Thin people have won battle to lose weight

BUNNY DIMMEL

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST

Humble pie is the only pie I have ever eaten that stays with me for life.

I have eaten the same humble pie for about three months now, and I've had enough. I am confessing publicly to the following change in my way of thinking . . . Drum roll please:

You do not have to be at least 50 pounds overweight to say you struggle with your weight.

Previously, I thought that group of people with only a few pounds to lose should quit complaining. I thought they only needed a new hairdo, taller shoes or a new outfit to be comfortable with their appearance.

This past year has taught me that weight problems come in many sizes, shapes, ages and in either gender. Hail to the millions of people who work hard to lose 10 pounds or even maintain their current weight and are struggling every day to do just that.

Sometimes when I am jumping up and down in an aerobics class, I will ask a reasonably thin woman next to me if she ever loses any weight doing this. She tells me no, but she keeps at it. I used to think that woman had too much time on her hands. Who would subject themselves to that kind of torture if they didn't have a serious weight problem to work on? Now I understand that she knows the secret I never knew before: it is a constant struggle, and it doesn't go away.

Previously, I thought no one except another obese person could understand how hard it is to be around food all of the time and to find the strength to say "no, thank you."

Somewhere in this muddled thinking I believed that two groups of people existed: those with weight problems like mine, and those who could eat whatever they wanted and remained thin.

It never dawned on me that without fanfare, or any special recognition, there was a select group of people who embraced a healthy lifestyle for all of their lives, and they will not waiver from it. They are my new heroes.

You have to admire people who get their weight under control before their weight controls them, as mine did.

My goal is to stay on their side of the playing field now.

The next time you are in a buffet line, or at a restaurant, sit back and watch what people are eating. If you do see someone in a size you would like to be eating a portion that is larger than their head, I am positive they will not go home and eat popcorn or ice cream before they go to bed, and they won't wake up to doughnuts or bagels. They treated themselves, had the meal, and now they will pull the reins back and resume consuming the daily calories that keep the scale in the spot they want it to be in.

Humbly, I have learned, there are people everywhere saying "no, thank you" to snacks, desserts and second helpings just to maintain the shape they have. I have done nothing noteworthy in my weight loss journey except change my way of thinking. And that, as they say, has made all the difference.

Bunny Dimmel, of Liverpool, is an English teacher at Clary Middle School in Syracuse who has lost 220 pounds. She weighs in every other week. Reach her through asmith@syracuse.com.