Unleashing my inner Elle
Updated: Sep 12, 2022
I'll admit that I indeed have lived most of my life like I was a chubby Elle Woods.
I've always had plenty of self-confidence and if it ever faltered, I reached into my bag of tricks and grabbed bravado to fill in the cracks.
Check out my Halloween costume from about 10 tears ago when I was Elle from the movie/musical. Practically twins, right?
I think I was okay until around 250 pounds and then my confidence started to falter, little by little. My belly started to sink into that weird bulge just above one's lady parts, and then the top started to pooch out over my belly button, which it had never done. I may have a small hernia in there, but it doesn't hurt so I'm leaving it alone.
Then came age. Lawd, lemme tell ya about age.
It's subtle sometimes with things like age spots on my hands just like Momma's, but other times age is like boom! There's suddenly so much dry it's like I have alligator face! Well, these things, along with the southern migration of my boobs (my poor boobs) and I no longer really felt attractive.
For a woman who has always loved herself to the point of thinking that those who couldn't appreciate my charm or sexiness were truly missing out on something great, this was devastating. Add to that the aches, pains, and illnesses that came along with my ever growing obesity and it was a recipe for disaster.
Disaster came last year with the passing of my younger, also obese sister, to a massive heart attack. A few months later, in December I had a near death experience from organ failure, caused by walking pneumonia.
These events started me planning how I could combat this obesity and begin to feel like myself again. I remembered an old friend had done Optavia (the new brand name for MediFast, Oprah's famous weight loss strategy) and it got her weight down to where she could exercise again.
I know this is really the key to everything and I used to be a beast with exercise. And now, already, even with just a little over 20 pounds gone, I really am feeling like I'm channeling my inner Elle again.