Annals of Aging #6719
Annals of Aging, #6719: the belly. After a struggle with my weight in my twenties, detailed in Loose Woman - going up and down 20 or 30 pounds - it all settled with motherhood. In the last decades, I've felt particularly blessed. I consume wine and dark chocolate every day, cheese and pasta, bread and peanut butter, not in vast quantities, but plenty, no self denial here. Yet my weight has remained relatively stable, give or take, I guess from moving the body, thank you bicycle, gardening, YMCA.
Until Covid. The weight went up, and I'm struggling to get it down. Not a lot now, 5 or 6 pounds, but it's all in the middle. My belly feels swollen, pregnant, sticking out, to the point that I actually thought something was wrong with me. But no. That's what happens at 72, unless you're willing to stop eating chocolate and drinking wine, i.e. enjoying life, which I'm not. So - stretchy waistbands and loose tops. And complaining.
Speaking of giving up pleasure, on the news tonight: no quantity of wine is healthy, they say, all alcohol leads to heart disease and cancer. Listened to the segment and poured myself a glass of rosé. I'll take my chances. Drink far less than I used to, but it's my only sin, and I'm not giving that up either.
Today my young tech helper Patrick came with his microphone and we taped the first episode of my possible podcast, True to Life: how to tell your story. I sat at my desk and talked for 15 minutes about Why Write Memoir? We'll see how it sounds and if it works. My plan is to do about nine episodes on aspects of craft, and also to interview other nonfiction writers.
I've started a new ritual: going for a walk after dinner. What a treat. I walk to huge Riverdale Park and watch baseball - tonight, three games going, and in the middle, dogs going wild, chasing each other, leaping and rolling, people picnicking on the hill, a wonderful scene. And sky, a wide open sky. As I walked down the hill, I overheard two young women talking about their friend Anastasia. "She's in Colombia getting her butt done. They suction the fat out. And she's getting veneers."
More Annals of Aging: bristly chin hairs, fading memory, aching joints. But STILL HERE! Butt intact.
Here's an inspiring, youthful, flat-bellied 80:
