my Body Mass Index and it told me I’m a few cheesecakes away from obesity (what?), so I retreated into my cave of bodily loathing and started poking at my rolls in the mirror.

That night at O’Charley’s, I ordered the salmon and steamed broccoli. I was not happy about this, but I felt as though I needed to start caring about my size and shape. I eyed the other patrons, gauging the size of my backside versus theirs and what was on my plate versus what was on theirs. The flab funk lasted until lunch the next day, when I sat down with a friend over beer and nachos (much better) and discussed the fact that overweight people can be healthy just as skinny people can be unhealthy. It’s all about balance, about ignoring the “ideal weight,” and — for me, anyway — about indulging within reason, because a salmon-eating DailyNewsie is not a happy DailyNewsie.

So I weigh more than I should. I’ve been lucky in that I’ve at least gained weight proportionally. I know in the back of my mind that I don’t look bad, and I’m careful about portion sizes and sodium content in what I eat, but every now and then I convince myself I need to diet and exercise. I’m not one of those people who is motivated by weight loss, though — I like food and the couch too much, and laziness always wins over loss of poundage. I have the utmost respect for those who can do it, but at the same time I realize that I can’t be too mad at my rolls if I’m the one who is unwilling to do anything about it.

I think I need a hobby, one that’s good for me but doesn’t feel like exercise. What do y’all do to stay active?