{"id":98,"date":"2006-02-02T10:27:47","date_gmt":"2006-02-02T15:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.silkentent.com\/Trees\/?p=98"},"modified":"2009-09-10T07:57:02","modified_gmt":"2009-09-10T12:57:02","slug":"my-weight-loss-manifesto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.silkentent.com\/Trees\/?p=98","title":{"rendered":"My Weight Loss Manifesto"},"content":{"rendered":"

February 2, 2006
\nThursday<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Oh wonderful, oh wonderful, oh wonderful, I am food, I am food! I am an eater of food, I am an eater of food, I am an eater of food!<\/em>
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u201d The Upanishads<\/p>\n

Today I assembled my Big Box of Weight Loss Stuff. As I mentioned, I’ve been at this for a while. I’ve even been online with it before, tearing down three different versions of a weight loss journal. I have books about weight loss and body image, about how to eat naturally, intuitively, spiritually, and abstemiously, about loving the body you have or letting go of the desire for a way you’ll never be. I have photo album materials for an abandoned (maybe just stalled) project to showcase the way I was, the way I am, and the way I’m changing. I have folders full of clipped articles and collected cartoons (the Cathy<\/a> comic strip has provided so much material it has its own binder), as well as the essays I wrote for other incarnations of this site and notes on where in the 17 volumes of handwritten journals I’ve addressed my “weight problem.”<\/p>\n

I had to pull out the notebook from 1996 to find my Weight Loss Manifesto. Evidently I had the same motivation then that I have now. In 1996 I wanted to have a “This Is What 50 Looks Like” picture taken a year from the date I was writing. The other day I told myself that I have one year to get ready for a “This Is What 60 Looks Like” portrait. And the ironic thing I that I can have that picture taken no matter what. I could call up the most respected maker of executive portraits in town and make that appointment today, and whatever I look like that day will be what 60 looks like. I just don’t want to look like this.<\/p>\n

I wrote the Manifesto because I wanted to outline my intentions, motives, and beliefs regarding weight loss. I wanted to make it clear that certain clich\u00c3\u00a9s offend me (I don’t believe, for example, that “nothing tastes as good as thin feels,” possibly because I don’t know, exactly, what thin actually feels like) and that I will pick and choose elements from the assorted weight loss strategies available to find a regimen that suits me.<\/p>\n

This, then, is My Weight Loss Manifesto:<\/p>\n