The 40-year diet plan

People sometimes say how lucky I am to be thin. What’s my secret? While many adults face down mid-life weight gain, I’ve slowly lost 60 pounds over time. I call it the 40-year diet plan.

As for the backstory, I was a thin adolescent but exploded breasts and hips when I turned 14. I struggled with my weight throughout high school. My mom and I joined Weight Watchers together, and that worked … until it didn’t.

I joined the Army at 18 and had to lose 15 pounds just to get in. Then I started eating my way through the mess hall and ballooned to my highest weight – 195 pounds. Fortunately, the Army made us run, and I began a lifelong love of fitness. Running eventually gave way to walking, but once I started moving, I never stopped. I lost 50 pounds over four years.

Then I relapsed in my late 20s. I gained about half the weight back and hated it. I went on crazy diets. Remember the Beverly Hills Diet? I lost weight, lost my periods, lost my good sense. My husband was so pissed at me, and my mother said, “You’ve been obsessed with your weight since high school, don’t you think it’s time you figured this out?”

I decided to accept myself exactly as I was. I vowed I would never go on another diet … ever. I would eat delicious and healthy food, and if I gained weight, fine. If I lost weight, fine. I was not going to ruin my life over this. I started walking more, thinking of it as much-needed mental therapy not exercise.

Over three years, I lost the weight I had gained and kept it off for the next 30 years. I continued to exercise and eat well – focusing on health but never saying no to anything I really wanted. I thought, well, just keep doing what you’re doing, and who knows? You might look pretty good in 40 years.

When I was 59, a routine physical led to a diagnosis of breast cancer. That same physical revealed slightly elevated blood sugar, so I started reducing sugar and carbohydrates. I lost another 10 pounds over two years. At age 62, I’m holding steady at 135 on my 5’7” frame.

I still exercise (mostly walking) and eat everything I want, but mostly I want real food that doesn’t come in a package. I wouldn’t waste my calories on a store-bought cookie. Pass on fast food. Haven’t had a soda, diet or otherwise, in at least 10 years. On the other hand, we eat pizza every Friday!

My breasts are gone, and I did not have reconstruction. Just flatness and a lattice of scars. There’s a humongous vertical scar up my belly from ovarian cancer in 1999. I love my body for surviving all that, and after all those years of beating myself up, I love how I look! Best of all, I feel great.

But I don’t feel worthy of praise simply for being thinnish, just as people who are bigger or weigh more are not worthy of shame. This is just who I am now, who I became because of lifestyle choices and possibly wear and tear.

It’s never too late. You can learn to love your body. It’s not about losing weight as much as it’s about being happy and celebrating life. Move your body as much as you can and continue to enjoy delicious healthy food. See what happens. That’s my 40-year diet plan, which of course, isn’t a diet and isn’t a plan.