Trying to lose weight is hell. It’s been that way my whole life.

At 481/2, it seems nearly impossible.

I asked myself “what did I do as a teenager?”

I ran.

3 miles a day every single day.

And drank no alcohol.

And ate very little.

I also had Graves’s disease (hyperthyroidism) on my side.

So, after years of surgeries and recovery, how do I start?

*Have decent shoes and wear 2 sports bras.

*Listen to U2’s “War” album on my phone. That Cold War album has thousands of miles on it.

I started on Sunday (“Bloody Sunday”) on a downhill dirt road on the ranch. Any snakes in January be damned. 

I felt 19 again but with 20lbs of life on me-a heavy backpack of triumph & adventure: working so hard in school, traveling the world, overcoming physical pain, radiation, chemo, endo, and sorrows of the past, determined to get my body back into shape.

The lyrics were haunting and still relevant to today-wars of a different time and place-In Ireland. Protestants and Catholics killing each other. The Berlin Wall was still up at that time and people “defecting” from the USSR was a rare and novel thing. China was in lockdown, forbidding anyone to possess a musical instrument or be a free thinker. The last time I was in Germany, we considered trying to get a visa to go to “East Berlin”. We decided that it was too dangerous, and got a visa for Paris instead and I was forever changed. (There was no European Union then and a person needed  travel visas to visit some countries).

Age 50 seemed “so old” at 14 that I couldn’t fathom it and I didn’t quite understand world politics then; not that I really do now, but I find it interesting. 

I just knew that I liked the music of U2.

I ran/walked for about an hour yesterday and the scale finally budged this morning.

Hoozah!

My goal is 21lbs (9.5 kilos) away.

My phone is much lighter than my old Walkman and my headphones have great sound.

I’m still waiting for the invention of a great running bra tank with a giant front zipper that I can see with my older eyes.

Maybe when I’m 70…