Determined To Succeed

Oh, to have the metabolism of my younger self again.

If I did it would mean two things. One, that I would have again the cast iron stomach I used to have which would take everything from apples to zucchini and not blink an eye (or flap, or valve or whatever a stomach blinks). Two, it would mean the calories I consumed would be burned very quickly and weight loss would be that/much easier.

I’ve always said that if a scientist wanted to make a gagillion dollars (that’s lots and lots of billions) they would find a way to harness that energy, that metabolism, in kids and inject it into us overweight adults with the results being we become thinner and far more energetic in the process. Sigh. If only wishes were fishes…

The fact of the matter is I ate like crap last night. I ate like crap for two reasons. One, I had done some lifting and running around yesterday, was hungry and thought I might have burned off lots of calories doing what I was doing. Two, because I had been good, for the most part, all weekend I thought dinner last night (don’t even ask me about the delicious brownies) would be OK. When will I ever learn?

Sigh again. If only I had my youthful metabolism.

It’s not that I ate until I puked or anything. It’s just that since losing weight my stomach acts and reacts differently these days to certain foods, meaning it may or may not like them, churn for a bit and remind me ever so Pepto Bismol gently that I should not have a food or combination of foods. One of these days I will finally wise up, act my age and remember these instances when again faced with eating choices that aren’t so, shall we say, adult friendly.

Can you imagine what a world would be like if adults had youthful metabolisms, though? We would be running around constantly like water molecules  suddenly heated up to a boil. We would finally have flying cars because our minds would be running at that speed and ground cars like a Ferrari just aren’t fast enough. We’d invent something faster than the internet, 4G phone networks and Fios. E-mail would seem like snail mail and Twitter would be like rolled-paper faxes (sheesh, remember those). The slowest plane on earth would be the now-retired Concord. All this and more. That’s what adults would be like. We would get so much done and we wouldn’t gain weight in the process, like Michael Phelps training for the Olympics – burning calories faster than the speed of light.

Well, an overweight adult can dream, right?

Truth is as we age our bodies slow down, whether we like it or not. And while this is a fact we can still choose to stay as active as we want while eating foods that will go along with this ever-changing state of affairs in our bodies. And the truth is I can’t eat like my youthful self anymore. As much as I’d like to and as much as I sometimes can, I simply cannot.

So there is one good thing about slowing down and getting older…we do get wiser. And it’s that wisdom that helps bring about true change, in the world and with our own bodies.