Welcome back to WalkyTalk after a nice, summer weekend! This morning, I have a question for you, one that my daughter happened to ask me yesterday: "Have you ever imagined what you will look like twenty years from now, in the year 2030?" It's a question that I really haven't asked myself before, so I had to think about it for a second. I guess my first thought was that I'll have more wrinkles and my hair will be a bit shorter and will contain a lot of gray! But then she explained that she didn't want me to imagine what my face would look like, but my body. Oh.

Well, I guess I picture myself physically fit since I know I will continue to walk every day, along with eating foods that I know are healthy for me.  I can’t imagine living my life any other way, a healthy lifestyle has become a habit for me, and it’s one that I love!  She assumed that would be my answer, so she decided to ask another question to get me thinking about something: “Mom, when you were obese, what did you imagine your body would look like at age sixty?”

It’s weird, but when I was morbidly obese these thoughts just didn’t occur to me.  Honestly, I did my best to avoid them because the truth would have been too difficult to face.  But today I’ll try to imagine that I’m still morbidly obese, wearing a size 24 and weighing close to 300 lbs.  My first thought would be about my legs.  It was difficult enough carrying all those extra pounds around with me in my thirties.  Twenty or thirty more years of hauling an extra 162 pounds on my body could only cause my legs, knees, hips, ankles, and feet to hurt, or so I assume.

But as far as answering the question, “How would they look?”  My one aunt was morbidly obese for years, and as a little girl I remember noticing her legs simply because she always wore skirts or dresses.  (She couldn’t find pants to fit her.)  Her legs were covered with red and purple spots that looked like big bruises, along with ankles that were extremely large and swollen.  She moved very slowly, as if she were always in pain, I could see it in her face...

When I think of how the rest of my body might look, I again can only compare to my aunt.  Her arms seemed to become larger the older she became, maybe because of the weight pulling down on her skin.  I do recall how she always made fun of her own chin and neck, saying that she couldn’t figure out where one started and the other began.  And when I was young, I noticed that she really didn’t have a waistline, and I knew that I had already encountered that problem in my thirties.  Would it have miraculously appeared when I turned sixty?  Not at 300 lbs., that’s for sure!

But you know what... it doesn’t matter now!  I’m not dealing with a 300-lb., morbidly obese body any longer, and I think my daughter asked me these questions so I could take another moment to truly appreciate that fact!  She has told me “hundreds of times” how very proud of me she is and I know she likes to remind me of it every now and then!

She also wants me to be proud of the effort it took for me to make the change; oh, yes, it did take effort and it also took time.  But the sixteen months it took to lose the 162 lbs. would have passed by no matter HOW I was living.  Thank God that I made the decision to start living a healthy lifestyle instead of the one I had been living for 25 years.  I feel my decision saved my life, literally.

What comes to mind when you think of how your body will look in twenty years?  Remember, if you want to “improve the answer” – IT IS POSSIBLE!  Visit me here daily and I promise to motivate you to live a healthier lifestyle too... it’s all up to you.  I believe you can do it ~ Jodi