147.6

 Yes...the title is my weight as of this morning.  How did I get here?  Well, I've decided I cannot go into every detail. Instead, well, a bit of a "song" came to me.  I read a poem this morning called "All I Was Doing Was Breathing" by Mirabai, and it began to form a bit of a chorus in my mind, which I combined with a list poem.  (Mirabai was writing in the sixteenth century, and her poem had absolutely nothing to do with weight, btw.)

My weight journey has been as varied as everyone else's -- thus, the theme of this piece.  By the way, my soundtrack for writing this is the album The Raw and the Cooked by Fine Young Cannibals, a CD I listened to nearly every day in the summer of 1990 when I was at my fittest in my adult life in a healthy way:

Body by Jazzercise and calorie counting with the little calorie book.

 Sept. 1990

"All I Was Doing Was Breathing"

All I was doing was breathing

My cells made decisions without me

The female body journey

An unexplainable mystery

There is no end to what we will try

As the decades pass and our weight confounds us

Richard Simmons Never Say Diet  Aerobic Dancing

Jane Fonda    Jazzercise    Denise Austin

  Calorie booklets    Gold's Gym    Elaine Powers

Coach to 5K    My Fitness Pal

Fitbit and many, many attempts at running

All I was doing was breathing

My cells made decisions without me

The female body journey

An unexplainable mystery

Diet for a Small Planet   Laurel's Kitchen

Making a 40 day attempt at vegetarianism

Craving meat the entire time

Mediterranean Diet     Blood Type Diet    

Sonoma Diet      Eating Well magazine

No end to the things I've tried, some over and over again

Results vary...never consistent

All I was doing was breathing

My cells made decisions without me

The female body journey

An unexplainable mystery

Yoga   Walking the neighborhood

Walking the hillsides   Walking the riverbanks

Walking around the lake   Gentle Yoga   Lifting weights

 Walking the forests    Walking the beaches

Map My Walk in state and city parks

Restorative Yoga    Walking    Walking

And sometimes not walking but meaning to

All I was doing was breathing

My cells made decisions without me

The female body journey

An unexplainable mystery

Weight went up, weight went down

Sometimes I knew why    Very often I did not

Divorce and depression -- pounds dropped

Work stress or menopause -- weight goes up

Move to Florida -- go up a pant size

And now, without explanation, it's dropping again

Thirteen pounds down since January

No effort on my part -- too much chocolate and ice cream

Just hope it doesn't go too far this time

New wardrobe not in the budget nor desired

All I was doing was breathing

My cells made decisions without me

The female body journey

An unexplainable mystery

Life turning point brought long hair and skinny bod, "thanks" to depression  June 1999